Recording into Audacity

DEF:STAR

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Joined
Jan 22, 2014
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New York City
I'm finally starting to attempt recording some mixes but I'm having a small issue. I've worked out all the connections and I can successfully get a decent sounding signal into my second computer and I can record stuff into Audacity. The only issue is when I play it back, it sounds rather...FLAT. At least, it sounds more flat than it does when I'm mixing and I'm using the same pair of speakers. I'm wondering if there might be a setting in Audacity that is making it sound like that or if I need to run any filters on the final recording to make it sound a little more punchy. And like I said, the actual mix when I'm mixing sounds good and the recording just sounds off.

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BTW I was exporting as 19xkbps...320 sounds a little better but I think there could be room for improvement.
 
I used to have this problem. Then I got myself an external soundcard and started recording in to Logic and sounds 100000x better.
 
The program is fine. Switching will not make much difference.
You need to ensure the audio you are capturing is the best it can be.
Here are some tips.

Ensure your eq's are at 12 oclock. If your pushing them, it will record the distortion. It might sound better out of your speakers while playing but not recording.

Don't redline your channels. If your pushing them, it will record the distortion. It might sound better out of your speakers while playing but not recording.

Ensure the audio isn't clipping.
The waveform should fit nicley in the audacity window. like this http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/2005/04/14/graphics/audacity_osx.jpg

if your recording is too quiet the waveform will be small and sound gash. like this
http://www.framasoft.net/IMG/png/screen-47.png

If its recording to loud or hot.. it wont fit inside the window and distort. like this http://cdn.head-fi.org/5/54/500x1000px-LL-54092c8c_clipping.jpeg

if your following these basic rules and it still sounds gash, you may have another issue.
 
Find the quietest part of the mix in which 2 tunes are playing. Use the hard limiter and edit the mix down to that level. ie -14 db. Then use "amplify" and set it to -.01 db. This should even out of the whole mix and make it as loud as possible without clipping. Obviously, there can't be any distortion in the original mix. Don't push the gains on the mixer too high and make sure you're recording at low level.
 
Ensure your eq's are at 12 oclock. If your pushing them, it will record the distortion. It might sound better out of your speakers while playing but not recording.

I always used to make this mistake. bass comes out very muddy.

If you are recording out of the mixer just turn the amp levels up and it will still sound nice and loud out of your speakers without actually effecting the recording to your computer
 
Thanks for the suggestions! I typically keep my gains at 12 o clock (12-1 maybe) and channels/master barely touching the orange. I'm using the REC out on my mixer but the signal might be too loud going into my soundcard so I will double check and keep your tips in mind tomorrow when I try again.
 
Ok so I tried something different and just plugged my cell phone into the recording input of my sound card that I'm trying to record a mix on and recorded a tune straight from the phone and it sounds really good like that! I switched from the phone over to my mixer and recorded the same track and it sounds more flat..not as good as my phone. I'm wondering if there's an issue with my mixer. I'm using a DJM-700 and recording out of the REC output.. Lastly I plugged my phone into an empty line in channel on the DJM and played the same track through the mixer and recording into Audacity and it still sounds like poop...must be something with the mixer but I'm not sure what it could be.

*Messed with it some more..the audio coming from my mixer directly to my monitors sounds good (out of the master out). I tried unplugging the speakers and hooking my recording computer setup directly to the master outs and recorded, sounded like shit still. The only thing I can think of is that the cable going from my mixer to my recording computer (across the room, cable is probably 20ft long) is the issue...is that possible???
 
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