Audacity's Equalizer

[Cloud Mountain]

Your def on the right track. The screen shot I sent you lines up perfectly with what you have. ( http://www.drakesdoor.org/reducingS/Picture00.pdf ) (Sorry, didn't bother to make it into a jpeg.)

You might want to try to experiment with lifting up the upper range of what is now lowered, to that it's flat again. That is, find the exact range where the problem is in and make the rest normal. Are you using any other filters? I think what you sent sounds fine as is. And yes, it is the aging in the voice. Am I making sense here?

This is why a parametric equalizer is better to use, if you can identify the range wto be equalized while the rest remains pure. You'll want to install VST Plug-Ins (via the enabler made avail on Audacity's site)). I believe there are some excellent options there. Lots to fiddle with to solve your problem more purely without messing tieh EQ.

Have fun.

[msirois]

Your def on the right track. The screen shot I sent you lines up perfectly with what you have. ( http://www.drakesdoor.org/reducingS/Picture00.pdf ) (Sorry, didn't bother to make it into a jpeg.)

That's okay. The pdf's were fine. I work with images a lot, so I can read just about anything.

You might want to try to experiment with lifting up the upper range of what is now lowered, to that it's flat again. That is, find the exact range where the problem is in and make the rest normal. Are you using any other filters? I think what you sent sounds fine as is. And yes, it is the aging in the voice. Am I making sense here?

I didn't apply any filters on the whole file (except for Spitfish, which I didn't use on the wav file I sent you). I used Audacity's Noise Reduction filter (but just to create a few seconds of silence), which I then copied-and-pasted throughout the file where pauses should be, and to eliminate heavy breathing noises. And I also used the GVerb filter to enhance the archangel's voice in the file I sent you, and a few other filters for other voices elswhere in the book (God, the Devil, various talking fish etc.), but only at those particular spots.

This is why a parametric equalizer is better to use, if you can identify the range wto be equalized while the rest remains pure. You'll want to install VST Plug-Ins (via the enabler made avail on Audacity's site)). I believe there are some excellent options there. Lots to fiddle with to solve your problem more purely without messing tieh EQ.

Have fun.

I do have most of the Ladspa and MDA VST plug-ins installed, and a couple of them are multiband equalizers -- like this one.



I'll play with them a bit, and see what I can come up with.

Thanks,

Michael

[Cloud Mountain]

You raise an altogether different (and for me, a far more interesting subject) when referring to the use of "filters" for purposes of characterization. We can talk about this one for weeks. I'm one to work on the balance between letting subtle changes in voice create a "different character" rather than electronics. And there is the added issue of not going over the top with characterization so as not to have it disctract from the story. I myself will do a "character" all in one read, so that there's consistency --and later editing them in. In your case. Keeping a character distinguishable by voicing is far more difficult, as there are many different chapters reader over a few months. It's not an easy choice on how to handle this. Some would say, "just read," and trust the story.

And so on, and so on...

Have fun playing with the "filters."

[msirois]

I would generally prefer to create characters simply with the voice also. In this particular instance (Penguin Island), I discovered that one of the chapters had an extended dialogue between fifteen different characters, and five more characters were introduced in the following chapter. I did record the full set of lines for each voice separately (and then cut-and pasted them in the right sequence) but decided to do some tinkering with some of them to make them each unique somehow. Once I started down that road, well . . . when you have a toy and don't tinker with it, why have the toy in the first place?

Once I'm finished with this book, I think I'm going to look for something that's 99% narrative, though.

[Cloud Mountain]

Once I'm finished with this book, I think I'm going to look for something that's 99% narrative, though.

I sympathize 100%. (Characterizations and the requisite mixing is ALWAYS loads more work that one ever planned on.)