Understanding Waveform and Loudness

[InternetStream]

There is one other note. On the new machine, next time you talk to someone in the system, ask them if they're hearing their own voice coming back to them as an echo. That can be pretty annoying and that's one of the evil side issues of trying to hand-manage sound pathways around a voip call.

Koz

After I reconfigured Loopback yesterday on rMBP2 - which included a new virtual machine to group my headset and my VLC beep track and then another virtual machine to redo how my VoIP call works - I proceeded to call 10-12 AT&T retail stores across the U.S.

"Hi! I need to use you as a guinea pig for a moment... 1.) How does the volume of my voice sound? 2.) Are you getting any popping, cracking or distortion? 3.) Do you hear a beep in the background?"

Minus the fact that VoIP isn't as good as a landline or even cellular, all 10 stores from like Ohio to Oregon all reported that my voice sounded okay to them, normal volume, no annoying sounds, and they all hear dthe beep - which means I can legally recrod them"

On my end, so of the callees voices were very low, one was loud, and the rest average volume. But I attribute that to just idfferences in point-to-point calls.

After like 10 tests yesterday, I decided to call my new configuration a victory. (Of course, i will need to test it out over time and see how things go. But so far, so good. Plus now I have 3 usuable tracks in Audacity which is very powerful and something I couldn't even attain on my old MBP so that's exciting!)

Finally, it should be noted that I have been using VoIP exclusively for maybe 8 years now, and I have like 14 tele #'s, and VoIP is one of the best thinsg to *ever* happen to me from a technology standpoint!!!!

[kozikowski]

So the only thing left is the odd volume shifting and displays. If it doesn't affect the show, then it's just a superficial artifact.

Koz

[kozikowski]

I have like 14 tele #'s

What's your product or service? I don't think we ever got there.

Koz

[InternetStream]

So the only thing left is the odd volume shifting and displays. If it doesn't affect the show, then it's just a superficial artifact.

Koz

If I can keep Audacity from dropping 25% of the audio files, then yes, the new environments are a little annoying, but still functional.

Of course I always like to know how things work and why they are not perfectly aligned as expected.

P.S. You never explained what a unicorn is... *I thought that meant a company valued at over a billion dollars. But not sure why you feel that "I" am a unicorn?!)

[InternetStream]

I have like 14 tele #'s

What's your product or service? I don't think we ever got there.

Koz

A cybersecurity business that aspires to be as much a newspaper and radio station as anything.

Still lots to do to get things off the ground...

[kozikowski]

But not sure why you feel that "I" am a unicorn?!)

Notable for its unusual nature. You say you can record phone calls with little or no damage?

So you're the one.

Koz

[InternetStream]

But not sure why you feel that "I" am a unicorn?!)

Notable for its unusual nature.

I see.

You say you can record phone calls with little or no damage?

So you're the one.

Koz

The recordings sound okay to me - maybe not to a sound engineer or guru like you.

What damage would you expect?

My VoIP - or even a lad-line phone call - is never going to be Dolby surround sound, but my VoIP calls are good enough that I can effectively communicate with people - and for next to free. And the recordings sound good enough to capture whatever needs to be captured.

Am curious to know your experiences on this topic and your expectations as well.

[kozikowski]

your expectations as well.

My experiences have been perfect because I do it the legacy way with two computers and sound mixer. My other experiences are fielding many postings from people who would kill to be able to record both sides of a conversation on any of the technologies using just one computer.

My line is everybody wants the "one button push" solution, not days of messing with settings and plugins. That's why we've been urging people to use service recordings rather than doing it themselves.

I'm not after Glen Glenn Sound or production awards. People generally can't get it to work at all.

It occurs to me we may be talking across technologies. Can you record both sides of a Zoom meeting? That must have come up.

Koz

[InternetStream]

your expectations as well.

My experiences have been perfect because I do it the legacy way with two computers and sound mixer. My other experiences are fielding many postings from people who would kill to be able to record both sides of a conversation on any of the technologies using just one computer.

I didn't realize this was so hard to do... Maybe I am a unicorn?! *LOL*

Fwiw, I had my old MBP with SOundflower to where I could record myself and the caller in Audacity about 4-5 years ago, but then my hard-drive crashed on my old MBP, and I couldn't remember how I set things up with Soundlfower and Audacity - it was a real bird's nest - and when I tinkered with it I broke things to where I could only record the caller and not myself, but since the settings stilla llowed me to record my weekly radio shows, I just left it.

Now getting things so that the beep (or sound bed) is coming from another source (e.g. VLC) and being able to record it on its own track is something I was unable to figure out until I got lucky the other day.

The sound quality is good, but I have to manually tinker witha few settings on my virtual devices to switch from recording phone calls to radio shows. Maybe there is a way to make it so I can "set it and forget it" but I haven't quite perfected that yet.

But, so far, to be back to where I can record shows and phone calls, plus now with my beep, and to NOT have to change the audio sources - thus why I created "AudacityHub: - is a real coup.

My line is everybody wants the "one button push" solution, not days of messing with settings and plugins. That's why we've been urging people to use service recordings rather than doing it themselves.

But I believe I do have a "one button solution" for the most part...

Plus, I don't have to pay for Skype or Teams or Zoom or whatever like everyone else... (Of course I cannot do video.)

I'm not after Glen Glenn Sound or production awards. People generally can't get it to work at all.

Do you own a Mac, or are you helping out in this forum and just winging it?

If you do own a Mac, why not download a trial copy of Loopback and test it out for yourself? Better, pony up the $40-$60 and get a copy and it'll well be worth the investment if you do anything at all on your Mac.

It occurs to me we may be talking across technologies. Can you record both sides of a Zoom meeting? That must have come up.

Believe it or not, I lost my job at the start of the pandemic and have taken the time off to work on my startup. When I last worked my employer provided a Windows laptop with Skype and that is how I worked remote 100%, but fortunately people didn't have sticks up their arses and demand that we used video.

I have yet to learn how to do video, which will come up soon as I am out fo money and need to get back to work.

Zoom is a security nightmare so unless an emplyer forced me to use it, I'd never use it.

But any self-respecting Fortune-500 company (and IT dept) likely would NOT use Zoom for real work...

if I can get back in with my old client, I hope to get back to my old setup, but we'll see.

As to your question, yeah, I need to learn how to do video-conferencing, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Either way, Loopback should scale for the audio and recording parts - a virtual audio device is a virtual audio device.

[kozikowski]

Zoom is a security nightmare so unless an emplyer forced me to use it, I'd never use it.

That's what we used to think about Skype sessions right up until all the clients started using it and we had no choice. So I'll take that as no.

We did have a Skype-like service for a while and eventually gave up.

We used the split machine technique to record sound-only for people who couldn't be there for the actual conference. We had a machine with no camera or microphone whose sole job was sit on the conference and record the sound. It didn't have sound pathway gymnastics because it only had to record the far side, and nobody really had to see the producers and managers to get the gist of meeting.

So both of the good quality, reliable sound recording techniques involve separate computers. Everybody Knows the requirement is for a home user to do everything on one affordable machine.

are you helping out in this forum

Everybody is helping out on this forum. It's all voluntary. It's not a help desk.

I have yet to learn how to do video

Video is the shiny object and will always come out on top. Chat or conference sessions always establish the video first, wave at each other, and then spend the next hour or so forcing the sound to work. Way down on the bottom of the pack: 'I need to record the conference sound.'

Koz