My audio sample

[Jan B.]

Hello! I am (hopefully!) going to attach a sample of audio from my home system. I am hoping to record my new sci fi novel. Is the audio too bad? Just using a homemade sound box with those pyramid squares, and a Samson mic.

Thank you for your feedback, if I can follow the directions to upload it.

[cyrano]

Your upload works fine. And your recording is fine too.

No annoying traffic noise, no hum. Maybe just a tiny bit of de-essing and background noise removal...

[kozikowski]

You have a good reading voice and the clip arrived in good order.

Your upload works fine. And your recording is fine too.

That's the "good cop" version. The bad cop version is the clip always fails two of the three ACX AudioBook standards. As submitted it fails Noise and Peaks. If I fix the peaks, it fails Noise and Loudness. If I fix the Noise, etc. etc. etc.

There is a lot of background noise in the clip. Do you have an air conditioner or fan running with you? Are we listening to the computer fan noises? Do you have a computer tower or loud laptop?

Putting the microphone in a box is half the problem. If you have the microphone set on directional (and you should) then it's also recording everything behind you. Like sound reflections from the bare wall or the air conditioner in the window.

I agree we can get there with patches and fixes, but if we do it that way, you'll have to remember to do each correction step to each chapter of the whole book. Much better to fix problems at the recording stage.

As we go.

Koz

[kozikowski]

I was going to publish the list of tools and filters to fix it, but I can't do it without serious surgery. You'll need to quiet down your room. This can be difficult because most people "tune out" normal day-to-day noises. For instance, each time I record I get my wall clock in the show. It's insanely noisy, but I can't hear it at all, I tune it out, until it shows up in a recording.

ACX has an interesting trick. Record 30 seconds of Room Tone (don't say anything, just record). Now play that with the volume turned up (attached).

We had one poster who, over the course of testing identified a ventilation fan and a refrigerator running in his room. He got rid of those and most of his problems went away. High noise level makes applying the other tools much more difficult and extreme Noise Reduction can make your voice sound funny.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Just using a homemade sound box with those pyramid squares, and a Samson mic.

That can work. I do it with furniture moving pads.

That was a multi-actor shoot, so you won't need all that.
Please give us details of your computer, audacity version and mic model numbers? See pink band on top.

If you can, post a snapshot of the microphone in its foam enclosure. Sometimes we can make simple changes to improve it.

Koz

[Jan B.]

The Samson

019.JPG (1.52 MiB) Viewed 837 times

Hello and thanks to you all! I like the good cop best, of course! To Koz, I have a big old Dell, using the latest Audacity, I just downloaded it, mic is a Samson CO1U (I think it's always omni-directional, as I recall, and I don't see a switch anywhere), I just have it on a regular tripod, not the shock stand. I am attaching pics of my little set up, which of course I found on the internet. I used big slabs of styrofoam left over from some project, taped them to make a 'hinge' so they'll stand alone, and drape a nice old piece of zebra patterned fleece over it to sit behind me, as the internet DIY piece suggested. No AC is running in the room, but two are running elsewhere in the (small) house. I am sure the Dell makes noise--you'll see I stood some left over pyramids along side of it in pure superstition. But I don't have an extra closet! And I just don't see how I can make the house much quieter. But if there's any way you could help me with the settings to maximize what I've got! Oh, notice the finches. I am covering their cage and will try to be alert to edit out any fleeting song, but I haven't heard any in the samples I've been trying, whereas my son says he can!

I'm doing the audio first to find any last second errors in the editing, am not planning to use Amazon thank you very much, and actually don't know what I'm going to do with the files, I presume turn them into MP3's and sell the download on the book's website using Paypal. All three or four sales!

I'll attach the pics. You're very kind to help!

I have to add the pics in batches, sorry.

[Jan B.]

Hello again, here are a couple more photos, of the Dell and the offending finches.

[kozikowski]

The C01u is not an omni-directional microphone. It's non-adjustable cardioid (heart-shaped, or kidney-shaped in Britain). It receives best by talking into the logo, it has some reception from the sides and almost nothing from the back. Attached is a similar microphone that you work by talking into the end instead of the side like yours.

I know you can't do that, but the joke is to point the back toward the birds. There is no microphone in the back, right? It's dead. That doesn't work for a number of reasons, but it's fun to think about.


It's not serious, but I was wondering where the slight echo was coming from. It's a modern room with polished oak floors and bare white walls, right? In the trade those are "Hostile Recording Environments" and some recordists refuse to work in them.

Am I making you warm and fuzzy yet?

I'll take your word that you don't have to pass ACX AudioBook standards and just do my best.

As we go.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Enclosed is the patched version of your clip. I'm writing up the list of how I got there. It's very close to audiobook standards, I just wasn't as obsessive as they are.

[kozikowski]

Enclosed, please find LF_rolloff_for_speech.xml.zip. Unzip it and that should leave you with LF_rolloff_for_speech.xml. That's a custom effect designed by Steve to work with Effect > Equalization. Remember where you put it.

Adding Eq Curves
- Open the show or Generate > Noise > OK. It's just to get something on the timeline.

- Effect > Equalization > Save/Manage Curves > Import.
- Point at LF_rolloff_for_speech.xml > OK. (it won't open the ZIP. You have to decompress it)

- From that point forward it appears as a standard curve.

Now on to your show.

— Open the show, chapter, clip, whatever. Select the whole thing by clicking just above MUTE.
Effect > Equalization > Select Curve: LF rolloff for speech, Length slider all the way up (8191) > OK.

Drag-select a second or so of pure room noise, no voice. In that test clip, I got it from 1.8 to 2.2 seconds. If your room noise never changes, you may be able to get the profile from that test clip but use it on your show. If you change anything like move the microphone, you'll have to get the profile from the actual show. Anyway.

Effect > Noise Reduction: Profile.
Select the whole show by clicking just above MUTE.
Effect > Noise Reduction: 12, 6, 6 > OK

Effect > Normalize: [X]Remove DC, [X]Normalize to -3.2 > OK

That's it. If you do that to each chapter, export as WAV (safety) and then re-export as MP3, you should be good to go.

It doesn't hit AudioBook exactly, but it's ACX Adjacent.

Post back if I lose you.

Koz