Help for Audacity on macOS.
Forum rules
This forum is for Audacity on macOS 10.4 and later.
Please state which version of macOS you are using,
and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Audacity menu > About Audacity".
Audacity 1.2.x and 1.3.x are obsolete and no longer supported. If you still have those versions, please upgrade at
https://www.audacityteam.org/download/.
The old forums for those versions are now closed, but you can still read the archives of the
1.2.x and
1.3.x forums.
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sullivanandco
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2012 12:46 pm
- Operating System: Please select
Post
by sullivanandco » Wed Aug 15, 2012 6:11 pm
Hey folks --
sorry for the very vague subject line, but I don't really have the vocabulary to describe what I'm seeing/hearing, so I'm hoping these pictures will help:
It seems to me that these abrupt waveform jumps/skips/whatever would be prime targets for some kind of algorithm to eliminate... Or are they too irregular for for a computer to get rid of? Or is Audacity (or a plug-in) just not up to the task?
These were just placeholder VOs that we recorded in an office with a cheap mike, so this isn't a life-or-death situation, it's just my curiosity. Thanks in advance for your help!
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kozikowski
- Forum Staff
- Posts: 68902
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:57 pm
- Operating System: macOS 10.13 High Sierra
Post
by kozikowski » Wed Aug 15, 2012 6:20 pm
It's weapons grade distortion and I'm sure it sounds like it. We can't fix it in post production. I'm perfectly clear what's happening to the waveforms, but I'm a lot less clear how a microphone overload is causing it.
Anyway, back up from the microphone and see if a lot of the trash doesn't go away. You can use Effect > Amplify to bring it up again if you need it louder.
Ordinarily I would say you were overloading the analog amplifier system, but I think this is getting all the way into the digitizer. The overload is actually damaging the bitstream somehow.
It's hard to get it to break like this. Congratulations!
Koz
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sullivanandco
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2012 12:46 pm
- Operating System: Please select
Post
by sullivanandco » Wed Aug 15, 2012 6:27 pm
kozikowski wrote:It's weapons grade distortion and I'm sure it sounds like it.
...
It's hard to get it to break like this. Congratulations!
LOL! No worries -- I think that we did manage to get some decent recordings out of it, and I'll keep your advice in mind the next time we use it!
Cheers!
