This isn’t quite as crazy as it looks because I had to cover what happens when you start fresh. After the first time through, many of the settings “stick” and you just have to check them, but not change them.
It assumes you announced the chapter and File > Exported a WAV (Microsoft) protection copy (errors and all). This keeps you from reading the whole thing again if your computer goes into the dirt during editing. That never happens to anybody…
Only then do you make all the corrections, edits, additions, deletions as needed to clean up the chapter.
Apply The Macro (or the individual pieces).
ACX-Check. Peak and RMS (Loudness) should be perfect. If noise is louder than -65dB (lower number), you’ll need to apply Effect > Noise Reduction.
— Classic Noise Reduction —
Drag select some room tone (clean background sound). Effect > Noise Removal and Repair > Noise Reduction > Get Profile.
Select the whole chapter (double click the timeline). Effect > Noise Removal and Repair > Noise Reduction > 6, 6, 6 > Reduce.
ACX-Check. If the noise is quieter than -65dB, export the chapter as a WAV (Microsoft) Edit Master Sound File (Different name than the first WAV), and go on to the next chapter.
Use only upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, underscore, and dash in filenames. That’s it. I don’t use spaces, either.
Beresford_Life_History-Edit_Master-Chapter01.wav
Never do production in MP3. You can make the ACX MP3 chapter submission later.
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— Audacity 3.6 Audiobook Mastering —
2024-07-30
Select > All
Effect > Eq and Filters > Filter Curve EQ > Presets & settings > Factory Presets > Low rolloff for speech. Apply.
Select > All
Effect > Volume and Compression > Loudness Normalization > Normalize RMS to -20dB > Apply
Select > All
Effect > Steve Daulton > Limiter > Soft Limit, Gain Mono-Left 0.00, Gain Right 0.00, Limit to -3.5dB, Hold 10, Makeup No > Apply
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— ACX-Check 3.6 —
Analyze > Steve Daulton > ACX Check
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Post back if you find any problems. After you get rolling and after I finish building the software, this can be four keyclicks.
Export the Protection WAV
Mastering
ACX-Check
Run Noise Reduction (if needed)
Export the Chapter WAV Edit Master (under a different name.)
If this is just too overwhelming I can refer you to the three volume set: “How to Ride A Bicycle.” Not all activities lend themselves to written instructions.
Koz