HELP!!! Although I have completed my first book and it was published I still had a hard time utilizing Audacity correctly. I am really new to audiobook recording and trying to understand the settings within Audacity with all the plugins and such and grateful this software is out there but is there an easier way to have something preset for my voice with ACX specifications so I do not have to spend 5 hours per a chapter trying to get my voice to sound somewhat right? I have attached the raw material in Wav and the MP3 format with ACX specifications in a comment section.
raw material for your review. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You got problems way before Graphic Equalization. The recording volume is very quiet. See the blue waves on the timeline?
Occasional tops of the waves should reach about half-way. That’s 0.5 on the left-hand scale. More like this.
That may be fixable in post production, but after I boost your volume, I hear room echoes like recording in the kitchen. Those are much more serious and can’t easily be fixed.
How are you recording? Details on desk, room, microphone, etc.
I need to pick this up tomorrow morning (California time). Your microphone is fancier than the one I had and I need to rip through the instructions a bit—best done with Starbucks®.
I will tell you right now I would put a bit more soundproofing in. Fold over a heavy bath towel and lay it on the desk. Put the sound walls and microphone on that.
See what you can do with the top. It should not be open like that. The problem is you can’t put anything hard up there.
You have the tiny, efficient version of my Kitchen Table Sound Studio.
The microphone pattern selector on the left should be in the mid position, Cardioid. You should be speaking into the side grill of the microphone just up from the company name.
A Koz mentioned you still have noticeable room reverb.
[ There is a refection after a ~6 millisecond delay => a round-trip of ~2m,
so the reflecting surface (wall/ceiling) is ~1m from the mic ].
Never, ever blow into a microphone, but you can speak loudly or even yell.
Forget Audacity for a minute. Turn the INSTRUMENT knob all the way down and the MIC knob all the way up. Turn VOLUME (headphones) down temporarily. Speak normally as a test. Do you get the little light under the company name turning red? If not, speak louder and get closer until you get red flashes. Speak quieter until the red flashes go away. That can be about normal performing volume.
I didn’t make this up. This is from the instruction book.
Post back how this went.
We need responses from the other notes. Are you speaking into the side grill just up from the company name and is the little switch on the left on CARDIOID?
There is an interaction between the microphone and Audacity. That test is next. The kettle is boiling.
The red light is a handy indicator to help you use the microphone properly. It will not break anything to have it flash.
You are replacing the performer/voice artist and the recording engineer, so this can get a little deep.
Having heavy headphones plugged into the back of the G-Track is highly recommended. That can help you maintain level recording volume over the course of a chapter.
ACX puts great stress on making your chapters match and the overall volume constant. Their mantra is “No Destractions.”
And one more note, I think the tonal quality of your voice is just fine the way it is. Nobody likes their own voice the first time they hear it.
Dope D!ck: Diary of a Heroin Addicts Wife. Thank you for asking. I never thought it would be accepted honestly and No I am not trying to advertise. Here is a sample with ACX specifications and the Noise and Notch filter in a WAV no MP3. Please tell me what you think.
