Ok, I’m finally back to re-recording (sigh). Here’s a clip of my new, unprocessed real room tone and recording if you guys can have a listen and let me know if I’m on the right track before I get too far into it. Thanks!
Hey Diver, your input level needs to be between a -6 and -12dbs. I do not think your lap top is capable of supplying the needed gain. Your RMS requirements are off to much to bring it into ACX compliance. You may want to try moving closer, 1 to 2 inches from your mic. If you can get your input levels to a -6 to -12 while keeping your noise floor close to the -60db max, you should pass. Check out the pic below.
“your input level needs to be between a -6 and -12dbs. I do not think your lap top is capable of supplying the needed gain. Your RMS requirements are off to much to bring it into ACX compliance.”
Crud. No way to fix that? I recorded a few chapters already. The moving screen shot goes by too fast to really capture what’s going on there. Can I fix it with RMS normalize like I think that’s showing? You said the laptop maybe can’t supply the gain, is it perhaps because I have the laptop sitting outside the closet I’m recording in, and a 7 foot USB cord? The laptop is very quiet so perhaps I could get away with having it in the closet with me. I could get a little closer to the mic though, a little more than a “shaka” away to avoid pops/clicks as much as possible. Do I have to start over?
If nothing else works, you may have to invest in a preamp for around $100.00.
OK. That will do it.
I didn’t need the first step because you have no rumble—which is suspicious…but OK.
I applied Mastering steps two and three, RMS-Normalize and Limiter.
I did cut off one of the three seconds of room tone you supplied at the beginning. Too much Room Tone isn’t good, either. Two seconds.
The second patch is applying just a delicate Noise Reduction 6, 6, 6, but technically you don’t need it to pass ACX technical conformance. I just did it because I’m obsessive.
So you’re done. I’m going to go make tea.
Koz
If you’re playing along at home, I would apply all three steps including Low Rolloff that I left out. It’s easier to keep consistent chapter to chapter if you do that.
Koz
Make sure you can get the same results I did. Just cut off the first second of Room Tone.
Koz
I had stopped recording to process my intro track to see what it gave me. I hadn’t seen your posts at that point Koz, so I just did the regular three steps including the EQ/Low rolloff. I’ll attach the result and a screenshot of my numbers. Is there anything else I need to do with this? Apply any other filters?
And another note for those who get this far, ACX has requirements for silence segments and Room Tone for submission and publication. Now you need to pay attention to them.
http://www.acx.com/help/acx-audio-submission-requirements/201456300
https://blog.acx.com/2014/06/26/how-to-succeed-at-audiobook-production-part-1/
Root around in there. They change their help pages and I don’t always keep up.
Koz
That meets ACX Technical Conformance. Peaks quieter than 3dB, Noise quieter than -60dB and RMS (loudness) between -18dB and -23dB.
If you knocked over the goldfish bowl in the middle of speaking, then yes, you’ll need to go in and edit the noises and gaps.
You’re at the Human Quality Control step where you get to create good theater and they get to complain if you don’t. If you have excessive lip smacks or Wet Mouth Noises (I love that phrase), this is a good place to deal with them. But. It’s easy to get crazy with corrections. Unless it’s something obvious like knocking over the goldfish, I think I would let them complain about it.
Do you have a service where you can post a longer work? DropBox? The elves handier with the finer filters (DeEssers, etc) may want to mess with it.
I can listen to a story in that voice.
Koz
I’m in Los Angeles, Land of Fruits and Nuts, so my postings are generally behind the beat by about three to four hours. Many of the forum senior elves are in Britain, so their stuff can be nine hours ahead (of me).
Koz
I guess you get different results with different operating systems. That explains a lot of why people are getting different results. I did follow the same directions that @Koz gave and you audio still failed according to my results. I also removed 1 sec from the head of your file. I slowed down the gif to give you a better view of what I did. RMS normalized to -18dbs then Normalized to -3.1. If I normalize any louder, your RMS Level will pass but you will fail the -3db max requirement.
