Hi Andrew and David,
Thank you both for your help. Also, terribly sorry for resurrecting a
fairly old thread. However, I haven't had much time to use Audacity since I
last wrote, so I am only now returning with something to contribute to the
conversation.
First, the high quality stretching was a very good suggestion. This
definitely reduced the level of distortion I was dealing with. I do have a
follow-up question though.
Andrew said: “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.”
So I’m wondering if I made a mistake. Before sending my original email in
this thread, I saved the changes I had made to my Audacity project, which
included my change to the tempo for a section of audio. However, I was
still not loving the speed, so I tried to raise the tempo again with the
high quality stretching box checked. Unfortunately, there is still a little
bit of distortion, but it is certainly at the tempo I like now, so I think
I’m going to keep it. But, for the future, is it safe to say that, in order
to minimize distortion, I should only apply one effect to a selected
section of audio? Is the distortion still occurring because I applied a
tempo effect on top of another one?
Thanks again for all the info,
Quinn
On Mon, Jan 2, 2023 at 3:20 PM Andrew Downie <access_tech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
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
