COMPLETE [Group] Microphone Showdown 3 - RuthieG

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
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Algy Pug
Posts: 6966
Joined: December 26th, 2009, 10:07 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by Algy Pug »

Microphone Showdown 3 .

All audio files can be found on our catalog page: http://librivox.org/microphone-showdown-3-by-various/
This is a project which will allow readers and listeners to compare the recording quality of a wide variety of recording devices. It is a sequel to the second Microphone Showdown project which was catalogued in 2011. Since that time the range of devices available for the recording of spoken audio has increased significantly. ( Algy Pug)
The purpose of this project is to offer readers and listeners a chance to evaluate equipment.

Any sound recording equipment may be used, including:
  • Ipads
    Tablets
    Cell phones
    Digital portable recorders
    Cassette recorders (for those old enough to remember them)
    Digital cameras
    Webcams
    Headsets
Apart from correction of misreadings recordings should be submitted raw, ie. no noise cleaning, compression or amplification should be applied. If a device is used that records automatically in stereo the recording should be converted to mono.

If you are using a microphone that offers a range of polar patterns (like the Blue Yeti and the Samson GoMic) the cardioid pattern should be selected.

Some portable devices (digital recorders, video cameras etc) output recordings using bit rates and sampling rates which are different from those required by Librivox. Please check to ensure that your recordings have the following specifications:
MP3 bit rate: 128 kbs
Sampling rate: 44100 Hz

In the intro the reader should supply the following information:
  • Title of the text
  • Author
  • Name of maker of device (Shure, Samson etc)
  • Model: (SM58, CO1U etc)
  • Connection type: USB or XLR (does not apply if a built-in microphone is used)
  • Interface if a microphone with an XLR connection is used (Presonus, Focusrite etc)
  • Computer and Operating system (if applicable)

Each reader may submit up to six recordings. Each should feature a different microphone and text.

There is no restriction on different readers submitting recordings for which the same model of microphone was used. It is interesting to observe how the sound of a microphone can vary from one reader to the next.

The following information should be supplied when you post each of your recordings:
Title:
Author: (including dates of birth and death)
Text URL:
MP3 URL:
Duration:


Any evaluative comment in this thread relates purely to the equipment used and is not intended to be a criticism of the performance of the reader or of his or her choice of equipment.
  1. How to claim a part, and "how it all works" here
    Put a post in thread giving the details of what you wish to read and your selection will be allocated a spot in the Magic Window.
  2. New to recording? Please read our Newbie Guide to Recording!
  3. Is there a deadline? We ask that you submit your recorded sections within 1-2 months of placing your claim. Please note that to be fair to the readers who have completed their sections in a timely way, if you haven't submitted your recording(s) after two months, your sections will automatically be re-opened for other readers to claim, unless you post in this thread to request an extension. Extensions will be granted at the discretion of the Book Coordinator. If you cannot do your section, for whatever reason, just let me know and it'll go back to the pool. There's no shame in this; we're all volunteers and things happen.Please do not sign up for more sections than you can complete within the two month deadline.
  4. Where do I find the text?
    Readers may choose their own text, which must be in the public domain.
    If it is a poem, it should be between 14 and 20 lines (sonnets are recommended.)
    If it is prose it should be between 100 and 150 words.
  5. If this is your first recording, please let me know under which name or pseudonym you'd like to appear in the LibriVox catalogue. We can also link to a personal website/blog.
  6. Prospective Prooflisteners: Please read the Listeners Wanted FAQ before listening! Level of prooflistening requested: standard

    Please don't download or listen to files belonging to projects in process (unless you are the BC or PL). Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!

    Magic Window:



    BC Admin
  7. BEFORE recording: Please check the Recording Notes: http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6427#6430

    Set your recording software to:
    Channels: 1 (Mono)
    Bit Rate: 128 kbps
    Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
  8. DURING recording:
    No more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of the recording!
    Make sure you add this to the beginning of your recording:
    START of recording (Intro)
    • "Intro: [Title] by [author]. Recorded for LibriVox.org by [reader's name], using a [microphone make and model] and [name of recording software] on a [type of machine*].
      e.g. Sonnet 1 by William Shakespeare. Recorded for LibriVox.org by Ruth Golding, using a Blue Yeti USB microphone and Audacity on a Windows PC.
      Sonnet 2 by William Shakespeare. Recorded for LibriVox.org by Algy Pug, using a Samson H4N digital recorder.
      Sonnet 3 by William Shakespeare. Recorded for LibriVox.org by Algy Pug, using a Samson Q7 dynamic microphone, a Behringer Xenyx 302USB interface and NCH Wavepad on a Windows PC.

    END of recording
    • At the end of the section, say:
      Outro: End of [Title] by [author]. This recording is in the public domain.
    There should be 5 seconds silence at the end of the recording, or 10 seconds for files longer than 30 minutes.

