Overthinking about troubles getting started with narrating

[kozikowski]

@MasterOverthinker

I did have my daughter’s hoverboard charger plugged into the outlet below my desk, so perhaps that wasn’t helping!

Where was the actual charger? The power in the wall is usually well behaved. It’s 60Hz (in the US) and even if it does leak a little into a show, it dies pretty quickly in Mastering which deletes almost everything lower than 100Hz. The instant you put the power to work all bets are off. Most jobs create distortion in the power while they’re working and that creates other tones. Your interference was 120Hz which you have no trouble hearing and Mastering doesn’t touch. That’s why I applied the hum software.

I’ll try it again manually instead of using the tool.

Isn’t it a scream that microphone makers keep insisting you buy their microphone, quickly become a successful audiobook reader, and retire to a nice beach cottage on the California coast?

Of course, given our current wildfires, that may not be the best idea, but you get the drift.

Koz

[kozikowski]

I created a custom filter that got rid of the worst hum. Do you still hear the metallic tones? that problem should be gone. The correction that gets rid of the crispness and most mouth noises is still there. If that works, I’ll post how I did it.

Koz

[MasterOverthinker]

Oooh that sounds great! Thank you so much for the time you’ve put into checking this out for me, it’s very much appreciated!

I’m assuming the charger wasn’t the issue then. I’ve been running the laptop off battery when I record, so I’m not seeing anything right there, but I am right next to an air handler in my room, and our TV with alllll of those fun plugs are maybe 5 feet away. I wish I could move into our walk in closet or spare room, but alas, we need to access the clothing in there and there’s isn’t much room in the spare. I miiight be able to move the room around and get myself into another corner, but not sure if a bit more distance will actually help that or not.

Those darn microphone manufacturers! I’m ready to go now XD even moving from free podfic to doing a few paid books would be fun for me. I enjoy writing, and the idea of narrating my own book (if I ever get around to actually writing one) is really appealing.

[kozikowski]

First step was reduce to mono.
Split Stereo to Mono. [ x ] delete the dead (flat) track.

Select the whole track > Tools > Apply Macro > 36Audiobook-Mastering-Macro. No OK. It just does it.

Select the whole track > Effect > EQ and Filters > Notch Filter > 120Hz, 5Q > Apply

Select the whole track > Effect > Eq and Filters > Low Pass Filter > 4500Hz, 12dB > Apply.

Select the whole track > Analyze > Steve Daulton > ACX-Check.

That should pass, if it doesn’t, Apply 36Audiobook-Mastering-Macro again. If noise fails, post back.

I found the Read Your Chapter text file. This is what it looks like when nothing goes wrong. Version 3

=================
Read your chapter with wired headphones in a quiet, echo-free room. Repeat whole sentences if you make a mistake.

Stop.

File > Export the work, errors and all, as a WAV (Microsoft) file for protection.

Edit the work to get rid of word-o’s, stumbles, stutters, tongue ticks, lip smacks, and other errors.

Tools > Apply Macro > 36Audiobook-Mastering-Macro.

ACX-Check. If it passes and you like the way it sounds, Export a new WAV (Microsoft) file as Edit Master and go on to the next chapter.

=====================

There is a page of detailed explanations of each step, but you don’t need that unless something fails. Plus right this second, I can’t find it.

Koz

[kozikowski]

But wait. There’s more.

I made a mistake in the step-by-step posting and then the forum software wouldn’t let me correct it. !@#$%. It’s correct now, but you should look fresh to make sure.

And I found the step by step explanation.

“Read Your Chapter” Detailed Notes

— Read your chapter with wired headphones.

Highly recommended. Once you get accustomed to your own voice in your ears, all your volume, emphasis, and expression errors go away—or give you obvious notes that you need to fix them. Wireless headphones/earphones can complicate a recording session and cause problems.

— a quiet, echo-free room.

Echoey, Recording-In-The-Bathroom Voice can’t be fixed, and the noisy Metrobus going by can’t be removed.

I can do very respectable recordings in my garage. The boxes make terrific soundproofing, but I have to do it at night for best neighborhood background sound and I still have to pause periodically to miss the Metrobus.

— Edit the work.

Edit the work to get rid of of reading noises and mistakes. ACX told me my submitted test file was Practically Perfect in Every Way, but they couldn’t deal with my mouth noises. Tongue Ticks, Lip Smacks, and Glottal Stops are hard to fix and have the story still sound natural. Good luck.

There’s a Post Production editing job what should not be entirely post production. If you make a mistake, stop reading, leave the recorder running, look back to the next even sentence or phrase and read the whole sentence again with the correction. Continue on. When you get to the end of the chapter, Export a WAV Microsoft Protection File.

Only then roll the performance back and remove the broken sentence and do other corrections and edits. If you wait until next week to correct the error, you will never get a matching tone, pitch, emphasis, and rhythm.

— Tools > Apply Macro.

