I use Audacity to record my vocal tracks to the tracks of my band members. So far, something like this always went very well when I did it with simple karaoke tracks.
Now I have imported the track of the others and let them play, everything is fine. However, when I then want to record my track, the other track sounds totally distorted and choppy.
I have connected a microphone (H2N) via USB and my headphones (normal JBL) via Bluetooth. After some trial and error, I found that it only happens with the microphone. If I unplug the microphone and just take the microphone built into the laptop, everything is fine, but of course it is not of sufficient quality.
What could be the cause of this? It is definitely some micro-setting that I unfortunately don't know.
Ok, if nobody else wants to, I'll shoot in the dark:
Distortion almost always comes from recording levels that are too high. Especially at the beginning you tend to record MUCH too loudly, and in contrast to the instruments you have stronger volume fluctuations with the voice.
Turn the microphone so quietly that the maximum deflection takes up a third of the track display, rather even less. You can still amplify afterwards (and the noise, which is also amplified, is really easy to get out with audacity). Lowering the level afterwards is more difficult.
Thanks for your answer. Unfortunately, my problem is not that what has been recorded is distorted, but that the "background tracks" to which I sing are only played back distorted when recording. As if a karaoke machine had a trailer. Somehow it seems to be due to the microphone, because the tracks run normally with the laptop microphone. Do you have any ideas?
Are the background tracks also distorted if you have recorded the microtrack but fade it out? If not, it could still be due to the vocal track being too loud.
Otherwise, unfortunately, I can't think of anything.
Okay, I checked everything again and you were right, turned everything down and now it's no longer crazy. Many Thanks! Couldn't even imagine that because everything was good when my track was played, but all the better, problem solved.
