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  1. Audacity Basics
  2. Recording your voice with a microphone

Setting recording and playback levels

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Last updated 2 years ago

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The recording and playback levels can be set using the sliders in the Recording and Playback meter toolbars:

  • The slider with the microphone icon sets the recording volume on a system level. If the operating system is prohibiting this action, this slider will be inactive.

  • The slider with the speaker icon sets the playback volume relative to the system volume. It does not affect the volume of exported files, use the gain sliders on each track to edit those.

Best practice: Before starting to record, click on the microphone icon and select Start Monitoring to activate the recording level meter. If it enters the yellow or red area (-9 dB to 0 dB) when testing with a normal volume, lower the recording level to prevent clipping and distortions in the real recording.

If you selected 1 (Mono) Recording Channel on the Audio Setup > Recording Channels the meter will only display the level on the Left channel

Recording meter toolbar and Playback meter toolbar with level sliders
The Recording Level slider will change the level of your recording device on a system level
Activate the recording level meter before starting to record
Use the recording level slider to reduce the level when it is too high
Monitoring 1 (Mono) Recording Channel level