Zoom and Audacity

I hear the result of my microphone recording very silent when using Audacity (3.2.3). With Zoom or Skype it works fine. Why? How to correct it? I use Windows 11. Thank you in advance for your advice.

my microphone recording

That’s a little fuzzy. You’re recording your voice?

With Zoom or Skype it works fine

Recording your Zoom Voice but not the far side, right?

Skype and Zoom should not be used as proof of any service or process since they take over the computer when they run. Typically, it works the other way, you can get a live voice recording to work but not Skype or Zoom.

It’s not the worst idea to do a clean shutdown of Windows before you do any critical sound jobs.

Shift+Shutdown > OK > Wait > Start.
Do not let anything automatically start when the machine wakes up

Still have troubles?

If you have no trouble recording both sides of a Zoom call, it may mean you have special software or drivers since recording both sides is normally very difficult.

Audacity gets its sound from Windows, not the microphone. Dig down in the Windows setups and make sure the microphone appears there and works—again, after you close Skype or Zoom.

Koz

Thank you Koz
Perhaps I didn’t explain my problem clearly enough. When I speak in Zoom, Skype, Jitsi etc., the guy in the opposite end hears me without any difficulties. However, when I record my speech in Audacity using the same voice level, the results are barely whispers. The microphone is the same and I have not touched my sound settings on my computer in any way. Of course, I have checked them many times. What can I do to make the microphone act in the same way in both cases?

What’s the microphone?

We can’t see what you’re doing and the more detailed information you provide, the better.

As above, Zoom takes over your machine while it runs and it provides its own drivers, sound services, and volume settings. That’s why Zoom shot up to such popularity so quickly. Audacity, on the other hand, can’t do that and it depends on your microphone being in perfect health and you adjusting everything correctly, or at least optimally.

There is one odd thing you are fighting. Home microphone makers set their products for low volume. If microphones come out of the box at high or even medium volume, an inexperienced user might easily produce overload, clipping, or other distortions. The user returns the microphone very quickly. If the microphone produces reasonable quality but gentle or low volume, the user assumes it’s their fault and keeps the microphone. No contest—Marketing wins.

I have a USB microphone interface and booster from Shure Brothers. It has very gentle volume. I wrote to them begging for just a little more boost. They wrote back, “That’s the way it is.”

Koz

Don’t let me scare you. There are ways to bring a home microphone up to snuff—depending on what it is.

What is it?

Koz

My solution to the original problem is using the Audacity command Effect > Volume and Compression > Amplify. The results are quite acceptable. Thank you.