Here is chapter 17, in 2 different versions:
https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/jossareversion_17_marsh_128kbps_raw.mp3 [18:41.195]
The first is just the raw stuff. All I did was hit record, and cut out parts where I fumbled. No noise correction, no equalizer, no compressor.
https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/jossareversion_17_marsh_128kpbs_process.mp3 [18:41.195]
The second is where I did those things. (Except noise reductions, it's pretty much redundant with my setup.) I did a highpass filter, with occasional boosts in the midranges, and then I had the compressor eliminate everything below 60 Hz, because I didn't like the annoying background hum. I also adjusted stuff in the mids and mid-highs, and then gained everything up.
(There's a reason I'm minoring in Audio instead of already having my degree.)
Give both a listen and see which one you prefer, so that I know what to do in future.
[COMPLETE]The Joss: a Reversion by Richard Marsh-icequeen
-
SpookyNoodle
- Posts: 44
- Joined: January 7th, 2016, 3:02 pm
Everything is hard before it is easy; every first draft is terrible, so that the final draft can be great.
-
Newgatenovelist
- Posts: 5212
- Joined: February 17th, 2015, 7:22 am
Hi SpookyNoodle!
Thank you for the files. It's a busy couple of days, so I don't think I'll be able to listen to both tonight. I'd like to give them the attention they deserve and not rush them, so I'll try and listen properly over the weekend.
Erin
Thank you for the files. It's a busy couple of days, so I don't think I'll be able to listen to both tonight. I'd like to give them the attention they deserve and not rush them, so I'll try and listen properly over the weekend.
Erin
-
Newgatenovelist
- Posts: 5212
- Joined: February 17th, 2015, 7:22 am
Good evening, SpookyNoodle!
I've had a listen, and your background in audio is evident.
Also, before I get to the nitty gritty, I would like to say that I enjoyed how you're characterising the Frank's narrative. I was curious to hear what it would sound like after listening to two other characters' narratives. 
I would say that, of the two, I think the edited file had a cleaner sound, rather than the 'raw' one, so please stick with the edited file. One further point - the raw file was a little bit quiet (83.9 dB, as measure by Checker), and the clean-up file was perfect at 89.2. The rough figure to aim for is 89 dB, but a dB or two either side is fine.
I'm going to mention some very small things that I think slightly altered the meaning (which is why I'm bringing them up), and ask you to make a few changes. It might look like a lot, but that's just because I type a lot! One or two of these *might* be in your file and just have been inadvertently cut out in the editing stage - it has been known to happen.
The first is at 9.08-9.10. It's on page 154 of the book. I didn't hear the sentence 'It's odd, and ingenious.' between the end of the previous paragraph ('...the paper had come open.') and the second sentence ('I suppose there is a spring...') in this paragraph. Could you please add it in?
At 10.31-10.34 in the mp3, and on page 155: 'The document came on a Thursday evening' is what I heard, but the book says 'morning'. 'Morning' makes a bit more sense to me, if he's a lawyer without that much work.
There is a slight stumble at 14.35-14.40, on page 157 at the end of a paragraph: '...Mr. Batters' decease was undated too, the conjunction struck me one a trifle forcibly.' The text says 'one', and I would have been okay with 'me', because that also makes sense, but could you please edit 'me' or 'one' out? There is one very small change in the following sentence, at the start of the next paragraph (14.41-14.45): 'Then the conditions under which Mary Blyth was to inherit were so puerile, not to say dangerous.' The text says 'outrageous', which I think makes a bit more sense (being home by 9 every night doesn't seem very dangerous!).
Just a suggestion, in case you haven't already tried this (it saved me a lot of trouble when I had just joined and someone told me this!) - if you work from back to front to make any changes or corrections, it will be easier. The time stamps won't move that way.
Okay, that's everything within the file. When you upload the new file, could you please upload without the 'ps_process' at the very end?
If you have any questions at all, or something isn't clear, please ask. I won't be checking on Sunday, but that's all.
Erin
I've had a listen, and your background in audio is evident.
Also, before I get to the nitty gritty, I would like to say that I enjoyed how you're characterising the Frank's narrative. I was curious to hear what it would sound like after listening to two other characters' narratives. I would say that, of the two, I think the edited file had a cleaner sound, rather than the 'raw' one, so please stick with the edited file. One further point - the raw file was a little bit quiet (83.9 dB, as measure by Checker), and the clean-up file was perfect at 89.2. The rough figure to aim for is 89 dB, but a dB or two either side is fine.
I'm going to mention some very small things that I think slightly altered the meaning (which is why I'm bringing them up), and ask you to make a few changes. It might look like a lot, but that's just because I type a lot! One or two of these *might* be in your file and just have been inadvertently cut out in the editing stage - it has been known to happen.
