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[heytae]

I'm having a new recording problem now where the mp3 files are sounding very "tinny" as if it's coming from an old transistor AM radio.  There is no fidelity (no bass) like the recordings once had.  This happens on 3 different channels I've recorded.  I'm using AOMRecord 2.1.513 on XP Pro.

On the same computer, I have older recordings (recorded on Jan 28 or earlier) where the recordings are sounding good and normal (full fidelity with bass).  All of my recordings from Feb 1st to date are unusuable and have to be thrown away.  

UPDATE: I just tried recording again today (3/15/05) and the problem magically resolved itself.  I'm a bit nervous though since nothing has changed since 3 days ago when I had the problem and I can't reproduce it.  I'm hoping that the issue won't come back, but I have a feeling it will (being in the tech. support industry makes me skeptical of intermittent issues like this).    

I'm recording on a Dell D600 laptop using the built-in SigmaTel audio card.  The problem is very obvious (when it occurs).

I've tried recording to a WAV file as well as a WMA file and they too sound tinny (bad).  

I'm not an expert, but if it was an audio driver issue, wouldn't the live broadcasts that I listen to also sound bad?  

What else could it be?

[Thomas]

Hi Tae,

Basically AOMrecord records exactly with the same quality that is played over the sound card.

For this reason it generally is very difficult to find out where a bad quality comes from. There are some reasons I can imagine:

- You record from an input that delivers bad quality sound such as a microphone (happens sometimes on notebooks that have a built in micro) or even a webcam.
- Your sound card driver is bad.

It doesn't matter if you record WAV, MP3 or WMA. The quality loss must occur somewhere before writing to the file takes place.

If running on a notebook you could could check the quality using headphones. If that is ok, your recording should be, too.

I'm not an expert, but if it was an audio driver issue, wouldn't the live broadcasts that I listen to also sound bad?

In general I would agree, but who knows...

HTH

Thomas

[heytae]

In Recording Controls, I've got "Stereo Mix" selected as the input.  Also, the incoming live broadcasts sound normal.  Since it seems to be working ok again now, I'll have to try it out longer.  I noticed that the last time the problem happened, ALL recordings from a given day were bad.  Therefore, it seems like the problem doesn't crop up in the middle of a recording session, but rather from the start of a new day's session.

When the problem comes up again, I'll try to troubleshoot further.  

Thanks,

Tae

[Lane]

I've found the same thing.

But it appears to be from source to source

I recorded the led zepellin channel on aol radio - tinny
classic rock - no problem
had the same experience w/ non aol sources

it seems to be hit and miss

Lane

[Thomas]

Hi Lane,

Are you using an equalizer while you record? This certainly influences the recording quality.

I'd like to trace this if you could give some more hints.

Thomas

[ablehalle]

I seem to be having the same problems as these people.  Can't get it to work at all despite major playing around.  Ahhhhhhhhh!

I'm stuck for ideas.

[wny]

I bet this is going to turn out to be AOMrecord's volume settings not taking hold when you run the program.  This has happened to me several times and happens most often:

1) When you are playing the streaming audio you want to record before you launch AOMrecord.  Do it the other way around.

2) If you touch any software volume setting outside of AOMrecord.  If you mess with the volume using Real Player or Windows Media (or Windows own volume control) , it will cause AOMrecord to disregard its own volume settings.

AOMrecord is conservative about volume levels.  When I run the software, the audio level drops considerably and for me that is a sign AOMrecord's settings are working properly.

If your volume settings are set too high, you will record very distorted scratchy audio.  If you load the audio file into a sound editor and just see a solid block of sound instead of normal peaks and valleys, that is the problem.

It is not hard to mistake overdriven audio for scratchy or tinny sound.

I particularly suspect this might be the cause if on some days it works fine and on others it does not.  

Always remember to reset your peak volume settings if you plan on switching between AOL and other streaming services - their default volumes differ.