RMS normalized to -18dbs then Normalized to -3.1. If I normalize any louder, your RMS Level will pass but you will fail the -3db max requirement.
That’s now how the suite is written.
It’s rumble filter (Low Rolloff) to keep metrobusses and trucks from affecting the work. Then RMS Normalize with the setting at -20, not -18. Then it’s the standard Audacity Limiter with the posted settings—again, not factory values.
If you do that and you have a microphone even close, it will force you into technical conformance.
That could be why you’re getting different results.
The second page of that publication is what happens if you just don’t pass noise. You’re right in your comments. Noise kills you and it’s a pretty common failure, particularly if you don’t make good volume during a reading.
Koz
RMS normalized to -18dbs then Normalized to -3.1. If I normalize any louder, your RMS Level will pass but you will fail the -3db max requirement. That’s now how the suite is written. It’s rumble filter (Low Rolloff) to keep metrobusses and trucks from affecting the work. Then RMS Normalize with the setting at -20, not -18. Then it’s the standard Audacity Limiter with the posted settings—again, not factory values.
It does not matter what I normalize to, it still will not pass. It is making my head hurt. I will try it will the low roll off but I was under the impression that by checking the DC Offset, this already applies a low roll off filter.
OK, I was not able to get the audio clip to pass using the recommended procedure. However, I was able to get it to pass by removing most of the room tone as the gif shows below. I still think this is an input problem. To take this much effort to get a 10 sec clip to pass is one thing. To get a 60 min file to pass is another.
The suite only has three steps and the last two are custom RMS-Normalize and standard Audacity Limiter. There is no second Normalize.
ACX Check looks for the most quiet half-second in the performance and measures that for Noise. You can really mess with it if you never stop talking long enough (reading too high), or you force Room Tone to be too low in the show by applying tools (reading too low).
Koz
@Mack Caster
Is there any reason you’re using the Equalization tool in Graphic instead of Draw? Graphic restricts the range of Low Rolloff and can let some rumble pass by accident.
Also, I know people who edit the blue waves in dB, but I prefer regular waveforms because most of the performance is in the top 1/3 of the data. So dB is always watching waves that are never going to change. dB also gives you the impression there’s massive damage in your show, when it’s usually just not that bad.
I do change the meters to reflect the whole 96dB range and then pull the meters the whole width of the Audacity Window. That makes the meters easier to see. That’s been valuable. It’s possible to make them thicker, too, but that’s just too Obsessive.
Koz
Normalize > Remove DC doesn’t affect the sound. It’s an arithmetic calculation that averages all the top and bottom waves. In shows with DC problems, that number is profoundly out of whack. The tool puts everything back into whack.
We had the discussion of the best way to do this including fancy high pass filters (and low rolloff). Turns out this method is the most reliable and causes the least damage.
Koz
I only did the mastering process once. I simply cut the head off the file till it passed.
As far as I know, using draw allows you to pin point your freqs by using customization. It has very little effect between the two settings. That’s why it is called “Draw”. It allows you to draw the curves you want. I did make sure it was set to 5,000. I tried them both and there was o difference.
The reason I asked about the DC offset is that all major DAWs recommend using a eq band set at 100 Hz to remove any low-end rumble. This is also what their DC offset filters do as well. It is simply a high pass filter set between 80 and 100Hz. If you combine this band with your eq settings, you can skip using a DC offset filter and this will help eliminate over processing. No need to do it twice. I do it all the time and hit 0.0 every time.
Low Rolloff
I tried them both and there was o difference.
That hasn’t been my experience. In the draw mode, Low Rolloff is still reducing rumble at -70dB. The last step in the Nyquist code is -120dB at 50Hz. In Graphic, it peters out at -20dB, the natural range of the sliders. Do you know of a way to change the slider range?
20dB may not be enough if you have serious rumble or microphone problems.
If they do functionally match, then that may be an Audacity Unintended Feature.
Koz
