No Woman, No Cry

[James H]

From Mark Twain on the First Woman in Nevada

Took me two takes.

JH

[James H]

Forgot the ACX Check. This is said & done, final .mp3 cut.

ACX MT Nevada -by James H.jpg (52.13 KiB) Viewed 1211 times

[Trebor]

From Mark Twain on the First Woman in Nevada
ATTACHMENTS
MT Nevada 001.mp3 (1.79 MiB)

Excellent delivery.

The standout problem with that is reverberation from the room.

Expansion can help reduce reverb, (and push-down the noise-floor).
Expansion makes the quiet bits even quieter, but leaves everything else alone.

A good free expander plugin is "Couture" ...

available for Windows & Mac , only 32-bit version works with Audacity.

'''couture'' plugin working in Audacity (on Windows).png (424.02 KiB) Viewed 1199 times

https://www.auburnsounds.com/products/Couture.html

There's no real post-production fix for reverb.
The only true cure is to treat the room* to deaden reflections.

[ * or closet ]

[kozikowski]

That's what I thought. I got no trouble listening to a story in that voice and I don't think anybody else will, either.

Side issues: Most voice production is in mono, one blue wave and not stereo, two blue waves. When you finish with the reading and push the file over, make a safety copy somewhere. That's your safety backup sound file if everything goes into the mud and so you don't have to read it again.

Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo to Mono. Then apply mastering 4.

I don't hear any background noise or room echo. Did you find your furniture moving pads? Your room wasn't all that bad in the first place, so it wouldn't take much.

You can probably get an even better noise measurement by leaving a little clean background sound at either end of the piece, say 3/4 second. ACX Check needs that. I think that's one of the ACX audiobook requirements, too. We can check with them.

Is that reading with the muff?

The only theatrical limit I can see is you're a regional reader. Louis L'Amour would be straight down your alley, but I'd probably stay clear of Shakespeare.


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

And you can send them a test.

viewtopic.php?p=349993#p349993

Koz

[kozikowski]

Missed one. When you get your edit master, export that as a WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit sound file. Only then export the MP3 sound file for publication. Yes, MP3 does create very minor sound damage, but that's the way they want it.

Koz

[Trebor]

Rather than start with a book, I'd try short jobs first, while you refine your technique.
(you could invest a week reading a book, & editing it, and the only return could be criticism).

If you can create a reverb-free room, your recordings would be technically better than some of the people on Fiverr [sic] who charge $35 for reading 200 words ... https://www.fiverr.com/gigs/deep-voice

[ I don't think Don did books ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QPMvj_xejg ]

[James H]

Thanks, gents, for all of your help getting a scrub doing something he really enjoys!

There is no way I could have made it anywhere close to this far without everyone's help.

I've got a lot to go over, obviously, both in this thread and my initial "Total Noob" thread.

Would the Elves prefer I continue discussion/questions/etc. in this thread or the other?

Thanks mucho!
-JH

[kozikowski]

New posts on either thread will bubble up so we see it.

You have a ways to go to reach the current champion. That would be Ian in Hollywood at 39 forum chapters and about a year.

Koz

[James H]

So. I've decided to make a serious run at this. I'm not gonna reach for the brass ring; I'm going for the gold, baby.

Y'all have said my voice and delivery are decent enough (I know I have some sibilance issues but now that I've got the muff and know to use Steve's De-Esser, those should hopefully help attenuate that) and you guys are pros; I trust your judgement.

I'm working on a game plan, and, again, you have given me some great starting points.

It will probably be that come Christmas, I'll have a couple hundred bucks of disposable income, so I've come up with a list of material things that I might need. Please feel free to shoot any of these down:

Furniture moving blankets/pads for my "studio"
A sturdy tabletop/mini tripod
A clamshell foam-lined, water- and shock-proof, lockable carrying case
A good lanyard or two, one to hang from the wrist and one from the neck (the H4n Pro has a lanyard hole at the bottom)
A protective "walk-around" case, à la a cell-phone case, like the Otterbox I have on my phone. I think Zoom has a nylon one on their site. I'll try to get it or something like it cheaper on Amazon, etc..

Any other suggestions?

Also, I need more copy to read. I love Louis L'Amour, but the copies I did have were destroyed by water damage from a busted water heater in the storage closet.

So, maybe go to Wikipedia, find some PC, apolitical, non-religious articles and print 'em out?

Thanks as always,
-JH

[Trebor]

... Furniture moving blankets/pads for my "studio" ...

The shipping on those heavy blankets can be many times their cost.

... A ... foam-lined ... case ...

If the budget stretches to a foam-lined case ...


https ://www. audiomasterclass.com/newsletter/the-ultimate-portable-vocal-booth