[COMPLETE] Book of Thousand Nights & a Night (Arabian Nights), Vol 12-mtf

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
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SkyRider
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Post by SkyRider »

BrizeCrize wrote: January 13th, 2021, 2:14 pm Attached are both sections 51 and 59, run times of 28:02 and 12:56, respectively.
Sections 51 and 59 are both PL OK.

As you were asking about how to make better audios, here are a few thoughts for next time around.

As I said before, I don't think I'm in a position to comment on the performance side. What I would say, having asked for similar feedback myself in the past, is that there seem to be two schools of thought as to the ideal audiobook reading. Some people seem to prefer a reading that is fairly flat so that the listener has the opportunity to interpret things as they want while others (I think the majority) seem to see it as more dramatic than that. Some will go so far as doing character voices, but it's hard to do those so that they enhance rather than detract. I'd suggest figuring out which of these ideologies you subscribe to so that you can interpret other comments appropriately.

Where I can help is with taming the mouth clicks, sibilants and boxiness. None of these are excessive, but they're noticeable when listening through studio headphones. The reason I was asking about 'out of the box' Audacity is that these are best dealt with by installing plug-ins. I'll include links to the versions I know of, but be aware that some of these change when the plug-in is updated.

The easy one to deal with is the mouth clicks. We all make these - it's down to bubbles of saliva popping as we talk, but we don't hear them normally as we don't get as close to a mouth as a microphone does. One of the Audacity authors has written a plug-in that has an almost magical effect on mouth clicks and can be downloaded from the first post on this discussion thread: https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=79278 It works best applied to sub-section selections where you hear a click - applying it to the whole audio takes a surprisingly long time (several hours!) and can damage legitimate sounds such as "t"s and "g"s.

Sibilants are the high-pitched sounds that sometimes accompany "s" or (more rarely) "th" or "f" sounds. There are general de-esser plugins (indeed, there's one on the same post as the de-clicker) but people tend to hiss at a very consistent frequency so it does less damage to your audio just to cut that out. The tool to do this is a parametric equaliser. I actually paid for one (which I can't access as I put it on the work pooter and I'm working from home during the pandemic) but there's a free one at the bottom of this page: https://2ndsenseaudio.com/plugins/ I couldn't find a good beginners' guide to doing this; the best I could Google was https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-use-a-parametric-equalizer--audio-2301 but if that doesn't make sense then let me know and I'll try to see if I can do a screen recording for you. The sibilants are in the 5000Hz-10000Hz range, though some male voices can drop as low as 3000Hz. Your sibilants aren't excessive, so don't be overenthusiastic in the cuts.

Once you've got used to the parametric equaliser, it'll do other jobs for you. You can use it to cut the boxiness (100-500Hz), roll off the bass (which covers most of your background noise) and add brilliance and clarity by slightly boosting the frequencies above 10000Hz. It's not easy to use if you're new to them, but as you gain experience the sound will become more polished.

There are two other plugins that you may want to be aware of. One is ReplayGain https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=63067 - this allows you to check the loudness of audio within Audacity so you're not having to go back and forth between it and the Checker. The other is LoudMax - this is a limiter (a bit like a compressor) which is more transparent to the sound than Audacity's compressor to my ears. I think it adjusts the power more gradually. You can download it from https://loudmax.blogspot.com/ but note that at present Audacity only plays well with 32-bit plugins.

Hope that's of some use - let me know if you want me to unpack any of it. Probably best to do so via private message rather than clog up the book thread though.

Cheers,
Paul
Last edited by SkyRider on January 15th, 2021, 6:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
slimshady11
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Joined: June 28th, 2020, 8:52 am

Post by slimshady11 »

SkyRider wrote: January 7th, 2021, 5:08 am
Section 24 PL notes

The audio is too loud* and the gain needs reducing by 5.4dB

The first 31 seconds of the audio is badly damaged, dropping to silence for the first few seconds then only picking up the high tones for a while, making it hard to identify words.

1:08 "Aladdin" should be "Ala-al-Din"

2:32 You've corrected "Then she left" to Then she let" but left the old version in as well

3:12 "Then said to him" should be "Then she said to him"

4:07 missing section. "Then said he hath she unveiled..." should be "Then said she, 'Hath any the right to say of me that I am lophanded?' and tucking up her sleeves, she showed him forearms as they were crystal; after which she unveiled..."

I'm sorry you've had to wait longer for this than you would have wanted. Please remember that we're all volunteers with day jobs and some people had submitted a considerable amount of audio over the Christmas/New Year period that needed PLing.

