Hi Quinn
I echo David’s suggestion of using the high-quality stretching. And yes,
Change Tempo is the right effect to use.
Now to the issue of funny sounding speech. With Audacity it is important to
remember that, with an exception discussed next, when you apply an effect the
original audio is changed. The exception is real time effects, which have
become available recently and are not yet relevant to the Tempo effect. From
your description, it sounds like you applied the tempo effect and, when it was
too fast, you reduced the speed. My suggestion for when an effect is not what
you wanted, undo before proceeding. That returns the audio to its original
state. The risk of introducing artefacts when repeatedly applying effects on
top of each other is then avoided.
You asked: “…is there a keystroke or control that strips away all effects from
a selection of audio?” Only repeatedly undoing.
What Normalising does is to bring the loudest peak up to a preset level.
Audacity offers minus 1. Especially if you are going to use effects such as
Reverb or equalisation, that may be risky, as those effects can increase the
level.
Ah, you have started down the slippery slope of more complex recording. You
will find lots of reasons to use multiple tracks, as the facility adds so much
potential to the scope of recordings. Drop a line here if questions arise.
Andrew
From: audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Behalf Of Quinn Price
Sent: Tuesday, 3 January 2023 1:46 AM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audacity4blind] Questions About Tempo and Effects in General
Hello all,
I have some questions about something that happened to me recently. I had some
audio where I was speaking and I decided that, during a particular stretch, I
as speaking too slowly. So I began to experiment with ways to adjust the rate
of my speech. I first tried applying the speed effect, but I imagine most fold
can imagine what happened there; I didn't realize it would adjust my pitch too.
I then tried using the tempo effect and this is where things got interesting.
First of all, I was able to speed my speech up, but it was way too fast.
However, after I tried slowing it down, it almost sounded as though I had an
echo, or as though two versions of my voice were playing on top of each other.
I was able to undo all my mistakes and even set the audio to a tempo that is
almost satisfactory, but I have some follow-up questions.
First, is applying the tempo effect actually the best way to adjust the rate of
a selection of audio in the first place? If so, does anyone know why my audio
became distorted, for lack of a better word, after just a couple of
adjustments? How can I prevent this in the future? I'm open to the idea that
perhaps I should just re-record that stretch of audio, but, honestly, I would
really rather not. Also, perhaps I haven't been thorough enough, but is there a
keystroke or control that strips away all effects from a selection of audio? I
tried using the normalize effect, but this probably highlights my current
ignorance because that made the audio sound nothing but normal. Ultimately, the
undo option saved me, but I'm curious if there is a more efficient way to strip
away unwanted changes.
As an unnecessary aside, contrary to statements I made on this list a couple of
weeks ago, I have begun to start working with multiple tracks of audio. It is
mostly a matter of curiosity right now. I'm not convinced that I know what I'm
doing yet, but I'm having a lot of fun figuring it out.
Best,
Quinn
