Audacity Forum

Start with your raw clip and make sure you can duplicate my steps. You have an odd low pitch tone in this recording and the clip won't pass noise with it in there. It's not any obvious problem I can think of—it's not power related. That's the notch filter step that's new with this process.

Koz

Today I will work on it and get a sample back to you. Thanks!

I can use the Shure and the sound board, if you would like. I'll try to do a sample with that too.

George

I can use the Shure and the sound board, if you would like.

I would like. The analog mixer is missing some of the noise and sound problems of the USB microphone. So even if the sound levels are off, it's easier to produce a clean, clear sound file in post production.

Koz

Okay. I am attaching a version of that file which I corrected, following your instructions. There were a couple of points where I wasn't too sure, as the menu in my copy of Audacity must differ slightly from yours. Here's a picture of the menu for noise reduction, as I used it.


It still sounds a little tinny to me.

I am also attaching a raw clip using the Shure microphone and Folio Notepad.

George

You're not in Audacity 2.1.0 are you? That's a problem. I'm using all the up-to-date correction and filter tools. If you're using an older Audacity, those settings are not going to translate well — or not at all. Audacity 2.1.0 includes greatly improved tools and services. If you have Audacity 2.10 or any version like that, it's not "real." It's a bogus copy

http://audacityteam.org/download/

Koz

That could be interesting. I don't know anybody that has a Lifter. You may have hit the magic formula for producing near-perfect recordings.

You should suppress the urge to edit older posts even though it's allowed. We don't automatically go back and look at older posts, so if you put something important back there, it might get lost to the ages.
Koz

I just checked. I have version 2.0.5. Will update A.S.A.P.

I don't believe I've edited anything older than ten or fifteen minutes old. But I will definitely keep that advice in mind.

So, the Cloud Lifter recording sounds good?!

George

Not yet it doesn't. I'm still juggling other posters and hope to get finished before I need to go to bed. The Lifter reportedly solves a low volume problem many analog USB sound systems have. If it does, then there is no reason not to produce a terrific sounding product. You already have most if not all of the room echo solved. That's what kills most people.

You will need to pay more attention to the Audacity sound meters. You will find in 2.1.0, the meters are very much bigger and easier to see. It's the main reason I dropped the older versions like a hot rock.

With the lifter in there you could not only produce a good recording with many sound peaks going up to about -6, but you could also overload (run the meters all the way up) and that's not a good idea at all.

I think you asked about the settings on the sound mixer. There's no good, simple answer. Many mixers work with their volume controls about 2/3 up. It rings bells with the older users when they see a mixer with the controls jammed all the way up or near the bottom. Something Is Wrong if you're doing that.


Asking for knob settings is a little like asking where to set the steering wheel to drive to the Piggly-Wiggly.

As we go.

Koz

Okay, I installed Audacity 2.1.0 both on my wife's Windows 8.1 machine and on my Linux Mint 17.1 laptop.

finished some of the new graphics to go with Audacity 2.1.0.

These are roughly what your recording meters are supposed to look like when your voice is normal volume. Keep a lot of it in the yellow.



Yes, I understand they bounce around and it's hard to watch them and read the script at the same time. That's what the recording engineer is normally doing, but if you miss it by too much, it makes the show recording very hard to adjust back to normal audiobook standards.

I'm remembering this. I can't find a graphic big enough so I can read the Folio knob labels and tell you where they should go. Find a link with a picture large enough to clearly read the knobs and post the link. Or post the link to the instruction book or post a picture of the mixer you took with the knobs clearly visible. There's no shortage of mixer pictures, but they're all the size of matchbooks and I can't read them.

~~

While we're doing that, the last posting sounds like you have a cement mixer in the room with you. What happened to the nice quiet room with the blankets and duvets on the walls?

Open your submitted clip and look at the first 2-1/2 seconds of the clip. That blue rubble should be a straight line. Drag-select it, play it and turn up the speaker volume. Did you turn on an air conditioner or ventilation fan? That lead-in segment should sound like very quiet, gentle, rain-in-the-trees hiss (fffff). It's loud enough that I'm having a hard time getting rid of it.

Without getting too messy on you, this should have rung bells while you were making the recording. This kind of problem should have been obvious in the headphones during the performance. That's one of the reasons you're on headphones during a reading.

How do you have the microphone suspended or mounted? Do you have a "rubber spider" shock mount for it?

I don't have a good picture of this. It's on my list of camera tasks. These will have to do.

Koz