Agua Caliente

This is a short story I wrote a while back. It fits nicely in an email which is where these things normally go.

It’s two minutes, so the WAV won’t fit on the forum.
Screen Shot 2017-02-27 at 22.13.45.png
I shot it in my super quiet third bedroom after 22:00, so I didn’t have to juggle the metrobus schedules. I cheated a little because I used my mic stand to place the microphone at Shaka spacing slightly to the left of my face.

I shot it on MusicMemo on an iPod. Internal microphone.

I horsed the file off the iPod, converted it to WAV, applied SetRMS and Limiter. I cut the obvious flubs and tested it. No Noise Reduction or other effects.

Then I went for tea (decaf).

Koz


De-Clicker settings used.png

That got rid of the mouth-click nicely Trebor.

And Koz: impressive sound quality, not bad for an iPod :sunglasses:

Peter

Do we have any plans to ship Paul’s De-Clicker in the release bundle anytime?

Peter

Is this part of the DeEsser DeClicker package?

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/updated-de-clicker-and-new-de-esser-for-speech/34283/1


Wet Mouth Noises. I considered going in and manually removing them, but I could also go in and cure several theatrical timing and rhythm problems. This isn’t fully mastered. I stopped when it was obvious I could use this technique to successfully read with commonly available equipment at no cost.

Also see: that women who recorded audiobooks in the closet with a personal recorder and duvet/quilt.

Yeti and its problems need not apply.

There is no shortage of operational problems. You gotta know the very first thing people are going to do is display the script…on the phone. The microphone on the rear is significantly muffled when you face it away. A cousin message thread is from someone who wants to also record video. Sound always takes a back seat when you combine those two.

You still need a quiet room. Very few people get away with a noisy environment. I’m going with zero. Regard that poster with the close-talking aircraft microphone. “Touch Lips Here.”


Leave your noisy laptop turned off.

Koz

Is there adequate user documentation for it?

Is there adequate user documentation for it?

The forum page where it was introduced has additional information.

Can that be pushed into a documentation package for posting?

Koz

Since it’s missing an official posting, there’s no easy way to return to factory defaults. The introduction page doesn’t tell us what they are.

Koz

That’s the one. The default settings on that DeClicker would have got rid of most of the clicks.
The settings I posted do a better job, but take about twice as long as default, (if I could export a preset those settings I’d call it “nitpicking”).

Click on “Manage”, “Factory Presets”, “Default” …
Return to Default settings on Paul-L's DeClicker.gif

“Manage”, “Factory Presets”, “Default”

More effects should have that setting.

but take about twice as long as default,

I think we beat this up before. “We can do a crappy job very rapidly…”

OK, hands? How many people want a crappy job? Hands? Anyone? Beuller?

So all I need to do is apply that correction to my semi-final WAV, get rid of some of the more awkward English-Os, submit, make a mint and retire to Majorca. I read somewhere that’s how it works.

Koz

On Lifehacker?

I think all of the effects that are shipped, except Equalization, do have that. Equalization should have it too, but that still needs fixing.

Equalization has “flatten.” Dump all control points and start over.

Oh, and while I think about patches to 2.1.4, in addition to finally jettisoning the split file system, can we do something about this.
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This is what happens when you have multiple installs of Audacity. The system tries to vacuum up all instances of each effect and analysis. I know you’re saying to yourself: Just use Add/Remove. And that works until the next time I use a different Audacity. Then I start over. I have one machine that tries to load three Chris’s Compressors. I just put up with it.

As a side issue, I recently tried to find actual effect software. I started with the current Audacity plugins folder and worked back. Turns out the original effect install was back in /Applications/Audacity2-0-5/Audacity/Plug-Ins/.

I keep backup copies of all custom plugins and other software in a particular folder, but had I not, safely cleaning up /Applications would be a nightmare.

Koz

Audacity is my first resort when trouble shooting interfaces or converting weird audio files. A plugin management app would be great!

For years, I have tried to keep one plugin folder. That’s impossible. So I settled for 1 system wide VST plugins folder and a second one for Audacity and the same for REAPER and Mixxx.

IF I could manage all of these folders from Audacity’s “Plugin Manager”, that would be a dream come through…

It’s very simple to do with a simple file manager. Something like Norton Commander :mrgreen:

Or even if Audacity copied older effects forward on command instead of referencing them. I would only have to go through Add/Remove once.

We can do that right after jettisoning the split file system.

Koz

It finally stopped producing “sky water” long enough to make pictures. This is how I shot “Agua Caliente.”
iPod-MicStand-500.jpg
That’s the microphone and it should be facing the performer.
iPodMicrophone3-650.jpg
I mailed a note to that poster who was using a phone to record their work, apparently successfully aside from the bother.

“How did you do it?”

I think I can understand the urgency of doing it a different way. My email poops out at 25MB attachments. That works out to mono sound track of about 4:30. Let’s read a whole book in just over 4 minute jumps.

Koz

Before you get to excited over the technique I feel obligated to point out your voice is at least 6dB louder than “average” and probably 12dB louder than some of the folks attempting to do audiobooks… You only pass the noise floor spec by 3dB.

The “MEMS” microphones in the smartphones, ipads, etc are pretty marvelous contraptions, and have a lot of things going for them (particularly if you are making a smart phone) but a good SN ratio is not one of them.

SoundCloud is to audio what YouTube is to video.

A free SoundCloud account supposedly permits 3 hours of “upload quota”, in stereo … audiobook results on SoundCloud - Listen to music

Yes, but (rolling up sleeve), you can place the phone on a plane such as a foot-square piece of 1/2" plywood over a towel and get the 6dB back in pseudo pressure-zone technique.

good SN ratio is not one of them.

I wondered about that. I was fully expecting to need noise reduction. Imagine my surprise when I passed ACX without it (not by much), and further, it was pink-sh and easily ignored. Even without the Voice That Goes Through SoundProofed Walls, the Noise Reduction of the Beast (6, 6, 6) is a perfectly valid correction and can’t be detected after submission.

Join with me and contrast that with the trouble you can get into with a Yeti.

This technique does have its moments. Getting the work from the iPod to a Mac is not for the easily frightened and then converting into WAV has produced several furrowed brows (as well as damaged sound).

As I’ve already found, a recording will not start until the first sound arrives. I can’t wait to find there are conditions when it will stop by itself for no apparent reason. The software is intended as a music note taker—to record moment-by-moment musical ideas. I have no idea how it will react at the prospect of recording a book chapter. I am encouraged that CAF format was designed to have an almost unlimited recording time.

Koz

There are a number of recording apps for the iPhone/iPad including “garage band”.

If you did want to break away from the internal mic but keep the “look ma no fans” quiet of the iPad, there is also a USB-Lightening cable available which will allow you to record and playback from/to a USB interface, I did a few test recordings from a Behringer UCA-202 last year to show that it does work. The downside is that the phone has very limited ability to power USB devices, probably wouldn’t be able to run one of the units with 48V power without help.