Is this recording loud enough?

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philips

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Here's a short recording of me playing acoustic guitar------ Playing Guild D-120 by Jimbo123 - picosong

I'm 100% happy with the sound at this volume level, but when I try to increase the volume of the final recording to levels that I would prefer .... I run into a problem.

I would like the recording to be louder, but without any added distortion.

I can easily get it louder, but when I do I end up with a distorted sound. I have tried all the usual techniques for ridding a finalized recording of distortion .... but without success (compression, limiting, normalize, repair etc etc etc).

I am using the Audacity recorder.

I would like the volume level to be as high ("without" distortion) as the many "extremely good" amateur recordings that I hear every day on the internet.

Anyone know what I can do?
 
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What level are you recording at? most use -18 to -12 as the input level, a clean signal should not distort. getting a clean input signal is one of the most critical things to start with, there are things you can do post recording if you need to boost it. but first get it right going in.:thumbs up:
 
For just acoustic guitar...that's a pretty good level, IMO.
I mean, you're not going to attain the same perceived loudness that a full-on Rock mix can do.

You CAN make it louder, but it's about a bit if this-n-that using the right tools (not all comps/limiters/normalizers are created equal). You might also add some body to it with a touch of EQ...which also adds to the perceived loudness.
 
if you want it be louder, the most natural way to do it and my personal favourite method is using parallel compression, especially with acoustic guitars and acoustic music, it doesn't squash the peaks and keeps the transients in place, whilst making the perceived volume louder.
 
I feel it is at the same level as most everything else I listen to. And yup, some nice clean playing there.
 
Sounds good. And louder? In relation to what? Sounds fine to me. I dont know much about audacity, but in context with a mix in an actual DAW it probably would fit well.
 
I'll just echo the general tone of the other comments. It's loud enough. And it sounds quite nice. And the playing was good.
 
sweet guitar skills. forget about this loudness thing you got going on, this mix is fine, actually I think its maybe a little bit loud, but there is definately no need for more gain on this.
 
You've only got .3 DB of headroom on this so there isn't really anywhere else for it to go in terms of loudness. Various techniques can make it seem louder, but those largely amount to making the tails of the notes louder relative to the attack in this context.
In isolation, it should be plenty loud. Are you having trouble getting it to cut through a mix?
 
Overall volume is fine.

What do you want to be louder? And why? The dynamics are really good, if you bring up the quieter notes it would suck some of the life out of it IMHO.
 
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