I’ll probably have to measure that contrast each time, right?
Analyze > Contrast is the only tool in that bunch that runs in RMS. All the rest of them work in Peak, the tips of the blue waves. That’s why it was such a big deal when RMS Normalize was developed. The entire middle of that forum posting collapsed into Effect > RMS Normalize > OK.
There is even a Macro to smash the three mastering tools into one command, but it’s not recommended because of instability in Effect > Equalization. And that was the death of Effect > Equalization. The latest Audacity has that tool in two individual tools that were intended to be much better behaved.
See in the blue waves, they’re not all the same shade of blue? The darker blue are the peaks and tips of the show. Those are easy to calculate and work with, but they don’t have a particularly good relation to sound. The lighter blue is the loudness or “work energy” values. Those are a pain in the neck. Those are ‘area under the wave’ calculus which happens to work out to perceived loudness.
And that gives you two of the three ACX values. How high up and down do the tips of the waves go (Peak) and how loud are they (RMS).
The third value is how loud is the sound when you stop talking? How noisy is it?
I’m sure you noticed by now that the bouncing sound meter and the blue waves don’t match. The sound meter is in dB (proper for sound), but the blue waves are in percent. You just have to know that 50% waves corresponds to -6dB sound. Nobody else does that. That’s an Audacity oddity we hope to solve in a future release.
Your posting is remarkably quiet for a home reading. What is the microphone? That’s my “white knuckle” theory. When you get something that works, hold onto it with white knuckles.
Do you have a favorite for audiobooks?
I bet you’re waiting for a model number, right? In my opinion, new users shouldn’t be using USB or other computer microphones. If you inspect the forum postings, a large majority of them are to resolve troubles with USB microphones. “What’s that mosquito whine sound behind my voice?”
I call that the “Yeti Curse.” It’s not exclusive to them, they just happen to be an insanely popular microphone, so statistically, they appear more.
The last sound test I did was a stand-alone sound recorder, the Zoom H1n.
It passes ACX with simple mastering and no noise reduction.
That’s no joy to work with either, but it’s stable and all the forum pages and pages of USB microphone complaints vanish. Boop. Gone. People are using other variations such as the H4n.
That picture is a little Hollywood Illustration License. Replace all the wood with my quiet bedroom. That’s oblique microphone placement (not straight in front) and the paper towels get the microphone up to about nose level.
Not everybody pops for condenser microphones.
That’s Joe Rogan and his Shure SM7. Terrific microphone, but it frequently needs a Cloud Lifter sound booster, always needs a sound mixer and USB interface or USB microphone interface or sound recorder. It’s a straight, classic analog dynamic (moving coil) microphone. Full Stop. No computer interface.
I have an Electro-Voice RE-15 (no longer made). Same type of microphone, sounds terrific, but has all the above shortcomings. I have a small sound mixer and my older Macs have analog inputs.
Home condenser microphones almost invariably have a Crispness Boost which they insist sounds more “professional.” You can’t turn it off. You end up taking the crispness out of your voice in post-production with special DeEsser software because it hurts your ears and scares the cat.
Whatever you choose, you need to stick with it for a whole book. ACX places great emphasis on having your chapters match.
You can send ACX a short test. Your first exposure to them doesn’t have to be massive sound files and months of work.
Someone came up with the best-named microphone in the world. Professional Broadcasting Studio Recording Condenser Microphone. Actual name. The microphone is complete trash and someone found you could buy one for $14 USD.
Koz