Help! Need same sound quality for two different clips...

[robbo282]

hi - i have recorded a podcats using Audacity - after the first section, we stopped the recording and then started a new line of recording - when playing this back, the top line is of crystal clear quality but the line below is muffled even though we recorded the second line in exactly the same sceanrio (distance from mic etc all the same)

My second, third and fourth lines must have a different setting to the first one but i don't know what it is!

Would really appreciate any thoughts / help

Many thanks in advance

[steve]

If you start a new Audacity Project, does the same thing occur?
Are you using the "solo" button to hear one track at a time?

[robbo282]

Steve! Thanks for getting back

Yes - i tried on a new project and the same thing happened again - i.e. the first track is crystal, the one below is muffled

No i wasn't listening solo but even playing with that button the quality of the stream below is still poor

Would really appreciate any further insight!

Thanks

Tom

[robbo282]

p.s. have attached an image of the issue that may help - it looks like the bandwidth has altered or something?

Thanks in advance

Tom

[bgravato]

Windows is known for doing some "enhacements" for voice chat apps such as skype. Maybe could be that.

Look in the windows control panel for the sound advanced settings and disable all the "enhancements".

Sorry for being a bit vague on this but I'm not a windows user so I can't give you more detailed directions on this... but it might be worth having a look at that.

[robbo282]

Hi - thanks for that - tried but no luck....

any further suggestions welcome - i am determined to get this right!

[steve]

Which version of Audacity are you using? (look in "Help menu > About Audacity")

Try this experiment:
1) Record the first track
2) Mute the first track
3) Record a second track.

[kozikowski]

Do you like to record internet audio like YouTube or On-line radio? The settings to do that will cause this problem. There are no instructions to reset these settings, but you can follow these instructions backwards -- or at least get a good idea where to look.

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recor ... e_computer

The Microsoft Enhanced Audio settings aren't that neat. They usually wait maybe ten seconds and then make your voice do funny things -- but are much more likely to cause problems in music, not voice. They're designed for live conferencing.

And if you can leave the computer running during the whole production, you can Record-Pause and then continue. That will leave the whole show on one timeline.

Koz

[robbo282]

hi all - thanks for your help - i'm going to go for the re record option pausing and rerecording all on one line

i have also been told by my mate that using that the beta version is not a good idea!

thanks for all of your help guys..

[steve]

- i'm going to go for the re record option pausing and rerecording all on one line

That should work around the problem, but feel free to get back to us if you need to.

i have also been told by my mate that using that the beta version is not a good idea!

Generally it is advisable to stick to the main "stable" release of programs, but Audacity is a bit of an exception at the moment. It's been a very long time since the last "stable" version - so much so that the "stable" version is too old for many current computers. All development over the last few years has been on the 1.3.x series, which is now a mature program and is recommended for everything except really old computers (Win 98 and earlier). The next "stable" version will be Audacity 2.0, which will be released when the current features in 1.3 have been sufficiently tested and any remaining wrinkles have been ironed out. If you are using an old version of Audacity, that could be the problem.