I found ACX and RMS Normalize and downloaded them but have tried every which way to install/execute and I’m stuck.
You got semi-lucky. In working with one of other posters, it turns out some Macs like to change the filename of the plugins that download. It’s not enough of the time to ring bells, but it’s often enough to be a pain in the neck. One of those problems impossible to figure out until you get lucky.
Start with where you download files. I use my desktop, your mileage may vary. Right Click or Control-Click Acx-check.ny > Get INFO.
Somewhere down the INFO panel should be the “official” filename window. I bet it doesn’t say Acx-check.ny. I bet it says Acx-check.ny.txt.
Highlight and delete the .txt part. OK the warnings. Close the INFO panel.
Now drag Acx-check.ny to the Audacity plugins folder.
Acx-check.ny appears in Analyze, not Effect. Add/ Remove Plugins.
Some of that is abbreviated. Let us know if you get lost.
Do that little dance to RMS-Normalize. That one appears in Effects, not Analyze.
I lived in Greenpoint down the block from the India St. fire station. Street traffic and all night subway were nothing compared to a hook and ladder.
I do have CFL lamps as well as LED. Maybe one of those is the mystery noise.
Start recording a sound test, light a candle (if you need one) and turn all the lights off. Semi-announce what you’re doing. “Here goes the desk lamp!”
Do you have the microphone on a towel and book so it doesn’t pick up trash from the floor or table?
Ok.
Filename is “Acx-check.ny.txt” which I knew wo INFO window. It’s named that way beneath folder.
I renamed.
I went to ANALYZE->ADD/REMOVE PLUG-INS
I can’t drag “ACX-Check.NY” into that window. Unless I’m doing something very wrong. That is the plug-ins folder, right?
RMS-Normalize.NY doesn’t have .txt extension. But I also can’t drag it into EFFECTS->Add/Remove Plug-Ins. Maybe I’m dragging it incorrectly. They just keep going back to desktop.
That pile of numbers in my post (and that document) fits into each effect panel as you open the tool. To take the worst one, Limiter, those are all the empty boxes from top to bottom. Most of the tools are sticky so you only have to enter the numbers once.
When you get that far, you’re already past the top three or four paragraphs of that document. Start with Process.
The mouth sounds are a problem. I don’t always have them. I have to stay hydrated. And I rotate between Xylitol gum, green apples, Biotin spray. It’s more important for me to focus on connecting to the copy so I try not to get too upset with the clicks. If any remain, I highlight a section where I’m not speaking, Effect->Noise Reduction->Get Noise Profile followed by
selecting all. Effect->Noise Reduction->numbers seem to adjust themselves->OK. That usually does the trick.
I read about izotope but that looks very labor intensive.
Noise Reduction->numbers seem to adjust themselves
There is a default general setting for music. If you can’t hear it working, then you win. Too much Noise Reduction is audible as honking or talking into a wine glass or rain barrel. What were the numbers?
I’m back because I really, really want to upgrade to the latest Audacity - especially for punch and roll.
But I’m very wary of losing all the modifications you gave me.
If there are incompatibilities, does the software walk you through making them happy?
And I hope all is well with you.
Thank you and Best,
Bonnie
Currently running audacity 2.2.0 on MacOS Mojave 10.14.4
does the software walk you through making them happy?
The software doesn’t have to be happy. The client has to be happy. The Audiobook Mastering system sometimes creates intentional distortion in the middle of the process. But only I, you and the studio audience knows that the distortion will be cleaned up later. So in that one case, you can’t rely on the software responses.
I don’t know that any of the tools are massively different than they were earlier in your career. The last, I think two versions of Audacity are 64-bit applications instead of 32-bit to accommodate Apple’s insistence that everybody do clean changeovers for their machines. Bottom line is you can’t easily run your older and newer Audacity versions on the same machine (that I know of).
I can be corrected there.
Do Not, (I think it’s obvious) make any sort of change in the middle of a book, project or show. There was a recent post from someone who was forced to change locations in the middle of a book and was horrified when the sound in the new place didn’t match the old. I think we convinced them the majority of the difference was simple volume shifts and after accounting for that, the two presentations came very close to each other.
I don’t remember, are you reading for audiobooks? The standards for those haven’t changed in a while so even though your process may be a little different, it should in the end come out OK.
Did you use any plugins or separate apps or processes? That may be the place to worry about compatibility problems. DePopper, DeClicker, DeEsser?
Step through a typical presentation as a test and do a screen grab (Shift+Command+3) of each tool setting panel. Shift+Command+4 allows you draw a box around a part of the screen and capture that. That’s how I made this picture.
That’s one of the steps in the mastering process. Much more important was a odd setting for DeEssing that I got to work really well, and then forgot to write down. Gotta love those screen grabs.
I know it’s possible to have several different Audacity versions and that seems to be what would do you the most good. But I don’t remember the spells, or even if it can be done in your circumstances.
Thank you for getting back to me. Not sure why the system didn’t notify me that you’d responded or I would have been back here more quickly.
I don’t do a lot of audiobook work. It’s 90% voice over work for commercials, narrations, promos.
I’m not worried about doing screen grabs of the process because I kept all your genius notes on the settings. And I believe the only thing I had to add was the de-clicker. If you’ve made the de-esser great, I’m happy to do that.
So how do I begin?
Should I backup my current version of the software as a just in case?
Which is the best link for the download? (MacBook Pro). And then just run the upgrade and cross my fingers and do what I always did? I suspect I’ll have to add in the de-clicker again.
