Hi
I would like to take part 20 : of demonology and other relics of the religion of the gentiles.
This is also my first recording like Ashwin so I also had a one paragraph-trial recording .
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/lm/plasticdreams.mp3
I would be glad if you remind me my faults and technical problems .
Thanks in advance
COMPLETE: Leviathan (Bks 3 & 4) by Thomas Hobbes - lm
Ashwin,
I listened to your file.. great reading! There was quite a bit of background noise in it, which puzzles me since your test recording had almost none. I did go ahead and remove the noise. There's still some noise in the back, but it's not too distracting. It'd be impossible to remove all of the background noise without badly distorting your voice, so don't worry about it too much. Your voice is definitely clear. Here's where the file's being kept:
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/lm/leviathan2_03_hobbes.mp3
Here's what I did to remove the noise: I selected a small sample of just the noise, then I clicked on Effects, then Noise Removal, and clicked "Get Noise Profile." Then I selected the whole recording, clicked on Effects and Noise Removal again, and then used these numbers:
For "Noise reduction (dB)" I used 25.
For "Frequency smoothing (Hz)" I used 500.
For "Attack/decay time (secs)" I used 0.
By the way, there's nothing wrong with the volume either - in fact, it's almost perfect. But if you had to shout, that's not good. Try speaking at a normal volume, and then you can always amplify the file afterwards (Go to Effects, then Amplify, and experiment with it).
Two other things: I renamed the file to leviathan2_03_hobbes . That's important because it ensures that the files will play in correct order on people's mp3 players. Also, you don't need to say the LibriVox disclaimer at the end ("This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain..."). You only need to say it at the beginning, so I deleted it from the end.
Those things aren't that big of a deal, so don't worry too much about it. What's important is that you did a good job with the recording itself. So thanks again!
-Leon
I listened to your file.. great reading! There was quite a bit of background noise in it, which puzzles me since your test recording had almost none. I did go ahead and remove the noise. There's still some noise in the back, but it's not too distracting. It'd be impossible to remove all of the background noise without badly distorting your voice, so don't worry about it too much. Your voice is definitely clear. Here's where the file's being kept:
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/lm/leviathan2_03_hobbes.mp3
Here's what I did to remove the noise: I selected a small sample of just the noise, then I clicked on Effects, then Noise Removal, and clicked "Get Noise Profile." Then I selected the whole recording, clicked on Effects and Noise Removal again, and then used these numbers:
For "Noise reduction (dB)" I used 25.
For "Frequency smoothing (Hz)" I used 500.
For "Attack/decay time (secs)" I used 0.
By the way, there's nothing wrong with the volume either - in fact, it's almost perfect. But if you had to shout, that's not good. Try speaking at a normal volume, and then you can always amplify the file afterwards (Go to Effects, then Amplify, and experiment with it).
Two other things: I renamed the file to leviathan2_03_hobbes . That's important because it ensures that the files will play in correct order on people's mp3 players. Also, you don't need to say the LibriVox disclaimer at the end ("This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain..."). You only need to say it at the beginning, so I deleted it from the end.
Those things aren't that big of a deal, so don't worry too much about it. What's important is that you did a good job with the recording itself. So thanks again!
-Leon
I remember how, in college, I got that part-time job as a circus clown, and how the children would laugh and laugh at me. I vowed, then and there, that I would get revenge.
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
Hello plasticdreams.. and welcome to LibriVox!plasticdreams wrote:Hi
I would like to take part 20 : of demonology and other relics of the religion of the gentiles.
This is also my first recording like Ashwin so I also had a one paragraph-trial recording .
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/lm/plasticdreams.mp3
I would be glad if you remind me my faults and technical problems .
Thanks in advance
Thank you for sending in a test recording - wow, I've never had anyone new take that much initiative on their first post! It's definitely much appreciated, and I'll certainly sign you up for section 20. Thanks for volunteering!
I'm sorry to disappoint, but I'm going to find it hard to remind you of your faults and technical problems. Your voice was clear and pleasant, the sound is high-quality, and you did a good job of conveying Hobbes' difficult prose. The one thing I would recommend is to set your recording software to Mono instead of Stereo. It's not that big of a deal - it's just that Mono's more standard around here, and it takes up less space.
If you haven't already, I'd recommend looking at the Newbie Guide to Recording. But you've already proved that you understand most of it, with your test recording. It won't tell you much that you haven't already done, but it's still a good thing to look at.
