[COMPLETE]Marriage of Heaven and Hell - William Blake-arb

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
nickdunc
Posts: 104
Joined: February 9th, 2011, 11:02 am

Post by nickdunc »

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake (1757 - 1827) .

This project is now complete! All audio files can be found on our catalog page: http://librivox.org/the-marriage-of-heaven-and-hell-by-william-blake
The work was composed between 1790 and 1793, in the period of radical foment and political conflict immediately after the French Revolution. The title is an ironic reference to Emanuel Swedenborg's theological work Heaven and Hell published in Latin 33 years earlier. Swedenborg is directly cited and criticized by Blake several places in the Marriage. Though Blake was influenced by his grand and mystical cosmic conception, Swedenborg's conventional moral structures and his Manichean view of good and evil led Blake to express a deliberately depolarized and unified vision of the cosmos in which the material world and physical desire are equally part of the divine order, hence, a marriage of heaven and hell. The book is written in prose, except for the opening "Argument" and the "Song of Liberty". The book describes the poet's visit to Hell, a device adopted by Blake from Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost. If you are interested to explore more of Blake you might contact the Blake Society http://www.blakesociety.org.(Summary by Wikipedia)
  • Target completion date: 2012-Nov-05
  • Text source (only read from this text!): http://archive.org/details/marriageofheaven00blak
  • Type of proof-listening required (Note: please read the PL FAQ): standard

    IMPORTANT - soloist, please note: in order to limit the amount of languishing projects (and hence the amount of files on our hard-pressed server), we ask that you post an update at least once a month in your project thread, even if you haven't managed to record anything. If we don't hear from you for three months, your project may be opened up to a group project if a Book Coordinator is found. Files you have completed will be used in this project. If you haven't recorded anything yet, your project will be removed from the forum (contact any admin to see if it can be re-instated).

    Please don't download files belonging to projects in process (unless you are the BC or PL). Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!

    Magic Window:



    BC Admin
    Genres for the project:
    literature, philosophy, satire

    Keywords that describe the book:
    Prophetic; Swedenborg; Milton
  • The reader will record the following at the beginning and end of each file:
    No more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of the recording!

    Start of recording (Intro)
    • "Chapter [number] of The Marriage if Heaven and Hell . - This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org"
    • If you wish, say:
      "Recording by [your name]"
    • Say:
      " The Marriage if Heaven and Hell , by William Blake . [Chapter]"
    For the second and all subsequent sections, you may optionally use the shortened form of this intro disclaimer:
    • "Chapter [number] of The Marriage if Heaven and Hell by William Blake . This LibriVox recording is in the Public Domain."
    • If you wish, say:
      "Recording by [your name]"
    • Only if applicable, say:
      "[Chapter title]"
    End of recording
    • At the end of the section, say:
      "End of [Chapter]"
    • If you wish, say:
      "Recording by [your name], [city, your blog, podcast, web address]"
    • At the end of the book, say (in addition):
      "End of The Marriage if Heaven and Hell , by William Blake . "
    There should be 5 seconds silence at the end of the recording, or 10 seconds for files longer than 30 minutes.
  • Example filename
    marriage_heaven_hell_##_blake.mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is your section number. (e.g. marriage_heaven_hell_01_blake.mp3)
  • Example ID3 V2 tags
    Title: ## - [Section title]
    Artist: William Blake
    Album: The Marriage if Heaven and Hell

    Transfer of files (completed recordings)
    Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file.
    Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link.
    • Upload your file with the LibriVox Uploader:
      http://upload.librivox.org
      Image
      (If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
    • You'll need to select the MC, which for this project is: yy - yyyyy
    • When your upload is complete, you will receive a link - please post it in this thread.
    • If this doesn't work, or you have questions, please check our How To Send Your Recording wiki page.
Last edited by nickdunc on October 28th, 2012, 11:00 am, edited 2 times in total.
nickdunc
Posts: 104
Joined: February 9th, 2011, 11:02 am

Post by nickdunc »

Annise has offered to be the MC on this one but I don't see where to put that.
Best,
N
annise
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 38680
Joined: April 3rd, 2008, 3:55 am
Location: Melbourne,Australia

Post by annise »

All set up Nick.
If you want to upload a few minutes so I can see if I can help with some ideas about noise cleaning and volume I will - just remind me about your software and microphone. You can use a raw file if you like


Anne
readr
Posts: 4
Joined: April 15th, 2012, 11:54 pm

Post by readr »

Tough to beat. Title read by Anthony Blake, set to music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P04JCvBWAXg
nickdunc
Posts: 104
Joined: February 9th, 2011, 11:02 am

Post by nickdunc »