    Please remember to check this thread frequently for updates!
  9. Specific instructions for this project
    Save files as
    128 kbps MP3
    microphoneshowdown3_##_various_128kb.mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is the section number (e.g. microphoneshowdown3_01_various_128kb.mp3)
  10. Example ID3 V2 tags
    There is no need to add ID3 tags - these will be filled in automatically at the cataloguing stage.
  11. Transfer of files (completed recordings) Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file. Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link and the information you have read in the intro.
    • Upload your file with the LibriVox Uploader:
      https://librivox.org/login/uploader
      Image
      (If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
    • You'll need to select the MC, which for this project is: RuthieG
    • When your upload is complete, you will receive a link - please post it in this thread.
    • If this doesn't work, or you have questions, please check our How To Send Your Recording wiki page.

    Any questions?
    Please post below
Last edited by Algy Pug on November 9th, 2015, 6:37 pm, edited 7 times in total.
Algy Pug

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Algy Pug
Posts: 6966
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Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by Algy Pug »

After discussion with - and encouragement from - RuthieG, I have launched the next Microphone Showdown project.

Bring out your dead!

Cheers
Algy Pug

My Librivox page



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TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
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Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
RuthieG
Posts: 21957
Joined: April 17th, 2008, 8:41 am
Location: Kent, England
Contact:

Post by RuthieG »

I thought there had been two...

I'll sort that out, and put them in a group. I'll MC, but it's way past my bedtime and I will set up in the morning.

Ruth
My LV catalogue page | RuthieG's CataBlog of recordings | Tweet: @RuthGolding
Algy Pug
Posts: 6966
Joined: December 26th, 2009, 10:07 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by Algy Pug »

I have updated the title and opening post to reflect that this is actually the third Microphone Showdown.

Cheers
Last edited by Algy Pug on November 7th, 2015, 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Algy Pug

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RuthieG
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Post by RuthieG »

A bit later than promised, but it's set up now and open for business.

Ruth
My LV catalogue page | RuthieG's CataBlog of recordings | Tweet: @RuthGolding
SonOfTheExiles
Posts: 2649
Joined: December 20th, 2013, 1:14 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by SonOfTheExiles »

Squaring off with microphones? Sounds a bit Eckythump. :shock:

I saw a mention in the discussion of these having to be raw recordings, completely unedited. Can the numerous extraneous noises some of us experience be edited out of these raw recordings?

If it has to be completely raw recordings, isn't it rather going to be an exhibition of one's extraneous noise woes as much as of recording quality? Round my way, you could probably guess what time the raw recording was done by the fruitbat/dawn-chorus/cockatiel/sulphur-crests succession. Despite my best efforts, I think a few of the aforementioned snuck into some of my recordings in the background. Some may have noticed how, come summer, the cicadas shut me down for a period usually too.

Cheers,
Son of the Exiles

P.S.
Unaccustomed as I am to being serious for long (/*engage stopwatch function*/), Algy's "Bring out your dead!" throwaway line sparked a memory of a bit of family history. We kids were always told how our great-grandfather (on my mother's side) had the task, during the Spanish Influenza pandemic almost a hundred years ago, of taking round the death-cart in the Sydney suburb where they then lived. A cranky old Welshman (the family used to say that "the light of the Moon must've shone on his face as a baby"), he disdained the use of a face-mask and simply trusted to his lit pipe to avoid catching the contagion. Whether he actually yelled "Bring out your dead" or anything else during the corpse collection rounds through the suburb, though, that the family history saith not.

(/*disengage stopwatch function*/). Made that just under a minute. Shall we file it with the English summer, Ruth? :lol:

SOTE
Currently on sabbatical from Librivox
Algy Pug
Posts: 6966
Joined: December 26th, 2009, 10:07 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by Algy Pug »

SonOfTheExiles wrote:Squaring off with microphones? Sounds a bit Eckythump. :shock:

I saw a mention in the discussion of these having to be raw recordings, completely unedited. Can the numerous extraneous noises some of us experience be edited out of these raw recordings?

SOTE
Hi S.O.T.E.

Eckythump? Perhaps it's a little more like the W.W.W. (or the W.C.W. or the W.W.E. or whatever it is today):
"In the ring at the moment, from Chicago, Illinois, weighting 10.5 ounces, we have the Shure SM58. (Wild cheering). And now, approaching the squared circle, accompanied by his manager, from Westlake, California, and weighing a massive 2.2 pounds, here is the Blue Yeti (crowd goes beserk)"......

The aim of this project is to show the ability of the particular microphone to capture sound accurately - which includes background noise. In this case any extempore support from Kev the Kookaburra would actually be welcome. What we don't want is readers to disguise the flaws of the microphone by software manipulation, especially noise cleaning. We want to hear the sound without its clothes on, so to speak.

