Acx-check Problems

Audacity 3 Help Forum macOS
1

Good afternoon,

MacBook Air
Mojave 10.14.6
Audacity 2.1.1

My fiancée is trying to get started recording audiobooks, and one of the things she’s found, which has been deemed as important is the plug-in, “Acx-check.ny” but has been having trouble getting it up and running.

I spent about an hour last night trying to help to no avail, and some of the time included perusing this forum.

Some background: I’ve downloaded the plug-in from this address: https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Nyquist_Analyze_Plug-ins#ACX_Check

I clicked the download link and the file appeared in the download folder.

After that, I moved the file to “~/Library/Application Support/audacity/Plug-Ins”

Instructions from there indicated that I should choose “Effect > Manage” and the Plug-In should show up and could be enabled, but it doesn’t appear.

I’ve also seen direction to follow “Analyze > Manage” or “Generate > Manage” but there’s nothing matching the file either.

The most common issue seems to have stemmed from the Acx-check.ny also having a hidden .txt file, but I’ve checked that and that doesn’t seem to be an issue.

I’ve restarted both the computer and Audacity, but have had no luck whatsoever.

I’ve yet to uninstall and reinstall the program, but one thing that I have found is that it appears that there are actually two Plug-In folders, one which is found at “~/Library/Application Support/audacity/Plug-Ins”, and then inside that folder is another folder, also listed “plug-ins” which has almost all of the same files as the parent folder, with the exception of one file, “sc4_1882.so”, which is located in the parent folder.

Any help would be appreciated.

2

Your version of Audacity is old. The latest version has a Nyquist* plugin installer, see …

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_effect_generator_and_analyzer_plug_ins_on_mac_os_x.html#nyquist_install

[* ACX-check is a Nyquist type plugin ]

3

No text file. It’s a stand-alone plugin.

You don’t need the whole display. That’s just for obsessive engineers.

ACX Check needs at least 3/4 second of pure, clean background sound to get a good measurement. Just ‘not reading’ won’t do it. You have to hold your breath and not move. At all.

Home readers never pass noise. “Studio Silence” is a completely foreign idea to most people. Can you tell your computer is on just by listening? It’s going to be a long day.

I do really well for room noise, but I still have to wait for the metro bus in front of the house to go by. Neighbor-West is under construction. Just the most fun you can have for noise problems. (Bam, Bam, Bam, Wheeeeeeeee).

When you get it together to actually record a good test, you can publish one on the forum. Don’t process anything, just record it, cut it if you have to, export WAV, and post it.

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

“Catskill Farms Cows…”

It’s a lot faster than waiting days for ACX to turn you down.

Koz

4

Mojave 10.14.6

Do Not upgrade your computer. Catalina (10.15) is a convenience for Apple, not us.

Koz

5

While you’re doing all that, talk about your setup. The “S” word (studio) makes people nervous.

I don’t need a studio. I just need a comfortable, air conditioned, quiet room with no echoes.

If you solve the room problems, it almost doesn’t matter what you record on.

That’s a Zoom H1n sound recorder.

I can make both of those produce an audiobook-quality sound track. If you start throwing room noise problems around, we could be here for a while.

The current grand champion for forum postings is Ian who wanted to read audiobooks in his noisy apartment in Hollywood (a real place). Over a year and 39 forum chapters. We did get him working and he’s a successful performer.

Koz