(Complete) Color by Countee Cullen - lt

JoannaHoyt · Post by **JoannaHoyt** » February 19th, 2021, 11:00 am

Thank you! Sections 25-30 are PL OK, word-perfect, and very effectively read; I particularly noticed the quiet bite in "To a Lady..."

One note that doesn't require any changes here: This batch seemed to be getting a bit louder as they went. All passed Checker, but Section 30 was up to 91.4 db and I think the target's 89, so a slightly lower volume on the next recordings might work better.

lethargilistic · Post by **lethargilistic** » March 17th, 2021, 7:10 pm

I recorded a bunch of Epitaphs today. Sections 31-40 are ready for PL. ^^

JoannaHoyt · Post by **JoannaHoyt** » March 18th, 2021, 10:21 am

lethargilistic wrote: ↑March 17th, 2021, 7:10 pm I recorded a bunch of Epitaphs today. Sections 31-40 are ready for PL. ^^

Sections 31-38 and Section 40 are PL OK (and very clearly and strikingly read).
There's one change in section 39. 0:25: for “here the wise are as the fools” I heard “here the wise are the fools,” which seems to be a slightly different statement.

lethargilistic · Post by **lethargilistic** » March 18th, 2021, 1:02 pm

Thanks. I'll just rerecord that one later, then.

I've uploaded two of the long poems, Sections 22 and 23. Honestly, "Heritage" is the more famous of the two, but "the Shroud of Color" was my favorite of them.

JoannaHoyt · Post by **JoannaHoyt** » March 18th, 2021, 5:42 pm

lethargilistic wrote: ↑March 18th, 2021, 1:02 pm Thanks. I'll just rerecord that one later, then.

I've uploaded two of the long poems, Sections 22 and 23. Honestly, "Heritage" is the more famous of the two, but "the Shroud of Color" was my favorite of them.

Wow. These are very powerful poems, and very powerfully read. Especially "The Shroud of Color."
Thank you again for the chance to listen to these.

There are some text changes in both poems. Some wouldn't matter, I think, expect that you asked for word-perfect PL,so...
In section 22:
1:06 for "just to be man" I heard "just to be a man"
1:18 for "I, who have burned my hands upon a star" I heard "upon the star"
1:50 for "I, whom sun-dabbled streams have washed" I heard "sun-dappled dreams"
2:04 for "where loveliness could lie reflected" I heard "could lie unreflected"
4:12 for "I lay full length" I heard "I lay full of strength"
5:30 for "racked with heroic pain" I heard "raked"
8:00 for "they _can_, whose flesh is fair" I heard "they can see whose flesh is fair"
8:28 for "in the mesh of Lucifer's revolt" I heard "in a mesh"
10:01 for "a hollow log bound with a python's skin" I heard "bound within.."
10:23 for "the cry the lash extorts" I heard "exhorts"
11:12 For "this cringing I/That feared to contemplate" I heard "cringing I feared"
11:15 for "a changing sky" I heard "the changing key"
12:17 for "the wing dropped down at a dizzy pace" I heard "to a dizzy pace"

In section 23:
2:43 for "wonder at her travail there" I heard "travails"
3:37 for "Doff this new exuberance" I heard "Doff this exuberance"
4:23 for "thy glowing altar" I heard "thy growing altar"
4:24 for "must my heart grow sick" I heard "must thy heart"
5:14 for "one thing only must I do" I heard "I must do"

Also, I think slightly reducing the volume on both pieces might be helpful. They are forceful and read with force, and I see that a higher volume may go well with that, but they're a bit above the Librivox target range of 87-91 db, and I noticed a sort of buzzing with them that I tend to hear at higher volumes--though this may just be because of my cheap headphones. But they do pass Checker, so this is a just-my-opinion suggestion.

Thank you again for your readings.

lethargilistic · Post by **lethargilistic** » March 19th, 2021, 10:30 am

lol, thank you. I literally tried to PL those myself because I was worried that my focus on the performance made me flub lines. But I just can't notice the mistakes without someone to help me. No matter how obvious they are. XD

I've uploaded the correction to Section 00. At 1:54, "sowing" should be pronounced the way you expect. I do think my piggish pronunciation IS a regional thing, but it's not clear enough in the context of a poem. And the line should rhyme. ^^ My retake is from "here of my growing" to "work of my days."

