Returning after a 5 year break

[barleyguy]

Greetings. My name is Harley, username barleyguy. I was an avid listener of Librivox for several years, because I used to commute. I also narrated 25 chapters back in 2015 and 2016. In late 2016 I started a very demanding corporate job which took a large amount of my time and energy. When that happened, I disappeared from here.

I'd like to get involved again. I am going to have a lot more time on my hands, as I'm taking a 6 month sabbatical from work. After that, I plan to investigate paid audiobook work, and see if I can survive on that to avoid going back to the corporate rat race. (I hope that's not a bad subject around here.)

I am an audio engineer. I feel comfortable labeling myself as that because I've had audio as a passion and side gig for over 25 years. Also, I am an honors graduate from recording school. I consider audio my strongest skill.

I'd like to get back into narrating some chapters here. I'm also interested in possibly taking on a solo project for an entire book, to see what it's like to do a larger project, and what my velocity is as far as how much I can get done. Also, I think it might be fun to do the audio for a dramatic work with lots of actors involved.

Anyhow, I hope everyone is well around here, and I hope to start contributing again.

Cheers,

Harley.

[annise]

Welcome back. After a long break it might pay to just upload a test to check your settings are still right - you've probably changed something in that time and it's better not to need to fiddle with real recordings. Nothing much has really changed here .

Anne

[barleyguy]

Thanks, will do. I need to set up my favorite microphone next to the recliner where I like to read, get everything hooked up to a laptop, and then I'll test it with the one-minute test.

[iBeScotty]

Hey, welcome back Harley! I also seem to be in and out of librivox as life gets distracting (was even a member back around 2010 but can’t remember that forum name and didn’t contribute much if anything back then).

Love the audio side too and if i submitted a 1-min test every time i changed things, i would have almost as many tests as sections recorded

Best of luck and record something awesome!

Scotty

[SunnyG]

Hi Harley. I am new... just reading over some of the newcomer intros... (mine is further down the page from last weekend "fulfilling a dream"). I have a couple projects I am assigned to... think I just uploaded my first final version of my first segment. Have one more to do, and then I will switch to my second project. And trying to figure out what I want to do as a solo gig... If I have time to complete a whole book on my own! Ha!

I am also interested in possibly trying VO or book narration for some income... after I feel comfortable having practiced on all the poor souls who want to read my recordings on here. I hope to improve... This is just totally a new thing for me, so I am feeling awkward still. As you already know what you are doing in the audio world (being an audio engineer), would you mind if I ask you questions on occasion, as they arise (in PM)? I am watching some YT videos for help, but of course, that doesn't always mean I know what I am doing after watching things, either. I am using Audacity. For one, I want to figure out how to run a macro for the initial post-work. (I'm not even sure what the proper term is there, because I don't consider it editing yet, when I am just getting the file up to specs. But, what do I know?) Seems like I didn't find a whole lot of videos on macros... but, I need to revisit that when I have time.

Nice to meet you!

~ felicia

[barleyguy]

BeScotty, that is so true. If I posted a new test every time I changed something, that's all I'd ever post. I do know what my favorite combination is though. And of course, it's likely different than anybody else is using. Also, thanks for the encouragement. I'm actually very happy to be back here.

Welcome SunnyG. Yes, please feel free to ask questions. But I'd prefer if you post them on the forum and send me a link, instead of just a PM. That way other people can contribute to the answer, or benefit from it.

Also, be aware that I don't necessarily do anything like anybody else does. I use Reaper for my software, and have my own workflow. I have no significant experience with Audacity. (The audio software I've used is Cool Edit Pro, Adobe Audition up to 1.5, a little bit of Pro Tools, and Reaper.)

As far as a macro for post production, there's really no such thing. Each recording will need something a little bit different. Some will need a little bit of boost, some will need noise cleanup. If you start doing pro level work, you might want to get into EQ and compression, etc. But if you take the effects from one project and apply them to another project without using your ears, it might not turn out like you expect.

One thing you can do is have a template for your projects with your favorite effects set up. And then listen to the project and adjust the effects to match. For example, if there's a compressor you really like, but the parameters need to be different for each project, you can have the compressor in the template, but then go slide the numbers around to do what's right for that particular recording.

Here's a video I just found on doing effects chains in Audacity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghCGUTb8e6g

[SunnyG]

Well, so far, I have needed the same effects every time. Sometimes when I rerecord it sounds a little different, but I don't know enough to change the sound quality. I was able to successfully make it louder to at least sound about as loud as the other. None of the settings mean anything until someone explains something or I look it up. Took me hours and lots of posts here to get my test to pass the checker. But, someone else... I think on a YouTube video in comments, had suggested to someone else to use a macro. I am always having to go through the same steps in post after every recording here, so I will look into a macro to make that part a tad easier.

I don't know what compression does, all I know is what I need to do to get files to be accepted here at Librivox. Compression is one of them. But, I am simply following required settings.

And... after suggesting I might want to try this for income... and I did another section of my cookbook project here, I decided it might be a while before I do it seriously. Haha! There is a lot of work just fixing my mistakes for a short recording. I assume the reading will get easier... but then I realize all the books here have antiquated phrases which don't come naturally, so they can be hard to read.

So... most of my questions will be Audacity related, so, I guess I will just keep doing what I've been doing to find the answers I need.

[HandmadePSK]

Greetings.

Hulloa & welcome back, Harley!

Well, you know everything here much better than me, so just enjoy yourself and see you around!

Cheers