My recordings sound like they were made underwater!

Hi, folks.

I'm new here, but not new to Adobe Audition. I was a loyal user of the original version on my previous computer. (I've just upgraded to Windows 7 on a Toshiba C660-1UZ laptop, which seems to meet all of the requirements set by Adobe.) I splashed out and bought AA4, because I knew that 1 wouldn't work on my new machine. 'Til today, I've been content playing around with the Resource Central sounds, but I decided to have a go at doing some recording earlier, and discovered that my recordings have a weird quality to them, as if I've drowned them in reverb, and I haven't. I don't know what's going on, but they sound like they were made underwater.) The laptop's only a week old, and the AA installation has been on there two days.

I'm really quite confused. (I've attached a sound file so you can hear what I'm talking about.)

Thanks for any help you may be able to provide,

Casey

Well it certainly doesn't sound good, whatever it is. I can't hear much reverb in it, but I can hear a degree of mic 'clonking' (for want of a better term to describe it) as well as a very poor overall sound. If this is W7 you're using though, there's a fair chance that it's screwed with your sound device settings, because Audition certainly wouldn't do this on its own.

What you need now is somebody like Wild Duck to come along and tell you exactly what to check. I can't, because I wouldn't dream of putting W7 on any machines at all until I'm absolutely forced to. My experiments with it at work have revealed that it's no more than a pile of dog's doings, quite frankly, despite what all the apologists say about it.

I think we need to know about the OS and also what exactly is the type of the, presumably internal, soundcard.

My first guess would be that you are recording via the "stereo mix" setting on the soundcard. Or maybe the soundacrd has some effects being applied. If it's Windows 7, you need to go into soundcard properties in Windows Control panel's "Manage Audio Devices"  and make sure that all effects, especially those hidden by scroll bars, are switched off. You may have to go into another dedicated Control Panel for some soundcards.

In Win 7, you need to decide on the sample rate you will work at, then via the Advanced settings in the Windows Control panel's audio section, make sure all the defaults are set to that sample rate.

Hope this is clear - I'm a bit rushed!

If it's Windows 7......

OP says it is!

Oh dear, I must start reading what I'm replying to.

So it is presumably Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. I don't know whether Toshiba's have Connexant or Realtek audio or something else, but the Connexant and Realtek machines here have audio control panels that have to be navigated differently, and both have the Windows Manage Audio Devices Control Panel plus "Smart Audio" for the Connexant and the Realtek Control Panel for the Acer with Realtek audio.

With both machines, it is necessary to set all the default sample rates under "Advanced" for Record and Playback for each inpus and output in the Windows Control Panel to the sample rate you will be using. Anything else may invoke the Microsoft Sample Rate conversion routines, which can cause aliasing and other distortion. This distortion occurs when the playout or recording program uses standard so-called "WaveOut" routines, and in real world practice is almost random. Microsoft have agreed this is a bug, but have publicly stated that there are no plans to address the problem. Setting all the defaults to the same sample rate and sticking rigidly to that sample rate avoids the problem.

Both machines here have "effects" available on record and playback, and it is essential to switch these off for any serious work. One machine here brings up a list of effects in a small Window under the Enhancements tab reached via the Properties option for most individual inputs and outputs. At least one of the instances of this Window it has a vertical scroll bar, and ticking the "Disable all sound Effects" disables the scroll bar but doesn't disable any effects that happen to be selected but scrolled off the screen. I haven't been able to find anyone else who has tested for this particular peculiarity, so I don't know whether it's an Acer/Realtek bug or another Microsoft "feature".

What I find particularly bizarre about the whole thing is that these effects such as noise cancellation, echo cancellation are obviously intended to assist with the communication-type programs such as Skype. But on both recent machines here, the internal microphone is mounted between the speakers and very close to the hard drive and cooling fan, so none of the enhancements make much improvement. All the older machines have the internal mic either in the top of the lid/screen or at the very front of the machine away from the noisy bits.

Then we have to move on to the separate manufacturer's audio Control Panel, usually listed lower down under the main Hardware and Sound Windows Control Panel.

Here there may be other options to set up audio effects. These may or may not mirror and follow the Windows settings. Again the advice is to disable everything in sight. The Connexant so-called "Smart Audio" is particularly difficult to navigate or understand, but looks very pretty.

The real answer with all of this is to invest in a decent external interface, especially if you are recording guitar. With Windows 7 64-bit, it's sensible to go for a usb 2 device.

Seems to be fixed after disabling Noise Suppression and Acoustic Echo Cancellation. Thanks for the pointers, wildduck.