Actually, it doesn’t pass ACX. Are you using Audacity Audiobook Mastering Macro? That’s a suite of tools we designed to guarantee RMS (Loudness) and Peak.
And there’s still some “room” bounce in there. That’s going to be fun to fix. There’s no good software remedy.
Yes, do all your work in perfect quality WAV format until the final step when you make the MP3 for submission. The WAV file right before that is your Archive Edit Master.
You can’t edit or change an MP3 file without causing damage.
One theatrical note. Speed it up. That’s not the speed you would talk to a real person. You still have to maintain the ACX spacing between the title and intro, etc, but don’t sound like you’re dragging your finger on the record while you’re performing.
You should keep your transactions on the public forum. Other people trying to follow this will get lost if you jump in and out of the conversation.
There are two software packages super handy for audiobook readers. ACX-Check which can tell you if your chapter passes ACX requirements, and Audiobook Mastering Macro.
Mastering is a list of instructions that tell other software what to do. It’s one step instead of the three or four that it used to take. It guaranteesRMS (Loudness) and Peak.
This got changed in the last forum update. Looking.
Also, Noise Floor seems to pass but is still too loud. It is strongly recommended maintaining at least -65dB. This could be a reaction to that 120Hz wall power hum background sound Trebor’s been struggling with.
…and that can be a reaction to having your voice too quiet. See: adjust for flashing red light. You can’t skip steps. Everything is hooked to everything else.
120Hz is a noise generated by flourescent lights and regular lights on dimmers. Do you have any of those?
How long is the USB cable between the microphone and the computer?
Is the computer a laptop and does the hum change when you go to batteries instead of wall power?
I’ll go back and listen again. I was more concerned with rhythm and pace of the presentation.
Your posting seems to work, it sounds like you, and it passes ACX-Check.
But.
That’s your cut with over a full second of “air” missing. Spaces between the phrases cut or “tightened up.”
I know this isn’t exactly entertainment material, but still. If you did the original rhythm in front of a class, you’d lose the people in the back row in the first ten minutes.
The last time we had people with ticks in the sound, it responded favorably to changing the USB cable. The “normal” USB cable is about a meter - 39 inches long. It’s intended to connect things on your desk, not to something across the room. If you have a different USB cable, even if it’s longer, it would be good to try it and see if the problem changed.
I did an experiment to prove the ancient advice that you could always record in your garage. It worked. All the boxes and trash in my garage made terrific soundproofing and all I had to do was wait until street traffic died out—except one thing. I had to cover up the metal garage doors. I could hear them in the voice.
This is one of two furniture moving pads in partial install.
There is one odd troublemaker. Audacity hates working with non-internal drives. You should be doing all your announcing, editing, effects, and corrections on C:\ , or D:\ if you’re in windows, or Macintosh HD (for example) if you’re on a Mac.
The worst thing you can do is try production while connected to cloud storage.
Everyone insists cloud drives are “just like a real drive.”
