We talk about volume a lot here, I know, but I'm not sure if I have seen a breakdown of the factors involved in adjusting volume as we are actually recording. (My recordings are all over the map recently in terms of volume. I'd like to set things up so that I'm more confident in what the Checker Program will tell me.)
First, there is our spoken volume, of course.
2. At least in my case, I have a dial or knob on my microphone that I try never to touch. I assume it is for volume control. (There is another dial that I leave alone, also. It is, I think, for directional recording.
3. My computer settings? I assumed that this controlled the volume I heard but not my mic. Maybe I am wrong in this. I use Windows 10.
4. The Audacity program which I use has a slider for volume, but I don't know what it does. (Hey, at least I am honest about my ignorance!) I have it set at 70% and hope never to touch it.
Is there more to volume control? Am I missing something?
Recently, well I told you. Sometimes my volume is high, sometimes low. I always thought that the Amplify command in Audacity would put me in the ballpark, so to speak, but it has been giving me goobledygook (sp?).
Volume Control
My LibriVox: https://librivox.org/sections/readers/13278
From the "input" side, I'm aware of two places to adjust your volume:
1) The dial knob on your microphone
I'm no expert on how far you should turn it, but I think pretty far "up". I found that when I turn it too far, there was some kind of high-pitched tone in my recording, so I lowered it enough to avoid it.
I would also assume that if you slide it too far "up", you will get clipping, i.e. the audio curve gets so tall that its peaks are cut off, which you can hear - it sounds bad. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7AbmhOsrPs
2) The Windows-internal input volume of your microphone.
You can access it either via Audacity, as you've already found - it's the microphone volume slider. Or via the Windows sound settings: https://www.howtogeek.com/700524/how-to-change-microphone-volume-in-windows-10/
It's useful to fine-tune your input volume. As you can see by the image in the 1-minute test instructions, it's a good idea to set your microphone input volume to such a level that the peaks hit approximately the 0.5 mark in the audio track. For that, you can start recording, talk into the microphone, and then adjust the input slider higher or lower until the peaks are at about the correct level.
After you've recorded, yes, Amplify can boost or lower the volume of the recorded audio.
There's another step you can take before amplifying though: Compressor. Compressor is a function that will help you achieve roughly the same volume across the whole track. It will push in the louder peaks, and then afterward, it's a good idea to amplify the whole track to the desired final volume.
You could use the presets for compressor, but I've found it useful to adjust it to my own needs. For that, here's a great explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9rTQaW500I
1) The dial knob on your microphone
I'm no expert on how far you should turn it, but I think pretty far "up". I found that when I turn it too far, there was some kind of high-pitched tone in my recording, so I lowered it enough to avoid it.
I would also assume that if you slide it too far "up", you will get clipping, i.e. the audio curve gets so tall that its peaks are cut off, which you can hear - it sounds bad. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7AbmhOsrPs
2) The Windows-internal input volume of your microphone.
You can access it either via Audacity, as you've already found - it's the microphone volume slider. Or via the Windows sound settings: https://www.howtogeek.com/700524/how-to-change-microphone-volume-in-windows-10/
It's useful to fine-tune your input volume. As you can see by the image in the 1-minute test instructions, it's a good idea to set your microphone input volume to such a level that the peaks hit approximately the 0.5 mark in the audio track. For that, you can start recording, talk into the microphone, and then adjust the input slider higher or lower until the peaks are at about the correct level.
After you've recorded, yes, Amplify can boost or lower the volume of the recorded audio.
There's another step you can take before amplifying though: Compressor. Compressor is a function that will help you achieve roughly the same volume across the whole track. It will push in the louder peaks, and then afterward, it's a good idea to amplify the whole track to the desired final volume.
You could use the presets for compressor, but I've found it useful to adjust it to my own needs. For that, here's a great explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9rTQaW500I
"You're on Librivox? Pffft. You just like to hear yourself talk."
"Yuuuup."
"Yuuuup."
Thank you much!SowasVon wrote: ↑April 19th, 2024, 1:44 pm From the "input" side, I'm aware of two places to adjust your volume:
1) The dial knob on your microphone
I'm no expert on how far you should turn it, but I think pretty far "up". I found that when I turn it too far, there was some kind of high-pitched tone in my recording, so I lowered it enough to avoid it.
I would also assume that if you slide it too far "up", you will get clipping, i.e. the audio curve gets so tall that its peaks are cut off, which you can hear - it sounds bad. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7AbmhOsrPs
2) The Windows-internal input volume of your microphone.
You can access it either via Audacity, as you've already found - it's the microphone volume slider. Or via the Windows sound settings: https://www.howtogeek.com/700524/how-to-change-microphone-volume-in-windows-10/
It's useful to fine-tune your input volume. As you can see by the image in the 1-minute test instructions, it's a good idea to set your microphone input volume to such a level that the peaks hit approximately the 0.5 mark in the audio track. For that, you can start recording, talk into the microphone, and then adjust the input slider higher or lower until the peaks are at about the correct level.
After you've recorded, yes, Amplify can boost or lower the volume of the recorded audio.
There's another step you can take before amplifying though: Compressor. Compressor is a function that will help you achieve roughly the same volume across the whole track. It will push in the louder peaks, and then afterward, it's a good idea to amplify the whole track to the desired final volume.
You could use the presets for compressor, but I've found it useful to adjust it to my own needs. For that, here's a great explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9rTQaW500I
My LibriVox: https://librivox.org/sections/readers/13278
My mic has three knobs, One (labelled "pattern") controls the sound pattern the mic picks up. One (labeled headphone volume) controls loudness to a dedicated headphone jack. And one (labeled "gain") controls loudness to the computer. I set my gain control so that if I record room noise in a dead quiet environment my recorded signal is mostly about -45 dB
or less on the recording meter.
If your mic plugs into an audio interface rather than directly into a USB port on your computer, the interface probably has some control for loudness on it (my mic is USB so I don't know for sure).
Some people are fans of amplify, some of compression. I like loudness normalization. I set it to perceived loudness and -19 LUFS, and follow it immediately with limiter set to the default values. This gives me a recording that is within 0.5 dB of 89 dB with no clipping. My voice is fairly consistent. If I had a greater variability I might do compression first.
or less on the recording meter.
If your mic plugs into an audio interface rather than directly into a USB port on your computer, the interface probably has some control for loudness on it (my mic is USB so I don't know for sure).
Some people are fans of amplify, some of compression. I like loudness normalization. I set it to perceived loudness and -19 LUFS, and follow it immediately with limiter set to the default values. This gives me a recording that is within 0.5 dB of 89 dB with no clipping. My voice is fairly consistent. If I had a greater variability I might do compression first.
Tom Penn
Thank you. That sounds interesting. I'll have to play around with what you suggest.Penumbra wrote: ↑April 19th, 2024, 2:26 pm My mic has three knobs, One (labelled "pattern") controls the sound pattern the mic picks up. One (labeled headphone volume) controls loudness to a dedicated headphone jack. And one (labeled "gain") controls loudness to the computer. I set my gain control so that if I record room noise in a dead quiet environment my recorded signal is mostly about -45 dB
or less on the recording meter.
If your mic plugs into an audio interface rather than directly into a USB port on your computer, the interface probably has some control for loudness on it (my mic is USB so I don't know for sure).
Some people are fans of amplify, some of compression. I like loudness normalization. I set it to perceived loudness and -19 LUFS, and follow it immediately with limiter set to the default values. This gives me a recording that is within 0.5 dB of 89 dB with no clipping. My voice is fairly consistent. If I had a greater variability I might do compression first.
My LibriVox: https://librivox.org/sections/readers/13278