If I screw things up, just start over with the raw file. Of course that is a simpleton workflow I suppose.
Also the recommended one. Retakes may be possible with a home producer, but the grownups frown on it—sometimes to the point of never calling you back.
Anyone who is making 6-hour podcasts should be shot!
The joke is they don’t need a microphone since they’re only entertaining themselves. Their equipment lists can be really affordable.
.wav is the .tiff of the audio world?
Not exactly. WAV doesn’t have a million user options nobody ever uses.
At a high-level, what are the “standards for audio books”? (Not sure I follow what that means…)
They seem simple.
They run smack into recording device problems. Home recording microphones typically record at low volume. That’s to keep you out of trouble since high volume and overload is immediately fatal. However, low volume recording is a time bomb. It puts your voice close to the microphone noise level.
This is a noise example. It’s a tiny sound mixer I designed a built using early, poor electronics.
In that example, the background noise volume is -46dB. That’s much too loud. It needs to be at least -60dB and preferably quieter to pass ACX conformance.
All microphones and microphone systems make that fffffffff background sound, some more than others. It’s a juggling act. In addition, the type of noise can be important. It’s possible to have ocean waves and a baby screaming on a jet to be the same technical volume…
I’m shy, but we can talk if I ever get it done!
Post the internet address so we can hear the work. You can post sound on the forum, too, but you can only post 10 seconds stereo and 20 seconds mono. I wrote a forum test clip format.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/TestClip/Record_A_Clip.html
Yeah, there is an endless supply of “crap” on the Internet… (All the better for me if I can produce quality and differentiate myself with quality content!)
But content is important. I follow a podcast whose audio is sometimes impossible to hear. But it’s theatrically engaging.
And what about “broadcast standards”?
That tends to revolve around the behavior of the transmitter and audio system. No zero carrier (AM) overload—ever—and -60dB noise limit from the microphone system to the demodulator output, etc. I have to look up the distortion spec. FM and television are even wackier because they have intentional distortion (emphasis) you have to work around. Blast from the past…
getting my gear set up so I can properly record.
The gear doesn’t effectively matter if you have a quiet room.
The important part is what you don’t see. That room has carpeting and Home Depot sound tiles on the walls and ceiling.
Koz