Much closer. I applied the mastering tools and got it to pass the technical tests.
You could submit that and it would pass the technical tests (a machine does that), but it may not pass the second test where a real person listens to it for sound quality. We are trying to get your voice in good quality for the Italian performance, right?
– Listen to the first six seconds of the file you sent me. Turn the volume up. Do you hear the ticking, shuffling, popping and other noises? That’s supposed to be only the room noise, not you shuffling in your seat or whatever you were doing. Do you have a drink of water or something in the room? That may have been some of the noises. Do Not Move during Room Tone.
– Does your room have bare floors and walls? You have echoes and it sounds like you are announcing in a big empty room or a bathroom. There are no filters or corrections for that in Audacity.
– You are still overloading your sound recorder. The blue waves should not look like little square blocks.
That’s a recorder adjustment.
– There is still some recorder processing or noise reduction as you speak. I can hear little tinkly bell sounds in the performance. They will never pass that.
All those are relatively easy to fix except the room echoes. You need to provide a quiet, echo-free room to record in and it doesn’t make any difference which microphone or recorder you have.
ok thank you KOZ, for now I’m using mastering tools like you said and I’m using a gentle noise reduction, which
ACX check should pass.
then for my next book I will go to a professional recording studio, they hire the space, I will hire for few hours, the time to record all my next book.
there it should be a good envirorment.
I will let you know if this one will pass at this time. If no, I don’t really know what to do. I will give up to be honest
Ask if they know how to produce audiobook sound. ACX has rules about how long the chapters need to be, how long the silences are and how to announce the introductions, etc.
Home recording is not easy. Some posters record their first book in a studio and then try recording the second book at home to save money and fail testing. They post on the forum to find out what they are doing wrong.
The longest forum post is Ian who only wanted to record his book from his apartment in Hollywood. It took about a year to announce his first book.
Hi there, I’m preparing to submit audio samples for audition and want to make sure my settings are at the very least in the ball park of what ACX accepts. I also want to familiarize myself with the most common editing issues I may encounter if my ACX check fails. So, this is why I’ve shared an audio file for your review.
I made this recording in my home studio aka renovated walkin closet. I’m operating on a iMac 10.10.5 Yosemite, Audio Technica 2035 mic, Pop filter, Focus Rite Solo interface.
I followed the steps of the mini mastering by Koz on this recording.
Equalization>low rolloff then >treble boost> then bass boost> length 5005(can’t seem to get the number to stop on 5000)
RMS Normalization>-20
Limiter>Soft Limet, 0,0,-3.5,10,No
My wave forms are kinda small, my gain is all the way up though, should they be larger? I vacillate between 18-12 on the meter.
Is there ever a recording that doesn’t need Noise Reduction? I prefer not to use it, cause I really don’t know how, well, I tried it and gotta weird sound in my voice that led me to undoing it, then using several minutes deleting clicks and weirdness in the background manually. I have a thin straight line which leads me to believe there is little to no noise, but in DB wave form I see “waviness” on the line. I also notice the meter showing room noise, but I don’t hear anything-should I? There is a fluctuating green light indicating sound is being transmitted.
Also, I’d like to use Noise Gate to get rid of unwanted breaths and random mouth noises in bulk, can you recommend how to do this? I’ve watched a few YouTube vids but never grasped just how to totally delete all breaths or all mouth noises at once.
Looking forward to your responses on the audio and questions…oh and I am very new to all of this and not too technically knowledgeable…at all, So when you respond, type …S-L-O-W-L-Y
Tonua M.
Is the raw sample actually the raw sample? This is a clip from before you applied all the filters and corrections, right?
There isn’t enough clean, pure background noise (room tone) in the sample. All the spaces between words have you breathing or making other noises.
Can you cut a sample according to this formula? The words are fine, or you can pick a different passage. Up to you. It’s really important you stop moving and hold your breath for that first two seconds. I really like your presentation. You give good voice.
Is there ever a recording that doesn’t need Noise Reduction?
Yes. Most studio presentations don’t need it and I recently did a portable recorder test that didn’t need it. I’m normally testing “home style” recorders and microphones. Some pass, some don’t, but if I pulled out the big guns (somebody wrote me a check), mine would all pass too.
I know this appears like some torture that ACX dreamed up to make everybody’s life miserable. In fact, their sound standards are a sister to common broadcast radio sound standards. What’s different is you’re trying to do it in your noisy house.
Ok. File attached. Thank you for the voice acknowledgement, I needed that today…I got a bad case of blues brought on by exhaustion-itis. Buut if you can get me sounding more clear, passing ACX, it’ll definitely lift spirits and I’ll keep on a narrating!! Oh and Thanks for the sample submission info…this is really great.
I believe the sample I shared was unedited. I say believe because I do have other copies of it that went thru the mastery I detailed in the earlier post. But I believe it was unedited because it had all my stalker breaths still intact.
Its amazing how noisy a house can be and I find at times my noise floor is awesome then other times I barely pass…I feel like I’m all alone, secluded and practically buried beneath the earth’s surface in here ( but I’m actually in a walk in closet with acoustic panel & foam treated walls) but then there’s always some noise lurking to ruin my attempts at narration grandeur.
