I’m working on recording an audiobook for ACX distribution. I lay down my base audio track at low gain, then do a QA of the track to clean up my reading errors. I then run Noise Reduction, Filter Curve, Loudness Normalization, and Limiter. ACX Check shows I pass with good scores. Floor Noise typically -70 to -84. My question is about my next step.
I scroll thru my timeline that I just ran all those effects on, and I ALWAYs find small tick samples scattered thruout the track. They make a sound in the -42 to -30 range typically. Sometimes they are my bad, but other times, I have no clue what caused these. I need to scroll thru the entire track, some like 25 mins of audio, find these ticks, then zoom in and Delete or cover them up with non-tick sound that is nearby. After I complete that task, I export as WAV and MP3.
Questions
1\ Is this normal, that your setup captures or creates these noise ticks at random? My recording space is quiet, as per my Floor Noise, so I wonder what is creating these noise ticks?
2\ Is there any automated way to remove these or does each producer have to scroll thru tracks to find and clean up such ticks?
I just want to be sure I’m doing this right because this is a time-intensive job. If I can automate even part of it to find and eliminate those ticks, that would save me a lot of time.
Do you listen carefully to the track before applying any edits or effects? You need to do that. To solve the problem you / we need to know when these ticks are appearing.
Hi again Steve. Yes, I listen carefully. Sometimes I can hear those ticks, sometimes not. When I zoom to them and play the sample back, the ticks register in that -42 or so range to -30 range. For a 25 minute audio track, I spent over an hour removing the ticks.
Does it matter whether I can “hear” them or not if the DAW indicates they are creating a sound, albeit quite low? Amazon gives little guidance about what constitutes “ticks”.
I would like to know if every professional Producer goes thru an entire track and makes sure that all silence samples show as completely flat in the timeline, or do they allow little visible ticks to show even though they may produce an inaudible sound.
I am searching to understand what the best practice is. tks again.
Could these “ticks” simply be mouth sounds?
Obviously no-one wants to listen to a voice that sounds like the person is eating their dinner, but occasional slight “ticks” are quite normal. Some producers like to fastidiously remove every slight blemish, but most listeners will not be concerned about occasional ticks so long as they are not distracting. This is largely a judgement call.
Alternatively, are the “ticks” occurring at edit points? If this is the case then you may need some editing tips.