Below is a note today from ACX re my recent submission of a completed 36 chapter book:
The ACX Quality Assurance Team has reviewed your recently-completed audiobook, "Journey To Destiny (Tigers On The Road Book 1) ". We have found 1 issue that must be corrected before we are able to process your audiobook for retail sale.
Below, we have listed the requirements not met, the files affected, and our recommended solutions:
• Issue: Inconsistent spacing. Please revise and ensure all files contain the proper amount of space at the start (before narration begins) and at the end (after the last spoken word).
o Requirement: room tone at the beginning and end
o Solution: Please edit your files so they have the required room tone spacing. Each uploaded file must have between 0.5 and 1 second of at the beginning, and between 1 and 5 seconds of room tone at the end. Learn Editing and Spacing with Alex the Audio Scientist.
When I submitted these chapters, I included 5 secs of room tone at the beginning and another 10 seconds at the end (I thought i read somewhere to do that)
So can I go to each chapter’s Edit Master and merely delete 4 seconds from the beginning and 5 secs from the end then export as a new MP3 v2 file and then upload the new v2 file to ACX ( while obviously deleting the older ones).
Sounds simple … am I missing something??? Thanx for your help
I tried my idea and it didn’t work. I went to the Edit Master for Ch 1, deleted a few seconds on either end of the track, exported as a new version of the chapter in wav, then exported the new version in mp3.
I then uploaded the new mp3 to the ACX site but when I played it back, the original room tones were still there … 5 secs in front and 10 in back.
There may be some hidden problems. You can’t easily edit the submitted MP3s. If you do it in Audacity, the new MP3 Export will be at a lower sound quality than the original. That’s the Export MP3 at Constant Bitrate of 192 or higher thing ACX insists on.
Audacity doesn’t edit MP3s. It opens them up to Audacity’s own super high quality internal sound format, performs whatever corrections you want and then makes a whole new MP3. So what you get is the current MP3 distortion, plus the original MP3 distortion. So it’s not 192 quality any more.
If all you’re going to do is shear off excess room tone beginning and end, there are pure MP3 editors which can do that with no increase in sound damage. These editors are very limited in the tricks and tools they have (you won’t be editing your radio theater on them, for example) but this seems a natural for what you want to do.
Now, the production shock. What you’re supposed to do is open up the Edit Master WAV file you exported before you made the MP3s and edit a copy of that. Audacity can handle that no trouble at all.
The other place you’re supposed to export WAV files is raw readings. There is no ‘read it over again because you damaged an edit so badly there is no recovery.’ Just open up the protection WAV sound file and start over.
Keep valuable works in two different places. I use the pointer idea. Point to two different places that have your work. Point to the computer and a separate thumb drive, point to an external hard drive, even point “up” to signify you saved the work on the cloud somewhere. What you should not do is point to the computer twice.
Readings are too big for this, but I know people who save production work as attachments they email to themselves. Your computer can turn into a smoldering pile of ash, but the emails will almost always be there waiting for you.
I live in an earthquake zone. I mail thumb drives to my sister four time zones away.
Now, the production shock. What you’re supposed to do is open up the Edit Master WAV file you exported before you made the MP3s and edit a copy of that. Audacity can handle that no trouble at all.
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Koz, I did as you suggest above. I went to the Edit Master Wav file, made the changes by deleting seconds in the front and back.
I then saved that as a v2 Wav and then exported again as a v2 MP3.
When I play that back in Audacity, the changes are there … but when I uploaded to ACX and played back, the changes weren’t there.
Did you play that one back to make sure it was OK? You didn’t say those words.
Which Audacity are you using? There was an early Audacity version that had trouble exporting work over existing work with the same filename. Those people had some surprises.
Is this a browser issue? Refresh the browser.
Pull the “stuck” chapter down and INFO it to see what the dates are. My bet is you’re looking at the original file. It didn’t actually post.
I then uploaded the new mp3 to the ACX site but when I played it back, the original room tones were still there … 5 secs in front and 10 in back. What am I doing wrong???
If you played back the MP3 before you uploaded it and it was fine, then what you’re doing wrong is asking us to explain ACX’s publication file management.
I never got this far. There must be something magic about how you post a corrected chapter. Is there a method of deleting the posted work before you try to push new work? I can see the chaos of trying to manage two different chapter files with the same name.
You are now the expert. Post as you find more information. Typically, ACX has very restricted conversation with authors and presenters, so It’s possible Google may be the answer. I know if you get rejected, they carefully explain what went wrong and then cut you off. There is no casual, extended chat about it, particularly now with the virus stresses. ACX has published messages to the effect that they are overloaded and will probably stay that way for a while.
There is one thing you can do. Produce a very short audiobook test or “audition” and post that. Unless you did that already once, there will be no collisions or conflicts and you should get a flag to go ahead with the rest of the book—assuming the audition was OK.
I collected all the Audition stuff in one place.
Koz
*ACX Audition
Also Known as ACX Test Clip and ACX Sample.
An Audition is a short reading you can submit to ACX to prove your performance quality before you submit a whole book. ACX will review your work and post comments. The work does not have to be produced using Adobe Audition.
Works must be perfect and ‘Retail-Ready’. ACX will not change any work once you submit.
Auditions should be between three and five minutes long.
Auditions should have 0.5 to 1 second of Room Tone at the beginning and 1 to 5 seconds of Room Tone at the end.
Auditions must be in MP3 sound format with constant bitrate of 192, minimum.
Auditions must have sound peaks no louder than -3dB.
Auditions must have a voice RMS (loudness) value between -18dB and -23dB.
Auditions must have Room Tone (natural background room sound without you performing-or moving-or breathing) quieter than -60dB.