Hello Paige,
Yes! This thing is on!
Welcome to LibriVox. We are glad you are here.
My name is Jim and I am the Dedicated Proof Listener (DPL) for this project.
I quite enjoyed your reading of these chapters. I can see that you have a great LibriVox career ahead of you. All new readers face a bit of a "learning curve" and part of my job as DPL is to help you along the way. Just remember that we were all beginners once and there is not a bump-in-the-road that you can experience which I, and almost everyone here, have not already encountered.
For Chapter 18
at 22:05 there are several words missing: "while crumbled and cast aside was her"
at 24:42 there is a repeat "They ruled … ancient royal line"
Chapter 19 - no reading errors
There are a couple of technical things that will need your attention.
First, you need to adjust the amount of blank space at the start and end of the file. You should have between 0.5 and 1.0 seconds at the beginning and 5.0 seconds at the end. For chapter 18 you have .3 and 4.3 respectfully. Chapter 19 is okay.
Your recording's overall volume for Chapter 18 is 92 dB - this is just at the top of the acceptable range. We aim for 89 but 86-92 is acceptable. For Chapter 19, it was 88.7db, very close to perfect.
In Audacity you will also find the option to Amplify under 'effects'.
How to amplify in Audacity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_z607awyLw
I, myself, always use the checker tool to verify volume and other settings
https://cgjennings.ca/projects/checker/
In chapter 18, there was some intermittent background noise present which might have been from a fan(?). To correct this in Audacity:
Step 1 - Select a piece of background noise
Select a piece of background noise (no speech, breaths or other noises) in your audio.
In Menu click: Effect > Noise Reduction... A dialog will pop up.
Click "Get Noise Profile" The dialog box will close instantly.
Step 2 - Noise Reduction
Press CTRL-A / Command-A to select your complete recording.
In Menu click: Effect > Noise Reduction... again. Note: don't select "Repeat Noise Reduction" -- that instantly applies the default settings; you want to adjust the settings and preview the results before you apply the noise filters.
Set Noise Reduction (dB) to 12
Set sensitivity to 6.00
Set frequency smoothing bands to 3
Choose Noise: Reduce
Click ok
Another bit of post-processing that I always like to use is the Normalize effect.
Overall, a very nice job for a first couple recordings - I look forward to hearing more from you.
If you need any help, please feel free to reach out. We are all here to help each other succeed.
Please could you carry out the edits for chapter 18 and then upload the file using the same file name. Then post in this thread.
Chapter 19 is PL Okay
