Audacity Settings for Crystal Clear Audio
Hello,
I have a relatively high quality mic that I invested in, It's a Focusrite Scarlett Studio 3rd Generation, and I know I'm not getting the most out of it's potential.
Any suggestions on excellent Audacity or Ableton settings to make it sound as close to studio produced as possible?
I've spent quite a bit of time playing around with the EQ on Audacity and for the amount of time I've spent making adjustments I really haven't been pleased with how most of my files turn out.
Most times they sound rather muffled.
I would really appreciate any Audacity or Ableton settings that I can set and save and depend on using every time with minor adjustments.
Not quite sure how this forum works so I just attached my application sample from last week.
Thanks so much!
Ray
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Whoops, didn't attach the file and right now not seeing how I can. Perhaps the question is still answerable!
Hi Ray!
Please upload the sample file to Soundcloud, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive or any other file sharing service and make sure it’s accessible to anyone.
You can then paste the link to a comment here and we’ll take it from there.
Cheers!
- Héctor Adolfo Ituarte (Voice Bunny QC Agent)
Thanks for the reply!
Hope I did this right.
Thank you,
Rayhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y6hSX08JTQpWn9xXI66yn9aLsDuDUbww/view
Alrighty Ray!
First of all, what a voice! Gotta love that tone and intention.
Now, as for your questions, let’s begin by addressing this:
Improper Gain Levels at Recording Stage
Keep in mind that high gain levels in our recording gear (usually the pre-amp or interface) will negatively impact our final result. Think of this in photographic terms: an overexposed picture. The camera captures too much light and no amount of editing will be capable of making the photograph usable. The same thing happens in audio: if we print a take that's too hot from the beginning, the natural sensitivity of the mic will be augmented by the amount of gain used, causing the noise floor to be raised. This will show as a wind-like sound (white noise), that will be raised if further processing (such as EQ, compression, and normalization) is applied.
An instance of this can be found in your sample both in the silent regions and the spoken ones.
Try recording empty takes while playing with the gain settings in your Scarlett. If I had to guess, the sample you submitted was made with the dial set at more than 50%. That’s what causing the faint hissing sound commonly referred to as white noise. Once you find a proper setting (probably at around 33%), you can try recording a new sample.
But Héctor, this makes my voice really quiet, what gives?
Well, that means we're ready to normalize our sample take! Follow Audacity’s guide on that subject and bring your audio to the Voice Bunny standard of -3dBFS Peak Level:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/normalize.html
Now, listen to the recording and check if any white noise is still audible. If the answer is ‘yes’, go back to lowering the gain in your Scarlett and repeat the process until the crisp clear audio you desire is obtained. Once that result is achieved, post the sample here and we’ll proceed with evaluating its quality and suggesting potential post-processing options for your preferred DAW.
Wow man such a cool email. I really learned a lot! Makes me really want to master this stuff now lol. But sounds great I'll do just as you suggested.
Thanks Hector,
Ray
Lol stinks as soon as I sit down to test it out the mic is all of a sudden making a buzzing noise when I speak into it haha been trying to troubleshoot it for 2 hours but I'm just going to give them call tomorrow! Will reply shortly.
Hey Ray!
That sucks indeed! I'll be paying attention to your posts then, hopefully, this issue will be resolved soon.
Alright I got things back up and running.. Apparently the mic is best used with an ASIO driver which Audacity does not have. It does however come with Ableton. Ever work with it much?
I used it when I first got the mic but most of the tutorials out there on the site and on the web seem to deal with technical music production.
I tested out the mic with the gain at 33% and it sounds great but I haven't found how to Normalize with Ableton. If you have any thoughts I can take the next steps.
Thanks!