Hi everyone,
I’ve been reading all almost all of the posts about people not passing the ACX requirements because the max noise floor of -60db isn’t where it needs to be. I am not tech saavy at all and this is my first time doing audio narration.
I recorded everything and I finished the audio book for the rights holder. Unfortunately, ACX reached out and said there was one issue and that was my noise floor is not a max of -60db. I have no idea what to do and as I’m reading all these posts of similar problems, I am FREAKING OUT that I need to re-record.
I still have my audio file of each chapter in Audacity saved so I can go in and edit, however, it’s not the unedited recording. Its the finished audio file thats been compressed and normalized and etc. why? cause I’m a noob and I didn’t realize I needed to save a wav file and all that.
I just installed the ACX Check plug in and this is what my Chapter 1 audio results came back with (see attached).
Anyone, please help. Is there any way to go about fixing this without buying any new equipment or doing something that I can’t afford? I’m so scared I screwed myself over…I finally recorded 20 chapters and the rights holder approved it and now I can’t get it pass ACX and I’m just thinking of throwing the towel. 
PLEASE HELP!!! Thank you thank you thank you.
Its the finished audio file thats been compressed and normalized and etc.
We can’t take effects and corrections out of a performance. Whose recipe or formula were you using? We have a mastering suite of tools, but it certainly isn’t the only one.
Are you up to recording a test clip?
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/TestClip/Record_A_Clip.html
Give this a shot. Record it and don’t correct anything. Just export the sound file and send it here. This isn’t Summer In The Parks theater readings. It doesn’t matter if you cut off a word or make a mistake. We just want to get a feeling of what you and the room sound like—in 18 seconds.
The reason you failed noise is everybody fails noise. -60dB in English means your background noise has to be a thousand times quieter than your speaking voice. That means no highway, Metrobus, air conditioner or refrigerator noise. No clocks in the room. Chick…chick…chick…chick…
Koz
Just so we’re all talking about the same number values.
“Zero” in sound-speak is maximum volume. If any part of your voice tries to get louder than that, it can become permanently damaged and sound terrible. The rest of the numbers go negative from there. -3dB is quieter than that. -20dB is quieter yet and -60dB is so quiet you almost can’t hear it. Those are the three cardinal ACX sound levels.
It’s possible to mess this up in some very entertaining ways. For example the noise level in that panel is -103dB. That’s too good. That means some corrections have been over-applied and that usually damages the sound quality.
Koz