Poor Audio Quality When Recording

[Trebor]

I did have the Beats Audio box checked. Unchecked it and audio quality was even worse.
Here's the first part of Steppenwolf's Sookie Sookie after Beats Audio (Listening Experience) was unchecked.
I had to amplify the audio...Audacity's suggested amplification was 4.6 db.
Attachments

steppenwolf test.mp3
Steppenwolf Sookie Sookie (713.26 KiB)

Your mp3 sounds good to me: loud without being distorted, (I had to turn my volume down).
It is a wide stereo mix, if you are somehow* mixing it down to mono that will make it quieter.

(* wrong type of ⅛" headphone jack-plug ?, a short-circuit in headphone cable ?)

There are free plugins from Voxengo (which work in Audacity on windows) that can do everything that BeatsAudio listening experience can do ...
https://www.voxengo.com/product/marvelgeq/ [Equalization]
https://www.voxengo.com/product/msed/ [stereo image]
https://www.voxengo.com/product/stereotouch/ [delay spatial]

NB: Currently only 32-bit versions of VST (Not VST3) plugins work in Audcaity on Windows,
even if your computer is 64-bit.

[kozikowski]

I'm not understanding what you mean by a simple recording then a simple playback.

Split the system into pieces and make sure each piece works OK.

Play a known, good, working sound file into your speaker or headphone system and make sure it sounds OK. It may not. I got a production computer once with "Cathedral Effects" running in playback. There is at least one Windows laptop out there with "Special Enhancements" to make the crappy built-in speakers sound "much better."

Recording is harder, but record from a simple device such as a built-in microphone or a USB adapter such as a UCA-202. This is one recording my production sound mixer.



This is the one most likely to create problems because this is the pathway that can have Auto Level Set, Noise Gating, Noise processing, Echo Suppression, Direction Switching, etc, etc, etc. Skype/Zoom are famous for this. Also see music production software with recording enhancements.

Once you have it down to which direction is causing problems, you can take steps to find and fix it.

If you're recording on-line works, both of those pathways need to run at once and distortion could happen anywhere in either pathway. Nobody wrote you can't have more than one problem. That why this is turning into a confusing laundry list of fixes and solutions.

Koz

[Psychedelic Relic]

When I compare that test recording to the original the sound is degraded compared to the original.
The original is an mp3 that I have on my pc. I played the file via VLC and recorded it on Audacity.
The issue is not present on my Windows 7 or XP machines.
To my ear the dynamic range is greatly affected. Sounding like the midrange levels are increased on an equalizer setting.

I did have the Beats Audio box checked. Unchecked it and audio quality was even worse.
Here's the first part of Steppenwolf's Sookie Sookie after Beats Audio (Listening Experience) was unchecked.
I had to amplify the audio...Audacity's suggested amplification was 4.6 db.
Attachments

steppenwolf test.mp3
Steppenwolf Sookie Sookie (713.26 KiB)

Your mp3 sounds good to me: loud without being distorted, (I had to turn my volume down).
It is a wide stereo mix, if you are somehow* mixing it down to mono that will make it quieter.

(* wrong type of ⅛" headphone jack-plug ?, a short-circuit in headphone cable ?)

There are free plugins from Voxengo (which work in Audacity on windows) that can do everything that BeatsAudio listening experience can do ...
https://www.voxengo.com/product/marvelgeq/ [Equalization]
https://www.voxengo.com/product/msed/ [stereo image]
https://www.voxengo.com/product/stereotouch/ [delay spatial]

NB: Currently only 32-bit versions of VST (Not VST3) plugins work in Audcaity on Windows,
even if your computer is 64-bit.

[Psychedelic Relic]

Regarding your comment on headphone jack, I'm only using the pc to record and playback through the laptop speakers.
Hence no cables, jacks, headphones etc are used. Tested on my Win 7 and Win XP machines duplicating the same recordings.
It's only an issue on my Win 10 laptop.

Sorry I didn't mention that on my initial reply.

(* wrong type of ⅛" headphone jack-plug ?, a short-circuit in headphone

[Psychedelic Relic]

BTW, I'm using Firefox to play content form the internet.
Could it be a problem with the type of browser?
I'm not likely to think it's the browser as the test recordings I've posted are only form recording a known good mp3 on my laptop to Audacity.

Thanks.

[Trebor]

... Sounding like the midrange levels are increased on an equalizer setting.

The mp3 you uploaded has plenty bass (<200Hz) on it ...

''steppenwolf test'' spectrum.png (29.66 KiB) Viewed 50 times

The frequency plot, (e.g. above), is independent of headphones/speakers/hearing.

[Psychedelic Relic]

For an A/B comparison, I'm getting the same results whether I'm recording from YouTube or a track on my pc.
Here's Sookie Sookie recorded from YouTube and the YouTube link to the same source song.
This might be better for comparison.
Recorded using Win 10 laptop using Firefox, which is successful on WIn 7 and Win XP. No amplification, no checked enhancements.
I can post a test recording from my Win XP desktop if you'd like, where there's typically no discernible difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKsdwIr0nWc

[joe sixpak]

Greetings all,

However on my laptop running Windows 10, I get poor / muffled sounds when recording.

Dominick aka Psychedelic Relic

Windows 10 is the culprit.

Clean off all the crapware.
And check EVERY default setting win 10 hides so you wont know about them.
So called enhancements is one of them.

If there is a ' how to clean win 10 for audio' tutorial like they used to have for all the earlier versions of windoze then read it carefully and do ALL of it.