[COMPLETE][Solo] Scottish Ghost Stories by Elliott O'Donnell - kit

neecheelok70 · Post by **neecheelok70** » March 9th, 2021, 1:09 pm

What a sweet, but also in the end a sad tale. There are few real content errors. At 42.0 "dream" should be "chant" and at 1:12 "great" should be "giant." There are some omissions or additions or changes at the following times: 3:36; 3:58; 7:21; 8:00; 13:06; and 13:45.

beardiepaw · Post by **beardiepaw** » March 9th, 2021, 3:53 pm

Hi Jim, I am having problems with my macro clipping the ends off. Sorry for the mistakes, Iwent over it alot! But i'll reprocess and get the endings back, I can do that easily. It must show up more on t he mp3 than the aup. Thanks!

beardiepaw · Post by **beardiepaw** » March 9th, 2021, 5:41 pm

Ok, i looked at my little macro and for some reason the normalize is the culprit and is cutting the ends off of some words. I am fixing it, not too terrible. I have corrected the mistakes on the words, dummy me, and should have it done tomorrow. Now, I can't trust my macro anymore. I'll just have to do it by hand, I guess.

neecheelok70 · Post by **neecheelok70** » March 9th, 2021, 8:27 pm

Happy it will be an easy fix. No hurry. Jim

Post by **Kitty** » March 10th, 2021, 12:32 am

beardiepaw wrote: ↑March 9th, 2021, 5:41 pmOk, i looked at my little macro and for some reason the normalize is the culprit and is cutting the ends off of some words. I am fixing it, not too terrible.

may I ask why you are using "normalize" ? I never use that and I think it can be tricky, I would not recommend it. It's also difficult to use accurately I think.

Noise-cleaning is usually enough to get rid of the background noise. And amplifying is the better function to adjust the volume. For that to work properly though you need to keep your voice in about the same volume range all throughout the file. If there are unusualy peaks (you can see them in Audacity easily) you first have to decrease the volume there a bit manually, before uniformly amplifying the whole.

I hope this helps. Cutting off the endings should not happen on a regular basis, so we need to get to the bottom of this problem.

Since the reading is otherwise excellent, it would be sad to have the quality a bit deteriorated because of this problem.

Sonia

Post by **Kitty** » March 11th, 2021, 2:17 am

Ok, Sher, I have a LV friend who is quite savvy in technical audio engineering and I gave him part of your file to listen to and give me his opinion. Here is what he suggests:

The problem on the included audio is not “Normalize”.
I believe she may be using a “Gate”. If she is, that is the trouble. No amateur should ever use a Gate. It takes specialized knowledge and a very well designed Gate to work. This does cut the noise during “silent” times but it can also do exactly what you are hearing here. It is best to not remove all noise. Just lower it if needed. She could probably do the same thing with an “Expander” tool in Audacity if that is what she is using. Or the “Noise Reduction” tool.
From what I hear, she wouldn’t need a lot. She has a good voice. Her mic sounds very good. If she is using a different software, I may be able to help her since I am familiar with several.
You are free to give her my email address if further help is needed.

I don't know what a "Gate" is (but I can ask him if you don't know either). If you think that is what you are doing, maybe it will help if you leave that part out.

In any case, if you want to communicate with him directly to improve your audio, feel free to PM me and I give you his email.

I hope it helps.

Sonia

neecheelok70 · Post by **neecheelok70** » March 11th, 2021, 3:34 am

Thank you, guys, for the help. Jim

neecheelok70 · Post by **neecheelok70** » March 16th, 2021, 8:35 am

Sher, I hope we haven' scared you off. You have such a perfect voice for storytelling that it would be a shame to lose your talents. Hope to hear from you soon. Jim

beardiepaw · Post by **beardiepaw** » March 17th, 2021, 1:18 pm

Thank you for all the help. I am sorry for the delay, but I looked at my unprocessed copy, and it did not have all the trashy cut-off. You were right in your assessments. It really helped. I deleted my macro, and I think I have found a better way. I hope it sounds ok, but again, I am not averse to correction. I want to be good at this. I finished the ACX 18 chapter book, with little problem, and this started, so now, I can sleep all night and not wake up at 2 am, trying to figure it out. I did a lot of research and I think I have it. The normalize and gate, I got from a tutorial. So, the new file is uploaded. Wish me luck! But let me know, ok? Big hugs to all for the help. Oh, my new protocol is after doing a usual clean-up, I use a filter curve, loudness Normalize, and a limiter. Then, I can safely use a click remover or de-esser.

neecheelok70 · Post by **neecheelok70** » March 17th, 2021, 7:55 pm

Excellent, Sher. Glad to have you back. You are PL OK.

beardiepaw · Post by **beardiepaw** » March 18th, 2021, 6:34 am

YAY!!

beardiepaw · Post by **beardiepaw** » March 19th, 2021, 9:29 am

Uh, hi, I just posted section 10, (she says timidly).

neecheelok70 · Post by **neecheelok70** » March 19th, 2021, 10:05 am

Totally awesome. Section 10 is PL OK. Thanks for an enjoyable performance!

beardiepaw · Post by **beardiepaw** » April 5th, 2021, 3:04 pm

Hi, I just uploaded section 11. Sorry for delay, I had to do some work for my company's Blog Hop later this month. Have a good day, be safe. Glad you liked the last one. Sher

neecheelok70 · Post by **neecheelok70** » April 6th, 2021, 6:11 am

Sher, once again your rendering is PL OK. Hope you are well. You have plenty of time, two months between submissions, so no worry. Jim