Audio levels when recording

[sybull]

Hardware: Focusrite 2i2 (2nd generation) + Behringer C-1 (XLR 48v phantom power) + pop Filter
Software: Audacity 2.10 + Windows 10

How can I record loud and clear audio ?

I have the gain knob on the 2i2 set to about 70% and the monitoring level in Audacity dances around the 54 mark without me talking. When I record with the mic about 6-8 inches away the levels go up to about 30-27. The waveform is almost flat with the peaks struggle to reach 0.1 if I talk loudly
Sure, if I turn up the gain on the 2i2 to 100% it might go up to 0.2 or 0.3 if I talk loudly, but this introduces loads of background noise and the microphone picks up everything.

So, if I amplify in audacity , the loudness goes up, then I have to do noise reduction to loose the background "hum" but now my audio sounds artificial .

I have tried a Rode videomic plugged into the on-board soundcard and have exactly the same problem. I have tried 2 PC (both Windows 10) same issue.

How can I get a nice "Fat" waveform without the problems with background noise which I then have to clean up ? Am I missing something ?

Looking at tutorials on youtube etc everybody seems to get audio that peaks at 0.5 with hardly any background noise whilst speaking normaly . Am I doing something fundamentally wrong ?

[kozikowski]

First things first. The C1 is a directional, side-fire microphone. You should be speaking into the little red light (which should be on), not the back and not the end.

The C1 is not a fire-breather; it's not particularly loud. So I'm not surprised you need to present a little aggressively.

It's the 2i2's job to boost the microphone volume and convert it to USB for the computer. It's not that unusual to need to run the volume controls all the way up. If it works there, then that's where they need to be.

this introduces loads of background noise and the microphone picks up everything.

Nasty surprise: that's what your "studio" sounds like. The microphone picks up the room. You need to arrange so you're the loudest thing in it. This is where people start messing with soundproofing—or looking for a quieter room.

I got insanely lucky. The guy before me played drums, so the third bedroom is soundproofed. It has special tile on the walls and carpet on the floor.

You don't have to treat the whole room. There are ways to create a tiny studio or sound tunnel to announce in. I posted a thing about this for someone else.....

Let me go look.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Found it.

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 10#p308510

This is part of an on-going conversation, so it goes on before and after this post.

No, this is not unusual. The thing about parking a microphone on your desk and reading audiobooks straight-off is something of a fairy tale.

Koz

[sybull]

Thank you so much ! Just speaking into it the right way helps an enormous amount (surprise surprise !). I had it pointing backwards so it was picking up my computers hum with me shouting in the background . My levels are now hitting with 0.3 level easily and sound so much better.There is so much to learn about audio, going to be fun.

The microphone wasn't the most expensive and I have a dirt cheap stand for it so I know that the quality wasn't going to be brilliant, it was the audio levels that threw me. At least I know what bad sounds like, so I can now head towards good.

Again, Thank you so much for that.

[kozikowski]

What's the goal? Read audiobooks and be internationally famous? Podcast?

Computer noise can be a serious problem. ACX AudioBook has some serious restrictions for background noise, and it's checked by a robot, so you may not even get past the bouncer with the bulging muscles.

We have some tools and processes for audiobook readers, if that's where you're headed.

Koz

[sybull]

No, nothing that fancy. Toying with corporate videos and instructional videos for work. You just have to start tinkering with Audio and you appreciate how much hard work goes into good sound. I was listening to Stephen Fry doing one Harry potter book that went of for 11 hours !! When you realise how long it takes to do a 5 minute podcast with not umming, you really start to appreciate the skill of the actors and technicians behind audiobooks.

[kozikowski]

You just have to start tinkering with Audio and you appreciate how much hard work goes into good sound.

I am so going to have to lie down for a minute.

You are miles ahead of all the posters who appear here wanting us to make them "sound more professional."

There's two leaps right away. You know about needing to be careful about the original shoot, and you know Editing Is Everything.

One forum note:
This is a volunteer forum, not a help desk. That means our timing can be a little ratty as our availability ripples across nine time zones.

The New York Times has relatively recently graduated to video interviews. Given who they are, they never had trouble attracting guests and hosts, but only in the past bunch of months have they had actual audio with actual microphones and not top-of-the-camcorder, recorded in the bathroom sound. I didn't pay a lot of attention, but I believe I saw a credit for a teleproduction company. It was a welcome change.

