Strange quality on recording from USB mic

[max p]

Hello ! Audacity and voice over newbie here. Forgive if I’ve mis-posted but.. in recording segments while using a Samson usb go mic I get a delay in my head phones. My vo/engineer/teacher with over 30 years experience and I wasted 30 minutes this morning trying to troubleshoot to no avail. You name it both obvious and not, he had me try it.

I need to be able to record “ to my voice “ and eventually be able to send files of recordings. Does anyone have any suggestions ? In the Wiki page it even mentions this issue but with zero guidance after. To be clear, it is not latency on overdubbing but some kind of delay as my voice passes through audacity and my computer to my head phones. I’ve tried in on another software program trial offer without headset delay BUT it costs. Really want Audacity to work as I enjoy interface.

Thanks in advance.

Be safe !

Max

[DVDdoug]

To be clear, it is not latency on overdubbing but some kind of delay as my voice passes through audacity and my computer to my head phones.

That's latency! There is always some latency through a computer.

Luckily your microphone has a microphone jack for direct-hardware zero-latency monitoring. Plug your headphones into the mic and you should be OK.

[max p]

thanks for reply.. my head phones are plugged into mic. tried into computer jack as well... any other ideas ? thanks !

[kozikowski]

Audacity can make this effect by accident if you have...

Audacity > Preferences > Recording > Playthrough selected. De-select it > OK.

[X]Overdubbing should be the only one selected in that group.

Koz

[max p]

Thanks Koz

To be clear I am an OS user AND your technical advice worked.... for a few minutes ( ??!! ). Literally, all was going well as I turned on monitor, recorded a test track, etc... I did nothing to any preference and then - woos- back to the delay in my headphones... I don't get it. Doesn't happen on TW but Aud is superior in sound quality. Any newer ideas ?

Thanks Koz !

[kozikowski]

Doesn't happen on TW

Probably not the best idea to use abbreviations in a technical discussion.

Oddly, settings changing by themselves is a symptom. That means something is on your machine changing them. The usual culprits are chat/conference or multi-user games, and since this is a tag discussion from someone complaining about Zoom, I'm going with that.

There are no known, good, stable ways to record while conferencing is running. That's why many of them offer their own recording systems and services. Nobody likes that because everybody wants studio sound from a ratty conference. The solution is to have everybody record their own voice—on something other than their computer.

Koz

[mafg1953]

Hi,

I have been editing Zoom recordings ever since the COVID issues came up and so I did a bit of looking into what, if any, options are available with Zoom to improve sound quality

I came across a YouTube interview done with a Zoom.us technician about the issue of sound quality and he seemed to be saying that there is a way that it can be improved in certain situations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF48bS2l1bU

The details about what he discussed can be found on the Zoom support page:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articl ... inal-sound

The Reader's Digest version of it is that Zoom does a lot of processing on the recorded audio as there are delays and glitches using VOIP and they try to clean those things up on the fly.

But they have an option that can improve the recorded sound which you might consider using for any speaker/participant who is in a quiet environment, has a good internet speed, and has a good microphone. If the speaker is in such an environment, they can turn the option on (preserve original sound) at their end as long as the meeting host allows it for the meeting.

Basically the Zoom defaults for audio are:

Bit Rate of 50 kbs
24 kHz
Codec - SILK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SILK)

You can get higher quality if you use the zoom option to "Preserve Original Sound"

The higher quality is:

Bit Rate of 120 kbs
32 kHz
Codec - OPUS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_(audio_format))

It might be something to look into.

Mike

[max p]

Thanks Koz.

Didn't want my post to get redacted/deleted so I abbreviated TW for Twisted Wave..

Anyway, on 10.13.6 OS, I run no other programs while utilizing Audacity. My voice over coach/engineer has never had this much trouble to a free software program he recommends to all his students so...

So strange...

[max p]

also Koz, if play through NOT selected I do not hear my voice in my phones at all during recording.. I don't get it... it actually worked for a few minutes with only overdubbing selected and then reverted back to evil ways...

[kozikowski]

Yes, the microphone has its own headphone connections provided for latency-free, perfect monitoring, but how you get there isn't simple. The microphone doesn't have a separate headphone volume control and they make you do it in software. That's on page 7 of the instructions.

http://www.samsontech.com/site_media/le ... M_v1_1.pdf

So turn Audacity playthrough off and see if you can get the Samson software to deal with it.

They don't say anything about ASIO sound management software (that I could find). If that's how they're doing this trick, then no, that's not going to work. Audacity doesn't easily support ASIO, even if it's the ASIO4ALL variation.

The instructions are clear about the difference between System (Audacity) sound and live performance sound. That and Samson is usually pretty good about this. Their G-Track is one of the examples in the Audacity tutorial about how to overdub.



In that case, though, the microphone is big enough to have actual volume controls on the front.

Didn't want my post to get redacted/deleted

We're usually pretty clear about the difference between referencing other software's behavior to make a point and trying to sell us something. Don't try to sell us anything.

Koz