Editing .aup and Gain?

Special Interest Groups Audiobook Production
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Hi to all. I produced an audiobook about four years ago with minimal equipment. Now, I have purchased better items and have two questions.

First, am sure this has been covered but cannot find a definitive answer. I know that you are supposed to save your files as WAV, but some say, as a backup. Do you do all your initial edits in the AUP or WAV file…or does it matter. In the last project, I would save an AUP file, then make a copy of the AUP and edit that. Or is it now better to just edit the WAV file?

Question #2 - I have “built” a very quiet booth. Room noise is approx -80. Laptop is NOT in the room. But when recording I am surprised that the gain on my Scarlett Solo is almost all the way to max. I am using a Rhode NT1-A with the solo. Am about a fist length away from mic. I do not speak softly and most of the time the RMS is about -22. I would have assumed that with gain almost all the way up, the numbers would be much higher. I realize that it is VERY close to ACX check this is bugging me.

Thanks for any help.

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I produced an audiobook about four years ago with minimal equipment.

Do you still have the minimal equipment? Do you have a backup if your shiny new microphone fails?

In my opinion, you read your performance and immediately export it, fluffs, flaws and all as a WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit sound file. Push that off onto a separate storage as backup. There should be no failures so serious that “I have to record it again” unless you made some really serious errors, like said the wrong words. Note that patching an already recorded work days later, while possible, has it’s own quality problems.

Then save a Project and edit your brains out to make a good, clear, finished show. Export that as the Edit Master WAV. Only then burn the MP3 file for audiobook submission. That gives you the bookend WAV files and the submitted MP3, which you can’t edit or change without increasing compression sound damage.

You don’t have to use WAV, you can use Lossless Audacity Projects and you can go with regular Audacity Projects. You can strike regular Audacity Projects off right away because they’re brittle. Search the forum for “My Project (or AUP file) Won’t Open. Please Help!!” It’s not a long search.

The quality winner is the Lossless Audacity Project. It’s perfect except it produces a monstrously large, odd file system.

That leaves the WAV file at very, very slightly lesser quality because of the data conversion dither signal added on export. But they’re much smaller, ordinary, and they will open up on all three computer systems. If you have a client that wants top quality, commonly available files, WAV is the winner. If you post trouble examples on the forum, it is requested you submit in WAV.

Good luck.

Do you have a sample of the first book in any form?

More as we go.

Koz

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I realize that it is VERY close to ACX check

Don’t fall in love with reading directly into ACX. While it is possible sometimes to do that, you may be accidentally creating inaudible errors. Many home systems create rumble and earthquake sounds in the background. They’re almost impossible to hear, but they are sound and they can throw off your voice loudness and peak values.

We produced an Audiobook Mastering Suite of tools to solve all your problems. Or at least all your audiobook problems.

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That’s an extraction from here.

Low Rolloff gets rid of the rumble, RMS Normalize sets RMS (oddly enough) and the Limiter gently pushes the blue wave peaks into compliance. If you read in a quiet, echo-free room, you may be done. One design goal was to use tools that don’t do anything if they’re not needed. Another was to have your reading sound the same before and after (with a possible volume shift) and no audible damage.

It’s all automatic.

I am surprised that the gain on my Scarlett Solo is almost all the way to max.

I’m not. You ran into an odd manufacturer “solution.” Most home systems feature restrained volume. If you record slightly low, in almost all cases, you can boost the volume to where it’s needed in post production and go make coffee. If you overload a sound channel on reading, that will produce clipping which is permanent, instantly obvious, sounds terrible, and will destroy your show. More importantly, it makes you want to send the microphone back. Restrained volume makes you think you’re doing something wrong.

Don’t run the volume all the way up. Stop just short of that. Home systems can sound funny at the extremes. Do you get a green flashing knob during recording? That’s normal.

Turn the INST knob all the way down and don’t press the AIR button.

Are you listening to your own voice with the Solo headphone connection? That’s recommended because it helps keep your overall volume in check.

If you have trouble with P-Popping or other breath noises, back off slightly to a Hawaiian Shaka spacing.

You can go back in to a fist spacing with a pop and blast filter.

Post a sample of your announcing according to this formula.

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

Koz

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Thanks Koz for the advice.

We produced an Audiobook Mastering Suite of tools to solve all your problems. Or at least all your audiobook problems.

A couple weeks ago, I printed out all of the Audacity suites and have been reading them a few times. Great articles! I had the Filter-RMS Norm-Limiter numbers already implemented as Presets. But I am a stickler and would like to get the ACX numbers with as little tinkering as possible. I realize that is difficult with a home setup but I have been (on occasion) been able to do it.

Don’t run the volume all the way up. Stop just short of that. Home systems can sound funny at the extremes. Do you get a green flashing knob during recording? That’s normal.
Turn the INST knob all the way down and don’t press the AIR button.
The GAIN knob on the Solo has max at say 6:00. Mine is at 5:00. Advice I had heard was to have the flashing light go slightly into the Yellow, which mine does. I do have the instrument knob all the way down and the AIR button is not on.

Post a sample of your announcing according to this formula.

Will do as soon as I can. Thanks.

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As requested, here is a 10" sample. Thanks again.