Good Sound - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 123

The clipping on the left side of Figure 8.8 is probably due to the computer's input level being too high. The
clipping on the right is more likely to have occurred in the equipment before the sound even got to the
computer. The more complex your setup, the more places that clipping can be introduced and the more
you'll need to know about your equipment to prevent it. This is another situation where having an experi-
enced audio geek on your side will really work to your benefi t.

Figure 8.8 Input levels are too high and clipping results

When you have recorded a take, save it using the Export item from the
File menu. Put the sound into your sound folder, giving it an appropriate
name such as “mother_line_05.wav”. The default uncompressed format is
the WAV format, which is the one you should use. After the take is saved,
click on the X in the upper left corner of the audio track to close it, as in
Figure 8.9.

If you leave the track up when you record your next sound clip, it will play
in the background, causing problems. Of course, you can always use the
Play button before you save and close the track to make sure that you got
what you wanted from the actor. If you like, you can monitor the perfor-
mance through a set of headphones.

Figure 8.9 Closing an audio track

NOTE
There is a setting in the Audio I/O section of Audacity's Preferences that prevents already-
recorded clips from playing while you record new ones. Just disable the Play other tracks while
recording new one check box.

Whether you use direct-to-computer recording with Audacity or not, at some point you will have the
raw fi les of several takes and different readings of your dialog. Make a backup copy of these fi les before
proceeding.