COMPLETE - The Journal of John Woolman by John Woolman - kiki

dspurtz · Post by **dspurtz** » December 23rd, 2012, 4:52 pm

Yes, sounds good!

- Devon

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » December 23rd, 2012, 4:52 pm

Thanks! I wasn't sure if the intro was included in the chapter listing or not...

You and me both, brother. Sometimes the introductions are so short that it isn't really worth having a separate section. Is it OK now?

Ruth

dspurtz · Post by **dspurtz** » December 23rd, 2012, 5:58 pm

Yes, perfect. Thanks

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » December 27th, 2012, 3:05 pm

Moving over to Going Solo now, Devon. We can advertise for a proof-listener when you have a few files uploaded.

Ruth

dspurtz · Post by **dspurtz** » January 1st, 2013, 8:23 pm

Ruth,

http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/rg/journalofjohnwoolman_00_woolman.mp3

Here is Chapter 00 - Introductory Note (2:30). This is my first LibriVox project as well as my first time using Audacity so please let me know if I'm doing it right. I certainly welcome any ideas you may have that would help improve my work. Though it does sound good on my end

Happy New Year!

- Devon

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » January 2nd, 2013, 4:15 am

You will need to enter that URL in the Listen column of the Magic Window, Devon, together with the duration mm:ss in the Notes column. I notice you haven't completed the titles in the Magic Window - have you managed to log in to the MW yet? (My PM of 23 Dec gives basic instructions, but if you have any problems, just let me know.)

By the way, you seem to have a mains hum in this recording which wasn't present in your test recording.

60 Hz is the mains frequency in the US, and if you select the final few seconds of 'silence' and click Analyze | Plot Spectrum, you will see a big peak at 60 Hz, and lower peaks of some harmonics of that frequency. Did you have anything other than your computer (e.g. an external drive) running while you were recording?

It's possible to remove mains hum in post-processing, but obviously preferable to avoid this extra work if possible. There is a page in the Wiki on this here: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Removing_Mains_Hum

Other than that, it's fine! Good, clear recording.

Ruth

dspurtz · Post by **dspurtz** » January 2nd, 2013, 8:40 am

Ruth,

Thanks for the advice. I switched to a USB mic since my test recording because it sounded more professional and was recommended on the site. Everything else has remained the same - nothing running in the background. I will look through the link to remove the hum and hopefully get my settings right so the hum will not be included in future recordings.

Thanks,
Devon

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » January 2nd, 2013, 9:05 am

That seems totally unfair, doesn't it?

Would you like me to remove the hum on the first file? It will only take me a minute or two.

Ruth

dspurtz · Post by **dspurtz** » January 2nd, 2013, 9:46 am

Well thank you, that would be wonderful. How do I keep the hum out on future recordings? Any ideas?

- Devon

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » January 2nd, 2013, 9:41 pm

Well, I can think of no reason why an analog mic should be clean and a USB mic develop a hum. Are you recording on a laptop, or a desktop PC? If a laptop, you might try recording on battery power only.

Also try using a different USB port - with nothing else plugged in in an adjacent USB port.

You will easily be able to see if there is a hum by selecting a few seconds of background with no speech and clicking Analyze | Plot Spectrum using these settings:

Algorithm: Spectrum
Function: Hamming window
Size: 4096
Axis: Log Frequency

(These settings persist, so you don't have to enter them every time you Analyze.)

If you can see peaks like this, there is quite a hum:

I have de-hummed Section 00 and re-uploaded. If you can't find and eliminate the cause, you may have to learn how to do it too

. It's not difficult, however.

Ruth

dspurtz · Post by **dspurtz** » January 6th, 2013, 6:07 pm

Ruth,

What specific settings did you use in the Single Band Parametric to de-hum my recording?

Thanks,
Devon

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » January 6th, 2013, 10:40 pm

dspurtz wrote:What specific settings did you use in the Single Band Parametric to de-hum my recording?

It would have been rather sensible of me to have made a note at the time, wouldn't it?

Gain (dB) -50
Frequency (Hz) 60
Bandwidth (octaves) 0.1
Gain (dB) - 20
Frequency (Hz) 179
Bandwidth (octaves) 0.1
Gain (dB) -20
Frequency (Hz) 299
Bandwidth (octaves) 0.1

Then I think a very light noise-clean to get rid of the residual white noise would be beneficial.

Effect | Noise Removal: Select a short selection of background noise to obtain a noise profile, then select the whole recording and use the following settings:

Noise reduction: 8 dB
Sensitivity: 2 dB
Frequency smoothing: 150 Hz
Attack/decay: 0.1

That may sound a little daunting, I know, but it honestly does soon become second nature. I do something similar on all my recordings, and it takes only a minute or two.

Ruth

dspurtz · Post by **dspurtz** » January 21st, 2013, 7:35 pm

Ruth,

Just uploaded Chapter 1. The process is going well but you guys are right: it is much more time-consuming than one would imagine - especially the editing process. Again, please let me know if you have any ideas for making my recordings better. Thanks again for your help.

- Devon

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » January 22nd, 2013, 3:03 am

Hehe. All I can tell you is that in my experience, the editing time doesn't get shorter. The more you do, the better you want it to be, and the longer the editing takes. But that's just me. Other opinions may vary.

I'll try to take a listen later today, and will also post an ad for a proof-listener in Listeners Wanted.

Ruth

dspurtz · Post by **dspurtz** » January 27th, 2013, 7:15 pm

Ruth,

Chapter 2 of the text has lots of unusual place names - some of them may have been renamed 100 years ago...who knows? They are certainly not in the dictionary.

What kind of guidance can LibriVox offer me on pronouncing these place names? Is there a special site that may help me out?

Thanks!
Devon