Beginning of Words Cut Off

Hello,

I have been working with Audacity for about a year now. I got a new computer last week - HP Envy Intel CORE i7 with 12 gigs (my older one had 16 gigs). Every time I record now, the beginning of some words get cut off. It’s almost like it’s fading in on a word and it does it throughout the entire recording. I’m plugged in, I haven’t changed my MIC, I’m running windows 11 for the first time, I have the Rode NT USB MIC so it’s plugged directly into my laptop and I’m running Audacity 3.2.1. Essentially I’m using all the same equipment in the same way except for 12 gigs and windows 11. I’m desperate for an answer. I have an assignment due next week and I can’t seem to fix this problem.

Thanks,
Donna

Make sure [u]Windows “Enhancements”[/u] are turned OFF.

Do you use Skype, Zoom, Meetings, or other chat programs? Make sure they are off and not just napping or sleeping in the background. Do a clean shutdown. Shift+Shutdown > OK > Wait > Start. Don’t let any applications start.

Does the bouncing sound meter and do the blue waves follow you when the sound gets damaged?

Do you still have your old computer around?

Koz

The Rode NT USB MIC has a headphone connection in the side. Do you listen to yourself while you perform? Does your live performance match the recording?

Win10 used to have an audio control panel with a sound meter on it. Does Win11 still have that and does it follow you? Audacity gets its sound from Windows not the microphone. As DVDDoug above, Windows could be processing your sound without telling you.

Koz

A (real-time) noise-gate can do that.

ditto.

There could also be “microphone enhancements” from the computer manufacturer, sometimes called MaxxAudio.

If you do turn up something valuable, post back and say what it was. This isn’t a help desk, it’s a forum with users helping each other.

Koz

Thanks, Everyone! I have not used any chat programs on my new laptop. Unfortunately, I baptized my other computer (that worked perfectly fine up until the baptism) and it was not recoverable. I’m not quite sure what Kozikowski means by “Does the bouncing sound meter and do the blue waves follow you when the sound gets damaged?” I usually listen through headphones when recording and things look fine.

I made some changes recommended by a Geek Squad agent, whose degree is in sound and recording, two weeks ago and they seemed to work until today when I did some retakes. In my sound settings I went into system → sound → more sound settings → recording → right clicked on microphone and chose properties → advanced → and unchecked the options taking away control from other applications. I also disabled the fade in plugin in Audacity. This seemed to take away any fading in at the beginning of words, blips or delays in playback. Again, these are things that never happened with my old HP Envy windows 10 but these changes seemed to work, enough so that my client responded “Yay! This sounds just like your previous recordings.”

Today I noticed the blip, a little fading in and hesitation during the playback on the second round of playbacks (and no editing on my part). But the funny things is, when I moved the cursor back to the beginning to listen again, no issues. I made no changes other than moving cursor back and listening again. Why is this happening?? Then I got an error message for dropouts and a new track added that was labeled dropouts and three boxes on top of each other listed 3, 2, 1 apparently where it happened on the wave - have never had this happen before. I can’t remember where I found it but one of my settings was at 48100 or something close to that (DVD level) and I switched it to the 44100 (CD level) - I do audiobook narrations only. Just now and quite by accident, while googling windows enhancements, I found Trebor’s video which helped tremendously. There was a link below but it sent me to a page that didn’t help me. I wish I knew why my HP Envy bought last January had all the right settings because I NEVER had a single problem with recording and playback. I had other issues after the big upgrade to 3.2 in September but that’s another story. I bought pretty much the same laptap (only this one has 12 GB instead of 16 and running windows 11) and now every time I record, something new comes up that I have no idea how to fix. When you’re faced with a deadline, the stress of this is insane!

Apparently “HP Envy” comes with “MaxxAudio” audio-enhancements,
see … https://www.google.com/search?q=“HP+Envy”+MaxxAudio±Dell&gbv
MaxxAudio microphone-enhancements could include a noise-gate.
(The MaxxAudio enhancements will be on by default).