Peak and Floor levels

[kozikowski]

Does it sound OK? I'm expecting it to but does it?

IF YOU'RE EVER IN LOUISVILLE, I'LL BUY YOU DINNER AND A BEER

Pick a hospital worker and buy it for them.

Koz

[TJB]

HOLLER IF YOU WANT TO TAKE A LISTEN

[kozikowski]

Do you have a sample posted somewhere?

Is the customer happy?

Did it pass ACX Company?

Koz

[TJB]

Koz: The MP3 file is on Dropbox ... the author likes it ... and it met the ACX review requirements

Dropbox link is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3j0yybvo788t ... 1.mp3?dl=0

The reason it's in Dropbox is I didn't know where else to hold it ... my understanding is I have to submit all the chapters at the same time and didn't know where to park them in the meantime. I'm open to a better idea. The wave file is still in Audacity but for some reason the MP3 file is not.

[kozikowski]

I have to submit all the chapters at the same time and didn't know where to park them in the meantime.

I didn't think you had to park them anywhere. I thought you could submit right from your machine. In my case, that wouldn't work so well because my upload speed is terrible and that would be day job or longer, but still, I did post sound work to them and did it from my home desktop.

In any event, you would have to disarm your DropBox or change the security settings and that wouldn't be worth the effort.

If the client and ACX are both happy, that's what counts.

If you have your Edit Master WAV, then you don't need the MP3. You can make another one at any time.


There is one Obsessive Engineer item here. Be able to point to two different places that have your valuable work.

Normally, that would be your work machine internal drives and your backup drives. USB Sticks work as do on-line storage and even, I know people who store things in their email service. Two different folders on your work machine does not count.

One of my Windows machines eyes rolled up and it started blowing spit-bubbles. I was able to rescue some valuable work from the second internal hard drive D:\.

C:\ was gone. That's actually too close. If the wrong thing failed, it might have taken out both drives.

Koz

[TJB]

THANX, KOZ , I'LL SAVE AN EXTRA CY AS YOU SUGGEST.

IN THE MP3 VERSION THAT I SENT YOU, THERE'S ONE SENTENCE MISSING TOWARDS THE END THAT I'LL NEED TO INSERT AS IT PROVIDES IMPACT TO THE SECTION. NOW ... BECAUSE OF YOU .... I HAVE A WAV FILE WITH WHICH TO MAKE THAT CORRECTION. MY ONLY QUESTION NOW IS "HOW". IN THIS CASE, SINCE IT'S IN THE LAST MINUTE OR SO OF THE ENTIRE RECORDING, I'M THINKING OF JUST DELETING THOSE LAST FEW MINS AND RE-RECORDING ...... BUT NOT SURE EXACTLY HOW TO DO THAT.

THEN, WHEN I'M DONE, I ASSUME I'LL NEED TO SAVE THE NEW WAV TRACK AND EXPORT A NEW VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL TRACK ... AND DELETE THE OTHERS (BOTH WAV AND MP3).

AM I CLOSE ON THAT ???

[kozikowski]

It's possible to Punch and Roll to add stuff to an existing sentence.

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/pun ... ecord.html

But. As it says in the instructions, you have to set up for overdubbing to get the delays, timing and latency right and then the possibility of you announcing the new work days later at exactly the same rhythm, emphasis, timber and pitch as the original is zero. The people trying to keep up podcasts with the coronavirus news run into this.

"A recent publication from the American CDC claims that the virus is passed along by touching."

Nobody has time to go back and correct the voice quality matches, so everything starts sounding like a kid recorded it in the garage.

ACX doesn't have that problem. The first time you submit that they will bounce you.

THERE'S ONE SENTENCE MISSING TOWARDS THE END THAT I'LL NEED TO INSERT AS IT PROVIDES IMPACT TO THE SECTION.

Was it missing from the reading script? You just thought it was cool to have it there later? Now you know what the script writers do.

The easiest way is to cold read the new block of script into a fresh Audacity and then try to get it to insert and match later.

What you're supposed to do is make a mistake or fluff, pause briefly (leave Audacity recording), make a noise such as a loud clap or toy ticker sound (with a toy clicker) and read a correction right then and keep going. You have a much greater chance of having everything match later in post-production editing if you record it while you're still in the moment. Cut out the fluff leaving the two good sentences flowing together.

It helps a lot of you're listening to yourself with good quality, sealed-against-your-head headphones.



What you can't do is insert blocks of new text or add new words to the end days later. That's really rough to do. Different time of day, different sadness, different stuffy nose, different spacing, and different coffee.

Koz

[TJB]

It was a sentence that, while editing, I skipped over somehow and it was lost. Altho it would be nice to have it in there, it's not a deal breaker so I'm of a mind not to attempt to reinsert some dialogue.

On a separate issue ... is there any hope of contacting anyone in ACX tech to answer some questions. I've tried, as has the author, with no luck for over a week. Just wondering ......

[TJB]

... and another question.

I have at the beginning of ea recording about 5 secs of dead time and another 9 or 10 at the end. I know now the purpose of the first section but wonder about the end section.

Further, when I export to MP3 should those dead time sections still be in there .... or should I delete those somehow in wav before exporting to MP3?

I can't find anything in FAQ on ACX to address this

[kozikowski]

is there any hope of contacting anyone in ACX tech to answer some questions.

No.

The closest you get is the posting comments when they turn you down. For example: "Your background is too noisy and your voice has too many lip smacks." I've never heard of them complaining about reading skills, but I guess that's possible, too. There was a recent poster that had a terrible voice. We could get them past the technical test, but no word on how they made it past the reading evaluation—if they even did.

The only other option is "Congratulations, you made it."

when I export to MP3 should those dead time sections still be in there

Yes. See: Have room tone at the beginning and the end......

https://www.acx.com/help/acx-audio-subm ... /201456300

That dead time is called Room Tone. It's the noise your room makes with you not breathing or moving. It's not the same as Audacity > Generate > Silence. You can record some Room Tone and keep it around as its own sound file for pasting wherever it's needed. You don't have to hold your breath every time. This stuff is exactly the same as the two seconds of background noise when you submit a test to the forum.

https://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/Tes ... _Clip.html

And this is exactly why it's there.

It does need to match the room you're in and the performance background sound. In your case, that's really important because your background noise is louder than most people's. If they don't match, you will get background noise that pumps or jumps in volume here and there. That's distracting and ACX hates distractions.

Koz