By the way, how would you like your name to appear in the catalog when you're done with section 20? (That is, do you want to use your real name, or just plasticdreams?)
Thanks again! Let me know if you have any questions.
-Leon
I remember how, in college, I got that part-time job as a circus clown, and how the children would laugh and laugh at me. I vowed, then and there, that I would get revenge.
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
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Ashwin Jain
- Posts: 64
- Joined: February 8th, 2008, 2:04 pm
- Contact:
Thanks Leon, that is very encouraging. With encouragement mix some criticism too , i will not feel bad 
I do not get those numbers in noise removal.. just a slider with less & more on two sides.. i m using audacity1.2.6.. may be i shud do an upgrade. Did u also "silent the silence" explicitly? if yes, how?
I heard my recording and a few others at librivox, i really need to add gravity to my voice
.. may be a more relaxed (not shouting) reading would help.. lets see .. will invest in a better equipment after some experience...
Thanks again,
Ashwin
I do not get those numbers in noise removal.. just a slider with less & more on two sides.. i m using audacity1.2.6.. may be i shud do an upgrade. Did u also "silent the silence" explicitly? if yes, how?
I heard my recording and a few others at librivox, i really need to add gravity to my voice
.. may be a more relaxed (not shouting) reading would help.. lets see .. will invest in a better equipment after some experience...Thanks again,
Ashwin
If you wanted me to offer some constructive criticism, I would say that first, there were a couple of times where you kind of mumbled, and it was tough to hear what you were saying. This may only have been because you had to scream the rest of the time. I didn't notice any problem with the gravity of your voice, but it's a good thing to be paying attention to things like that. You'll improve quickly.
Also, you had asked earlier about accents. You've definitely got a good command of English, and I was able to understand you well throughout the recording. But I found that I had some trouble understanding you on words that have the "th" sound (and there are a lot in Leviathan, with all the words that end in "eth"). You've really got to breathe out the "th" sound with your tongue between your teeth, in the same way that you make an "s" sound. It can be confusing, because there are lots of "th" words that don't use that "hard th" sound - like "the" "then" and "there." They only use a "soft th" sound. Of course, all this is only my opinion, based on the way English sounds in (my part of) the U.S. I wouldn't have even mentioned it if you hadn't specifically asked for constructive criticism.
As for Audacity, yes, my instructions are based upon the latest version of the program. The newest release has much improved noise removal, and it's already become standard here, even though it's still a beta version. I would suggest downloading version 1.3.4, which you can get from this site: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
You can still keep your old version if you prefer it. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "silent the silence explicitly".
Hope my suggestions help.. see you around!
-Leon
Also, you had asked earlier about accents. You've definitely got a good command of English, and I was able to understand you well throughout the recording. But I found that I had some trouble understanding you on words that have the "th" sound (and there are a lot in Leviathan, with all the words that end in "eth"). You've really got to breathe out the "th" sound with your tongue between your teeth, in the same way that you make an "s" sound. It can be confusing, because there are lots of "th" words that don't use that "hard th" sound - like "the" "then" and "there." They only use a "soft th" sound. Of course, all this is only my opinion, based on the way English sounds in (my part of) the U.S. I wouldn't have even mentioned it if you hadn't specifically asked for constructive criticism.
As for Audacity, yes, my instructions are based upon the latest version of the program. The newest release has much improved noise removal, and it's already become standard here, even though it's still a beta version. I would suggest downloading version 1.3.4, which you can get from this site: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
You can still keep your old version if you prefer it. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "silent the silence explicitly".
Hope my suggestions help.. see you around!
-Leon
I remember how, in college, I got that part-time job as a circus clown, and how the children would laugh and laugh at me. I vowed, then and there, that I would get revenge.
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
-
Ashwin Jain
- Posts: 64
- Joined: February 8th, 2008, 2:04 pm
- Contact:
Thank you Leon, this is better 
. I am in the habbit of racing through the text as in silent reading skipping words here nd there, so while loud reading i mumble at times, nd when it is a minor mistake i ignore. At times i find myself speaking a minor variation which means same, though ofcourse with practice this is now settling. Hobbes usage of grammer is also many a times unconventional. There are surprisingly no tips on the internet about loud reading (i assume this is different from public speaking). But now for my next recordings i m trying to put extra concentration on the word at hand. But i have a question here, would this approach affect my understanding of the sentence and hence voice mannerisms?
