Recordig high frequency/pitch sounds

[scottgrant39]

Hi i'm relatively new to using audacity so do not know the program very well. My question is how do you set audacity so you can record high frequency sound instruments like tuning forks. I have tried all the settings, but none of them seem to allow me to capture the full range of sounds. I did find the instruction before for doing this, but it was a while ago and on a different version of audacity. I can't find the page anymore where the instruction was located. Thank you guys for any help you can give me with regards to this.

[kozikowski]

high frequency sound instruments like tuning forks.

How high? Don't leave us hanging like that. The only known limits of Audacity are the specification of the capture sample rate and the sound card which is much more likely to be at fault. For one example, the default Audacity sample rate is 44100 Hz which, depending on your need for extreme accuracy, will provide perfect audio up to 17KHz or 20KHz. The strict Nyquist limit is 2.6 times the sound frequency. For music you can use 2.0.

Sound programs will work up to very high sample rates, 96000, etc, but your sound card has to be able to follow you up there. It doesn't do any good to have a sample rate suitable to sound that it takes two dogs to hear when your sound card poops out just north of FM radio sound (17.5KHz.)
Koz

[scottgrant39]

The highest is 512 hz. When i recorded the tuning forks before it worked fine. Granted it was another computer and sound card. I might just have to go back to using that computer instead. Thank you for the reply by the way. Can I ask what would you yourself change in the settings to record a tuning fork. Maybe it is just the way i have it set up. When i try to record the tuning forks it's like only part of the sound is being captured. When i did it before it captured the complete sound of the tuning fork. This time only a small part of the sound.

[DVDdoug]

how do you set audacity so you can record high frequency ...

...The highest is 512 hz...

512Hz (and any overtones) shouldn't be a problem. 500Hz isn't that high... The "traditional" range of human hearing is from 20Hz to 20,000Hz. (Our perception is logarithmic, so 500Hz is not perceived as low or bass... It's in the lower-middle range of our perception.

What kind of mic are you using, and how is it connected? What dB levels are you getting in the digital file?

...it's like only part of the sound is being captured. When i did it before it captured the complete sound of the tuning fork. This time only a small part of the sound.

I thought a tuning fork was one single-pure frequency after the initial "strike". Are there harmonics/overtones with a tuning fork? Is that what's missing?

...but it was a while ago and on a different version of audacity.

FYI - Your choice of recording software shouldn't affect sound quality. The software just sets-up the driver & hardware, and routes the captured data to a file on your hard drive.

[kozikowski]

500Hz is not perceived as low or bass... It's in the lower-middle range of our perception.

Not even. 440 is the oboe note at the beginning of the orchestra and this is above that.

This should all work with Audacity default specifications. What specifically didn't work?

Tuning forks do very well in the sine wave department after the strike. It depends on how you apply the microphone -- which you're going to tell us all about.

Koz