LibriVox Forum

JachinandBoaz wrote: ↑May 24th, 2020, 7:14 pm 2.) Is there a way to have a map of the entire cut as a separate strip or view on the bottom of the application, so that you can click midway in that strip and have the entire view reset accordingly?

3.) Is there a setting in Audacity, so that you can click into a section of the recording and the audio will actually play where you click? At this time, I keep having to stop the recording as it's playing back and then click to where I want to listen and hit play again. It seem like there should be a way to just click and have it automatically play from that point.

pschempf wrote: ↑May 24th, 2020, 7:40 pm Daniel -

I can't answer all your questions , but a solution to the first is /effects/compressor in Audacity. It will flatten the peaks while not reducing the lows. You likely will need to amplify the recording again to be at about 89 dB.

More info here: https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=Dynamic_Range_Compression
and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ3lOTDsN6c

silverquill wrote: ↑May 24th, 2020, 9:37 pm I would just advise using caution with this, because something pasted in from a boiler plate file will often ... well, sound like something pasted in. For instance, I prefer to read the intros, etc., fresh for each recording so that it matches the rest of the recording and sounds natural. There can be a lot of variation from session to session, at least that is true for me. Anyway, do what works best for you.

annise wrote: ↑May 24th, 2020, 9:58 pm You would also need to be very careful - the "boiler plate" intro can vary from project to project depending on the project. I'd I've thought it was easier to read it each time - as Larry said your voice varies with time and projects vary in their solemnity. And it does warm your voice up a bit. So unless you were planning to read a complete book in one sitting it would seem to me more trouble than it is worth.

Anne

mightyfelix wrote: ↑May 25th, 2020, 1:02 am 3.) Is there a setting in Audacity, so that you can click into a section of the recording and the audio will actually play where you click? At this time, I keep having to stop the recording as it's playing back and then click to where I want to listen and hit play again. It seem like there should be a way to just click and have it automatically play from that point.

Yes! This is called Quick Play. https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/timeline.html#tqp

I agree with the comments above regarding the intros. It's doable, but by the time you open up your saved recording, paste it in, adjust the volume, and don't forget you'll still have to record at least the chapter/section number for the each section.... It's just quicker and easier to read the dadgum thing.

philchenevert wrote: ↑May 25th, 2020, 5:44 am Reading the intros each time works for me much better than pasting any thing in. As mentioned by others, the intros vary from project to project and I always read them directly from the first post to get 'em right. But I wish you great joy of finding answers to your questions about Audacity. My absolute favorite things I've discovered over the years are AutoHotkeys that run macros for me and replacing key preferences that make things much smoother for me. LIke my s key zooms in, A key zooms out; both highly used functions. Audacity is a great program with tons of felxibility. Asking the Audacity community will help too.

JachinandBoaz wrote: ↑May 24th, 2020, 7:14 pm I had a few (what I think are basic) Audacity questions that I can't seem to find answers to. Any information on any one of these points would be welcome! I'm still new to Audacity and am not as technically savvy as some of my other colleagues in this noble endeavour appear to be, so part of my problem may be that I'm just not using the correct terminology to query on these issues. So far, I've found myself wading through Youtube videos that aren't helping very much.:

1.) Is there a feature that you can apply to the entire recording when you're completed which will level out the sound volume across the board, so that the quiet sections aren't too quiet and the loud sections aren't too loud? I'm finding that when I do a clip fix, it requires me to then reimpose an amplification to that same section or else it's too quiet with respect to the surrounding audio. It's making the editing process longer than I think it should be.

2.) Is there a way to have a map of the entire cut as a separate strip or view on the bottom of the application, so that you can click midway in that strip and have the entire view reset accordingly?

3.) Is there a setting in Audacity, so that you can click into a section of the recording and the audio will actually play where you click? At this time, I keep having to stop the recording as it's playing back and then click to where I want to listen and hit play again. It seem like there should be a way to just click and have it automatically play from that point.

4.) Is there a feature like a clipboard where you can just save the boilerplate introductory opening and closing recordings and plop them in like an "insert picture" feature in Word? At this time, I'm having to go into previous recordings copy sections of that recording and paste them into a new project.

Daniel

GraceBuchanan wrote: ↑May 25th, 2020, 8:05 am
Have you checked out the forum, wiki, and manual?

Question 1.):
I have been finding a wealth of info at the Audacity forum, especially at the Audiobook thread https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewforum.php?f=64&sid=45db44469b0148fb0b38e0697e140d14

Their wiki is also helpful, especially Audiobook Mastering at https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audiobook_Mastering

I don't understand Q. 2 or 3, but it looks like Devorah covered those.

Question 4.):
As an alternative to what Loon said, you can use 2 clipboards: one, the usual clipboard, which replaces each time that you copy a new selection to it, and the other, the Punch Copy/Paste clipboard, which you can set to be "safe", or give you a warning message before you replace it. See the forum topic: https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=71556

Another option: I might create a recording of the intros and extros so I could copy and paste them from that boilerplate. Are you using labels? See the manual: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/label_tracks.html

But, as silverquill, Anne, Devorah, and Phil said, I prefer to record my intro and outro for each recording to keep with the continuity of the mood of the recording.

Best wishes, Daniel!