As we go.

Koz

[kozikowski]

When you realise how long it takes to do a 5 minute podcast with not umming

Most people do Ummm. That's what gives you the 25 minute editing time for a five minute show, to correct the mistakes.

If you don't do that, you get an "On The Fly" podcast which is painful to listen to because it's just uncorrected ramble.

That's the Five to One editing rule. It takes, on average, five times the length of the show to cut it. That's a nasty surprise for people cranking out two hour shows. That's over ten hours of editing, if you bother.

There is one tool that can help. Audacity has labels and you can apply them at the goofs on the fly during recording. When you get done presenting, go back and look for all the labels.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/label_tracks.html

If you need to stop and let the dog out, you can Pause the recording with the P key, or you can Stop dead and pick it up again at that exact point with Append-Record (Shift-R).

Audacity will not Crash Record. You can't go back, start recording at an arbitrary time in your track and wipe out all the trash you produced. That's a popular Feature Request. There is a sorta crash-ish kinda-record. You can go back in your track and start recording and Audacity will start a fresh, new track at that point. Then it's up to you to delete the old trash manually.

Audacity will smash it all together into one file when you Export.

Koz

[sybull]

thank you very much for those very useful tips. The labels one is very interesting.

Can you point me in the direction to a newbies tutorial on setting up a workflow when using Audacity. At the moment I seem to be stumbling around. I don't know whether you should apply noise reduction before or after amplifying or even if using noise reduction and amplify are the right tools to use. I am trying to not have to fix low or noisy audio in "Post" but have yet to find the sweet spot. I suspect I will need to pay more than £40 for a microphone to realise that dream.

[kozikowski]

I will need to pay more than £40 for a microphone

That's a popular New User Lament: "If only I could get a much better microphone, all my problems would be over."

Probably not. Unless you have a Specialty Recording Problem such as Drums, Landing Aircraft, Windy Beach, or a Multi-Party Roundtable, what you have, unless it's broken, is probably serviceable. I generally use this illustration of what you can do for soundproofing using furniture moving blankets, but in this case, regard the microphone.

Screen Shot 2016-07-14 at 20.05.49.png (368.72 KiB) Viewed 616 times

That's an SM58 rock band microphone playing into a simple sound mixer and into a Mac.



That's it. I shot multiple voice tracks for an animated production with that.


We have generic tutorials.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/

That's the on-line documentation. Scroll down until you get to Tutorials.

You really want the semester on entertainment recording. What exactly are you doing in that 25 minutes required to get your 5 minute show ready for publication?

I don't have a good answer for you. People wonder why we don't have YouTube video instructions on how to do all this stuff. Some people have actually produced documentary videos on some of the Audacity tools and how to use them. Nobody wants to hear about the five to one editing rule and nobody with a pulse wants to hear about it when we find mistakes and want them to do it over.

Terrific video. Really. And it will be perfectly valid until the new software version comes out next week.


Your question rolls back to why this process usually involves you screwing up and then us fixing it. It's usually the most efficient that way. There is a rainbow of different things you can do wrong and it's just not practical to preempt all of them.

ACX does have a couple of videos. They start with how to record right after you install your sound proof booth. That's where this is taken from.



They know bare floors just kills most people, so they start just after that. That's how I do it. Soundproof third bedroom. No bare floors.

If you record just right, you can present a chapter, cut off the ends, make fluff corrections, reset the volume (capture volume and ACX volume are different), Export a WAV backup and the MP3 ACX submission and go make tea. There is no list of corrections, filters, effects and other production tricks.

I shudder when people describe doing tonal corrections to each word in their production. Their third audiobook is going to be a lovely thing, but take them right up to retirement.


This American Life has an associated group called Transom. They have some very good works on "how to make radio." They take it right down to equipment part numbers and how to shoot in various conditions. I think that's where I got this on-the-run interview picture from.



http://transom.org/

And you can always submit a raw clip and we'll tell you an opinion of what to do with it. It's rarely a good idea to submit processed work. We can't take processing out and we may need to.

Did I post this?

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/Test ... _Clip.html

Koz