Recording Startup Difficulty

[tombooker]

I'm having a small difficulty with sound quality at the very start of recording. The first syllable I say comes out sounding blurred or mumbled. After that, the rest of the recording is coming through clearly. I don't think this is just poor articulation on my part -- it is happening consistently when I am vocally well "warmed up".

I'm using Audacity with a Blue Yeti usb mic.

Any suggestions for dealing with this?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

[SowasVon]

I have a Blue Yeti, too, and while I don't have the same problem, the first second or so of my recording would also be messed up due to Audacity's compressor doing a weird fade-in effect.
You could use the same workaround as I do: At the beginning of the recording, say a few words you'll later cut out, like "OK, starting the recording now".

[sjmarky]

Could you post a short sample? Upload to Tests folder.

[tombooker]

Please find the link to the sample below:

https://librivox.org/uploads/tests/startup_problem_sample_tombooker.mp3

The first word in the phrase is "about".

One last thing -- this has been amplified using the preset level in the "Effects" & "amplify" dropdown menu (13.78 dB). Without amplification the recording is very faint.

Thanks for your help!

[tombooker]

I have a Blue Yeti, too, and while I don't have the same problem, the first second or so of my recording would also be messed up due to Audacity's compressor doing a weird fade-in effect.
You could use the same workaround as I do: At the beginning of the recording, say a few words you'll later cut out, like "OK, starting the recording now".

Thanks for the advice. I will certainly give this a try!

[sjmarky]

The first word is clipped. I note that your noise floor is extremely low at -87dB. Are you using any sort of noise gate or noise removal? If so, try without and see if it makes a difference. Noise gates set at too low threshold are notoriously for clipping-off the beginning of words.

[TriciaG]

Is there a gain knob or setting for that mic? You shouldn't have to amplify that much on a regular basis.

[Winnifred]

I have a Blue Yeti, and there's definitely a Gain button on the back of mine (the top one). The one below that (Pattern) I have set at the second last setting (sorry, can't remember what that setting's called and it's just represented by an image kinda like an upside down heart). There's also a Volume button at the front of the mic.

You can play with the gain on the mic and in Audacity until you start getting recordings in the right volume range.

Cheers,

[tombooker]

The first word is clipped. I note that your noise floor is extremely low at -87dB. Are you using any sort of noise gate or noise removal? If so, try without and see if it makes a difference. Noise gates set at too low threshold are notoriously for clipping-off the beginning of words.

I've checked both the Noise Gate & Noise Reduction menus under "Effects". The current settings are below:

Noise Gate: (all are existing presets -- I've not made any changes. There doesn't seem to be a way to just shut this off -- the available choices at the top of the menu are 3 buttons: "presets & settings" "preview" & "apply")

Select Function: Gate (alternative is "analyze noise level")
Stereo linking: Link Stereo Tracks (alternative is "don't link stereo tracks")
Gate Threshold (dB): -40
Gate Frequencies Above (kHz): 0.00
Level Reduction (dB): -24.0
Attack (ms): 10.0
Hold (ms): 15.0
Decay (ms): 100.0


Noise Reduction: (I haven't tried to set this up or use it yet. I don't think it is currently active.)

Step 1: Select a few seconds of just noise so that Audacity knows what to filter out, then click "Get Noise Profile"

Step 2: Select all of the audio you want filtered, choose how much noise you want filtered out, then click "OK" to reduce noise.

Noise Reduction (dB): 6
Sensitivity: 6.0
Frequency Smoothing (bands): 6
Noise: Reduce (alternative is "residue")

3 buttons at the bottom of the menu: Preview, OK, (both of which are grayed out) & Cancel.

2 questions:

1) Should I make any changes to either the Noise Gate or Noise Reduction settings?

2) I've not come across any reference to "noise floor" so far. Is this something I can and should adjust going forward?

Thanks!

[tombooker]

I have a Blue Yeti, and there's definitely a Gain button on the back of mine (the top one). The one below that (Pattern) I have set at the second last setting (sorry, can't remember what that setting's called and it's just represented by an image kinda like an upside down heart). There's also a Volume button at the front of the mic.

You can play with the gain on the mic and in Audacity until you start getting recordings in the right volume range.

Cheers,

I have the mic set at "cardioid" -- the upside-down heart. I'll work with increasing the gain using the knob on the mic itself. I'm very new to Audacity -- how would I make adjustments to the mic gain there?

Thanks for your help!

[Rapunzelina]

I know my microphone doesn't start recording immediately when I press "record", it has a small delay, maybe one second. Is this what you're describing here, too? So I press record and wait for a couple of seconds before I start talking. I've tried to fix it because it's annoying, but I haven't found a way.

[Winnifred]

I have a Blue Yeti, and there's definitely a Gain button on the back of mine (the top one). The one below that (Pattern) I have set at the second last setting (sorry, can't remember what that setting's called and it's just represented by an image kinda like an upside down heart). There's also a Volume button at the front of the mic.

You can play with the gain on the mic and in Audacity until you start getting recordings in the right volume range.

Cheers,

I have the mic set at "cardioid" -- the upside-down heart. I'll work with increasing the gain using the knob on the mic itself. I'm very new to Audacity -- how would I make adjustments to the mic gain there?

Thanks for your help!

Check out my post here (scroll down just a bit) for details on how to adjust gain in Audacity (with screenshots). That should help.