Help with audacity

[lilkenn]

I tried recording on audacity but it keeps coming out very lod and distorted. I have an MXL 990 Mic and a behringer 502 mixer. Can somebody please provide a guiding light.

[brandondrury]

How hot are you recording into Audacity?

I have a feeling you are overloading your soundcard / audio interface.

What happens if you turn the gain down on the preamp in your mixer?

Brandon

[johncub]

I agree with Brandon. It's easy to get the wrong combinations of knobs. My setup is simple. mic -> compressor -> sound card -> audacity.

I have a couple of output options on the compressor. -10/+4 and a knob.
My sound card has a knob on the front for input gain.
My sound card has a software knob, like the windows input slider thing.

If I don't get the sweet spot with all of them, which I usually don't (but occassionally do) then I get mud. It also depends on the song itself. How forceful are you singing? How close to the mic are you? Sooooo many little things contribute. Turn everything down pretty low. record something. If it is clear but you need it louder then I think you can assure yourself it is in there.

[seanc25]

Hi there

Just wondering if anyone could helf me with my question about track marks...or similar ways to finish my demo with audacity?


Hi All

I am just new to this site as I am having trouble putting in track marks using audacity for XP on a demo I am working on.
I have used the program before with previous demo but always had a very IT orientated friend doing the technology part after I have mixed my tracks (he was using a mac as well).
Unfortunately he is now travelling though South America and I am left to amble though this on my own!"!!

Can anyone help me with this? I have downloaded the audacity program and the lame mp3 encoder. I have used tutorials and demonstrations off utube but nothing seems to look like I remember the way he did it and I am wondering if this has anything to do with the fact that he was working from a mac?

I have noticed that it says in the audacity tutorials that the audio in options drop down box should be on line in but this is not the case with my version as I only have microphone, wave out mix or CD audio. As I am running it direct from the booth out on my mixer what would be the best option???

Bascially I have recorded a demo with 12 tracks in it, and the idea is to have them appear as individual tracks on a CD. Bearing in mind my computer skills are very limited so can any assistance be in very simple instructions

Cheers to all and thanks for any help I can get!!!

Sean

[johncub]

In order to have more than a stereo track recorded at once you'll need an audio interface that will allow you to input each individual channel in as a separate input. With the options you've listed the best you'll get is a stereo mix. Check out the audio interface / soundcard wizard elsewhere on this site.

[j2m2h2]

I started out with Audacity and a headphone / microphone combo. For what I'm doing, it worked OK recording accoustic guitar, vocals and a casio keyboard CTK-720 considering that the microphone couldn't be worth more than 2 dollars. Now, I want to be able to hear everything only in the headphones, even if I'm not recording. So I purchased a microphone and a Tascam US-144. I installed the drivers, made the preference selections suggested in the Tascam's instruction manual, went to Audacity's preferences and selected the US-144 as the playback & recording device and checked "play other tracks while recording new one". It's recording OK. I can hear the keyboard & vocals in the headphones when recording or just playing, but I can only playback what's been recorded to the computer's speakers. Same thing while recording additional tracks. What am I doing wrong. Thanks.