Simple audiobook edits for better sleep?

Audacity 3 Help Forum
1

I nave a few hundred 8-12 hour audiobooks that are used exclusively to help me sleep. Lately I’ve become particularly sensitive to sibilance, notably the hiss from “s” and “sh,” and I’d like to use Audacity to tone this down. I’m totally fine diminishing audio quality to accomplish this.

Is there a generic brute force process I can follow to edit all my audiobooks for a better sleep experience? Casual research has suggested the steps below. It takes awhile to process all of these steps, perhaps there’s a more direct approach or macro generator?

  1. Mix Tracks to Mono
  2. Noise Reduction 12/6/3
  3. Low-Pass Filter 4000/6
  4. Compression -12/-50/2.2:1/1.25/1.2
  5. Loudness Normalization – RMS -20
  6. Limiter 0/0/-2.75/10
  7. Click Removal 184/24
  8. De-Esser -20/10/2500/7642/10/5
2

Probably all you need need is the low-pass filter (or tone control or EQ) and/or De-essing. Compression might make it worse!

A little mic-bass boost might help too.

Different speakers might make a difference too.

3

Thank you, Doug. I play files through an iPad, not much I can do about those speakers.

4

Hello 8000Hz sample-rate : goodbye sibilance.
(before-after)

5

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