Hello David or anyone else,
Does playback volume have any effect on the recording itself or is it just
setting how loud it will play through the recording device? I hope this makes
sense.
Steve
From: audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Bailes
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2017 8:32 AM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audacity4blind] Re: Setting Volume Playback, or Maybe Recording
Volume?
Hi James,
I don't think you've using the right way to set the recording and playback
levels.
The recording level is set independently of the playback level.
If the recording level is too high, then you get clipping and distortion. If
it's too low, then you're not digitizing the input with enough bits, and you'll
introduce noise. So the aim is to have the level as high as possible, without
the danger of clipping occurring. One rule of thumb is to aim for a peak level
of roughly -6 db.
You can check the peak level using the recording meter drop down button in the
toolbars. Press the button by pressing Enter, and choose start monitoring. Make
some representative music or noise or whatever, then open the menu again and
choose stop monitoring. The name of the button now includes the peak level in
that monitoring period. If necessary, change the recording slider, do the
monitoring again, and so on, until you get a peak level of roughly -6db.
You can set the playback volume to whatever level you prefer for listening the
music.
Hope this helps,
David.
On 9 August 2017 at 07:10, James Kelm <jameskelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear Robert & David, and everyone else...
Well thanks to you guys and a little bit of tenacity on my part, I found the
sliders for recording, as well as playback levels. I discovered that the
reason that I could not find them at first, was that when I installed Audacity
on the new computer, the sliders were not selected. I went into the View menu,
and started to just select different things to see if anything would cause any
significant changes. Well suddenly after selecting Mixer, the two sliders
appeared. Now I just have to Control-Tab over, and there they are!
I'll give you what my thoughts were when I set these two volumes, and I
would value any comments or suggestions you may have!
For the Play Back volume, I set it for 100. I don't remember what it was
set on, but it was pretty close. My thoughts were that I want the Play Back to
reflect what is actually happening in my mix, recording, etc. Since Play Back
is basically a form of sound monitoring, I want it to be as transparent as
possible. This is why I set it for 100, so what I hear is what is actually
coming via my recording.
Now Recording Level I realize that since you are not here and playing with
my equipment, it is really difficult for you to know what is best. But I
actually ended up setting my Recording level at 5. This is quite a bit lower
than I would have guessed, but 5 seemed to be close. I simply recorded sound
through my mixer, and then played a new sound while playing the track that I
had just recorded. I wanted these two sounds to be exactly the same. In other
words when I record something on a new track, I want to be able to closely be
able to establish its volume with the tracks that have already been recorded.
Of course there will be additional tweaking while mixing down into a Master,
but so far these settings seem to be working.
I'll play a little bit with multi-track recording tomorrow, and of course I
will read any comments that the folks on this list present. And if everything
looks, or sounds good, I can start putting some actual recordings together. I
have Audacity set for 24 Bit recording, with the highest setting on Quality in
the Preferences menu. I am loving the clean pure sound that I am getting so
far, and things are looking great!
Respectfully,
James
-----Original Message----- From: Robert Hänggi
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2017 9:09 PM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audacity4blind] Re: Setting Volume Playback, or Maybe Recording
Volume?
Hi James
You're looking at the recording and playback meters.
However, the input and output settings are sliders (Recording and
playback slider respectively).
You find them in the mixer toolbar.
Enable the Mixer toolbar (check) in the view menu.
Robert
On 09/08/2017, James Kelm <jameskelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear David & everyone,
OK, I did find the Record, and Playback controls. But I seem to be
missing something, or I am doing something incorrectly.
On both the Record Meter and the Playback Meter, I have attempted to use
my arrow keys, but nothing happens. It says that it is a menu, so I opened
the menu and found Monitor, and settings. The settings I have set for 30,
since that is what Audacity suggests. When I get out of the menu, the DB
settings have changed from before I opened the menu pull down, but it
doesn't seem to be in response to anything that I did.
I can tell that this is my central issue, but how do I get the arrows to
effect the settings? I have attempted to change the settings by both using
my arrow keys, and also just typing in different numbers, but...
Respectfully,
James
-----Original Message-----
From: David Engebretson Jr.
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2017 4:53 PM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audacity4blind] Re: Setting Volume Playback, or Maybe Recording
Volume?
Ctrl+f6 and ctrl+shift+f6 will cycle you through the 3 different toolbar
groupings... one of them has the transport and the recording and playback
monitors (use tab to get to them) then there is the playback and recording
sliders. Use the arrow keys to adjust your playback and recording levels.
Have fun!,
David
-----Original Message-----
From: audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:audacity4blind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James Kelm
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2017 1:46 PM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audacity4blind] Re: Setting Volume Playback, or Maybe Recording
Volume?
Dear Andrew,
Thank you very much for your help. I'm pretty sure that you have
correctly identified the problem. I have only recorded a series of single
tracks so far, trying to correct issues before going on to multi-tracks. I
think that the issue is with the recording level however. I tried to scan
the Audacity manual for JAWS users for instruction concerning how to locate
the different level meter controls, but I didn't find it last night. I also
simply tried to experiment with different keystrokes, but that wasn't too
helpful either. Is this pretty simple instructions that you could possibly
offer me? Is it simply a couple of keystrokes? I don't want to obligate
you to something that would require a great deal of your time, or energy!
Respectfully,
James
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Downie
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2017 2:57 AM
To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audacity4blind] Re: Setting Volume Playback, or Maybe Recording
Volume?
Is the distortion due to the recording level being too high (above 0db) or
because playback level is high? If the former, either pull back the
recording level in Audacity or on the relevant mixer channel. If playback
is the culprit pull down Audacity's playback slider. Given that the drum
machine is louder than other tracks, it sounds as if recording level is the
issue. It is not at all surprising that settings which worked on the old
machine need to be adjusted on the new one.
Have you acquainted yourself with Audacity's recording and playback meters?
Andrew
On 8/08/2017 3:55 PM, James Kelm wrote:
Dear friends,
Well I have done the big computer change, and of course now I have
a new question. LOLL
I have changed everything in my home office/music room/studio. I am
now using Audacity 2.1.3, with Windows 7. Everything is going great,
and I have now set my preferences to my choice of 24 bit, with high
quality, etc. I am getting no latency, and things are working as they
should.
But of course I am having one problem that I hope you can help me
with.
I have a sample recording source, in this example I am using a drum
machine. The settings on the drum machine are the standards that I
always use, without any significant changes.
I have the drum machine plugged into my new mixer. Again, the
mixer is set as I had it when I was plugged through an older lap top
with XP, and an earlier version of Audacity. Now comes my problem.
When I listen to the recording of my drum track while it is
recording, it sounds great. When I do any little adjustments, they
are reflected in the way that I would expect through my headphones.
But when I am finished recording and want to listen to what I had just
recorded, the volume is so loud that it only comes out as distortion
and I have to quickly turn the track off. This is only happening now
that I am using a Windows 7 machine, with Audacity 2.1.3. It did not
happen before with the older equipment.
How do I get the playback to be more inline with the other volumes?
Thanks so much again!
James
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