useing my iPhone and m4a

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MicahSixEight
Posts: 3
Joined: August 9th, 2017, 7:50 pm

Post by MicahSixEight »

Hi. I am new and eager to contribute, but I am not technical and so I am benumbed by all matters technical. So I am trying to follow the specifications for the one-minute test, but even that is challenging.

I am willing to buy a mic, but I know my iPhone has an excellent one, and in any case, I am accustomed to recording things with my iPhone. However the files are m4a (whatever that is...) and not MP3.

My questions are then: can I just go ahead and use my iPhone for librivox recordings? And, will m4a Be useable?
TriciaG
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Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

Welcome!

M4A is not acceptable. We need MP3 with certain other tech settings because that's what Archive (who hosts our files) requires, and what it needs to derive other formats.

This thread and its links might help with the "how do I record on my phone" question: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=66724
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mightyfelix
LibriVox Admin Team
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Joined: August 7th, 2016, 6:39 pm

Post by mightyfelix »

Hi, Micah, welcome to LibriVox!

I did a little bit of hunting around and found this on Audacity's wiki:
M4A and MP4 files can be imported into Audacity on Mac as shipped.
On Windows and GNU/Linux you need to download and install the optional FFmpeg library. See the Windows or Linux instructions.
Then drag and drop files from iTunes into the Audacity window, or use File > Import > Audio... to import files from the location stated in iTunes.
So what you could try is go ahead and record a quick test on your phone, maybe using one of the recording apps mentioned in the thread that Tricia linked to. Then import it into Audacity. Once it's there, you can do your editing, noise cleaning, anything else you want to change, then when you export it from Audacity, export it as an mp3. There is a lot of information on the LibriVox wiki for how to do that, such as this page right here. Then post that test in the Listeners and Editors Wanted forum, and one of us will double check it for you. If anything needs to change, we'll tell you what it is, and hopefully be able to walk you through how to do it.

I hope this helps. :thumbs:
annise
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Location: Melbourne,Australia

Post by annise »

m4a are the files I need to get itunes to convert mp3 to so I can make the m4b files that ithings use as a audiobook which can be bookmarked and are great to listen to our books with - as long as you have an ithing. They carry images and sound and are an apple thing , that's all I know.
(iThings is shorthand for any apple product )

Anne
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