distortions in my audactity recordings on my laptop

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plautus

plautus

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hi, listen to this file. What's going on?
 
I'm guessing you are massively overloading your interface. Looking at your waveforms, I've seen that pattern before where you get so far over 0dB that the converters go nuts and either invert or go to 0. It happened to me once before I could turn down the gain.

Plautus Overload.webp


Turn down your input gain! Remember, with a normal digital signal there is no +1dB. With 16bits, it's -96 to 0. With 24bits, it -144 to 0. If you insist on "going over 0", you need 32bit floating point which goes from -750dB to +750dB.
 
my gain is set very low on my focusrite to be honest. I'ts at 2 o'clock. It could be that the Equalizer APO was set not right and caused it. It had gain control activated but at 0, but no device applied to it. Idk what was going on but I got a notificaito nthat something isnt set up right, and now i added a device I hope the problem goes aweauyh
 
Are you just doing voice over stuff? If so, why do you even need EQ APO? Turn it off, especially if you aren't 100% sure of what it's doing. The clue to the overload is those vertical lines that go to and from the crossover point. That indicates that the AD converter could not determine a number, just it just shuts down.

"2 o'clock" isn't set very low. Turn it down until you can shout into the mic and not hit red. I don't know what mic you've got but it could be a hot output. I have mics that I have to turn down a good bit compared to most of my mics because they have more output.
 
with such low gain , my audio will be so quiet. And I cant bother to always apply compression for every recording
 
Then leave your gain high and live with crummy distorted recordings. It's your choice.
 
If this is the type of stuff you normally record, then why are you even using EQAPO? I’m not knocking free DAW software and plugins, but Audacity has EQ supplied with it. You clearly have not got to grips with your interface settings and levels in the DAW. Rich is totally right here. Adjust the levels on the interface so you never get close to the maximum it can handle. Remember that if it causes any distortion, nothing you can do will fix that. If you dont distort there, but get close, your DAW should not show anything odd. If you cannot be bothered to fix it we cannot help you. Anyway, all you have to do is load the last recording, delete the data and keep any settings? That is so simple? If your studio means mics and volume levels are constantly fiddled with, the. Doing a setup and reset every time is normal. In mine, I never adjust levels. I walk in, sit down, turn on, press record. Nowadays, with decent interfaces and software, if you mess up and a recording accidentally gets recorded so the peaks are half way down the LED scale, you just fix it!

One of the regular things I record is a variable level, and often a bit low. I do NOT want it compressed, but I add one to cubase on the input, with it set to no compression, and turn up the makeup gain knob, to make it higher. It works fine. No hiss, no distortion. No big deal.

Sometimes like Rich said, something you do is wrong and you get that really nasty result where big spikes that swing across from top to bottom happen. In my video studio is a Tascam interface I use occasionally, in the office. A condenser mic, too close in with a teeny bit too much gain can cause it to spike like that. The average level is maybe a bit low, but if I lean in a tiny bit, the mic picks up the blast and it crunches. The cure is to move away a bit, and add gain later.

I echo the final comment. Fix it, or live with it. Dont expect the computer to do it for you.
 
my audacity and windows sound settings weren't the same
1 was mono 1 was still stereo, that caused it i beleive it's normal now
 
If this is the type of stuff you normally record, then why are you even using EQAPO? I’m not knocking free DAW software and plugins, but Audacity has EQ supplied with it. You clearly have not got to grips with your interface settings and levels in the DAW. Rich is totally right here. Adjust the levels on the interface so you never get close to the maximum it can handle. Remember that if it causes any distortion, nothing you can do will fix that. If you dont distort there, but get close, your DAW should not show anything odd. If you cannot be bothered to fix it we cannot help you. Anyway, all you have to do is load the last recording, delete the data and keep any settings? That is so simple? If your studio means mics and volume levels are constantly fiddled with, the. Doing a setup and reset every time is normal. In mine, I never adjust levels. I walk in, sit down, turn on, press record. Nowadays, with decent interfaces and software, if you mess up and a recording accidentally gets recorded so the peaks are half way down the LED scale, you just fix it!

One of the regular things I record is a variable level, and often a bit low. I do NOT want it compressed, but I add one to cubase on the input, with it set to no compression, and turn up the makeup gain knob, to make it higher. It works fine. No hiss, no distortion. No big deal.

Sometimes like Rich said, something you do is wrong and you get that really nasty result where big spikes that swing across from top to bottom happen. In my video studio is a Tascam interface I use occasionally, in the office. A condenser mic, too close in with a teeny bit too much gain can cause it to spike like that. The average level is maybe a bit low, but if I lean in a tiny bit, the mic picks up the blast and it crunches. The cure is to move away a bit, and add gain later.

I echo the final comment. Fix it, or live with it. Dont expect the computer to do it for you.
btw I got my curtains, gonna check em out soon. And thanx for the detailed answer
 
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