Audacity Forum

It's not unheard of to cure a lot of sound problems by not using a computer. It would seem that using an already available computer and an inexpensive microphone would be totally the way to go, but that also means computer and data connection problems get burned into the show, see: Curse of the Yeti, Frying Mosquitoes, Connection Hum, etc. Oh, and don't use a laptop with a loud fan. The fan becomes a performer.

Don't fall in love with cellphone recording. I have zero doubt that you can produce a good quality track like that, but I'm also pretty sure most of them insist on saving the work as MP3. MP3s are End Products. You can't use them to reliably cut into a final show. MP3 compression artifacts and sound damage get worse as you edit. If you get finished editing and your voice sounds talking-into-a-wine-glass honky, that's why.

I have a voice recorder coming that may shed more light on live capture problems. We'll see.

Koz

Yeah, I don't plan on using my phone as a way of recording audio due to the poor quality/low Hz it delivers, I mostly just used it as a test to see if it's the microphone or not, thankfully it's not, I may just have to test more & do more research to see what I come up with.

I just don't know where to begin, I've been trying to fix this issue since I got the mic but unfortunately I just seem to be going around in circles.

TheRhysWyrill wrote:I'm not sure whether I hear these clicks at 7 seconds, though that could just be my ears.

I only heard them after Noise Reduction had reduced the steady noise.


Gale

Sony clearly recommend using this mic with a digital voice recorder rather than a computer. The recorders they recommend only record to MP3 but that should not be insuperable for a voice recording if you use 192 kbps and 44100 Hz, as long as you import the recording into Audacity and export as WAV (not MP3).

Perhaps another alternative would be to buy a USB interface to connect the mic to then connect the USB interface to the computer. Many of these USB interfaces may give you the "frying mosquito" noise Koz mentions but that is quieter, less jagged, less click-embedded noise than you have now.


Gale

Strangely enough, I may have somehow fixed the issue.

All I did was uninstall my audio driver & reinstalled it, rebooted & now the mic seems to work flawlessly without any jagged/erratic waveforms, hopefully this keeps up.

Either way thanks for all the help!

Maybe the issue is that you're connecting a stereo pip powered mic to a mono mic input?

TheRhysWyrill wrote:I've tried all the above posts (Thank you for the help btw) but unfortunately they have all had little to no effect.

As weird as this may sound I think the underlying cause of the issue is due to vibration that the microphone is somehow picking up.

As an example I recorded a 10 second sample of "Total" silence which when listened to shows no audible disruption etc, however there is clearly something causing the waveforms to become so erratic.

I am afraid I still do not understand from your posts, what exactly was the original complaint.

Do you complain about clicking sounds? Noise Removal or Reduction does not eliminate those.

Do you want better results from Noise Removal or (2.1.0 and later) Noise Reduction? Please tell me exactly what settings you are using.

From what I see in this latest picture, I would recommand a highpass filter at perhaps 60 Hz and 12 db/Octave or more, to remove low frequency vibrations.

Gale Andrews wrote:

TheRhysWyrill wrote:I'm not sure whether I hear these clicks at 7 seconds, though that could just be my ears.

I only heard them after Noise Reduction had reduced the steady noise.


Gale

Clicks can be seen, not just heard, if you use Spectrogram view. They appear as vertical streaks.

Paul L wrote:

Gale Andrews wrote:

TheRhysWyrill wrote:I'm not sure whether I hear these clicks at 7 seconds, though that could just be my ears.

I only heard them after Noise Reduction had reduced the steady noise.


Gale

Clicks can be seen, not just heard, if you use Spectrogram view. They appear as vertical streaks.

Indeed though those clicks are more like a soft beep. They are barely visible even after noise reduction (I think they are a little hump of blue).

I can hear the beeps before noise reduction if I use headphones. I don't think Noise Reduction is making the beeps worse.


Gale

First of all sorry for the inactivity, i thought i had fixed said issue, apparently it was only temporary.

Paul L wrote: I am afraid I still do not understand from your posts, what exactly was the original complaint.

Do you complain about clicking sounds? Noise Removal or Reduction does not eliminate those.

Do you want better results from Noise Removal or (2.1.0 and later) Noise Reduction? Please tell me exactly what settings you are using.

From what I see in this latest picture, I would recommand a highpass filter at perhaps 60 Hz and 12 db/Octave or more, to remove low frequency vibrations.

The problem was not the clicks as i believe those were actually caused by my mouse, the problem was the fact the waveform was going rather hectic considering there was nothing i thought to be causing it, turns out the waveform turned out that way due to low frequency vibrations & using a high pass filter as you suggested fixed the issue.

Thanks for all the help!