[LAUNCHED] Wind in the Willows read by Sarbaga Falk, recorded by Cynthia Crossen

[crcrossen]

My name is Cynthia R. Crossen. In 2011, I recorded my friend Sarbaga Falk reading Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows, because I thought she was a delightful reader. When we did these recordings, I had it in mind to upload the project to Librivox at some point, so we followed the directions given by Librivox at that time. Since we recorded, I have made presents of the set of these six CD's for my friends and their children and grandchildren.

Sarbaga passed away in February 2020, and it has taken me this long to finally tackle uploading Sarbaga's reading to your site. I am doing this in her honor, and also because I love her reading.

For the test you asked for, I have uploaded the Foreword she recorded:

https://librivox.org/uploads/tests/003-Foreword_WITW_20110707_Final.mp3

If the technical side of things is not up to your standards -- unfortunately, I can't fix that at this point. I regret that I didn't place her closer to the mic, but I was worried about popping P's, etc. (and there are none, so that's good). Nowhere do the recordings overdrive; I tried to set the levels correctly; and I hope the volume level is okay.

I am a composer, and I composed three short (about half a minute each) piano pieces to intersperse with the recording sections, to mark disc beginnings, disc endings, and chapter endings. I would hope these would add to the magic of Sarbaga's readings for your listeners. However, I can leave them out if instructed.

I have broken up each chapter into 5 sections. As an audiobook listener, I like to be able to backspace to the previous section if I miss something, and this shortens sections to make this work better.

The last item: Sarbaga recorded the Introduction to the William Collins Publishing 1966 edition of Wind in the Willows, from which she was reading. I love this introduction, but after researching it, I cannot locate its copyright status. You can let me know if you know -- and I can leave it out if necessary.

I've read your thorough instructions on how to proceed, and yet I am still not sure what to do next, for example, how to get my project folder set up so that I can upload all the files I have recorded (they are well-labeled already). Help on this is much appreciated!

Thanks for your good work in putting art into the hands of the public. You are right up there with our precious public libraries.

Cynthia Crossen

[TriciaG]

Welcome!

(1) Regarding the text: no, we can't use the 1966 intro. And that does have me concerned about the text itself, whether it has a newer copyright (due to edits) than the original. Is it a hard copy? If so, could you snap a photo of the title and copyright pages, put them in a Zip folder, and upload them to the uploader?

(2) I understand about the inability to make edits. It does look like some adjustments would need to be made on the audio itself, though, which you should be able to do. If you're using Audacity and need help with how to do these, let me know.

- File is in stereo; it should be mono.
- Bit rate is 320 kbps; it needs to be 128 kbps.
- Volume is actually too high. It needs to come down about 6 dB.

- I didn't listen to the whole thing, but I did notice at the end that there's a spot where there's a pause and a bit of shuffling, then the "end of foreword" which can be cut out. And there needs to be 5 seconds of silence (at least no talking) at the very end of the file.

- It looks like there's a lot of strange wiggly waveform action going on throughout the file. I think this contributes to the background noise. What you can do is run a High Pass Filter on it. I tried it with threshold 200 Hz and roll-off 12 dB, and it cleaned up a lot of the funkiness. (What this does is filter the lower tones, letting the higher ones pass through unaffected. 200 Hz is lower than most people talk, so it doesn't affect the voice, but will start filtering from that point. The 12 dB roll-off is how much more severely it filters the lower the tones go.)

Eventually the file names will need changing, but we'll worry about that after the text question is answered, and you're possibly ready to edit and upload the files.

[msfry]

Not sure how I got subscribed to this thread, but I'm glad to see it. Cynthia, you are in capable hands with Tricia, and if I can help with proof listening, or even BC'ing this project at your side, i.e., coaching you how to BC it, I'd be happy to do that.

[crcrossen]

Thanks for the great hand-holding, TriciaG. I appreciate your instructions and your clarity. And to you too, msfry, for your encouragement and offer of help. What a great community you all have created!

As to the edition Sarbaga was reading from, I believe it is the William Collins Publishing 1966 edition of Wind in the Willows. I am assuming this because of the introduction to that edition that she read (and which I figured that we couldn't use--thanks for answering that). Unfortunately, I do not have the hard cover copy of this edition, as it was passed along to her family when she died. All I know is that under the book jacket, the book cover is spring green.

If you can, please let me know if, due to copyright issues, I should stop right here on contributing this project to Librivox. If you think there's a chance it is a GO, I will contact Sarbaga's family to try to track down the edition she read from.

If it's possible to proceed with this project -- thanks for the technical suggestions. It does make the project more daunting--not impossible, but taking more time than I'd bargained for. However, with more staying-at-home in store due to Delta Covid, I do have time to chip away at it.

I recorded this project using Sonar, which I no longer use; I now use Reaper. I'll see if it's possible to accomplish your suggestions with Reaper; I imagine it will be, as Reaper has a vast array of features. If not, I'll look into Audacity.

Thanks again for your help and encouragement,
Cynthia

[TriciaG]

Hmm. Regarding the text edition: how about uploading the first section (after the preface which we can't use), as-is is fine, without further fiddling with the audio. Someone can check it against a PD text. If it's the same, I think it would be OK to use. If there are phrasing differences, etc., then that indicates it was edited, and we won't be able to use it.

