Hi Koz,
I don’t think I quite understood your reply and how it pertains to batch processing for a lot of sound files.
But my hunch is that I have to open each of the 213 files separately and then run the chain. Does that sound right?
Even if I can do mastering myself at a basic level based on the recommendations I’ve gotten from this forum, does it make more sense to have a professional sound engineer master your ACX recording before submitting? Will they be able to make it sound better? Just wondering…
Audacity’s Macros can do either. You can make a Macro that chains multiple effects which you can then apply to the current project, or you can create a Macro that can be applied to multiple audio files. When creating a Macro for batch processing multiple files, the final command should be one of the “Export” commands so that the changes are saved.
I have an odd book project because it’s a language learning text book
how it pertains to batch processing for a lot of sound files.
I’m doing the overall view from 10,000 feet. If your goal is publish with ACX, you may have stepped outside their guidelines. Is there a story? Am I likely to load this up for a listen on a hike around the forest? Back and forth to work on the subway/metro?
ACX tends not to like projects with an automatic restricted audience.
Can I buy it on Amazon?
These are Corona Virus-related guidelines we found out about when another poster had trouble getting published in spite of meeting the technical recommendations.
Hi Koz,
I didn’t write the book, I just got hired to read it. The Rights Holder has the print version of the book on Amazon already, and as for whether or not people will buy it, I would imagine someone learning a language would want to have access to an aural experience of the book. How else would one know how the language sounds? So the Rights Holder asked that each vocabulary list and grammar lesson be split into its own chapter, hence the 213 chapters, all of which are 30 sec-5 minutes in length.
I’m learning a lot from this project, so that’s good. It’s also taking a lot of time maybe because I’m being so thorough about editing for mouth-clicks and the like. It’s all part of my learning process–and nothing teaches you more about voice acting than listening to yourself!
nothing teaches you more about voice acting than listening to yourself!
I can do better. There’s nothing like getting to the end of the book and realizing how dreadful you were at the beginning. Fortunately, that usually only happens once.
Hello All,
If I wanted to hear my .aup files of all of my chapters all in a row, is there a way I could do that easily? I’d like to hear a group of chapters together in a row before I master them and turn them into mp3s, just to know if they sound ok the way I’ve timed them.
Just a caution here. You don’t have “aup” files. You have Projects with AUP files and associated _DATA folders. It’s a common error to lose, move, damage, or rename one or the other and that chapter will no longer open.
It’s also a new user error to speak into a Project and then take that one, single project all the way through mastering and then make the submitted MP3 file. Projects don’t have the stability of single, common sound files and the forum is full of people who did everything perfectly and their Project just will not open.
Right after you perform, File > Export a WAV of the work, so that if everything else falls apart, you won’t have to announce it again. Then, near the end, after mastering, Export a WAV (not the same name) as the edit master. Only then export the submission MP3. You can’t change the MP3 once you do that without causing quality or sound damage. So the final Project or the Edit Master WAV is a big deal.
I wanted to hear my .aup files of all of my chapters all in a row
Darn good question. I know how to do that with a lot of work, but maybe there’s an easier way. I’m pretty sure there’s a pre-baked way to do that. We can wait for another elf if I can’t find it.
Dear Koz,
Thank you for the info on the wav. files. I think I’ll turn everything I’ve done into a WAV file TONIGHT. Now you’ve got me good and scared!!
Thanks for your idea on how to hear back the files. Do you know if there is a limit to how many minutes/hours of sound file we can have in a given project?
You can have your Audacity Projects, too, but at minimum, you should have:
MyGreatNovel-Chapter1-Raw.wav
and…
MyGreatNovel-Chapter1-EditMaster.wav
There’s a restriction on filenames.
Upper case, lower case, numbers, -dash- and underscore. That’s it. Today is 2020-08-12. No slashmarks.
Since you’re on Windows, you have to also miss the legacy device names. COM, LPT, etc. COM is to help you connect your modem to your telephone line. You do that all the time, right?
I’ve been playing around with the De-Clicker to fix this mouth noise in the middle of the word for the last 1/2 hour. I can’t figure out what settings will take care of this. Any ideas? Thanks for your help!
I’m all for using the spectral tool! Time-consuming is ok. There’s a pandemic going on, what else am I going to do? I watched the video, but what I couldn’t figure out is what button you push to get the undesirable parts of the spectrogram to go away and leave only the desired parts. I only know how to cut out segments of time, not segments of frequencies…is that what the spectral tool does? BTW, I did try reading the manual, but I was lost at parametric EQ and spectral edit shelves… I’m really out of my depth here. Only shelves I know how to edit are the ones in my Ikea bookcase.
One way to do that is to type in the frequency-range of interest in spectrogram settings , (There is also vertical zooming, but than is off by default and has to be switched on in audacity preferences).
Spectral editing tool is like an very precise equalizer.
Drawing a rectangle on the spectrogram defines a frequency-range & a time-interval.
The sound in that rectangle can be attenuated or boosted with the spectral editing tools.
If you attenuate by -20,-30,-40dB the sound is removed.
I don’t think the Audacity manual is helpful to people who have never seen this type of tool.
it’s the kind of thing that needs a video to explain … https://youtu.be/pGku4-CJnzc?t=330
Hi Trebor,
Thank you for your explanation and the video. Definitely much better via video than the manual. And the guy explaining it in the video sounded like Data from Star Trek, which just added to my joy of it. THANK YOU!
I just sang out a spontaneous glorious AH imagining a chorus of angels rejoicing with me in my first EVER successful editing out a non-declicker-able sound from my recording at the spectrogram level!! Where has this been all my audio engineering life? I believe laurels are in order for those who climb to these heights of Audacity acumen. THANK YOU!
