ACX AudioBooks (Audible.com, etc) is a clearinghouse for audiobook readers/performers. They publish specifications you are expected to meet in order be published under the ACX name.
About a third of the population of the world is trying to read for audiobooks. The first layer of acceptance is an Automated Quality Control which I affectionately call The Robot. Flynwill developed the ACX-Check program by collecting and managing existing measurement tools, and presenting the measurements in a roughly similar way that ACX does it. This saves you constantly submitting to ACX only to find that your background noise is still too loud.
The important lines are the first three measurements and the sentence 2/3 down.
This is what it’s measuring. Chances are really good you are going to have to meet these three no matter who you perform for.
The next level after the robot strips off the worst offenders* is Human Quality Control and that’s where they evaluate actual theatrical quality of your work. The obvious tasks are making sure you can read out loud and follow instructions for submission, but they also check a lesser obvious sound quality. One way to pass a noisy performance off is to beat it up with special effects and severe noise reduction. No, ACX is not going to accept your performance if you sound like a bad cellphone, even if it’s technically perfect.
*Please note that if the robot fails you, it’s possible you are going to get a note from a human explaining why you failed and possible methods to fix it. They don’t just drop you as a hot rock.
Behringer U-Phoria UMC204HD
Nothing wrong with any of that. That roughly follows ACX recommendations. The only “problem” is the stereo nature of the 204HD. I would record in stereo with your voice on the left and split off the dead track later. Neither the microphone, interface or Audacity will act funny or be able to tell there’s anything wrong.
Correct me, but the headphone connection in the Behringer is a mono-mix?? it will feed your voice to headphone Right and Left in spite of delivering Left only to Audacity. You may find as I did that this is very useful. Headphones during reading are very highly recommended because they help you automatically keep your voice volume constant almost without you thinking very much about it. You should find if you haven’t already that you can’t listen to the computer during a live performance, but you do need to keep an eye on the meters and blue waves. You are the recording engineer.
Roughly this is normal. I expand the meters so they’re a bit easier to see. Grab one edge and pull.
If you tend to theatrics and expressive performances, you may need to record lower volume / smaller blue waves.
I wrote a brief instruction how to submit a sound test to the forum for testing.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/TestClip/Record_A_Clip.html
Koz