Ringing in my ears?

[ajfriedman]

I've got a little problem with echo in some of my recordings.

I record spoken word for broadcast on a Reading Service for the Visually Impaired.

I use a Shure SM58 mic, a Eurorack mixer, into a generic soundcard on a Dell Laptop, using Cool Edit 2000.

I make mono wav files at 22.05 KHz, which I copy to a (data) CD.
The CD is taken to the Reading Service studio, where the files are copied to the studio's computer hard disk. The Service uses software called Wire Ready for scheduled playback of its recorded programming. Programming for Air is fed via ISDN phone lines to a public TV station, where it goes out over their SAP channel, and also on a web site for streaming audio.

Here's the mystery:
When I play back the wav files from the CD through my computer on my speakers or headphones, the sound quality is fine. When I listen to the broadcast over a SAP broadcast receiver (analog), the sound is also fine.

When I listen over the internet, it sounds like I'm at the bottom of a well. There's a slight ringing, and the faint hint of ocean surf, neither of which are present on the CD. These artifacts aren't present when I listen over the internet to recordings that I've made at the Reading Service studio, only on those I've made at home, and copied to CD.

Question: I would have thought that copying a recorded wav file between a CD and a hard disk would not introduce any distortion.

What could be causing this? What can I do about it?

 

[ajfriedman]

That's plausible, especially since it sounds fine over anlalog broadcast, but what puzzles me is why other bits, not recorded by me at home, sound better over the streaming audio.

For example, I go to the studio, and record myself reading the daily newspaper at 8 am. They play it back at 2 pm and I listen over the 'net, and it sounds okay. At 2:30 they play back the file I made at home, and I'm back in the well again.

 

[drstawl]

I've noted that some real audio streams actually change what they're dishing out when you stream for a long time. It starts out fairly intelligible at 22Kbps and then after some period of time it suddenly gets notched down to 8Kbps and sounds like shit. I simply hit stop on the stream and restart it. Generally fixes it every time.

 

[Fangar]

I agree that is sounds like a streaming issue. A tinny, kinda echoey (technical terms) a lot of the porn that I download sounds this way. Just kdding. I have noticed that many files that are streamed via Real Audio sound awful compared to Windows Media Player files.

 

[ajfriedman]

Thanks for the responses.

I think the streaming audio may be a good suspect, and I guess the generic laptop soundcard may also be an accomplice.

I've since found out that the only people who think I sound strange have listened via streaming audio on Dell laptops.

When I can get some time in the studio, I'll record a test file there, the same narration at home, and run a comparison of the two waveforms to see if I'm inserting any artifacts into the mix, which may cause problems when it is streamed.

In the meantime, I guess I'll have to get used to it -- or get a better soundcard for the laptop -- or stop listening to myself on the 'net.