The first is at 9.08-9.10. It's on page 154 of the book. I didn't hear the sentence 'It's odd, and ingenious.' between the end of the previous paragraph ('...the paper had come open.') and the second sentence ('I suppose there is a spring...') in this paragraph. Could you please add it in?
At 10.31-10.34 in the mp3, and on page 155: 'The document came on a Thursday evening' is what I heard, but the book says 'morning'. 'Morning' makes a bit more sense to me, if he's a lawyer without that much work.
There is a slight stumble at 14.35-14.40, on page 157 at the end of a paragraph: '...Mr. Batters' decease was undated too, the conjunction struck me one a trifle forcibly.' The text says 'one', and I would have been okay with 'me', because that also makes sense, but could you please edit 'me' or 'one' out? There is one very small change in the following sentence, at the start of the next paragraph (14.41-14.45): 'Then the conditions under which Mary Blyth was to inherit were so puerile, not to say dangerous.' The text says 'outrageous', which I think makes a bit more sense (being home by 9 every night doesn't seem very dangerous!).
Just a suggestion, in case you haven't already tried this (it saved me a lot of trouble when I had just joined and someone told me this!) - if you work from back to front to make any changes or corrections, it will be easier. The time stamps won't move that way.
Okay, that's everything within the file. When you upload the new file, could you please upload without the 'ps_process' at the very end?
If you have any questions at all, or something isn't clear, please ask. I won't be checking on Sunday, but that's all.
Erin
-
SpookyNoodle
- Posts: 44
- Joined: January 7th, 2016, 3:02 pm
https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/jossareversion_17_marsh_128kb.mp3 [18:33]
It's odd. I don't know what I did differently, but something about the 'corrected' segments sounds different, and I'm not sure how to fix it without starting over and rereading the entire chapter.
Here are the edits you requested. I'll start work on chap 18 as soon as I can.
It's odd. I don't know what I did differently, but something about the 'corrected' segments sounds different, and I'm not sure how to fix it without starting over and rereading the entire chapter.
Here are the edits you requested. I'll start work on chap 18 as soon as I can.
Last edited by SpookyNoodle on February 17th, 2016, 5:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Everything is hard before it is easy; every first draft is terrible, so that the final draft can be great.
-
Newgatenovelist
- Posts: 5212
- Joined: February 17th, 2015, 7:22 am
Please don't re-record the entire chapter, because chapter 17 is PL OK!
Making changes will often sound a little bit different, just because it's been recorded on a different day or with slightly different background noise, or whatever. This didn't make me leap up in panic or think that a different reader had suddenly contributed, and it's fine.
Erin
Making changes will often sound a little bit different, just because it's been recorded on a different day or with slightly different background noise, or whatever. This didn't make me leap up in panic or think that a different reader had suddenly contributed, and it's fine.
Erin
-
SpookyNoodle
- Posts: 44
- Joined: January 7th, 2016, 3:02 pm
https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/joss_areversion_marsh_18_128kb.mp3 [14:10]
Behold! Chapter 18! This time, with a noise gate to get rid of lip smackings and annoying breathing!
I'm sorry if Kennard's voice is a tad inconsistent, I was kinda creating it as I went along.
Behold! Chapter 18! This time, with a noise gate to get rid of lip smackings and annoying breathing!
I'm sorry if Kennard's voice is a tad inconsistent, I was kinda creating it as I went along.
Everything is hard before it is easy; every first draft is terrible, so that the final draft can be great.
-
Newgatenovelist
- Posts: 5212
- Joined: February 17th, 2015, 7:22 am
Thank you very much! I've popped it into the MW and will listen to it today or tomorrow.
-Erin
-Erin
-
Newgatenovelist
- Posts: 5212
- Joined: February 17th, 2015, 7:22 am
That was good fun! I'm looking forward to the next chapter.
I have one small comment - in future, could you please save the first part of the file name without the underscore, so it's all squashed together as 'jossareversion'? The MC can change it before cataloguing, so it's no problem, but I wanted to mention for next time.
I have one small comment - in future, could you please save the first part of the file name without the underscore, so it's all squashed together as 'jossareversion'? The MC can change it before cataloguing, so it's no problem, but I wanted to mention for next time.
-
SpookyNoodle
- Posts: 44
- Joined: January 7th, 2016, 3:02 pm
https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/jossareversion_19_marsh_128kb.mp3 [13:58.434]
Chapter 19
Remember when I said that one guy's voice was inconsistent? Well, it gets way worse.
Chapter 19
Remember when I said that one guy's voice was inconsistent? Well, it gets way worse.
Last edited by SpookyNoodle on February 23rd, 2016, 3:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Everything is hard before it is easy; every first draft is terrible, so that the final draft can be great.
-
Newgatenovelist
- Posts: 5212
- Joined: February 17th, 2015, 7:22 am
Ha! Thank you for the chapter. I'm curious to hear it!
