Very Inexperienced & Working on Audio Book

Special Interest Groups Audiobook Production
221

Hi. I’ve been getting help from Koz and was following his directions when I ran into a problem just downloading your file. Since Koz mentioned he’s not a Windows guy, I went looking and found this thread. This is what I wrote to Koz (about twenty minutes ago), and am copying it here in the hope you’ll know what Windows is trying to tell me:

I’m stuck on Step One. I can’t seem to download the acx-check file. The computer gives me two options, it asks me what program I want to use to download it, or do I want to use a program on the computer already–Browse. Neither option works for me. Microsoft (the web option took me there) suggest Nyquist, in the Audacity folder, so I tried that one, but the error message said No Items Found in Folder, and there was nowhere to go from there. I tried Browse and saving it directly to the Plug-In folder, but again got the message No Items Found in Folder. I didn’t try just browsing for the Download folder, because the computer seems to want a program to open the file, not a folder to download it in.

Thanks!
Janet

222

Janet,

I use Linux Mint on my own computer. My wife’s computer is Windows 8.1. She’s on her computer right now. But when able, I’ll get hold of it and try to install the ACX-check plugin, on her copy of Audacity. I didn’t manage to get it working in my copy, in Linux Mint. But the classic testing method is not hard and I have been fine using it.

To make it easier, here’s the link for the traditional (classic) method of testing:
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/ACXTesting/ACXTesting.html

I have that plugin, downloaded and on my computer. If would would like to e-mail me, I could simply send it to you as an attachment. It’s not large at all. I sent you a private message with the file attached. If you still can’t get it, I included my e-mail. I could e-mail it as an attachment. Just some possibilities until I can get hold of my wife’s computer :wink:

George

223

Go for it. Our problem seems to be Jan’s machine insists on “managing” the file instead of just downloading it.

It’s like “Stop helping me! Just give me the stoopid file.”

Koz

224

Exactly Koz! I just e-mailed her the file, all unzipped and ready to stick in the plugins folder. As I understand, that folder is somewhere like c:\program files (x86)\Audacity\pluggins.

Jerreth is squirreled away with her computer right now. So I can’t try it. But I’m pretty sure that’s the case.

George

225

I just heard from Janet. She managed to install and use the ACX-check plug in. But her file failed the check. At least she made some progress.

George

226

Yes. Certainly. Thank you. We may change the tool’s display around a little to make it easier to read. Nothing like following up behind somebody trying to use your tools.

Koz

227

Howdy from Oklahoma. We are still working on the recording of this book. We’re spread pretty thinly with translating the hard copy as well as recording the audio book in English, and working with a team to start up a homesteading education website. Jerreth has been working hard on the recording for several days. But the work has not been without challenges.

The laptop we were using in the studio crashed. I think I can get it back up and running. But it’ll take a couple of days. We did have all but five chapters in multiple back up locations. Jerreth’s personal laptop is almost identical to the crashed laptop. So I set it up for her to record, using that. It is cumbersome, however, as we have to keep taking it down and setting it up. At one point, something got changed. I suspect we bumped a knob on the mixer. Here’s a sample of a raw recording Before the change and then, after.


I’m sure I can find the change and fix it. However, I would like to check in with you folks beforehand. Because, when it first happened, I thought that perhaps it was only a change in the way Audacity displayed the file. So I went through and worked on a file before running tests on it. It seemed to clean up nicely and, it passed. But last night I was copying everything onto my own laptop, where I do most of the editing. I listened to a finished file from earlier and then I listened to one of the finished files from the last afternoon. There is more of a AC hum in the earlier files, though they pass the ACX tests in Audacity. The newer file, to my ear, is better.

Now this makes me ask two things: 1) Is it really better, or am I missing something? 2) If it is better, is the difference enough to make us have to re-record the earlier files?

Thanks so much for your input.

George

228

Quick note before I pull the files down. ACX Check looks at the work roughly the same way the ACX Robot does which was the design center. Too many people failed the ACX Entrance Exam and were then faced with trying to interpret ACX’s failure messages. Now you can fail in the comfort and convenience of your own home.

ACX Check doesn’t do ‘content’ and the -60 noise measurement is usually adequate but will not guarantee a perfect presentation. If all you have is gentle rain on a summer day hiss, that works, but if you have recognizable sounds like hum or Yeti Curse Whine, the noise levels will have to be lower or you will have to figure out how to announce the shows without noise. Post Production corrections (noise reduction) may not do it.

