Live listen is fine but recorded playback is not

[smk391]

I am using windows 8 with audacity 2.1.0. I an very new to this. I have a microphone with a XLR lead which I have connected to a Focusrite Scarlett solo usb device. I go to new track, new stereo track and then hit record. The sound only comes out of one headphone but I get around this my spilting the track to mono once I have recorded it.
I have done this fine for 3 live recordings. Brilliant.

Noe comes the problems, I am recording live lectures so I cannot do anything while recording. The last to recording have come out all wrong. I have done nothing different, only what I have done as listed above. But the playback is all distorted and crackly. While listen through the headphones live there is a slight cracking noise but the playback file is unusable.

Please help.

details. the file is mono, 16 bit 44100hz. thanks in advance

[kozikowski]

While listen through the headphones live

Where did you plug the headphones in? Remember, we have to follow you and we can't see what you're doing.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Can you drag-select about ten seconds of the crackling sound, export it as WAV (Microsoft) and post it here?
Scroll down from your forum message window > Upload Attachment > Choose File:

Koz

[kozikowski]

Do you get the red lights on the Focusrite while you're recording? Or did you during the problem recordings? The Focusrite doesn't have sound meters, but they do have lights behind their knobs that tell you when you're making a damaged recording.

Unique gain halos stay green when your level is right and turn red if you're too loud

Koz

[smk391]

Thanks for the replies. I am plugging my headphones into the Focusrite box. I have the level of the XLR mic at a level where when the speaker talks it lights up green. If it lights up red I lower the level. The live listen is of good quality ( there is a slight crack in the background), however the playback is very bad, chimpmonk style. I have a section of the faulty file.

I have reinstalled Audacity, I did the live recording, placed it back ( poor quality ) then waited for the hall and audience to clear and did a couple of test recordings again. The test recording came out fine. Really unsure of what would have caused this. This has occured on my last 2 recordings.

[Gale Andrews]

Speed problems are always sample rate mismatches somewhere. See http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fa ... .html#sync especially the section "If you are on Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8".

Your Solo supports 44100, 48000, 88200 and 96000 Hz. It may well default to 96000 Hz.

As described in the link (assuming you are choosing MME host in Audacity Device Toolbar), you need to check in Windows Sound that the "Default Format" sample rate for Scarlett and the Audacity Project Rate (bottom left) are the same.

I go to new track, new stereo track and then hit record. The sound only comes out of one headphone but I get around this my spilting the track to mono once I have recorded it.

Set Recording channels in Device Toolbar to mono. Then you won't need to split the stereo track to mono, and you won't be stressing the machine recording a channel of un-necessary silence, which doubles the data the computer is being asked to handle.


Gale

[smk391]

Thanks, I will try is in 1 hour when I'm back home. Wouldn't I hear this through the headphones? I though whatever I hear Live is what is getting recorded, so this isn't the case, no?
Also as soon as I play my recording back and noticed the problem I carry out another test recording, same setup nothing had moved or was unplugged and the new the 3 test recordings were absolutely fine. Very strange but until I have a root cause makes me lose at of confidence and faith. Also pressure mounts to make sure I can get a good recording done. I try your suggestion and see if I get better results. Thanks again

[kozikowski]

The Focusrite always knows exactly what it's doing. The problem comes when the sound goes into computer sound management. I have been known to set Audacity to Playthrough and listen to the computer headphone connection. That show has been through the whole pathway and come back out again.

It's also late (echo), so you can't listen there for a whole show. It will drive you nuts.

Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Recording: [X] Playthrough (select).

Then make sure your headphones or soundcard is selected in the Audacity Device Toolbar (sorry, I'm not a Windows elf).

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/de ... olbar.html

By the way, you know you're in trouble if more than one voice comes out the headphone connection. If your voice comes out multiple times (not just late), then you may have a serious sound routing problem somewhere.

Koz

[smk391]

Thanks, I did what you said and get a very clear and brilliant recording, the next day I did the exact same thing and got the same error.
What I didn't mention (sorry) was there are two mics in this scenario. One which I have connected to the Focusrite and the is used by the pa system on site which a wireless mic. During my basic sound test I setup my devices and but the wireless mic next to my wired one and there wasn't any issues. Would the wireless cause a problem?

[Gale Andrews]

I did what you said and get a very clear and brilliant recording, the next day I did the exact same thing and got the same error.

Please say what you did exactly. If you made sample rate or host changes, please state your exact choices.

Please say what error you received. Did you see an error message or do you mean too fast recording? We cannot see your computer so please be as precise as possible.

What I didn't mention (sorry) was there are two mics in this scenario. One which I have connected to the Focusrite and the is used by the pa system on site which a wireless mic. During my basic sound test I setup my devices and but the wireless mic next to my wired one and there wasn't any issues. Would the wireless cause a problem?

Is the wireless mic an audio device on the computer?

A wireless mic won't create speed problems.


Gale