I’m only now learning about using the gain on my interface…sooo am I making the wrong things loud?? oh and I do believe my mic is so sensitive it can literally pic up on my thoughts. More noise.
Thanks for your help in this, you are truly appreciated.
There is no “making the wrong things loud.” You either have a noisy room or your don’t. You would be the biggest hero if you could make a knob or switch which only made you louder and not the room noise. Your voice adjustments for this clip seem to be loud enough.
I intentionally made the first segment worse. What in your room could make that noise? Are you in there with the computer? That could be computer cooling noises. Is the computer right outside your door?
Air conditioner, room fan and fridge noises tend to have a pattern or personality and this sound doesn’t have that pattern.
If you can make that noise go away as you’re speaking, it will make post production and mastering so much easier.
Describe the setup. I’m guessing about the computer making the noise.
I do share this space with my monitor. Geesh, its actually loud enough to do narration. The HVAC was off when I recorded this so…the monitors the culprit.
Sure, Koz you too can have stalker breath too
Well, I have no ideas on how to remedy this. I use the screeny to view scripts and monitor audacity. It gets loud after being on a while. Typically I record early or super late and the motors not so overworked.
i replied but cant see it. Im replying via cell right now.
my set up is in a walkin closet. one side has been converted to hold the monitor, all hard surfaces are covered. But with an entire engine near the mic, it really doesnt matter, I guess. the monitor and keyboard are all together on the same desk. I have no idea how to fix this issue. It seems segregation of monitor and mic is the proper solution.
The presentation is close. With careful noise reduction you can get there, but too much noise reduction can give talking into a milk jug distortion to your voice. I don’t have an inside track at ACX, but I suspect strongly they watch (listen) for that milk jug sound to complain about excessive noise. In that case, you didn’t actually fail technical conformance. You failed the second step, Human Quality Control—the theatrical test.
Another name for that distortion is “cellphone sound.”
The only solution I know of is don’t bring the computer and fans in with you. People have set up computers outside the studio and run wires inside for keyboard, mouse and monitor and USB Microphone. That can have problems, too, because high quality microphone USB cables will not go long distances.
I did a passable version by not using the computer at all. There’s a fuzzy rule about giving up if you struggle with the computer for longer than about three weeks.
That’s a Zoom H1n stand-alone recorder. That’s the lowest-end one. I suspect strongly anything in that product line will work. A variation on the paper script (the actual script I used for a sound test) is an iPad or equivalent with the script on it. Those don’t make noise. I know people who can do it on their phone, but I’m not one of them.
I would kill to be able to record on an iPod/iPhone, but no luck there so far. That has its own problems. Where are you going to put the script?
…and the hits just keep on coming and right now I’m feeling like Frazier down on the mat, not Ali
Geesh…is my wonder booth a total bust???
You know I considered purchasing a Zoom H5 Four-Track Portable Recorder after watching a youtube dude…record on one in a makeshift sound booth that was actually him in a laundry closet packed w/ sofa pillows, beneath a blanket. The fact that he could travel with it and it ran on batteries was a thumbs up for me. But then I was gifted the mic I have now as a surprise…and I do love my AT2035…
Well, check this out. Here’s the response I just got today from ACX on the sample. But clearly, I’ve got work to do!
So I’m slowly emerging from Frazier down on the mat back to the standing tall Ali…I’m gonna figure this thing out! Oh and to answer your question about where my script would be, an Ipad. I’m addicted to highlighting my characters or unknown words in various colors as a reminder on how to pronounce and to pitch up or down.
Pretty much my comments. “It’s r e a l l y close.”
The problem with ‘really close’ is no room for error. If you do anything at all wrong, you could fall off the end of acceptance. And, see, I’m not the only one that can hear a buzz back there. You mentioned that your room can heat up and the fan gets louder. You’ll need to stop reading when it does that.
You have a wussy version of this error. There’s a thing called the Yeti Curse which is a piercing whine clearly audible even if you pass ACX by a handy margin. We designed a tool specifically to suppress this error it was so prominent. We could do this because it was almost always the same sound and from the same cause. No such luck with your Mac fans. That’s just wild trash noise.
This is where you play Entertainment Producer. It’s up to you how to proceed. I would have popped for the H5.
One other note: Once you start a book Do Not Change Anything. ACX demands your chapters match. There was a poster who moved houses in the middle of a book. “Please help me match my voices.” I don’t know that we ever dug her out of that. That problem is pretty deadly.
I’ll follow up after it arrives and I bang out a slamming recording.
Listen Koz, your knowledge, candor and support is well worth me putting all my business out in the streets of Audacity Forum readers. I’m glad I reached out. Thank you much. I’ll be in touch!!
I needed that today…I got a bad case of blues brought on by exhaustion-itis. Buut if you can get me sounding more clear, passing ACX, it’ll definitely lift spirits and I’ll keep on a narrating!! Oh and Thanks for the sample submission info…this is really great.