I am aware that some microphones are - well - just plain noisy. Several of the popular models made by Samson - including the GoMic, the Q1U and, oddly enough, their most expensive USB microphone, the G-Track - demonstrate significant self-noise. If a reader uses a noisy microphone (or other device), that will be OK - what we are testing is the quality of the device, not of the reader. In fact. one of the most extraordinary recordings in the previous Microphone Showdown (https://librivox.org/microphone-showdown-i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud-by-william-wordsworth/) was made by David Richardson on a Cardo Scala Rider while riding a motorcycle at 60 miles per hour (Track 80). The recording certainly wasn't hifi - but it proved that such a setup could work.

Cheers
Algy Pug

My Librivox page



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Algy Pug
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Joined: December 26th, 2009, 10:07 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by Algy Pug »

Here are my first three:

Title: Ozymandias
Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)
Text URL: http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/shell01.html#1
MP3 URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/ruthieg/microphoneshowdown3_01_various_128kb.mp3
Duration: 1:30
Recorded using a Rode NT1A condenser microphone, a Yamaha Audiogram 6 USB interface and NCH Wavepad on a Windows PC.

Title: Mutability
Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)
Text URL: http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/shell01.html#1
MP3 URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/ruthieg/microphoneshowdown3_02_various_128kb.mp3
Duration: 1:37
Recorded using a Samson Q7 dynamic microphone, a Yamaha Audiogram 6 USB interface and NCH Wavepad on a Windows PC.

Title: A Dream Within a Dream
Author: Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)
Text URL: http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/poe01.html#1
MP3 URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/ruthieg/microphoneshowdown3_03_various_128kb.mp3
Duration: 1:32
Recorded using a Logitech C615 webcam and NCH Wavepad on a Windows PC.

PL required

Cheers
Last edited by Algy Pug on January 22nd, 2016, 4:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Algy Pug

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Algy Pug
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Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by Algy Pug »

Another three:

Title: Go Lovely Rose
Author: Edmund Waller (1606 1687)
Text URL: http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/waller01.html#1
MP3 URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/ruthieg/microphoneshowdown3_04_various_128kb.mp3
Duration: 1:18
Recorded using an MXL USB. 007 microphone and NCH Wavepad on a Windows PC.

Title: A Thing of Beauty, from Endymion
Author: John Keats (1795 – 1821)
Text URL: http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/keats03.html#1
MP3 URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/ruthieg/microphoneshowdown3_05_various_128kb.mp3
Duration: 1:50
Recorded using the internal microphone on a Dell Venue 8 Pro 5000 tablet and Audacity.

Title: Embarcation
Author: Thomas Hardy (1840 – 1928)
Text URL: http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/hardy02.html#32
MP3 URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/ruthieg/microphoneshowdown3_06_various_128kb.mp3
Duration: 1:22
Recorded using a Zoom H4H Handy Recorder

That's my six.

Cheers
Algy Pug

My Librivox page



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Newgatenovelist
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Post by Newgatenovelist »

'Death' by Richard Watson Dixon (1833-1900)
Etext: https://archive.org/stream/poemsdixon00dixo#page/72/mode/2up
Duration: 1.14
MP3: https://librivox.org/uploads/ruthieg/microphoneshowdown3_07_various_128kb.mp3
Microphone and computer: Samson Meteorite (usb); Windows PC
Software: Audacity

In case it's required for reference, this was recorded with the pc unplugged and with the mic on a folded towel to minimise noise.
Erin
Off LV 25-28 March.
Algy Pug
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Joined: December 26th, 2009, 10:07 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by Algy Pug »

Thanks Erin

Reading is PL OK.

The Samson Meteorite really packs a punch, especially considering its tiny size.

Cheers
Algy Pug

My Librivox page



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RuthieG
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Post by RuthieG »

Are you ready to move over to Readers Wanted, Algy? It might be a good idea to advertise this project in the Help forum, too.

Ruth
My LV catalogue page | RuthieG's CataBlog of recordings | Tweet: @RuthGolding
patrickjeaton
Posts: 295
Joined: July 12th, 2013, 10:38 am
Location: Kenilworth, Warwickshire

Post by patrickjeaton »

Can you give me a slot in the Magic Window. I would like to contribute although I havent chosen what to read yet
Algy Pug
Posts: 6966
Joined: December 26th, 2009, 10:07 pm
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by Algy Pug »

Hi Ruth

Yes, I think that we are ready to move.

Is there any chance you will be able to drag that Samson Q1U out of the cupboard? I don't think we had one in the previous Microphone Showdown.

As suggested I will put a post in the Help wanted forum.

Cheers
Algy Pug

My Librivox page



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