Why are my recordings so muddy?

[philchenevert]

RealisticSpeaker

However...where did you record this, in a city restaurant during happy hour?
The background noise, the conversations, and the general din behind you would not pass any production specs.
Learning Ally is almost as lax as Librivox...almost, so it was surprising, nay shocking to read your post.

But that background din is distracting. Kids are try'na study here!

LOL! I think you have put your finger on a lot of my problems. No, I don't record in a busy restaurant but have indeed become very lax in recording when my wife is watching TV in a nearby room. I am her caretaker and can keep an 'ear' on her easily that way and feel comfortable knowing where she is and that she is OK. Obviously my brain tunes out the TV drone and just stays alert for any problem she may have, but my microphone does not do that. It picks up all those conversations and sounds drifting in from the next room. This I can fix by recording only when she is sleeping and the TV is copletely off. I thank you very much for the feedback.

[sjmarky]

Your recording doesn't seem muddy to me, either. It is just a tad heavy on the bass end, so I tried a hi pass filter set at about 96hz which lightened it up a bit, but honestly, I think it sounds fine as-is.

[realisticspeakers]

This I can fix by recording only when she is sleeping and the TV is copletely off. I thank you very much for the feedback.

Best regards.

[DACSoft]

Phil,

I agree with all the rest ... doesn't sound muddy to me. Actually quite good for a raw file.

I "binged" Literature/Learning Ally (if that's the one you referred to). Looking at their site, they have fairly stringent requirements and high expectations for acceptance of volunteer readers, IMHO. Much higher level of perfection than I would ever qualify for, especially for volunteer work.

I'm glad we have LV!

Good luck to you,
Don

[schrm]

i can show two recordings in a book i read, where one is described as muddy, the other not:
muddy:
https://ia803004.us.archive.org/15/items/benno_stehkragen_1904_librivox/bennostehkragen_00_ettlinger_128kb.mp3
not muddy:
https://ia803004.us.archive.org/15/items/benno_stehkragen_1904_librivox/bennostehkragen_16_ettlinger_128kb.mp3

this mic was described as muddy in the reviews, on youtube, and so on. it hasa strange hall or echoe effect, sounds like speaking in a tin, and is pure plastics quality, a sort of shell, badly isolated, with a bad mic.
in short, it was the mic.
i'm absolutely no techie and don't know, if i would be able to edit it with equalizers and other fancy stuff.

it would have been a good beginner mic without any alternatives..
but since my laptop has a better one built in, and since i bought another one..
problem solved.
the muddy mic is just low quality for a low, bad and not good prize.

i honestly doubt, that that is relevant for your mic, though.