Also do experienced readers here like u, read and understand the passage first or u can read even without doing this homework?
I also noticed that most good readers take their time in speaking every word, big or small (even Martin Luther king) and i am hurrying through the long words and not ennunciating properly .. thats where i think the problem with "th" (and the like) lies.
By "silent the silents" i meant selecting the silent portion and making it pure silent by using "Ctrl + L". This i saw in the librivox wiki. In old audacity version noise removal left some noise (that hight pitch tone) in the silent parts. But I have installed latest version now, and it works good. So that question is invalid now.
Let me claim "Chapter XLI – Of the Office of Our Blessed Saviour" now.
Thanks,
Ashwin
. I am in the habbit of racing through the text as in silent reading skipping words here nd there, so while loud reading i mumble at times, nd when it is a minor mistake i ignore. At times i find myself speaking a minor variation which means same, though ofcourse with practice this is now settling. Hobbes usage of grammer is also many a times unconventional. There are surprisingly no tips on the internet about loud reading (i assume this is different from public speaking). But now for my next recordings i m trying to put extra concentration on the word at hand. But i have a question here, would this approach affect my understanding of the sentence and hence voice mannerisms?Also do experienced readers here like u, read and understand the passage first or u can read even without doing this homework?
I also noticed that most good readers take their time in speaking every word, big or small (even Martin Luther king) and i am hurrying through the long words and not ennunciating properly .. thats where i think the problem with "th" (and the like) lies.
By "silent the silents" i meant selecting the silent portion and making it pure silent by using "Ctrl + L". This i saw in the librivox wiki. In old audacity version noise removal left some noise (that hight pitch tone) in the silent parts. But I have installed latest version now, and it works good. So that question is invalid now.
Let me claim "Chapter XLI – Of the Office of Our Blessed Saviour" now.
Thanks,
Ashwin
Hi Ashwin - glad I could help. It sounds like you've got the same problem I do - reading too fast. When I'm reading to myself, I also skip words here and there, and I find that I read those words too quickly when recording for LibriVox. What you'll learn to do eventually is to listen to the way you sound at the same time you're reading the text and also at the same time you're looking ahead a little bit to see what's next. If you pay attention to the way you speak, you'll very quickly improve. Listen for those sound combinations that you often, or common words that you slur. One way you can do this is to listen to the whole recording while you're editing it - including all the stumbles and slurs and outtakes. I don't do that anymore, because it's more time consuming, but I found it helpful when I was just starting out.
The minor mistakes you talked about are no big deal - we all do them, and as long as they're not big, like a missing paragraph or something, we don't usually worry about them.
Sometimes I read the text silently to myself before recording, and other times I don't. It usually depends on how difficult I expect the work to be. I'm involved in a couple of projects to record history books for children, and I know that the language will be easy to understand, so I don't do much more than glance at the text before reading. But Hobbes, as you said, has unconventional grammar, and also uses a lot of words we're not familiar with. Also, reading philosophy texts can be harder than most others, because of the difficulty of the ideas involved. I read three sections for Books 1 & 2 of Leviathan, and I found that I had to read the text carefully to make sure I understood what Hobbes was saying.
And like you said, it's a good idea to enunciate every word, even the a's and the's, because it's easy to talk too fast and get tripped up on your words. Now, nobody here expects perfection, so don't be too worried about it - you want to enjoy reading, and your focus should be on the great text you're recording, rather than getting weighed down with all the details.
In any case, I'll sign you up for Chapter XLI.. thanks again for volunteering, and for putting such effort into your recordings!
-Leon
The minor mistakes you talked about are no big deal - we all do them, and as long as they're not big, like a missing paragraph or something, we don't usually worry about them.
Sometimes I read the text silently to myself before recording, and other times I don't. It usually depends on how difficult I expect the work to be. I'm involved in a couple of projects to record history books for children, and I know that the language will be easy to understand, so I don't do much more than glance at the text before reading. But Hobbes, as you said, has unconventional grammar, and also uses a lot of words we're not familiar with. Also, reading philosophy texts can be harder than most others, because of the difficulty of the ideas involved. I read three sections for Books 1 & 2 of Leviathan, and I found that I had to read the text carefully to make sure I understood what Hobbes was saying.
And like you said, it's a good idea to enunciate every word, even the a's and the's, because it's easy to talk too fast and get tripped up on your words. Now, nobody here expects perfection, so don't be too worried about it - you want to enjoy reading, and your focus should be on the great text you're recording, rather than getting weighed down with all the details.
