Having a problem with ACX RMS spec

Audacity version 2.13
Yeti Blue microphone
Windows 10 software on Lenovo computer
One person stand up home-style recording booth with sound blankets

I can pass the Peak level and the Noise Floor tests without any tweaking. The RMS is always off and whatever I do to adjust it puts the other two out.

I’m such a tenderfoot I’m not even sure what to ask. If anyone has the time to help, please use your teacher to grade-school student voice.

Thank you.

I’m not even sure what to ask.

Close enough. See attached. Sentence 2/3 down.

I had to work at it. You have a number of problems. You can tell your friends you have The Yeti Curse. After I suppressed that, you have very high background noises. I can’t stop to do critical analysis right this second, but to get there (all three audiobook values), I had to use moderately stiff noise reduction.

Do you have a desktop computer in the room with you?

Was that clip "raw and clean?’ Your voice and then export and post it? No processing?

I like your voice and I think we can get there. ACX doesn’t much like heavy processing, so just throwing software at noise problems isn’t always a good thing.

There is a “format” for posting voice clips, but yours worked just fine. We need at least one, one-second gap to sense background noises. That’s what most people leave out.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/TestClip/Record_A_Clip.html

As we go.

Koz
Screen Shot 2017-08-21 at 2.42.56 PM.png

That’s your clip fully patched. After I passed it, I applied a little de-esser to take the edge from the “S” sounds.

So that’s what a finished presentation sounds like. If you’re on headphones, note the whine and rumble sounds before you start talking in the original clip. There is no way to get rid of the whine sound in the studio. That’s post production processing.

Are you in the same room with a desktop computer or a loud laptop?

Have you ever installed a custom filter or effect? See how far you get in this manual page.

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Download_Nyquist_Plug-ins#download

I attached the Mosquito-Killer4.ny program.

Koz
Mosquito-Killer4.ny (363 Bytes)

Thank you. You made me sound better than I do in person.

Are you in the same room with a desktop computer or a loud laptop?

Yes, the computer is running Audacity, and is a Lenovo AIO. I will move my booth further away, at least as far as I can go since I am tethered to the microphone cord.

Have you ever installed a custom filter or effect?

Yes, I read your manual on audio book production and have downloaded and installed all the suggested filters/effects, including the Mosquito-Killer that you created to deal with the Yeti Curse. I read the ACX info on their site and listened to some of the videos, so I know they prefer the least processing possible.

Was that clip "raw and clean?’ Your voice and then export and post it? No processing?

Yes, that was raw and clean, no processing at all, me and the microphone with the computer apparently humming accompaniment in the background.

I will have to wait to post another version with background noises only. I’ve missed today’s quality recording time period, and it’s now noisy time in my neighborhood.

Thank you again for giving me hope that I can do this!

We may not need another test if that one was clean.

Can you hear the mosquito whine sound? Here it is following my voice.

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

Turn up the volume a bit when I stop talking. That’s the same whine sound you have and from the same microphone. The plain Blue Yeti microphone occasionally doesn’t like some computer’s USB connection. Once you have that whine sound, you can change it sometimes, but the combination is usually permanent. We went around the barn for months when this problem started to arrive on the forum. “Try a blue USB cable and stand on your left foot.”

No dice. Once you have this noise, it’s forever with that computer.

But it’s not deadly. The heavy designers ripped the noise apart, inspected it and designed a filter to delete the worst of it. That’s what Mosquito-Killer4 is. It’s a formal filter that anyone can apply as needed.

Please be clear we are also deleting tiny portions of your voice. This is not a completely free get out of jail card. But compared to the noise, anything is better.

I tried as much as possible to engineer a straight-line pathway for mastering. Do this and then do that. Noise is a problem and that’s why it’s a separate paper.

Let’s see if you can get the same results I did.

In your case, open that clip. Select the whole thing by clicking just above MUTE (this should track with the instruction in the paper). Effect > Mosquito-Killer4: 8 > OK.

If you play the clip, the annoying whine sound should be gone, or it was when I did it.

Now you go back to the top of AudioBook Mastering and start down the path. Equalization: Low Rolloff, 5000 Length > OK.
Etc. That’s exactly how I did it.

But.

You also have machine, fan, ventilation or some kind of additional room noise in the performance. So when I got to the end of the corrections, it was still too noisy. Back to the noise document and use Effect > Noise Reduction: 9, 6, 6 > OK. Let me know if you have trouble following these shortcuts.

Now I used Analyze > ACX Check and it passed—but not by a whole lot.

