Help with "hot mic"

tovarisch · Post by **tovarisch** » December 5th, 2018, 6:30 pm

Joy,

I can't really add much to what's been suggested already. As far are "aggressively compressed" vs. clipped, it can still be clipped. My interface clips it not at 0 but at -6 or so, and the flat-tops of the wave form do not necessarily coincide with the maximum in Audacity. The sound is still distorted.

At this point all you can do is lower the level of one part and raise the other until they sound close. As far as compression goes, it's difficult to match what was done in the Spanish track, and probably isn't worth it - the quality of the English audio is higher (wider dynamic range).

Good luck!

Joyfull · Post by **Joyfull** » December 6th, 2018, 7:04 am

Thanks for your time Maria and everyone! I guess the best thing is to be more aware in the future of not speaking too loud into the mic. Maybe I don't need to compress my file when I'm doing the basic editing...

Tricia, yes, I use the Hard Limiter to -3 always, as part of my basic editing.

This file is not for LV - that is the reason for the difference in volume. When I'm recording an LV I use the -23 volume.

Thanks again to all who replied! You are a great community!

Kalamareader · Post by **Kalamareader** » December 6th, 2018, 9:22 pm

Maybe I am crazy, but to me, the English sounded much louder than the Spanish in the original.

lurcherlover · Post by **lurcherlover** » December 7th, 2018, 3:16 am

You should always leave a reasonable amount of headroom in your recordings and avoid limiters and the like (such as compression unless it's fairly mild). Record at -6dB to -10dB and if necessary amplify in Audacity or whatever in post production. This will give you distortion free recordings and they will sound better as well since the last 3-4dB does often add some harshness depending on the quality of the recorder/interface. Most of the cheaper consumer recorders/interfaces are not that accurate or good and distortion sets in at about -3dB or even earlier.

Peter