Wanted: mastering chain for meeting ACX Guidelines

[AStarr]

What else is new? Another acx narrator knowing nothing about sound, trying to "master" for acx.
I was hoping to find the "magic path" of post-prod effects, to pound every recording through, and voila!, but I am learning it doesn't work like that....
Help?!!

I have learned many things, mostly here, props to these topics:
viewtopic.php?f=64&t=80572#p252057
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=78561#p242164
and others...

The ubquituous Qs:

Using: Audacity 2.0.6 on Mac OsX 10.6.8

Equipment: Tascam DR-05, pop filter

Sample raw (untouched) clip. As imported off the Tascam.

Before sample.mp3

More or less as out of device. Cut end off and a piece out of it to make it <2gB and still get my near peak at 1:15ish. Imported and exported 192bit from Audacity to do those edits for length, but that's all

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Looked like this

Starting point.png (43.92 KiB) Viewed 3015 times

What I've been doing:
Sampling the long quiet space I leave at the beginning for noise removal and noise removing whole recording.
Editing out my faux pas
Saving as a "raw" project before I mess around
Now the dubious stuff-
Compress 3:1, -24 threshold, 10ms attack, 80ms release, 0 gain, noise floor -60
Apple: AUFilter (stripping out highs and lows? hopefully) low at 100hZ, high at 10 000
Steve's Limiter, to -3dB, from here
Normalize, max amp to -3dB

After Limiter, and before Normalize-peaks are too high, correct?

After Limiter before normalize.png (50.52 KiB) Viewed 3015 times

"After" clip - would it pass? Does it sound right?

End Sample.mp3

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Commentary:
I'm happy with the room - I don't notice any trouble with humm or hiss.
I think it sounds "ok", but I wouldn't know. Something seems to go off when I put it through my chain even though the compression at least seems desirable.
My main Q, I think, is how do I achieve the holy -23dB and -18dB RMS (wtf is RMS anyways, or do I need to know?)? How do I know I've got it? When I Analyse Contrast on various recordings I get different results between -16.2 and -21. Obvs, I don't know how to manipulate this.
I'm using in-device noise removal on recording, to 80hZ. The Tascam records on a microSD and then I transfer to comp. My recording level is 69 now and I speak about a foot from it. Recording in mono, 44.1- that's set on device.
My earlier reading here prompted me to turn up the levels on my mic/recorder, and then not speak so close to the filter, because the meter was running lower than the little "optimum" tick on the display. Maybe that was a mistake - now it seems I hit the "top" (0dB, I think, learned -bad) up to 3x a recording. But then, sometimes not. Depends on the "theatrical-ness" of the excerpt, too, I've noticed.
I tried not using the noise removal and then I fancied that some low fuzz came out of nowhere at some step, and also my inhales got amplified into obese caterpillars of wave forms, like gasps before I speak. Not ok, I went back to noise removal.
Should I be doing LowPass instead of the AUFilter (I thought, high and low togehter, boom)?
NoiseGate? Amplify?

Thank you in advance!

[kozikowski]

If you've been following along in your hymnal, you know that first pass is a ten second WAV file, not MP3. Post it raw, no filters, no effects.

Record a 10 second mono test in your normal announcing style with the red sound meters peaking about -6. The first two seconds should be holding your breath and not moving at all (noise test). Export as WAV. Post it here.

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 49&t=72887

Do not apply any filters or effects. We need a raw clip.


==============================================
Recording in Audacity
2015-02-09

This is one recommended setup for live recording in Audacity.

Undock the meters and make them enormously bigger. Click the ribbed control strip on the meter left edge and the control corner in the lower right. Make sure the meters are set for about 60 on the left. I think it will actually read -57 or so. That's the right sound range.

Change the range if needed in Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Interface: Meter dB range: -60dB...

Then, while you're performing, make sure your bouncing red sound meter regularly peaks around -6 and never goes all the way up to 0. Note my blue waves are generally the same size and don't wander up and down by very much.

