Greetings from Istanbul

Get to know your fellow readers and tell us a little about yourself
Post Reply
Sehnaz
Posts: 12
Joined: October 17th, 2017, 6:05 am

Post by Sehnaz »

Dear Everyone,

Since all here are volunteers, let me begin by congratulating everyone for spreading the love of reading and listening books. Listening your superb book recordings is what enticed me to join LibriVox and I thank you, the admin, for approving my registry.

My name is Veronica Sehnaz and I'm a Turkish-American currently living and working in Istanbul, Turkey. My home for almost 30 years and two awesome adult children are in America whom I miss terribly. We visit each other as much as we can and long for my return to the States but until I can make sound arrangements for my ailing mother to be taken care of here in Turkey, my home is this beautiful city of Istanbul.

So from Istanbul, I will do my best to contribute in anyway I can to this fun and worthy activity. I am sure to blunder in the beginning but "nothing ventured, nothing gained" right?

Ta ta for now :)
Lynnet
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 33323
Joined: September 16th, 2012, 7:07 pm
Location: In the desert

Post by Lynnet »

Hi and welcome.
The best starting point is submitting a one minute test and the team there will guide you on getting your setup right. http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/1-Minute_Test There is no need for an expensive mic... a decent USB mic can be bought for about $20 on Amazon. Of course, you can pay a lot more for a better one, but best to see if you enjoy recording before forking out :D

When you start, it is best to read a chapter or two of established projects, but once you are familiar with the site and the process, you can branch out to any Public Domain text that interests you.
Poetry is also a popular launch point (see the Short Works forum, dropdown menu at the bottom of the page).

Lynne
Sehnaz
Posts: 12
Joined: October 17th, 2017, 6:05 am

Post by Sehnaz »

Hi LV-for the past week or so, I've been trying to solve a technical problem with audacity. It records fine but when I play back, my voice sounds like a robot. I watched so many you tube videos and it seems there is a way you can make yourself sound like a robot but I have yet to locate helpful video on how you can reverse the robot effect. Can you help sort out this problem?
Rapunzelina
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 17679
Joined: November 15th, 2011, 3:47 am

Post by Rapunzelina »

Hello Veronica!

My first thought is to check whether the correct microphone is selected for recording. You can check that either from the menu (menu Edit -> Preferences, Devices, Recording Device) or from the toolbar on top, with the microphone icon. If there are more than one options, and you can't tell which one is the correct, you can check and see how each option/microphone records.

Also, check the playback device, as it could be a problem with that. Again, either from the menu or the toolbar (the speaker icon), you can check if the other options give different results in playback sound.

You could also upload a test file for people to listen. Maybe someone can identify the reason of the distortion from the sound of it.
There are instructions for uploading a file here in the 1-minute test guide: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/1-Minute_Test
Sehnaz
Posts: 12
Joined: October 17th, 2017, 6:05 am

Post by Sehnaz »

Hi Rapunzelina - Thank you for the helpful hints. I played around with options and it seems my recording and playback works when I chose "stereo recording" instead of "mono recording". I will test record on this option and then upload to see if it works.
Sehnaz
Posts: 12
Joined: October 17th, 2017, 6:05 am

Post by Sehnaz »

I just completed and uploaded 1-minute test recorded on speaker mode instead of mono. Keeping my fingers crossed that it's compatible with equipment on listener's side :)
Rapunzelina
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 17679
Joined: November 15th, 2011, 3:47 am

Post by Rapunzelina »

Nice!
When you upload a file, you get a link. Remember to also post the link in the forum, whenever you upload a file.
For your test file, I managed to hunt it down as admin 8-)

Your voice is definitely not robot-like now! I don't know if there's a way to fix that and record in mono, but for now, since you can record in stereo with no problems, you can use the "Stereo Track to Mono" option from the Tracks menu, because it's a system requirement that the recordings are in mono. And I hope this option doesn't affect the sound!
Make sure the rest of the settings are correct when exporting to MP3: menu File -> Export Audio. With the MP3 file type selected, click the Options button. Bit rate mode should be "Constant", Quality "128 kbps", and Channel mode "Joint Stereo"

When you're ready with a new recording that has all tech specs correct, post it in the Listeners Forum for a final check :wink:
carteki
Posts: 1618
Joined: January 10th, 2015, 9:56 am

Post by carteki »

Hi Veronica and welcome to Librivox.
We are currently looking to record the UN declaration of Human Rights in as many languages as possible and would love to add Turkish to the list. Please visit the link in my signature to sign up for that.
Thank you
Sehnaz
Posts: 12
Joined: October 17th, 2017, 6:05 am

Post by Sehnaz »

Hi Carteki-I would love to read the UN Declaration of Human Rights in Turkish. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
Rapunzelina
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 17679
Joined: November 15th, 2011, 3:47 am

Post by Rapunzelina »

Hi Sehnaz! Just to make sure you didn't miss my post above; since you can record in stereo, remember to turn your recordings to mono before exporting! :wink:
Sehnaz
Posts: 12
Joined: October 17th, 2017, 6:05 am

Post by Sehnaz »

Hi Rapunzelina-I was delighted to find my name assigned to record Turkish translation of UN Declaration of Human Rights. I am participating in 39.Istanbul Marathon for support of Greenpeace this weekend. So I will do my recording weekend after next. I will follow your recording and upload instructions. This is so very exciting! Thank you!!
Rapunzelina
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 17679
Joined: November 15th, 2011, 3:47 am

Post by Rapunzelina »

Have fun this weekend!!!!
And have fun next weekend recording :mrgreen:
Sehnaz
Posts: 12
Joined: October 17th, 2017, 6:05 am

Post by Sehnaz »

UNDHR in Turkish is uploaded tonight. Since I could not find Carteki in MC list, I've put it to Rapunzelina's attention. I hope that's all right :)

URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/rapunzelina/undhr_turkish_vs.mp3

Duration: 13:55.5

New copy to Lezer's attention has been uploaded. URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/lezer/undhr_turkish_vs.mp3
Post Reply