Hi Annise,
Here is the whole thing. It only took 40 odd minutes in the end so I left it as a single section.
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/arb/Marriage_Heaven_Hell_Blake.mp3
Look forward to any comments/corrections.
All the best,
Nick
nickdunc
Posts: 104
Joined: February 9th, 2011, 11:02 am

Post by nickdunc »

Hi,
I have been playing with Auphonic to improve the sound quality.
I'll re-upload the processed file, if it sounds better than my original.
All the best,
Nick
nickdunc
Posts: 104
Joined: February 9th, 2011, 11:02 am

Post by nickdunc »

Hi,
I put the file through this, and it seems pretty clean without the 'artificialness' of some of the Audacity processing.
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/arb/Marriage_Heaven_Hell_Blake.mp3
All the best,
Nick
annise
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 38680
Joined: April 3rd, 2008, 3:55 am
Location: Melbourne,Australia

Post by annise »

That's great , Bill should be along soon and we can get it catalogued.

Anne
dread
Posts: 3988
Joined: January 30th, 2010, 12:41 pm
Location: Binghamton, NY

Post by dread »

Sorry, Nick. I didn't know this was already up. Will get to listening soon.

-- Bill
The range of literature is as wide as humanity. It touches every feeling, every hope, every craving of the human heart. -- David Jordan
dread
Posts: 3988
Joined: January 30th, 2010, 12:41 pm
Location: Binghamton, NY

Post by dread »

Hi Nick,

As usual, a very good job. While your first version (Audacity) and your second were very similar in quality, it seemed to me that the second version was somewhat clearer, more crisp.

A fair number of your flaws were in the area of extraneous sound. So when I state, say, 7:03--motor sound, that is a general pinpoint. The sound occurred in and around 7:03, not necessarily just on it.

I have the same difficulty with extraneous sound (my wife's washer and dryer). I can only close doors and use Noise Removal. Sometimes I still detect tumbling in the distance, but it's not too bad.

:57
Click sound

2:47
Humming sound

7:03
Motor sound

8:22
Click sound

8:55
Motor sound

10:28
Thump

11:24
Click sound

13:01
Used we should be so for we should have

14:54
Click sound

16:16
Body movement?

16:49
Missing as
"and as I was then"

17:41
Inserted that
"and [that] all the others"

22:11
Inserted the
"and took the forms of [the] books"

25:00
Airplane sound

26:53
Used toward for between
"till looking east between the clouds"

31:25
Siren

37:23
Repeat: Five

37:56
Inserted And the new face and
"[And the new face and] the new-born fire stood before"

38:05
Used browned for brow'd
"Flagg'd with grey-brow"d snow"

40:07
Used commands for commandments
"he promulgates his ten commandments"

41:24
Body or mic movement

Should have only 10 seconds of silence at end
The range of literature is as wide as humanity. It touches every feeling, every hope, every craving of the human heart. -- David Jordan
nickdunc
Posts: 104
Joined: February 9th, 2011, 11:02 am

Post by nickdunc »

Many thanks Bill I will try and sort these out.
All the best,
Nick
nickdunc
Posts: 104
Joined: February 9th, 2011, 11:02 am

Post by nickdunc »

Hi
Here is the link to the revised version.
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/arb/Marriage_Heaven_Hell_Blake.mp3
Hope this fixes the problems.
All the best,
Nick
dread
Posts: 3988
Joined: January 30th, 2010, 12:41 pm
Location: Binghamton, NY

Post by dread »

Nick --

Very good job of editing. PL OK.

I took the liberty of using Noise Removal on the whole file to get rid of more background noise. Then I re-uploaded. I know you have been somewhat wary of NR in the past. Give a listen. If you like it, we'll keep it that way. If you don't, I can upload your edited version without the NR.

If you go with it the way it is, we can let Annise know it's ready to get out there to the public.

New time of 49:30.

-- Bill
The range of literature is as wide as humanity. It touches every feeling, every hope, every craving of the human heart. -- David Jordan
annise
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 38680
Joined: April 3rd, 2008, 3:55 am
Location: Melbourne,Australia

Post by annise »

Hi Bill

Let's let Nick make his own decisions about the sound quality - I'll go and do some file renaming - back soon

Anne
annise
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 38680
Joined: April 3rd, 2008, 3:55 am
Location: Melbourne,Australia

Post by annise »

Ok
I have renamed the files , Nick's file is
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/arb/Marriage_Heaven_Hell_Blake.mp3

Bill's noisecleaned version is
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/arb/Marriage_Heaven_Hell_BlakeNC.mp3

I'll start cataloguing - send me a PM Nick if you prefer Bill's version

Anne
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