Yes, you do have to watch the meters and read copy at the same time. The board operator on the other side of the glass in a real studio is adjusting levels and watching the meters as you perform. Now you have to do that. You get used to not being wildly theatrical while you read.

If you can get a stable live recording, then chances are you will need very little help to get to ACX compliance. If not, we'll try to tell you what to do to improve. If you cover three chapters with "Mastering" filters and effects, you're probably doing something wrong. That and it's exhausting going through all that for every performance.

Let us know.

Koz

[kozikowski]

And yes, I did shoot a simple sound test like that, and with two very simple, gentle filters fell into ACX compliance... and didn't sound too bad, either. Oddly, I don't remember where I left that clip. I need to search for it. It should have been in my collection.

RMS is Root Mean Square. It means roughly overall loudness. You have to meet three specs. The blue wave peaks should be close to but not over -3, the holding-your-breath noise should be -60 or below, and the overall loudness should be between -18 and -23.

People doing very casual recording in hostile rooms never meet noise and loudness at the same time. Those are the performers that drill themselves into the mud with lists of effects and tools.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Don't go too crazy at the top. Nobody is expecting Warner Brothers Music first time out. The "optimal mark" on the Tascam is probably fine.

I won't keep it a secret. I'll talk it up as I do it so you can do it without us. That raw clip is pure gold. In ten seconds it's going to reveal your basic recording problems— if any.

Koz

[kozikowski]

I did a first quick analysis on the first MP3. You have fans on in the room with you? Can you not? That one thing is going to be a lot of the room noise. Also, as in the comments above, we only need two seconds or so of silence at the top of the test clip and you're not allowed to check FaceBook or clean your desk while you're doing it.

My joke is of one poster who was moving around so much I could tell what kind of pants he was wearing. That's the level of noise we're talking about.

Nice voice.

Koz

[kozikowski]

If you're wondering why I'm banging on about the noise, it can kill some of the other tools. If you need to bring the fullness or loudness of your voice up to make RMS, those fans are going to come right up with you and miss the noise measurement.

Koz

[AStarr]

I will get back to you with sample. Wasn't thinking wav it comes off the tascam as mp3. Do I get a wav by importing mp3 then exporting from Audacity as wav?
FAns!? Could it be picking up my laptop? There's nothing else electrical around. I must try with and without laptop around.
I read that first post before, that you copied to me in your first reply, and to be honest I don't understand it. Maybe bc I'm not plugged in to the comp while recording? I'm not recording into Audacity. Should I? I didn't want my laptop working while I record, bc then it would warm up and hum.
Will be 24 hrs before I'm back here. Thanks for your attention.

[AStarr]

I lied. Not gone quite yet, and it doesn't take v. long to record 10 secs.
Of course it does come off Tascam in a wav, sorry.

000105_0108.wav

with laptop on

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000105_0109.wav

laptop off

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[kozikowski]

Of course it does come off Tascam in a wav, sorry.

Lots of grownups use Tascam for some very high-end applications (NPR), so it's a good bet it supports WAV, yes.

I need to go have a life for a little while. I want to show you how I found what I'm assuming is a fan sound, so you can do it, too.

Are you in the US or Canada?

There are magic (in the Arthur C. Clarke sense) ways of having hum problems. I have a dead-quiet "Studio" (third bedroom) that has hum. I think it's coming from power line radiation. I know exactly what I'm listening for and I can't hear squat. And yet, there's the clip with hum in it.

Just to keep you from getting suicidal, you're very close. No obvious distortion, no P Popping, OK noise floor, etc. We're just mopping up around the edges.

Koz

[AStarr]

Well I'll be waiting with breath that is bated til you get back from having your life.
I am in Canada atm and 4 time zones from you.
Now that I suspect my laptop the noise it emits seems so loud, and I never heard it before. Power lines are not an issue.
I have one other suspect noise source now and want to try another room tone recording with that off, tomorrow.
Thank you!