COMPLETE The Phantom Death and Other Stories by William Clark Russell -ck

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
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Carolin
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Post by Carolin »

Thank you peter :D
Carolin
PeterMusgrove
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Post by PeterMusgrove »

Hi David,

My own opinion is that since breaths are a natural part of reading, it's not unreasonable that they remain. I find they're only a problem when they're very loud and cause distraction from the dialog (I notice this problem sometimes with singers - once I notice the breathing is too loud, it's all I hear!). Also, breathing can be used to create an atmosphere of urgency, etc., which is really useful.

I enjoyed your reading!
Pete (DPL)
openbookdavid wrote: December 26th, 2018, 3:44 am Hi Carolin,

I started to edit out some of the breath sounds between phrases and sentences, but about 5 minutes into the recording I started to wonder whether that was really necessary and stopped doing it. It would be great if the DPL could let me know whether any of the remaining noises seem disturbing, and whether there's any additional editing work that I should do.

Any constructive criticism of any kind, from you or from the DPL, is more than welcome. I enjoyed recording the story!

All the best,
David
"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead."
~ Charles Bukowski
alphareadsbooks
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Post by alphareadsbooks »

I'll go ahead and claim Section 2 - Broker's Bay. I may have some voice work coming up in the near future (wish me luck!), but I should be more than able to get Broker's Bay done within the 2 month deadline despite this. If it turns out for any reason I need an extension I'll be sure to ask.
openbookdavid wrote: December 26th, 2018, 3:44 amI started to edit out some of the breath sounds between phrases and sentences, but about 5 minutes into the recording I started to wonder whether that was really necessary and stopped doing it.
Yeah, I used to be terrible about cutting out my breathing myself. When you're editing your own work your brain kicks into this detective mode and you hear every single tic, breath, and background noise and want to do something about it. This isn't the case when you're relaxing and listening to the work, though, since that same brain will be in a different state and tune a lot of that out.
I used to just silence everything that wasn't speech, but while that did technically work it also gave a certain "off" feeling when hearing the track all at once. Peter's absolutely right in that breathing is a natural part of speech, so much so that removing the breathing altogether can make the recording seem unnatural, and in extreme cases, a little unsettling.
For me, lip smacking is a different story, but is way easier to edit out. I typically make all these awful mouth sounds I don't even notice in between lines, particularly when I'm opening my mouth. Taking those out never evoked that unnatural feeling and just made my recordings sound better and more polished overall.
These days I just shave off every lip smack that seems distracting and deamplify my louder breaths; that way they're still there, but they aren't so noticeable.

Just my two cents on the matter.
Clay Beauchamp
"It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense."
-Mark Twain
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Carolin
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Post by Carolin »

great, thank you! :D

i also used to cut my breaths out of my very first recordings, but it sounds more unnatural than just leaving them in and dealing with the fact that human beings need oxygen haha. well everyone has their pet peeves in their own and other people's recordings :)
Carolin
openbookdavid
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Post by openbookdavid »

Thanks very much for this, Pete, and for your reassuring feedback about breath sounds. :clap: I somehow turned off my e-mail notifications for this thread, so I hadn't noticed your replies until just now. Since I'm just getting started here, I'm wondering how the reader would usually deal with issues like these (aside from trimming down the silence, which should be straightforward). Shall I try to re-record the sentences or paragraphs in question and paste them in? Or is there a better method? Is there a wiki page or forum thread with relevant advice?

Carolin and others are also welcome to respond, as far as I'm concerned!

Happy New Year!

All the best,
David
PeterMusgrove wrote: December 27th, 2018, 4:34 pm Hi David,

Section 3, The Lazarette of the Huntress

16:36 Repeat - "should know .... not know" (page 46)

30:10 Repeat "chief off-officer" (page 53)

31:45 "captain/cabin" (page 53)

1.5 seconds of silence at beginning to be trimmed to between 0.5 and 1.0 second.

You did such a nice job of narration that I really don't enjoy pointing out the above! :)

Best,
Pete
openbookdavid
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Post by openbookdavid »

Thanks, Clay!
alphareadsbooks wrote: December 28th, 2018, 11:41 am
These days I just shave off every lip smack that seems distracting and deamplify my louder breaths; that way they're still there, but they aren't so noticeable.
Carolin
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Post by Carolin »

Hi david, have you seen our wiki? It contains a lot of interesting information :)
https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

As for the pl notes here, these should be quite straight forward. You can cut out repeats very easily. The only one that might be a bit tricky is replacing the cabin/ captain bit. If i understand the note correctly, you said the one while the text demands the other. In these cases, you have to rerecord that bit and paste it in. There are several ways to do it, heres my own method
1. Record something else first, another section youve claimed, to warm up. Otherwise your voice will probably sound very different from the rest of the recording.
2. Listen carefully to the bit you need to replace and practice getting it to sound similar.
3. Record not only the one or two words but the whole sentence, and replace everything from one breath to the next. The change will be much less noticeable if you replace all you said in one breath rather than just a word or two :) i should also mention that if you hold shift while pressing record, audacity will continue on just one track rather than creating another. And dont forget to noiseclean and amplify just the new bit of recording in the same way as you did the rest of the track.

Let us know if we can help :)
Carolin
openbookdavid
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Post by openbookdavid »

Thank you, Carolin. I've been using the wiki but hadn't found information about re-recording there. Your tips will be very useful!
openbookdavid
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Post by openbookdavid »

Here's the edited file:

https://librivox.org/uploads/carolin/phantomdeath_03_russell_128kb.mp3

Thanks again for your help, everyone! :D
Carolin
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Post by Carolin »

Thank you :thumbs:
Carolin
PeterMusgrove
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Post by PeterMusgrove »

Hi David,

Good job with your editing! DPL OK!

Best,
Pete
"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead."
~ Charles Bukowski
openbookdavid
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Post by openbookdavid »

Thanks, Pete! :D
Carolin
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Post by Carolin »

thank you :)
Carolin
macgriff
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Post by macgriff »

I uploaded my recording of Chapter 7! (It passed the checker, hopefully it sounds alright.)

Length: 42:27

Link: https://librivox.org/uploads/carolin/phantomdeath_07_russell_128kb.mp3

-MG
PeterMusgrove
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Post by PeterMusgrove »

Hi Molly,

Just one note re your recording.

12:41 Two missing lines - "Off with that cloth..." ( page 116, last two lines )

The rest sounds great!

Best,
Pete
"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead."
~ Charles Bukowski
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