-
Newgatenovelist
- Posts: 5212
- Joined: February 17th, 2015, 7:22 am
Chapter 19 is PL OK. Keep 'em comin'!
-
SpookyNoodle
- Posts: 44
- Joined: January 7th, 2016, 3:02 pm
First chapter recorded, edited, and rendered in Reaper. We'll see how it turns out.
https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/jossareversion_20_marsh_128kb.mp3 [18:53.852]
Had a lot of fun with Curtis' voice, but it'll probably bug some people.
For some unfathomable reason, the whole chapter gets slightly quieter as it goes along. It's still well within necessary ranges, but it's just something I noticed.
https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/jossareversion_20_marsh_128kb.mp3 [18:53.852]
Had a lot of fun with Curtis' voice, but it'll probably bug some people.
For some unfathomable reason, the whole chapter gets slightly quieter as it goes along. It's still well within necessary ranges, but it's just something I noticed.
Everything is hard before it is easy; every first draft is terrible, so that the final draft can be great.
-
Newgatenovelist
- Posts: 5212
- Joined: February 17th, 2015, 7:22 am
Good evening! I have two quick questions - the first is the time of the file. Could you please double check it? My pc and Checker are telling me that it's 18.59 (that's the number I've put into the MW - for now), and I want to be sure that nothing has happened to the end of the file.
The other thing is, that before I PL a chapter, I run it through Checker just to be on the safe side. When I did that with chapter 20, it was telling me that the file didn't have the correct bit rate. I don't know how to change that with Reaper, but in Audacity, when you export the file, you can click on 'options' and change it there. Could you please fix that and upload it with the same file name (the old version will be saved in case we need to go back to it)? I'll PL the new version when you've done that!
-Erin
The other thing is, that before I PL a chapter, I run it through Checker just to be on the safe side. When I did that with chapter 20, it was telling me that the file didn't have the correct bit rate. I don't know how to change that with Reaper, but in Audacity, when you export the file, you can click on 'options' and change it there. Could you please fix that and upload it with the same file name (the old version will be saved in case we need to go back to it)? I'll PL the new version when you've done that!
-Erin
-
SpookyNoodle
- Posts: 44
- Joined: January 7th, 2016, 3:02 pm
Alright, the time issue: I put a 5000 ms buffer on the end, but I didn't necessarily eliminate all the empty space at the end of file, which I'll do so that we only have 5 seconds at the end instead of 9-12.
Second: Audition and Reaper don't work in the decibels that are there, but rather the ones that arent, with 0 as the maximum and going down from there. Now, if the file is too loud, let me know, and I'll bring everything down a dB or two
EDIT: https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/jossareversion_20_marsh_128kb.mp3 [18:58.320]
Here it is, volume adjusted to (hopefully) fit the loudness requirement you wanted.
Second: Audition and Reaper don't work in the decibels that are there, but rather the ones that arent, with 0 as the maximum and going down from there. Now, if the file is too loud, let me know, and I'll bring everything down a dB or two
EDIT: https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/jossareversion_20_marsh_128kb.mp3 [18:58.320]
Here it is, volume adjusted to (hopefully) fit the loudness requirement you wanted.
Everything is hard before it is easy; every first draft is terrible, so that the final draft can be great.
-
Newgatenovelist
- Posts: 5212
- Joined: February 17th, 2015, 7:22 am
Hello!
First - the time at the end is fine. Thanks for clearing that up!
Next - I'm sorry about this, because I wasn't as clear as I should have been. The bit rate I'm after is 128kbps. In Audacity, that can be done when you go to export the file, and the box with the name pops up. Instead of clicking 'save', two buttons below that is 'options', which allows you to set it to the desired bit rate. (Forgive me if you know all of this already. I figured it was easier to write something that can be skimmed over than leave something out when I ought to be clearer.)
I've listened to the chapter, and have one correction to ask for (besides the bit rate) - a repetition at 5.30-5.37 (page 181 of the book): 'If I had been a minute or two later, I should have missed them; they would have gone'.
It seems fiddly, but we'll get there!
Have a good evening.
First - the time at the end is fine. Thanks for clearing that up!
Next - I'm sorry about this, because I wasn't as clear as I should have been. The bit rate I'm after is 128kbps. In Audacity, that can be done when you go to export the file, and the box with the name pops up. Instead of clicking 'save', two buttons below that is 'options', which allows you to set it to the desired bit rate. (Forgive me if you know all of this already. I figured it was easier to write something that can be skimmed over than leave something out when I ought to be clearer.)
I've listened to the chapter, and have one correction to ask for (besides the bit rate) - a repetition at 5.30-5.37 (page 181 of the book): 'If I had been a minute or two later, I should have missed them; they would have gone'.
It seems fiddly, but we'll get there!
Have a good evening.