Improvements to Audacity

[msfry]

Does Audacity every solicit advice and comments on how they might improve?

One suggestion: a library of most often used commands. Examples:

• I sometimes fail to pronounce the letter p, or d, or t, at the end of a word. I'd add those sounds to my "library" and fetch them up during the editing process, rather than re-recording or having to hunt for them in other parts of the recording to copy and paste in.
  
  I sometimes need to add a wee bit of space between words, not silence, but space with background noise, to improve my pacing. I'd like to store a few of various lengths.

I'd like this "library" to be added to audacity, not to a particular file, and I could access it via any file I have open.

What do you think? Do other programs offer a library option?

[Availle]

I would suggest to take this discussion straight to audacity; as we are only using the program here and not developing it. No amount of "great idea!" on our forum will change anything about the workings of audacity.

Here is the audacity homepage:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

and under Get involved - users, you will find a link of how to contribute by making suggestions:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/contact/#feedback

[tovarisch]

Since Audacity has its own web page (on Sourceforge, if memory serves), and they have discussions there, you could contact their developer and suggest anything you like there. That application is not specific to Librivox, nor is Librivox limited to the use of Audacity for recording, so we make no particular effort to collect suggestions on it, methinks. (thanks to Availle for the links!)

That said, I don't think that a library of sounds is going to help if in one's recording one misses some phonemes. The problem is not the [in]ability to record (or extract) those phonemes and store them in a "library", the problem would be to paste them back into the track in such a way that they don't sound unnatural. Have you actually tried it? When something is missing or wrong (an article or a preposition) in my recording, for instance, I usually end up re-recording at least the entire sentence or phrase in which the error occurs. It's because the transitions between phonemes is often impossible to fake by editing. Perhaps I'm not good enough at my editing, of course; it seems easier to me to re-record than to spend the time figuring out how to paste a single phoneme and then spend the time every time when actually doing it...

[msfry]

I would suggest to take this discussion straight to audacity

Great idea. Thanks for the links.

[msfry]

I don't think that a library of sounds is going to help . . . . . the problem would be to paste them back into the track in such a way that they don't sound unnatural. Have you actually tried it?

I do it all the time. Doesn't always work but usually it does. Easier for me than re-recording an entire phrase or sentence, as my voice sounds so different at different times of day, but a final 'p' or 'd' or 't' usually sounds the same. I'll send my suggestions to audacity. Thanks.

[RuthieG]

I have a consonants file that I made when I broke that confounded tooth. And I use it still, especially when I have speeded up my recording and an initial 'b' has lost its 'bite'. I don't find it difficult at all. But I agree that putting it actually in the Audacity program is a matter for the Audacity developers.

Ruth

[msfry]

I have a consonants file . . Ruth

Nice tip. So, you can open this file, and copy sounds from it, and paste into another file as need be? Bump it with a little bass, a little treble, a little amplification, a slight pitch change, to make it match. Humm. Something to think about! My house is not always a quiet place, and this would come in handy for little fixes when I can't actually record.

[dumbo]

Hello Msfry.

Quote :
"I sometimes need to add a wee bit of space between words, not silence, but space with background noise, to improve my pacing."
Unquote

I've been told by the Admins that NO background sound is allowed (as I put in some cling clangs of bells).

Be aware, brother. . .

@+
Philippe.

[J_N]

I've been told by the Admins that NO background sound is allowed (as I put in some cling clangs of bells).

what Msfry meant, was "recorded silence" rather than silence produced by audacity. When you record without talking that part is 'silent' but not noiseless

[msfry]

what Msfry meant, was "recorded silence" rather than silence produced by audacity. When you record without talking that part is 'silent' but not noiseless

Oh so true. Once I tried generating some "audacity silence" between phrases, and it was in such stark contrast to "recorded silence", I was shocked. A noiseless world is spooky. It isn't there! This adds new depth (for me) to Paul Simon's lyrics (playing in my head right now) to The Sound Of Silence,
http://www.sglyrics.myrmid.com/sounds.htm#track01

[ppcunningham]

I sometimes need to add a wee bit of space between words, not silence, but space with background noise, to improve my pacing.

You can copy/paste spaces the same way you do end sounds. Just go to a place where there is a space, highlight the length you want, copy, put the cursor where you want to insert it, and paste it in.

[Darvinia]

I've been told by the Admins that NO background sound is allowed (as I put in some cling clangs of bells).

You're confusing background noise with sound effects.
Background noise is the natural ambiance of your recording environment. Not only allowed but unavoidable.
Sound effects are noises deliberately added for embellishment and we don't allow those.

[PaulL]

Do you want to replace a short selection with an equal length of your room tone?

Silence doesn't insert tone, and paste does not preserve the length of the selection.

But I asked some people at the Audacity Forum about the problem, and the result was this pair of plug ins. These solve the problem very well!
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=71556

[RuthieG]

Oh my!

Ruth