(*Strangely, although too loud, I often had to turn up the volume to hear words clearly - you seem to be missing a lot of the mid-range frequencies in your audio. If you have some form of equalisation in your audio recorder, you might want to try boosting the 150-500Hz range a little and see if it sounds better)
https://librivox.org/uploads/mightyfelix/thousandnightsandanight12_24_anonymous_128kb.mp3
here it is.
silverquill
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Post by silverquill »

~ Larry
NOTE: Traveling without internet until March 17
BrizeCrize
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Post by BrizeCrize »

As you were asking about how to make better audios, here are a few thoughts for next time around.
Well, thanks greatly Paul, you've provided more valuable information than I expected, giving me (and other thread readers, no doubt) plenty of fodder for thought and experimentation. Audio is really such a complex science (or art) it can be a little overwhelming, though in the end, of course, it all comes down to your ears (and maybe brain). As you can probably tell, I am firmly in the 'minimalist' or 'flat' camp as to performance style, both by dint of my personality and my belief in the power of the listener's imagination. (If ONLY they can only hear the words appropriately). And I think I agree that that is probably a minority position, but I'm comfortable in that position of...shall we say, subtlety (flat sounds TOO flat)

On to section 60! It may take a little longer as I incorporate your suggestion and wisdom, but hopefully will be better in result.
Thanks,
Brize
dltrial
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Joined: December 16th, 2020, 5:34 pm

Post by dltrial »

dltrial
Posts: 118
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Post by dltrial »

I'll claim 66 through 68 if that is ok.
SkyRider
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Post by SkyRider »

dltrial wrote: January 14th, 2021, 3:55 pm Scetion 53 done
Section 53 is PL OK! Thank you.

I've allocated sections 66-68 to you as well as per your later post.
SkyRider
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Post by SkyRider »

slimshady11 wrote: January 15th, 2021, 6:19 am here it is.
Section 24 is Spot PL OK.

Thank you.
SkyRider
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Post by SkyRider »

silverquill wrote: January 15th, 2021, 11:07 am Section 69:
Section 69 is PL OK. Thank you, Larry.
SkyRider
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Post by SkyRider »

BrizeCrize
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Post by BrizeCrize »

Attached is section 60, de-clicked and (perhaps) more brilliant and clear than 59.

https://librivox.org/uploads/mightyfelix/thousandnightsandanight12_60_anonymous_128kb.mp3 (runtime 14:50)

I would also like to apply for sections 30 and 31, please.
Thanks,
Brize
acholcom
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Joined: January 18th, 2021, 11:23 am

Post by acholcom »

Hey, can I grab 30 and 31? Thanks!
dltrial
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Post by dltrial »

I have been looking at sections 66 - 68 and since I am not knowledgeable about middle English, and I see no reason to make things hard on listeners, I am planning on pronouncing most words in a modern fashion (most words seem to be odd phonetic spellings which correspond to pronunciations not much different to modern ones anyway).

That mostly leaves archaic words such as yede and merveill which I will do my best with, although I have thought about just reading 'marvel'.

Any objections?
thilak
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Joined: January 15th, 2021, 5:14 pm

Post by thilak »

Hi,

I'd like to read 71.

The last two paragraphs are not part of the story. Should I read those as well ?
SkyRider
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Post by SkyRider »

dltrial wrote: January 15th, 2021, 3:50 pm Section 54 ready
I'm afraid there's quite a lot of work to do on this one. Perhaps you edited it and accidentally uploaded the unedited version? Certainly the bulk of the notes below consist of an error followed by a correction without excising the original mistake.

long run-in - there should be less than a second before starting
1:03 long gap followed by "what good wine the prince had....what good wine the prince has"
1:31 Intrusive background noise
1:58 repeated "very good replied one it is made with the milk of a woman"
2:15 This time the Tatars corrected to This time the Magyars, but old one left in.
2:46 Repeated twice When all were asleep the visor of the helmet
4:44 Repeated Mr Tawney refers to the Chevalier de Mailly's version
5:12 Repeated sent with some
5:34 long pause and Repeated And that the latter
6:05 Repeated a gem cutter
6:23 Repeated A man skilled in the pedigrees
6:54 Repeated and comprised
7:05 Repeated an analogous tale occurs...
7:38 Repeated There was in the palace
8:04 Repeated Let me go and...
8:21 Repeated Or he will forgive me
8:25 Repeated or I shall on somewise
9:23 Repeated asked "why art thou thus sad" (corrected version swaps thus and thou
10:38 Repeated This man should be...
11:09 Repeated True spake the vizier
11:38 Repeated Let us see...
11:58 Repeated Oh King...
12:15 Repeated This were befitting
13:24 Repeated compassion
13:32 Repeated and sought to do good...
14:10 Clearing throat - not necessary to correct, but desirable
14:22 Repeated Rhode says...
14:34 Repeated Sybarite
14:40 Repeated Who slept on a bed of rose-leaves
15:30 Repeated which fell on the body of the queen...
16:25 Repeated The moment the gazelle-eyed one
16:56 Repeated To this piteous...
17:04 Repeated of in his Grechische Novellistik. nb - if you want to nail the pronounciation, it's (approximately) greechish-uh - the German -ie- is a long ee sound while -ei- has the sound of the vowel in the English high . I wouldn't normally comment on pronouciation, but it's clear that you had many attempts at this one!
17:49 Repeated to whom he told the tale
18:03 Repeated In his Kindermärchen
18:30 Repeated Out of four princesses
19:18 Repeated Another has had
19:37 Repeated owing to one half...
19:52 Repeated a fourth has broken
20:11 extraneous throat-clear

Given the number of these, I'll do a full PL of the replacement rather than just spot PLing it.
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