I've also uploaded a fresh version of Section 39, so PL from the top. ^^

JoannaHoyt · Post by **JoannaHoyt** » March 19th, 2021, 5:31 pm

Thanks! Sections 00 and 39 are PL OK. And I am very impressed by your ability to spot-fill without a perceptible hitch. So far my patches have always been quite clearly audible after the fact.

lethargilistic · Post by **lethargilistic** » March 20th, 2021, 11:18 pm

JoannaHoyt wrote: ↑March 19th, 2021, 5:31 pm And I am very impressed by your ability to spot-fill without a perceptible hitch. So far my patches have always been quite clearly audible after the fact.

Thanks. ^^ The trick is to remember vaguely when you recorded the inceptive take. Your voice changes pitch and becomes less sensitive/crisp as the day goes on. That's the reason professional voice actors usually start in the morning and do their 8 hours from there, but's not so important for something informal like LibriVox (I usually feel like recording at night). The reason I waited on doing the retake for 00 was because I happened to have done that recording first thing in the morning on the day I started this project. And I won't do the retakes for Sections 22 and 23 until I feel like doing a recording session after midnight again. When you're recording at a similar time, it's pretty easy to listen back to what you had and try to match it as close as possible. If you can't get it quite right that way, then play with sound manipulation (EQ, bass/treble, amplitude, speed) until it's close enough. If, like me, you do some basic sound manipulation on all your recordings by default, then try to match the result of that manipulation with your natural voice. If you're doing EQ right, it shouldn't be that much of a stretch. ^^

Oh, and picking the correct position in the track to start the retake is important, too. You have to observe natural breaks. In 00's case, I flubbed in what was basically a standalone stanza in the way I initially read it. So I just matched that stanza's cadence with the new pronunciation. If you have to retake within a large section that I don't want to rerecord, then look for a plosive, an "s" sound, or a place where you had to close your mouth to make the noise. Mics don't pick up plosives ("p" sounds) correctly, The English-speaking ear interprets "s" sounds as basically static so it's usually pretty easy to just run them into each other. And you can see words where you had to close your mouth in the timeline because the sound wave goes to 0 for a second. And don't forget to look for places in the original recording where you said the same word or syllable; often, you get lucky and can just copy/paste without anybody realizing. Artificial breath placement (copy/pasting from elsewhere in the recording) matters for natural sound, too!

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I uploaded Sections 41-45, which I recorded in that last retake session. ^^

JoannaHoyt · Post by **JoannaHoyt** » March 21st, 2021, 6:47 am

Thanks for the tips on patching in. I hadn't thought of the effect of the time of day.

Sections 41 and 43-45 are PL OK. One small issue in 42: at 0:21 for "heirs-elect" I heard "heir-elect"

lethargilistic · Post by **lethargilistic** » March 23rd, 2021, 12:33 am

I recorded all of For Love's Sake (and found a poem I had forgotten to list!). I got sections 54 and 55 edited earlier, so that's the Drip Feed of New Content for today!

JoannaHoyt · Post by **JoannaHoyt** » March 23rd, 2021, 4:01 pm

Thanks! Section 54 is PL OK. One minor variation from the text in section 55: at 0:49, for "No thing is certain," I hear "Nothing is certain"--I don't see that this affects the meaning or the scanning, so if you prefer I'll just mark that PL OK as well.

lethargilistic · Post by **lethargilistic** » March 23rd, 2021, 7:54 pm

I'll allow that flub, so 55 is PL OK.

I did a spot fix on 42 by rerecording the first stanza.

I've also uploaded 46-51 to round out the Epitaphs.

Has the volume been better on these latest ones? If so, I can go back through and level the other recordings in the way I've been leveling these.

JoannaHoyt · Post by **JoannaHoyt** » March 24th, 2021, 3:29 am

Thank you again! Section 42, and sections 48-52, are PL OK and beautifully read. And yes, I'm finding the volume better in these sections.

Two small fixes:
In section 46:
0:20 “He whose might you sang so well” I heard “He whose might sang you so well” which does alter the rhythm and suggests a possible different meaning

In section 47:
Please add ½ second silence at the beginning

lethargilistic · Post by **lethargilistic** » March 26th, 2021, 12:40 am

On Section 47, I did 0.05 seconds of silence, instead of 0.5, lol. Fixed, marked PL OK.

I've uploaded Sections 56-60 and they are Ready for PL.

The first poem of the "For Love's Sake" section has caused me nothing but trouble at every step, hahaha. Soon(TM)!

JoannaHoyt · Post by **JoannaHoyt** » March 26th, 2021, 3:46 pm

Thank you again! These are lovely.

56, 57, and 59 are PL OK. One minor issue each in the other two sections:

Section 58: For “With such abandoned grace she gave/Of all that passion taught her” I heard “she gave/All that passion taught her” which seems slightly different in scan and in meaning

Section 60: Please lengthen the opening silence (it’s about .25 seconds now)