Audacity Forum

Hi there,

I am using audacity to record therapy sessions as per the patient's permission. I cannot hear them clearly, only myself. I'm wondering if I need to enable/tweak certain features. Essentially, I am looking for troubleshooting tips on how to improve the audio recording for the person who is not running audacity and not in the same room as the person running the app. Currently, I have the default settings- just above the timer, I have:

-"MME" from the dropdown (other options are Windows DirectSound and Windows WASAPI)
-"microphone array (realtek(R) audio) selected" (the other option is "speakers/headphones (realtek(R) Audio) (Loopback))
-"speakers/headphones (realtek(R) audio" (this is only option)

Thanks so much!

I cannot hear them clearly, only myself.

It's probably the microphone position and/or maybe you are talking louder...

Two carefully positioned microphones into a stereo interface (or a USB mixer) is ideal for an interview situation but it might seem "intrusive" in a therapy setting.

Thanks so much. Would either person having headphones make the audio worse? I know that the person who is more difficult to hear was wearing a headset.

I cannot hear them clearly, only myself.

Let me take that again. You can hear them just fine during the session, just that the recording is one-sided. If that's more accurate, you join the billions of people on Earth struggling to record both sides of a call.

It's not easy.

You never said which service you're using. Both Skype and Zoom recognize the problem and offer to record the transaction for you. After the completion, they send you a sound file. I believe both offer a mix and Zoom may be able to send you the two sides individually for post production mixing.

Pamela for Skype is available for you to record it all yourself. It's Play to Play software. The free-version is restricted.

https://www.pamela.biz/

That and there's a number of hardware solutions.

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=115127&p=414150&hi ... la#p414131

Koz

Thank you so very much! Unfortunately, I am aware of those troubleshooting solutions for those more common interfaces.

The system I am using is called VA Video Connect (VVC) and it is a system internal to the VA medical hospitals.

Is there a certain feature within Audacity that I should have enable or selected in the drop down menus to enhance the recording on the other end of the call? Do you recommend they use a microphone?

kozikowski wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 17, 2021 9:06 am

I cannot hear them clearly, only myself.

Let me take that again. You can hear them just fine during the session, just that the recording is one-sided. If that's more accurate, you join the billions of people on Earth struggling to record both sides of a call.

It's not easy.

You never said which service you're using. Both Skype and Zoom recognize the problem and offer to record the transaction for you. After the completion, they send you a sound file. I believe both offer a mix and Zoom may be able to send you the two sides individually for post production mixing.

Pamela for Skype is available for you to record it all yourself. It's Play to Play software. The free-version is restricted.

https://www.pamela.biz/

That and there's a number of hardware solutions.

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=115127&p=414150&hi ... la#p414131

Koz

muselarz wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 19, 2021 1:56 pm

Is there a certain feature within Audacity that I should have enable or selected in the drop down menus to enhance the recording on the other end of the call?

No there isn't.

The problem is that Audacity is designed to record from one thing at a time, but you want to record two things (your microphone and the VVC app) at the same time.

I'd suggest that you use VVC on your phone rather than on your computer. Enable "speaker phone", and place your recording mic between yourself and the phone.

I'd suggest that you use VVC on your phone rather than on your computer. Enable "speaker phone", and place your recording mic between yourself and the phone.

In other words, put your voice and the patient's voice in the room...and then record the room. The quality is going to go down. The recording is going to pick up all the room noises and the echoes and reverb, but it will be better than what you have.

the person who is more difficult to hear was wearing a headset.

Right. That will make the actual conversation clearer and more stable, but damage the recording because the recording, as you have it, is recording echo cancellation leakage errors, not the actual voice. Headsets have fewer errors and lower leakage.

How are you, personally, performing the session? Free air? Headphones and a microphone? Headset? If you're doing the session in free-air from a computer, put your phone in the middle, use a recording app, and record the room.

How is the patient performing their side? If they're on a computer, they can set their phone on a recording app and just leave it running on the desk or table. Send you the sound file.

That's how I shot this interview.


I don't know of any "push this button and your problems go away" solution. This is a very serious, complex, and very common problem. All the times I have been able to make successful recordings I've used hardware techniques.

At work, we used a "Phantom User." An "extra" computer is connected to the session as a non-speaking participant. It's speaker signal had all the voices. Record that.

Koz

Thanks so much. Unfortunately, I cannot use VVC on my phone because of VA firewalls/confidentiality issues and the need to have a larger screen on my computer and ease of sending files. I definitely understand and agree with the idea of "recording the room"- it's just not feasible unfortunately.

I am performing the session with free air, no microphone.

Here's another piece of information that I learned during a 2 sessions today:

-When I did not have the microphone enabled and the other person did not have a headset, I could hear them fine and could NOT hear me in the playback
-When I enabled my microphone, I could only hear myself and NOT them in the playback
-When I had had no microphone and the other person had a headset: I could only hear myself in the playback

I could use an external recorder in my actual home office or the patient could have the same in their home office- the problem is then emailing a private file over the internet- not allowed in the VA.

When you say you've used "hardware techniques" to address this problem, what do you mean? Basically, using other things like a phone or the "phantom user" option? To make sure I understand correctly, the phantom user option means having a 3rd recording source to record both of us?

Lastly, would the other person having a mic help? I doubt it, but I'm open to any obvious and nonobvious solutions.



Thanks so much!

When you say you've used "hardware techniques" to address this problem, what do you mean?

I always add a "thing" or a machine. Everybody goes into this with the idea of communicating easily on the computer and making a good quality recording of both sides on the same computer. Given the success rate, I go into it with the idea that nobody can do that and I have to make other arrangements.

Oh, and do it for free. Pamela for Skype is a pay-to-play application.

I am performing the session with free air, no microphone.

We should clarify that. No external microphone. You're using the microphone in the computer? And without giving away too much, you and the patient are conversing with each other, in real time, clearly, and the only shortcoming is the inability to record both voices?

Are you wearing headphones?

Koz

VA Support says that due to privacy concerns, VA Video Connect doesn't support recording. Since most people connect hands-free, they recommend taking a stand-alone sound recorder or voice recording app on your phone with you and leave it running on the table or desk during the call.

Koz