I’m an audacity newbie and have just recorded an interview with the software. Most of it was great. However, there are bits when the volume (or “pitch” if that’s the right word) goes up a little, possibly when the speaker is emphasising something. Then there is a little scratching sort of noise for a millisecond (possibly indicating that the volume is too high or something).
How do I edit the audio to remove these bits? I’ve tried lowering the volume of the entire audio by clicking on the volume thing in the lefthand box of the soundtrack. That seems to help but it means lowering the volume of the entire track, which I don’t want to do.
It’s just those little moments when it goes up a bit and you get the little scratch noise.
Can anyone explain how to edit volume/sound so that those noises are gone?
Effect > Limiter: Soft Limiter. But don’t expect miracles.
Before you apply the effect, do the blue waves go all the way up to 1 (100%) during the scratching and does the sound meter go up and turn red? Those are overload points.
When you record something, the digital system assigns numbers to the sound. If you go too loud, the digital system runs out of numbers and just starts making it up. Most times, there is no good quality voice during overload and there is no filter.
You can try Effect > Clip Fix. But that only works for very short sounds and it’s just guessing at it.
Overload or “clipping” is fatal. It’s one of the guaranteed ways to kill your show. #2.
The Four Horsemen of Audio Recording (reliable, time-tested ways to kill your show)
– 1. Echoes and room reverberation (Don’t record the show in your mum’s kitchen.)
– 2. Overload and Clipping (Sound that’s recorded too loud is permanently trashed.)
– 3. Compression Damage (Never do production in MP3.)
– 4. Background Sound (Don’t leave the TV on in the next room.)
That’s one of the reasons people recording live audio wear headphones and closely watch the Audacity sound meters during a shoot.
Shoot for peaks around -6dB on the meters or 50% on the blue waves (same thing). A bit lower is good if you have a “wild” performer.
You can’t hit it too low volume, either. Then the system and microphone noise becomes a problem (ffffff).
Thank you to both of you for the responses. The blue wave does indeed get close to 1 quite a lot of the time. But the funny thing is that the sound is fine for most of the audio. THe little “scratching” sound only happens on a few occasions. And interestingly it doesn’t seem to happen when the blue wave is at its highest (around 1). I a, assuming that it if the problem is simply the fact that the other guy is speaking too loudly or volume is too high then the scratching would coincide with the high blue wave (at 1). But apparently it doesn’t. The scratching appears to happen at random moments!
I’m just guessing at the most likely cause of scratching noises in a performance. If your blue waves never go up (or down) to 1, then that’s probably not it.
The scratching appears to happen at random moments!
Does it stay put once it happens? If you record a passage and it has crunching, does the noise stay in exactly the same place in the performance each time you play it?
People have posted about playback problems where the show is perfect, but the play system damages it in a different place each time.
I am facing the exact same issues on pc and laptop with win10. Pc has edition 2.2 and laptop 3.0. Random scratching noises, different timeline point everytime when playblack is used. Any suggestions, please advise.
In that case, the noise is likely to be in the recording. If you post a short sample to illustrate the problem (just a few seconds) in WAV format, then we may be able to identify the cause. See here for how to post an audio sample: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-post-an-audio-sample/29851/1
