Goldwave & Sound Volume during Recording

[Coriolanus]

I am having a lot of trouble adjust the sound volume when I record. My input source it cassette.

Ok there seems to be some relationship between the Volume Control on the F11 display and the Windows XP volume control for Recording.

Here is basically what I am seeing happen. I listen to my line In to adjust the level and when I set the level in the controls the recording takes place and in some cases I am reaching high levels in the red and 0Db -- but of course you have clipping then. When I set the control so I don't have clipping and record the cassette, you would think playback would be fine. but IT IT NOT. To get the sound to be at the level I listen at -- the wave Form is practically straight across and all at 0DB.

The sound is much softer than it should be and at a lower volume. I can't seem to get the recroding level to match what I hear when I listen to my Line in = It is always much softer and lower in volume - what is causing this?

Incidentally I get the same problem with the sound in Adobe Audition and Audacity. But when I used to use SoundBlaster's recording Studio I never had the problem as the level controls for SB where actually what I recorded.

I am sure there is something I don't understand in terms of the settings but I don't know how to correct it.

[DanZee]

You want to keep the recording sound volume just below 100% modulation. Just turn down the volume on your speakers to match the volume your listening at.

[Coriolanus]

Ok basically what I want is to record at the same level/volume I listen to the cassette at.

I can;t seem to get this right with Goldwave. I records at a level with no clipping but then when I play back that recording it is at a very low volume from what I listen to it at. And the Waveform does not give me much room to increase the volume without clipping.

Here is an illustration of what I mean - This is 40 seconds I have recorded

And here is the same 40 seconds recorded by someone else also from cassete

When I play my file that I recorded via Goldwave the volume is very low and soft but when I play the file recorded by someone else it plays at a normal volume and I have room to increase the volume which I do not on my recorded file.

This is the problem I am talking about. Hmmm why don't the images show upe - they are on photobucket. Got the pictures to show

[DougDbug]

Too bad we can't see the waveforms... I'll just throw-out some ideas....

I assume you are comparing "apples to apples"? Both waveforms are recorded from the same cassette and neither had any processing, right?

What's on these cassettes? Music? If so, what kind of music? Is this the same kind of music you usually listen to, or do you usually listen modern (louder) CDs & MP3s? I assume these are old cassettes.... Are these commercially released or homemade?

To get the sound to be at the level I listen at -- the wave Form is practically straight across and all at 0DB.

Are you saying there's a "DC offset"? Where the waveform is shifted vertically and recorded silence (or near-silence) is not centered vertically in the waveform window? If that's the cause of the clipping, the waveform will be clipped only during the positive or negative half-cycle. If so, that's a hardware (soundcard/soundchip) problem.

You can fix a slight offset with a 20Hz high-pass filter, but if the offset is bad enough to cause clipping, that won't prevent clipping during recording, or eliminate the associated distortion.

Perceived loudness is more related to average/RMS levels than to the peaks. The average level doesn't correlate to loudness perfectly either, but it's better than peak. You can check the peak level by running Maximize Volume and then cancelling. You can check the RMS level by running Match Volume, and then cancelling. It might be helpful to compare the average & peaks between the recording made on your machine, and someone elses (assuming you are both recording the same exact tape).

It's possible to have 0dB peaks or clipping in a recording that sounds rather quiet. Because of the Loudness War, most modern music and remastered older recordings are (dynamically) compressed/limited to bring-up the average level while (hopefully) avoiding or minimizing clipping. Except for classical & jazz recordings, most releases are now mastered to LOUD! (Some modern CDs are clipped.)

I've read that some (most?) soundcards digitally adjust the volume after it goes through the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). If that's true... It's possible to clip the ADC and reducing the recording volume won't help... You'd just get a lower-level signal with chopped-off peaks.

[Coriolanus]

Ok I got the images to show - hope that will explain things better.

I am recording spoken voice (audio books) -- they are from the same audio book and the same place in the recording of the book.

File2 I recorded from the original cassette -- after maximizing and saving it and then doing playback on Goldwave the volume is very, very low on it. ANd I mean really, really low -- like barely above 0DB.

File 1 is from the same book and I downloaded it from a torrent ( it was also recorded from cassette) and when I play it back in Goldwave it sounds much louder than FILE 2 and actually I could increase the volume and save it. I should explain there is a lot of noise and audio feedback sound on the version I downloaded from a Torrent

Mine however seems to leave NO ROOM to increase the volume without severe clipping. When I play these two selections back on Goldwave I change no settings at all so they playback at whatever I have setup for output volume.

The only thing I seem to be able to do to correct the my recording for playback is to use the preset on the Compressor/Expander to Boost Quiet Parts.

Now the odd thing is if I take my recording and load into Audition, when I playback the volume is the normal level I would expect based the levels I seee in the waveform -- it is only in Goldwave they shound as if the wave from which were just above 0DB. If I record at level in Goldwave where the playback volume level is normal -- the the wave form is almost all at the top of the wave form like at 1.0

Now I should also state that I recently upgraded my PC and got a new motherboard which comes with a built in audio - REALTEK and the hardware seems to work - playback, record, Windows controls etc. HOWEVER, the Realtek COntrol Panel does not come up( a software problem) -- I think I have a conflict with a DRM converter I use. But If Main volume controls work on the sound fuction from Control Panel that should be sufficient I would think.

[Coriolanus]

Doug could you please look at the waveforms and see if that give you a better idea what is wrong with the recording levels?