Hi, I have done an audiobook before for acx, but realized when it was too late to start recording everything again that I shouldn’t have my microphone input at 100%.
My first audiobook and trying to fix the audio took a lot and life got busy so I took a break for almost a year, and now I am looking to get back into it. I recorded this clip quickly (at 75% input) for an audition for a book I’m interested in narrating, and I discovered the “audiobook mastering macro” and used it on my recording.
I tried with and without doing noise reduction first. When I ran ACX Check at the end, the one I did noise reduction passed noise floor but failed the other two, and the one I didn’t do noise reduction for I failed all.
I am rusty and re-learning audacity, so I would really appreciate any insight to help me figure out what I’m doing wrong and what settings would be best! Thank you.
Raw audio:
Noise reduction (6,6,6) and audiobook mastering macro on preset settings:
Thinking maybe I was too far from the microphone? There wasn’t a lot of background noise besides the microphone itself. But my understanding of the loudness normalization and then the limiter was that they would set everything to be within the acx limits and limiter wouldnt let anything go above -3.5? So then it shouldn’t be failing peak and RMS. Is this wrong? Again I’m rusty so I need to re-learn alot.
The audiobook mastering macro will nail the the peak & RMS requirements every time!
Typically, setting the RMS levels boosts the volume and that boosts the noise and that’s a separate issue.
The setting doesn’t tell you anything. It’s the actual level that’s important, and that depends on how loud the sound is, the sensitivity of the mic, the gain of the electronics, etc.
Digital levels aren’t critical as long as you don’t “try” to go over 0dB and clip (distort). You generally don’t have to worry about digital levels, except if you can’t get a strong digital signal it may be an indication of a problem with your acoustic or analog setup. i.e. Turning down the recording level doesn’t hurt anything.
But a strong acoustic signal into the microphone and corresponding strong analog levels give you a better signal-to-noise ratio, relative to acoustic and electrical noise.
Thank you! So I’m thinking with the lower recording level it will help to reduce unwanted room noises (I was getting way too much at 100%), but it seems I need to speak more closely into the mic and I am remembering now that I did used to be closer to it, I just need to make some adjustments to my recording space to make it more comfortable to speak more closely into the mic.
I still don’t understand why the peak and RMS levels are both coming out way too high after only applying the mastering macro, and after noise reduction and mastering macro though.
That being said, I went back in and did the noise reduction AFTER the mastering macro (forgot that was a better order than doing it before), and then I went into regular normalize and normalized peak to -3.5dB and it passed everything! I just thought the mastering macro should have left peak and RMS levels correct because they are supposed to set them specifically within those parameters? So I’m still confused why it was way too high. Peak was -0.97, and RMS was -16.06, right after doing just the mastering macro from raw.
This is it with mastering macro, then noise reduction 666, then normalized to -3.5:
That’s really strange. I have it set to cardioid pattern and am talking into the front of it, with a pop filter in front and the wind filter thing as well. I have it in a box, could that be the cause? Or anything else that could cause it?
The audiobook mastering macro is still really not getting the right levels. Like 0.77dB peaks which causes it to distort when the original raw was at like -7 something; way too low and not distorted at all. All im doing is running the macro straight from downloading it, not changing any settings, and thats what it did. I can normalize AFTER the macro to -3.5 and it brings things to the right levels, but the distortions are still there.
Hi Trebor, I’m just wondering if you have any ideas of what could cause the gap in my audio? Would it be a mic fault that it is not picking up that frequency?
I haven’t edited in the format your video clip is showing, but looking at spectral view I can see the gap you’re mentioning, and you had mentioned it previously when I had made another post. I can’t really afford a new mic right now and am mid process with this book. I’ve tried looking at the microphone settings on my computer and in audacity and don’t see anything that would be interfering with that frequency or changing the audio at all. The only thing I have done with the input is recording at 75% input level in the one I posted there, and now I have brought it up to 85% for another take to see if that works better.
I am trying to tweak the sound now before I get into the rest of the book. I’m working on the 15 minute checkpoint right now.
I tried a different setup at a desk with a blanket overtop, as before I had the mic in a cardboard box with some foam (not proper acoustic foam though, I know) and a blanket overtop (thick duvet). The new setup at the desk I have a quilted blanket on the desk with thin foam around, and it has a shelf above that makes a square shaped hole where i have put thin foam around as well as a pillow behind the foam on each side and another quilted blanket behind (against the wall) and around the foam/pillows. then I draped my duvet over the shelf and hanging down behind me. I was getting echo before adding the duvet but with it there it sounds better. I’m still not getting the sound I would like and it is still missing that frequency, but I’m wondering if my mic is just crappy, or if it isnt working properly. Unfortunately I’m sure it is past warranty. It is an Aluratek Rocket USB mic.
I’ve never seen a mic fault take a bite out of the spectrum.
It could be the acoustics of the box you’ve put the mic in, or echo-reduction processing “enhancement”,
(or that you’re recording from the computer’s internal mic, rather than the external one).
It shouldn’t be any of those! I switched location with a new setup outside of the box and it looks exactly the same. I don’t have any known settings doing any kind of enhancement on it, and I am definitely recording from my mic, with my computer at a distance so I don’t pick up the computer “hum”. I check every time that the audio is set up properly to come through my mic.
I followed the link you sent about audio enhancements. There are no options for this mic in settings for audio enhancements on input. The only option I saw was on output, where I turned off all audio enhancements. I tried recording again and it still looks the same. There is no options to adjust settings on the microphone input other than volume.