Technically, you could present a book like this and go with it (add the DeEsser to tame the harshness), but that’s a lot of work at each and every chapter. ACX stresses the chapters need to match, so there is no changing the protocol half-way through.

And this is where it gets sticky. You can’t tame the room or fan noises—or even hear them—without getting rid of the whine sound first. So this will be a juggling act.

I’m staring into the middle-distance trying to think of a good, graceful way to do this.

As we go.

Koz

Thank you again for giving me hope that I can do this!

I don’t think there’s any question you have the performance chops for this. I can listen to a story in that voice.

Lenovo

Lenovo makes a bunch of computers. Describe exactly. Model number or name?

Do Not block any ventilation holes or fan pathways. There are cute tricks you can use to get around some of the noise like putting the computer on a well-padded chair facing away from you and then pad the far wall, for example. The computer can breathe freely, but the noise has to go through two blankets to get to you.

The Yeti has a dead spot directly behind it. This is the wrong microphone, but it has the same reception pattern as the yeti.

You would be in the top, in the hot zone announcing down and Objectionable Noise is in the bottom, in the notch, trying to get in and failing. And yes, this works a lot better if the noise doesn’t bounce around the room—hint, hint.

DO NOT extend or modify the Yeti USB cable or go through any USB hubs or splitters!!! This is one of the shortcomings of the Yeti. You can’t ever get more than one USB cable away from the computer.

Koz

They do tell you this in the instructions. You want Cardioid (heart-shaped). Click the picture.

Koz
Screen Shot 2017-08-21 at 6.26.52 PM.png

You did tell us what it was. It’s an Aio.
Screen Shot 2017-08-21 at 6.35.23 PM.png
I have no feeling for how those work, so this is up to you. Listen to try and figure out where the noise is coming from. It may not be coming from your machine at all.

I have a soft spot for furniture moving blankets. I’ve shot a lot of voices with those. You may just need heavy padding on the desk and behind the machine.

Forget the technology. Look at the table and wall.

Koz

Could the noise be coming up from the table? There’s ways around that, too.

Koz

Thank you for such detailed information. I have to be away from the desk today, and will go through these one by one when I return and post the results.

Can you hear the mosquito whine sound? Here it is following my voice.

Yes, I hear it loud and clear. Your miracle MosquitoKiller program clears that up beautifully.

DO NOT extend or modify the Yeti USB cable or go through any USB hubs or splitters!!!

Definitely will not do this.

You want Cardioid (heart-shaped)

I have been using the wrong one. I’ll switch to this one instead.

Listen to try and figure out where the noise is coming from. It may not be coming from your machine at all.

I think the bulk of the noise is the computer – I can hear the fan and the processor without any amplification, so I’m sure the Yeti is happily recording those sounds as well.

Forget the technology. Look at the table and wall. Could the noise be coming up from the table?

I didn’t think about the table, but you are right, it is naked currently. I will add padding there, and report back on all the above. I have also moved the booth farther away from the computer. With these changes, it may be just as well to post a newer recording.

Thank you again for the time you are spending on this. I’ll be back, probably tomorrow.

Your miracle MosquitoKiller program

Yes, well. I wrote the “work order,” but I’m neither the programmer nor the developer. It doesn’t work on all mosquitoes, either. You got lucky.

I have been using the wrong one.

If you’ve been using the wrong pattern, it’s possible the microphone has been partially aimed at the noise source rather than trying to ignore it. That might go a long way to solving the environment noise problem. That’s why the cardioid pattern is recommended for podcasters.

The British version of that is “kidney” pattern for obvious reasons. You may find your vocal tone may shift a bit when you change patterns.

That pattern also exhibits Proximity Effect. Tone changes with distance, being particularly striking the last three or four inches. I can turn myself into a ballsy broadcast presenter just by leaning forward. It’s an old story, but I once briefly played two different people by doing that and changing vocal style.

You should not change anything if you’re in the middle of a book and you’re supposed to be one person.

Koz

In your case, open that clip. Select the whole thing by clicking just above MUTE (this should track with the instruction in the paper). Effect > Mosquito-Killer4: 8 > OK.

If you play the clip, the annoying whine sound should be gone, or it was when I did it.

Now you go back to the top of AudioBook Mastering and start down the path. Equalization: Low Rolloff, 5000 Length > OK.
Etc. That’s exactly how I did it.

But.

You also have machine, fan, ventilation or some kind of additional room noise in the performance. So when I got to the end of the corrections, it was still too noisy. Back to the noise document and use Effect > Noise Reduction: 9, 6, 6 > OK. Let me know if you have trouble following these shortcuts.

