[SOLVED]Audacity Recording Sound Quality

[CheeseQueen452]

When I record audio from a streaming video, the recording doesn't sound as good. It sounds like it's "vibrating", particularly on the louder parts. I didn't have this problem prior to upgrading to 2010. Can anyone help?

[corazon]

Hi, can you supply lots of details, your soundchip/card, apps used, quality settings, codecs used, and
any of those that are different from your previous  install. It may be as simple as sample rates not being the same
between the output stream and the capture, or the beginning of an epic saga. The quality and compatibilty of
audio player apps, audio capture apps, and codec implementations vary wildly in even the best of times.
Cheers   Most audacity linux betas are better, but I don't like this newest one, I noticed last night playback has a large
lag before beginning, never a good sign, and the first in many years of audacity versions! If you can uninstall it, and find an rpm for

audacity-1.3.10-1pclos2010.i586.rpm or similar, or a 1.3.9 pclos version, it might be worth the effort.
Good luck!

[CheeseQueen452]

My sound card is a Sound Blaster(I think). Only Audacity & Firefox are used in the recording process. The quality settings in Audacity are: sample rate 44100 hz, 32 bit float, fast sinc interpolator/none, best sinc interpolator/shaped. The videos I record the audio from are flash-based. I don't think any of these settings are different than before I upgraded, so I have no clue why this is happening. If I use an older version of Audacity, I'll be prompted to upgrade, so I won't do that.

Hi, can you supply lots of details, your soundchip/card, apps used, quality settings, codecs used, and
any of those that are different from your previous  install. It may be as simple as sample rates not being the same
between the output stream and the capture, or the beginning of an epic saga. The quality and compatibilty of
audio player apps, audio capture apps, and codec implementations vary wildly in even the best of times.
Cheers   Most audacity linux betas are better, but I don't like this newest one, I noticed last night playback has a large
lag before beginning, never a good sign, and the first in many years of audacity versions! If you can uninstall it, and find an rpm for

audacity-1.3.10-1pclos2010.i586.rpm or similar, or a 1.3.9 pclos version, it might be worth the effort.
Good luck!

[Was_Just19]

I would be inclined to d/load a video as a test and then extract the audio by streaming locally, and compare that to the audio extracted by another app.
If the audacity audio is still problematic then probably Audacity is at fault; if the audio is good then maybe it is due to something interfering with the stream.

TBH, I don't use audacity for this ......  I d/load the video and extract locally .....  so the above may be just hog-wash!   

[CheeseQueen452]

Here's a sample clip, so you know what I'm dealing with....

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F88KOA9B

[CheeseQueen452]

The video(s) in question are not downloadable, they are flash based. I've never had this issue before, since I've done it many times. It may simply be a setting in Audacity that I'm unaware of, which needs to be adjusted. *shrugs*

I would be inclined to d/load a video as a test and then extract the audio by streaming locally, and compare that to the audio extracted by another app.
If the audacity audio is still problematic then probably Audacity is at fault; if the audio is good then maybe it is due to something interfering with the stream.

TBH, I don't use audacity for this ......  I d/load the video and extract locally .....  so the above may be just hog-wash!   

[Was_Just19]

The video(s) in question are not downloadable, they are flash based. I've never had this issue before, since I've done it many times. It may simply be a setting in Audacity that I'm unaware of, which needs to be adjusted. *shrugs*

I use Firefox with DownloadHelper to get flash videos from Youtube and the likes.

Is it something of that nature you are extracting the audio from?

[corazon]

The video(s) in question are not downloadable, they are flash based. I've never had this issue before, since I've done it many times. It may simply be a setting in Audacity that I'm unaware of, which needs to be adjusted. *shrugs*

I would be inclined to d/load a video as a test and then extract the audio by streaming locally, and compare that to the audio extracted by another app.
If the audacity audio is still problematic then probably Audacity is at fault; if the audio is good then maybe it is due to something interfering with the stream.

TBH, I don't use audacity for this ......  I d/load the video and extract locally .....  so the above may be just hog-wash!   

empty your browser cache, use 'sort by size' in your filemanager, play the flash file,
it will be the big one when sorted by size, you can view its growth as it plays, rename it myflv.flv and run this:

ffmpeg -i myflv.flv -ar 44100 -ab 320 -ac 2 myflv.mp3

[CheeseQueen452]

Yes. I posted a sample clip above, to show what my recordings sound like.

I use Firefox with DownloadHelper to get flash videos from Youtube and the likes.

Is it something of that nature you are extracting the audio from?

[Was_Just19]

Yes. I posted a sample clip above, to show what my recordings sound like.

I use Firefox with DownloadHelper to get flash videos from Youtube and the likes.

Is it something of that nature you are extracting the audio from?

Yes I listened to it ........  very distorted.

Did you try using Firefox & plugin mentioned above to get the video and extract the audio locally?

[CheeseQueen452]

Not yet, but I've never had this problem before. Any idea what might be causing this?

Did you try using Firefox & plugin mentioned above to get the video and extract the audio locally?

[Was_Just19]

Not yet, but I've never had this problem before. Any idea what might be causing this?

Did you try using Firefox & plugin mentioned above to get the video and extract the audio locally?

Not really .....  it sounds like a very bad radio broadcast ...... if asked to listen to it with no knowledge of its origins I would be almost certain it was a bad radio broadcast ....

Is it possible that the input to Audacity is overloading the input?
Can you try backing it down somewhat (or a lot) to see if it improves?

[CheeseQueen452]

I'm not sure what you're referring to. You mean the mic volume control? If so, I've already tried that.

Is it possible that the input to Audacity is overloading the input?
Can you try backing it down somewhat (or a lot) to see if it improves?

[Was_Just19]

I'm not sure what you're referring to. You mean the mic volume control? If so, I've already tried that.

Well I did not realise you are using a Mic to record the stream.   

[CheeseQueen452]

Technically I'm not. It's using the internal mic, recording whatever sound is coming from the sound card. When I mentioned the volume control, I meant the one in Audacity with the mic symbol next to it.

Well I did not realise you are using a Mic to record the stream.