In any case, I'll sign you up for Chapter XLI.. thanks again for volunteering, and for putting such effort into your recordings!
-Leon
I remember how, in college, I got that part-time job as a circus clown, and how the children would laugh and laugh at me. I vowed, then and there, that I would get revenge.
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
-
Ashwin Jain
- Posts: 64
- Joined: February 8th, 2008, 2:04 pm
- Contact:
section 10 uploaded at -
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/lm/leviathan2_10_hobbes.mp3
19:25 , 17.7mb
i did some experiments with voice. This may appear a bit unnatural [:D]
Regards
Ashwin
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/lm/leviathan2_10_hobbes.mp3
19:25 , 17.7mb
i did some experiments with voice. This may appear a bit unnatural [:D]
Regards
Ashwin
Thanks Ashwin! I listened to a sample, and while it does sound a bit unnatural, it's no more unnatural than any of my recordings, and I think it's an improvement overall.Ashwin Jain wrote:section 10 uploaded at -
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/lm/leviathan2_10_hobbes.mp3
19:25 , 17.7mb
i did some experiments with voice. This may appear a bit unnatural [:D]
Regards
Ashwin
I remember how, in college, I got that part-time job as a circus clown, and how the children would laugh and laugh at me. I vowed, then and there, that I would get revenge.
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
Hi LeonMire,
May I claim Sections 18 and 19? I've always wanted to read Leviathan...never got too far myself, but if I read it out loud and listen to everyone else read out loud, I'm sure I'll get through the whole book this time around! Thanks!
-jamie
May I claim Sections 18 and 19? I've always wanted to read Leviathan...never got too far myself, but if I read it out loud and listen to everyone else read out loud, I'm sure I'll get through the whole book this time around! Thanks!
-jamie
Sections 18 and 19 are all yours, Jamie.. thank you!jamieash wrote:Hi LeonMire,
May I claim Sections 18 and 19? I've always wanted to read Leviathan...never got too far myself, but if I read it out loud and listen to everyone else read out loud, I'm sure I'll get through the whole book this time around! Thanks!
-jamie
(P.S. I have to confess, I've never read all of Leviathan either.. I have a similar motivation for starting this project!
)I remember how, in college, I got that part-time job as a circus clown, and how the children would laugh and laugh at me. I vowed, then and there, that I would get revenge.
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
-
Balso Snell
- Posts: 7
- Joined: May 4th, 2008, 2:02 pm
I'll do chapter 36 and more later if that works out.
EDIT: Here's a sample:
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/xx/Test.mp3
If anyone could give me critiques, that would be great.
EDIT: Here's a sample:
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/xx/Test.mp3
If anyone could give me critiques, that would be great.
Hello Balso Snell.. welcome to LibriVox! I've signed you up for chapter 36 (section 05).. thanks for volunteering!Balso Snell wrote:I'll do chapter 36 and more later if that works out.
EDIT: Here's a sample:
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/xx/Test.mp3
If anyone could give me critiques, that would be great.
Thank you also for sending a sample.. it's always a good idea, cuz it lets me know that you've got this recording stuff all figured out. Excellent sound quality, clear voice.. the only thing I'd comment on are the popping noises on your p sounds (the noises are called plosives).
There's only one that's loud, so it may just be a fluke, but here's how I usually make sure I avoid them. If you're using a headset, position it so that the mic is well below your mouth, down to your chin (unless you've got a beard! in which case put it above your nose). If you're using a desktop microphone, try talking to the side of the receiver, not directly at it. I always place my finger on the end of the microphone and make some really loud p sounds (and also some f's). If I can feel the breath on my finger, the mic will pick it up too, and I know I need to re-adjust.
Other than that, your recording set-up sounds just fine. Don't worry if your recording still has a few plosives in them.. it's really no big deal as long as they're not constant. I look forward to hearing your chapter.. and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me.
See ya around!
-Leon
P.S. One thing I'll need to know from you is how you'd like your name to appear in our catalog. Some people use their real names, others use their forum names, others choose some pseudonym.. it's up to you.
I remember how, in college, I got that part-time job as a circus clown, and how the children would laugh and laugh at me. I vowed, then and there, that I would get revenge.
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
-[url=http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/][u]Jack Handey[/u][/url]
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[size=100][b]It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -Aristotle
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[size=100][b]It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -Aristotle
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