First audio book, am I on the right track? Not sure

I getting ready to record my first audio book and I am not sure I am on the right track

Mic Audio technica AT4040 on stand with shock mount
Forcusrite Itrack solo
Shure 440 headphones

Laptop windows 7 64 bit
iphone 4s
Ipad


I have been doing my tests using the mic, itrack and recording directly to an iphone using wavpad pocket. Then sending the files via ftp to my laptop to edit in audacity. My thinking and I am not sure if this correct or not is that recording to the phone is silent and my laptop makes too much noise. I do have a 20 long mic cable and a 20 foot extension for my head phones. That would require me getting up and leaving the closet every time I stop and start.

The wavpad pocket does not allow me to set levels. I am not sure about the app that is $10 by the same company.

My big achievement this week was sending the files via FTP from the phone to the laptop in wav format. Both the phone and laptop tell me there is an error but the file shows up.

The current phone app does not allow for any settings that I can tell. I think but am not sure about the paid wavpad or garage band.

So where should I go from here?

Is there a version of audacity that runs on an ipad?

How about using a wireless keyboard with your computer?

By the way, in order to prevent the forum from being flooded with spam, posts from new users do not appear on the forum until one of the forum moderators has verified that the post is not spam. I deleted your other post after approving this one.

Short answer: no.
Longer answer here: Audacity Manual

Thanks Steve. sorry about the double post. I thought I hit delete. It has been a long day. When I posted the second time, I saw the message. I will try not to be a troublesome troll. I once moderated a group and will never do that again. I have great respect and appreciation for mods.

I supposed I could get a wireless keyboard for the laptop. but then I could not see the screen and since I am so new with my luck I would be speaking when I had it turned off and recording silence. :slight_smile:

I’ve no idea how well an iPhone will record, or even what format it will allow you to record in, but I do appreciate the problem of noisy computer fans.
The minimum format specification for your recording should be 44100 Hz sample rate, 16 bit WAV. If the iPhone can do that then you may find that your setup works OK.

Alternatively (and subject to budget) there are portable audio recorders available for recording music that can work very well (such as the Zoom H2N). With such devices, transferring the recording to the computer for editing can be done easily and conveniently, either by attaching the device to the computer via USB, or taking the flash memory card out and putting it into a card reader (many laptops have card readers built in).

If I send the wav file from the iphone or ipad to my laptop and open in audacity, how do I tell if I am recording in 44100 and 16 bit wav? The Itrack is made to record directly to an iphone or ipad as well as to plug into the usb on a computer.

On Linux (which I use) I can right click on an audio file and select “properties” and the computer shows me basic information about the file format. I presume that Windows can do something similar.

Ok I think I just answered my own question. When I open the file it says project rate 22050. Now I need to see if I can fix that. Would adjusting the gain on the USB change that or is that something else. As you can see I don’t know much and I am even confused about that.

That’s the sample rate. The computer/device busts your voice up into 22 thousand digital chunks per second. In the real world that gives you a voice quality somewhere between AM radio and FM. 44100 is the voice quality of an Audio CD.

You have to set that on the device capturing your voice — assuming it’s digital. It’s not just turn something up or down. You have to go into setups and decide what the sample rate is going to be. I have a tiny portable recorder that insists on capturing at 32 thousand. That’s FM Radio quality.

I’m a great fan of recording on Something Portable and then do all the heavy lifting and editing in Audacity. But you have to be able to make it behave and do what you want.

The other number, 16 bits is the number of steps of loudness you can have from dead quiet to blow your ears off. Audacity works inside it at 32 floating, so that no matter what effects you apply, the show will always be higher quality than what you shot.

Nobody’s horrified at what you’re doing yet, because where most people crash and burn is the room noise.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/clips/EchoSample.mp3

This is a silly example, but nobody is going to pay money for an audiobook recorded in her mum’s kitchen.

People are horrified how much noise they live with the first time they make a recording and hear the refrigerator, trash trucks, metro bus and Henry, the chocolate Lab.

This is why they still rent studio time for critical recordings.

Koz