Now I used Analyze > ACX Check and it passed—but not by a whole lot.

I did the above, and here’s my ACX check after:


I don’t know where it went off the rails.



You should not change anything if you’re in the middle of a book and you’re supposed to be one person.

I am more than willing to start over and get the recording as right/good as possible before having to apply any effects.

I made the changes you suggested, and recorded the same bit with the new mic setting, the additional padding on the desk, and moving the recording booth further from the computer.

Per the clip recording guidelines, here’s the raw unedited version with silence (well, mosquito-infested silence) at the beginning and end.

This is the ACX check I get on this raw version.


Am I making things worse?

You have to be missing a step. The ACX Check results are wildly out of range of where they’re expected to be. I need to come back and read through that again.

This does ring a bell. Check and see if you’re using Audacity 2.1.3. That’s not optional. The tools don’t work in earlier versions.

In Windows it’s Help > About…I think.

Koz

This does ring a bell. Check and see if you’re using Audacity 2.1.3. That’s not optional. The tools don’t work in earlier versions.

Yes, that’s the version I’m using.

A note: Once this clicks the first time the clouds will part and the sun will come out. There’s no question of success, we just have to cover the bases (blind, across multiple time zones ).

Koz

This is the ACX Check from post 2 as of Aug 23rd. after processing.
Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 11.46.06 AM.png
That’s without the additional noise reduction. That’s straight Mosquito Killer, and ACX Mastering Suite.

I have a machine problem and need to drop in and out.

I think we are about to experience Long Posting Fatigue. Did I ever point you to the forum message that contains the ACX tools in order?

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/audiobook-mastering-version-4/45908/1

In your case, you would be applying Mosquito Killer4 first and then the mastering suite. I was trying to work from the field and I had damaged results with Mosquito Killer4. I can’t tell if I got a damaged killer program, I applied it wrong, or I have a wonky Audacity program.

Computers are our friends.

Koz

When you select Effects, does Mosquito Killer4 look more or less like this? Two words with a dash, one number and three dots?

No, you would not normally need to worry about this. Mine doesn’t always look like that and it got my attention. You are now helping with developer analysis.

We’ll get there.

Koz
Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 12.00.38 PM.png

When you select Effects, does Mosquito Killer4 look more or less like this? Two words with a dash, one number and three dots?

It did not, but does now. I downloaded and enabled the newer Mosquito Killer4 and shut the older one off.

You are now helping with developer analysis.

Or causing someone heartburn, which is probably the same thing.

Did I ever point you to the forum message that contains the ACX tools in order?

You did. I made a copy and can access it offline now too.

A note: Once this clicks the first time the clouds will part and the sun will come out. There’s no question of success, we just have to cover the bases (blind, across multiple time zones ).

Good things take time. If I can’t be a good example, at least I’ll be a warning.

You are now helping with developer analysis.
Or causing someone heartburn, which is probably the same thing.

Not always. Everybody knows what a “bug” is. It’s any time a computer doesn’t do exactly what I want, right?

No. A “bug” is a very specific thing. It’s unintended, evil behavior experienced at any time by many different people and machines. It’s that last part that messes with people. “You” probably didn’t find a bug (although it has happened). You and fifty or sixty of your closest friends may have found one. So let us know who they are and we’ll get right on that.

I downloaded and enabled the newer Mosquito Killer4 and shut the older one off.

My small field laptop has trouble with that. That’s why this is taking a bit longer than normal.

-=|=-

OK, it’s no mystery what Mosquito Killer does. The blue waves on the timeline don’t change but the whine goes away.

The first step in Mastering Suite (Low Rolloff—Rumble Filter) shouldn’t be visible, either.
Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 18.53.05.png
Effect > RMS Normalize to -20dB.

There’s two normalizes. The regular one which isn’t customized for AudioBooks, and RMS Normalize, which is.
Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 18.58.13.png
That effectively sets RMS (Loudness) but can leave some of the tippy-top peaks too high. The tall tip at 4 seconds is too tall.

Effect > Limiter: Soft, 0, 0, -3.5, 10, No.

Watch when you apply that, only that one tip at 4 seconds should get pushed down a bit.
Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 19.06.06.png
And you’re done.
Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 19.06.57.png
Where did you lose it?

Koz

And just to close the loop. I applied the Noise Reduction of the Beast (6, 6, 6) using the first 1.5 seconds of the clip as Profile or reference.
Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 19.26.16.png
Some of the other elves will quibble about fine details of vocal quality, but that could be out-the-door finished.

Koz