[crcrossen]

I have uploaded the following file, Tricia. I selected you as the MC (not sure if this was the thing to do...). Here's the link:

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/005-Chap1_WITW_20110708_1of5_Final.mp3

Thanks for going to the extra trouble to help me with this.

Cynthia

[TriciaG]

OK, I've had a chance to listen. She reads very well - I enjoyed it!

It's almost word-for-word with this edition: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27805 so I think it's OK to use.

So to proceed from here:

1- Figure out the technical stuff I mentioned before (volume, stereo-to-mono, maybe some noise reduction, and the MP3 bit rate).

2- How to break up the chapter into files, or pull them together:

You broke up the chapter into shorter portions as you mentioned earlier. If you upload them as separate files for the project, there needs to be an intro on each file. It would perhaps be "Chapter 1, part 1" "Chapter 1, part 2" etc., then for all after the first file, "of Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain" is all that's needed.

Alternately, you could stitch all the parts of the chapter together into one file and just have the "Chapter 1" "Chapter 2" intros.

The files will all need "End of Chapter X" or "End of Chapter X, Part Y" at the end, followed by 5 seconds of silence.

3- Start a project thread for the work, where you'd post the links and all that stuff. It also provides info on the file naming scheme we use. (This would be windinthewillows_##_grahame_128kb.mp3, where the ## is the file number in order. The _128kb part is required by Archive.org to tell them what kind of file is being uploaded, in order to properly derive the other files that are created at Archive.) See here for instructions on setting up a project thread: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=13513

- You asked about music/sound effects. We only do plain vanilla recordings, so these wouldn't be permitted. If you're ambitious, you could make a separate project with them and upload the files to Archive.org yourself.

Ask any further questions you have.

[crcrossen]

Thanks, Tricia--I really do appreciate the help!

Your instructions look clear. You may not hear from me for awhile, as I will be busy with the technical stuff.

Too bad about the music Just for your amusement (and my satisfaction), here are links to the three piano pieces I wrote, from my website cynthiasongs.com:

https://cynthiasongs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GBL-007-WITW-Piano-1.mp3

https://cynthiasongs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GBL-016-WITW-Piano-2.mp3

https://cynthiasongs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/YAM-001-WITW-Piano-3-vol-red.mp3

Thanks again,
Cynthia

[crcrossen]

Dear Tricia,

I have uploaded a revised sample file (Part 1 only of Chapter 1), which I hope meets all of your suggested revisions. Can you give this a listen, and let me know if it passes muster? If it does, I can go ahead and create my chapter files.

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/WITW_Chapter_1_Part_1_only_rev20210819.mp3

For this sample file, and when I create all my files, I have/will:
--Changed Stereo to Mono
--Brought the volume down 6 db
--Run a High Pass filter of about 200 Hz with roll-off of about 12db
--Stitched my five chapter parts together to make one chapter file, for each chapter
--Made sure each chapter begins with "Chapter 1" intro
--Made sure each chapter ends with "End of Chapter X" followed by 5 seconds of silence
--Use the bit rate of 128 kbps when creating .MP3 files from .WAV files.
--Correctly name files (after setting up a Project thread and learning the required naming conventions)

Thanks again,
Cynthia

[TriciaG]

Hmm.

- It's still stereo.
- The volume is about 6 dB too LOW now. If we can find the exact middle between this and the original file you uploaded, we'll be golden.

[crcrossen]

Thanks, Tricia. I figured out how to actually change Stereo to Mono (the Render option I initially chose obviously wasn't enough). I also took the volume up 6 db -- maybe the High Pass filter took it down, so I didn't need to reduce it after all. The redone rendered .WAV file looks better now.

Here's the redone sample file I uploaded -- I hope this one works:

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/WITW_Chapter_1_Part_1_only_rev20210824.mp3

Thanks for your helpfulness and patience,
Cynthia

[TriciaG]

Volume's great now!

Hmm. On my end it's still showing up as stereo. What software are you using again?

If you're using Audacity, you can check the box "force export to mono" on the MP3 export screen.

[crcrossen]

I'm glad the Volume issue is resolved.

So -- I wonder if I may have sent you the wrong file this morning? (I've been making a few files lately...)

In case I didn't send you the correct file, I did the whole process again, and created this file:

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/WITW_Chapter_1_Part_1_only_checkMono_20210824.mp3

By the way, I am using Reaper. I used the feature Mono (Downmix). When I do this, it shows only one mono wave form, from two previously shown for Stereo. When I then use MediaHuman to convert the .WAV file, it says "Mono" file.

If this one isn't correct, I will do some research...

Thanks,
Cynthia

[TriciaG]

Still shows as stereo.

I suggest posting over in Need Help - viewforum.php?f=23

In the title, put something like "Getting Mono in Reaper?" and explain what's going on in the post.

We do have some Reaper users, and I'm sure they'd be glad to help.

Everything else is OK.

[crcrossen]

Will do. Thanks, Tricia!