Multiple Tracks Distort on Playback (solved)

[mid90smatt]

Poked around forums, didn't find anything. Running Windows 7 and the new Audacity BETA.

When I record two different tracks, they are heavily distorted but only in playback.

For example, if I record 3 minutes of guitar and then 5 seconds of randomness, they will only be heavily distorted for those 5 seconds.
If I close one of the tracks or play one of them in "solo" mode the recording will sound find.

"heavily distorted" essentially amounts to being able to hear almost nothing but noise and scratching.

[kozikowski]

Audacity adds up all the sound on all the tracks. If you have 100% full tracks and play three of them, that will amount to crushing distortion.

Select each track and Effect > Amplify > Amplification, -6dB. Don't set New Peak Amplitude. That's a different tool.

You can set presentation volume at the last step -- after you mix down and just before you deliver.

There's another thing that can make distortion. Are you recording from Mix-Out instead of a standard input like Line-In? That will double the recording volume as you're making the recording and really mess things up.

Since it's a Windows machine, you can also have problems with Windows Extended Services (sound conferencing)

Windows Enhanced Sound
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 79&start=0

Koz

[steve]

As Koz said, the sounds in multiple tracks all add up. Imagine one voice shouting compared to a thousand voices shouting - the thousand voices will be louder, but in digital audio the 0 dB limit applies to the combined sound as well as to the individual tracks. Neither the individual tracks or the combined sound may go over 0 dB, (or the result will be distortion).

An easy and quick way to adjust al the tracks in a project by an equal amount (so that the relative levels stay the same) is:
Ctrl+A (select All)
Then use the Amplify effect and set it to amplify by a negative amount.

The play level of tracks may also be adjusted individually using the volume slider control on the left side of the track.

[mid90smatt]

Turning down DB to "-" amount worked perfectly.

I didn't have to do this the first time I used Audacity but that was awhile back.