In the early days of videotape editing, SMPTE Time Code was developed so you could have actual hours, minutes, seconds, and frames to edit by. No more seat of the pants editing. Many facilities saw no reason to “waste” valuable audio hardware resources shipping the time code signal around, and you could tell those facilities because they had time code whistles leaking into the sound of every show they produced. It’s instantly recognizable and doesn’t pass the -60dB noise test (attached).


And yes, as you get further along with this, you do start to worry about actual content. Once the ACX Robot isn’t a problem, you now have to worry about Human Quality Control, generally ACX Step Two.

Anyway. As we go.

Koz

229

As near as I can tell, the two higher volume passages are almost identical except in Before Change, she sounds like she would like nothing better than stop recording and go drink some exceptionally strong coffee.

Changed10_17 has lower volume than the other two. It’s significantly quieter. Are you not using the sound meters on the front of the mixer? That can just kill you in problems like this. If you don’t know where the sound meters used to be, you don’t know where to put them back if they get moved by accident.

They don’t have to be in One Officially Ordained Magic Place, but they should be predictable. “The lowest green mixer light used to flash when I talk, and now it doesn’t.”

The only standard we have is a recommendation of where to put the Audacity recording meters: generally peaks around -6 or blue waves around 50% (same volume measured differently).

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/RecordingMetersMinus_6.jpg

And just because I haven’t throws enough rocks yet, ACX stresses repeatedly that all your chapters should match.

Koz

230

I’m pretty sure I have their positions noted down. I was mainly concerned either than my “discerning ear” was failing in a dramatic sense, or that the higher volume files might somehow have come out with too much noise.

I will get to finding those settings and putting things back in place.

Thanks,

George

Hope you have gotten some rain.

231

Hope you have gotten some rain.

So far we got 4.6 drops. People further east got killed. Season of mud slides early. The first time the weather did this to us, all the floor fans in Los Angeles sold out. This time all the window air conditioners went. One day it hit 98F with 90% humidity. We’re not good with that on this side of the city. Everything rained but the clouds. Drinks, Coke cans, car air conditioners ,etc.

I will get to finding those settings and putting things back in place.

The knobs and sliders are only general indications of where things should be. It makes me nervous when people put sticky-tape and Sharpie marks on settings with the threat of bodily harm if anyone moves them. If Jerreth has a quiet day, she can make up for it by advancing the controls slightly to make the sound meters happy.

If you take over for a chapter, it’s almost guaranteed your voice is going to be different from hers. Adjust slightly as needed.

Don’t adjust anything during the performance, that’s not a good idea.

Take a picture of the mixer with your cellphone camera and use that as the General Target for presentation settings. I told the people at Sweetwater one of the reasons I shopped with them was the detailed graphics on their web page. I don’t have to dig in tons of specifications to find out if the mixer has 48v Phantom Power. I can clearly see the switch right there in the picture.

I see other sales companies are doing that now, too.

The grownups have an interesting trick with their larger sound mixers. When you pull a volume slider all the way down to silence, it doesn’t stop. There is another click point even further down called Pre Fade Listen (PFL). It lets you hear and sometimes measure the sound for that single microphone or sound channel divorced from all the others. This is a very handy way to set up controls and volumes. “I know what’s going on half-way down the mixer, now all I need to do is get it the rest of the way.”

There is also a place for sticky-tape and Sharpie Markers. You run a piece of tape along the bottom of the mixer and identify each slider:

Chet, David, New York, North Lawn, Pentagon.

Koz

232

Sure hope you get rain soon. We’ve been in that kind of situation before, here in Oklahoma. It lasted several years.

Well, I worked on the set up yesterday and was able to get a recording which, after mastering, sounded (to me) to be just like before, and that was with Jerreth doing the recording. But before running the ACX tools, the volume is a bit lower than before. I think I’ll try to get it higher. But I have to wait for her to get home; and hope that she gets home earlier enough for me to work on it.

TodayI received what I need to work on the laptop which we had been using for recording. So, hopefully, soon, I can get it up and running. All things “computer” seem to take longer than one would suppose.

Thanks again Koz. I’ll let you know how we make out.

George

233

All things “computer” seem to take longer than one would suppose.

All things computer repair. Computers are dead simple and fast. You’re supposed to go out and buy a new one.

Koz

234

Well, sorry to say it Koz, I couldn’t reply last night or today, until just a bit ago… because of rain. Rain makes our Internet worthless.

I am happy to report that I got the computer fixed and we did a little recording and checking until the end result both met the ACX robot check requirements and sounds like the earlier recordings, before we had our problem. Here’s a test file after I ran the tools on it.

George

235

It even sounds like Jarreth.

“Chapter Eighty-Six.” She does take breaks to eat and visit the loo, right?

Koz