36Audiobook-Mastering-Macro is a one-step collection of tools that includes a rumble filter, a loudness setting tool, and tip and peak corrector. It’s possible your chapter will come out the other end sounding OK and passing the ACX audiobook sound standards. I actually did this once with a test I recorded.

— ACX-Check.

ACX-Check will tell you your chapter sound standards: Peak, RMS (Loudness), and Noise. Last I looked, the on-line ACX Audiolab will not tell you noise.

Noise can get you into trouble. ACX-Check does not like Blackness of Space, Dead-Zero Sounds such as Generate > Silence. ACX uses that as an indicator that you have over-processed your chapter. Heavy noise reduction and other processing can cause vocal tone distortions. If you have to cover up something, do it with your own room tone.

It’s not unusual to need a little push to pass ACX Noise. Classic Noise Reduction can be applied at the gentle 6, 6, 6 settings.

Koz

[kozikowski]

I just now found how to get back into the form messages. I couldn’t find this message thread for about a day. Apparently, the forum admins shuffled the app software around. When I clicked in to post a note, the screen said, “no messages available.”

Well, that’s … special.

Koz

[MasterOverthinker]

Thank you! I didn’t notice any changes at the time, so I must have grabbed it after you made them.

The notch filter is so interesting to look at, I had been avoiding them because I didn’t know much about them. Do you find the right frequency for this by looking at “plot spectrum” and finding the peak there? I’ve been playing with that on other recordings where the peak seems to be somewhere between 100 and 120 at different times.

Everything does seem to pass! I’m experimenting with different levels of that low-pass filter, to see if I can find a compromise between too muffled and too sharp. Also looking at the RX 11 De-ess, though it’s hard to really get a good understanding of all those controls. Experimenting is quite fun though!

I’ll get a longer sample eventually on here.

[kozikowski]

Power tones and damage are different depending on where you are. If you’re in a 50Hz power country, the tones may arrive at multiples of 50. 100, 150, etc. The US has 60Hz power and the natural place for those tones is 120, 240, etc.

And yes, I look for upward spikes at the expected tones. Keep the “Size” value pretty nigh on the tool.

That’s accuracy. You can grab the sides of the analysis window and pull sideways for even better accuracy.

Koz

[kozikowski]

@MasterOverthinker

a compromise between too muffled and too sharp.

Do you still like the one without that filter? If you leave it out, that drops you squarely into the tongue-tick and lip-smack vocal noise world. So no, it’s not just crisp speech.

I got a suspiciously good deal on an AKG microphone. It was an off-shoot of one of their old-line, highly respected (expensive) microphones. I made it to the second job before I found their idea of a high quality professional vocal microphone is to boost the high pitch, crisp tones so far they’re hard to listen to. I think I used it twice, full stop.

On the left.

That was a radio broadcast interview. That’s Audacity on the laptop.

Koz

[kozikowski]

I got to know the scheduling and facilities ladies at that job. They had several conference rooms, but only one of them was totally soundproofed. That one. It didn’t look special, but you could stand in the middle of the room and clap and absolutely nothing would echo back. I didn’t check it, but I understand the air conditioning pipes were quilted and made zero noise. Close the drapes and the windows would go away.

“Good morning. How would you like me to buy you lunch? By the way, I need Conference A this afternoon …”

The microphone to the right is the backup. You always shoot with a safety backup right?

Koz

[MasterOverthinker]

Back finally! Sorry it’s been a while, I’ve since managed to put out some auditions and actually received an offer, so I jumped on that, but then went on vacation (prematurely celebrating - nah just kidding, Disney trip with the kiddo).

To answer your question, I did not necessarily like that one of mine without the filter just as it was, until I did some work with it with the mouth declicker plugins. But I think my issue is I’ve gotten so used to hearing myself clearly, that it threw me off on the filter (might be something I’ll have to accept, listeners won’t have heard my voice outside of what Audible shows them, so they won’t know the difference).

So I finally managed to grab another sound sample. First one is the raw take, the second one is with what I’ve started using on the regular. Even though they approved the first 15, I’m still uncertain how ACX will eventually look at it, and I feel like that whole sibilance thing is really getting at me. I’ve tried Paul’s de-esser (which honestly mystifies me), though I’ve fallen back on the IZotope RX one, though even that I can’t seem to fiddle with right (though it seems to help).

I know I’ve got the low pass filter you suggested I could try, but I suppose I’m still trying to explore these other ways.

I played with the mouth declick and declick options for a while, and it seems I simply have to sacrifice some end consonants in order to clean up those mouth noises.

And here’s after I do in RX - HP EQ, mouth declick, declick, de-ess, noise reduction, then back to audacity for editing/breaths/the mastering macro.

Here’s a specific question I have actually - I wanted to save noise reduction for the end after I make the manual timing/some breathing edits in Audacity, but I’ve started noticing that I’ll get all kinds of tall lines that blip (artifacts?) when using copy-punch paste plugin on the non-noise reduced audio, which are much harder to remove. Do you happen to have any idea on that? If I can find a way to insert a picture as an example I’ll do that. What’s odd is I don’t think it used to do that.