Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on March 28, 2006 04:08 AM
I use audacity on a weekly basis for doing voice recording. My first rule is to record the audio as loud as possible without clipping. I try to peak between -9db and -3db in most sentences or phrases of the person speaking. My reasoning is that you will have some constant noise introduced from your microphone, mixer, sound card, or whatever equipment you are using.
Let's say my sound card is always producing noise of -60db. If I am peaking at -12db and amplify by +12db to get that to zero, I will raise that noise level to -48db. However if I am peaking at -3db and amplify the recording by +3db that noise level will only be -57db.
Many times I find just using amplify is easier than the envelope tool. If the short peaks are due to p's and t's in the speaking, I just highlight a peak, select Effect > Amplifiy and decrease it by -1db. I then just hit Ctrl+R to repeat the last effect until I get it to the desired level. Now I can highlight the next peak and just hit Ctrl+R as many times as I need.
I would strongly discourage anyone from unchecking the "Don't allow clipping" in the Amplify effect. If you have too many peaks, lower the volume of each one with amplify first; don't just raise the volume and clip those peaks. It may take a little more time, but it is definitely worth it. Otherwise, how would you know how high to run the volume past the 0db ceiling?
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Recording with Audacity
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 28, 2006 04:08 AMLet's say my sound card is always producing noise of -60db.
If I am peaking at -12db and amplify by +12db to get that to zero, I will raise that noise level to -48db. However if I am peaking at -3db and amplify the recording by +3db that noise level will only be -57db.
Many times I find just using amplify is easier than the envelope tool. If the short peaks are due to p's and t's in the speaking, I just highlight a peak, select Effect > Amplifiy and decrease it by -1db. I then just hit Ctrl+R to repeat the last effect until I get it to the desired level. Now I can highlight the next peak and just hit Ctrl+R as many times as I need.
I would strongly discourage anyone from unchecking the "Don't allow clipping" in the Amplify effect. If you have too many peaks, lower the volume of each one with amplify first; don't just raise the volume and clip those peaks. It may take a little more time, but it is definitely worth it. Otherwise, how would you know how high to run the volume past the 0db ceiling?
Just My $0.02.
Josh
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