Audacity Forum

Plug in the 404, let it settle and then start Audacity. It should arrive as USB Audio CODEC, and the microphones will be stereo left and right. Screen Shot 2019-08-26 at 12.48.32.png There may be a thing about security permissions, but I'm fuzz about that. Most people have trouble starting Audacity ...

this "library" folder

It's not the Library folder. It has to be ~/Library. you have to put the "~" mark in there. There are two Libraries, so if you get the wrong one it doesn't just fail, it actually sends you to the wrong place and pretends everything is OK.

Koz

I have worked in professional studios but not for audiobooks.

We have had several posters who did the first few successful books in actual hardware studios and decided to try one at home.

How hard could this be?

Koz

crappy VOIP sound quality You should be careful with that. Voice Over Internet Protocol has very little to do with that sound. It's the phones, conditions and environments that mess things up. In some limited circumstances, a reduced line quality can cause that kind of problem, but awkwardly used c...

Amplify and Normalize are sister tools. They both work on sound peaks (not loudness) and the only difference is the handles or controls. As you noted, only Normalize has the DC Removal setting. Amplify has easier settings for difference adjustments. There are variations. There is an RMS Normalize wh...

Your requirement is a one-off unicorn, so unless somebody posts with custom tools, no.

Koz

Let's go with no. We can't take compression and auto-noise reduction out of a performance. We might be able to suck out the noise between words, but that can give you staccato, clipped, noisy words surrounded by beautiful silence. I'm not sure who wins there. See: Noise Gate. https://wiki.audacityte...

We should note that ACX Check needs at least 3/4 second of "clean" background noise (room tone) to perform a good measurement. The inter-word noise in that test clip comes in somewhere in the -70s (normally good) but ACX Check reports -60.3dB. The limit is -60dB. The first test at ACX is T...

ACX Check only inspects technical specifications. Is it loud enough, etc. It doesn't do a thing for the second test, the theatrical one. That's the one you can fail for "wet mouth noises" or too much noise reduction, echoes, etc.

Do you have a plan of action if they bounce you?

Koz

Declicker comes with a page of notes. https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=79278 My first pass would be to change the Sensitivity Threshold. My impression is it's too sensitive and it thinks everything you do is clicks to be suppressed. That gives you the muddy sound. Some are random click...