Reading slowly

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KevinS
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Post by KevinS »

Is it a good idea to read slowly, to avoid making errors, and then speeding up the recording before uploading it? Does anyone do this? Has anyone tried?
JayKitty76
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Post by JayKitty76 »

No, I haven't-- but I do know that speeding up the recording also changes the pitch of your voice. I'm sure you've noticed it in kids' movies that feature talking squirrels and the like....they do it by speeding up the recording. So it makes your voice high and squeaky and fast. For it to sound right, you'd have to read very slowly and have a very, very deep voice. I don't recommend it-- reading slower is all right, but I think reading very slowly and then speeding it up is probably not the best idea. But that's just my humble opinion.
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TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

Actually, JayKitty, the "Change Tempo" effect in Audacity speeds up or slows down a recording without changing the pitch.

No, I've never done this. I have problems reading slowly to start with, so if anything, I'd slow down a recording rather than speeding it up. :) However, I would think that the flow of the sentence (where you pause, where you go up and down in voice - not sure exactly what the thing I'm talking about is called) would change if you read it slowly then speed it up, vs. reading it a normal speed.

And I'm not sure that reading it slower would really change how often I make mistakes anyway. LOL!
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ej400
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Post by ej400 »

KevinS wrote: ↑July 12th, 2019, 11:04 am Is it a good idea to read slowly, to avoid making errors, and then speeding up the recording before uploading it? Does anyone do this? Has anyone tried?
I do that after changing the hz to 44,100 from 32,000. I make sure that I set it to like .725 I think, but enough that it matches where the recording started out at. But yes, when I was trying to figure out how this worked, I kept getting high pitched and fast voices. Can be a lot of fun though!
TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

ej400 wrote: ↑July 12th, 2019, 11:45 am
KevinS wrote: ↑July 12th, 2019, 11:04 am Is it a good idea to read slowly, to avoid making errors, and then speeding up the recording before uploading it? Does anyone do this? Has anyone tried?
I do that after changing the hz to 44,100 from 32,000. I make sure that I set it to like .725 I think, but enough that it matches where the recording started out at. But yes, when I was trying to figure out how this worked, I kept getting high pitched and fast voices. Can be a lot of fun though!
Uhh... why don't you just set Audacity to record at the correct sample rate to start with? :hmm:
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tovarisch
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Post by tovarisch »

I've seen reports of folks using "change tempo" effect in Audacity. And there is another effect that simply speeds up the sound, and I used it once to shorten a section that didn't fit in the required 74 minutes. A few percent speedup is not noticeable (in terms of pitch), but would it be noticeable in terms of tempo? I am not sure.

I do adjust (more often reduce than increase) the pauses between sentences/phrases while editing, to make the text flow better (from my POV, of course). Deliberate slow reading would probably annoy the sh!t out of me as a listener, just like slow speech. So I read as I would tell you the story (unless it's direct speech in the text and it's designated as slow or rushed).
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  • reality prompts me to scale down my reading, sorry to say
    to PLers: do correct my pronunciation please
JayKitty76
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Post by JayKitty76 »

You guys are obviously more experienced than I am. So then if there's ways to do it without changing the pitch, disregard what I've said earlier. I didn't know there was a way to do it without changing the pitch. :wink:
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ej400
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Post by ej400 »

TriciaG wrote: ↑July 12th, 2019, 11:47 am
ej400 wrote: ↑July 12th, 2019, 11:45 am
KevinS wrote: ↑July 12th, 2019, 11:04 am Is it a good idea to read slowly, to avoid making errors, and then speeding up the recording before uploading it? Does anyone do this? Has anyone tried?
I do that after changing the hz to 44,100 from 32,000. I make sure that I set it to like .725 I think, but enough that it matches where the recording started out at. But yes, when I was trying to figure out how this worked, I kept getting high pitched and fast voices. Can be a lot of fun though!
Uhh... why don't you just set Audacity to record at the correct sample rate to start with? :hmm:
Because I don't use audacity to record.. I use an old beat up mp3 player that can only record in 32,000 hz.... but I still love that thing!
KevinS
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Post by KevinS »

I appreciate all these responses. I guess the key is for me to stop trying to record when I'm tired. Some days I can whiz through even complicated material ... and other days I forget how to pronounce homage or can't follow antiquated syntax.
msfry
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Post by msfry »

I use Audacity's Tempo effect all the time, Kevin, Tovarisch, because I tend to talk faster than I like to listen back. It does not change pitch, and it changes tempo uniformly and in very gentle increments, so that +/-1 is barely noticeable, and +/-18 is very noticeable -- but sometimes just what is needed. You have to experiment. My average adjustment is -2 to -6, and I sometimes speed things up too. What I do is get the whole track laid down and completely edited, then make a final pass with tempo in mind. Sometimes the whole file gets slowed down -2, and sometimes it's just a portion where I was either dragging or in too big of a hurry. I think it's a great effect!!
sjmarky
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Post by sjmarky »

For me, the question is, Why do you care about making reading errors? After all, they can be easily edited out. And even if reading abnormally slowly might reduce the number of errors, you will still have some that will still need to be edited. i average two edits every minute of audio. The listener will never know how many times my audio has been edited. And even if I could reduce my reading errors to near zero, this would have very little impact on how long it takes me to make a recording. And if you just really hate editing (as I do), learn to punch-and-roll.
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