Here is my first recording:
https://librivox.org/uploads/rapunzelina/ghohor034_transfer_blackwood_ljb_128kb.mp3
Text source:
https://archive.org/details/pansgardenvolume00blacuoft/page/342
Author: Algernon Blackwood
Title: "The Transfer"
Duration: 39:58
LibriVox catalogue name for me: Louise J. Belle
I hope it's OK, because I don't know if I can edit.
A few points, for what they're worth:
I tried not to have any click noises, but there might be a few still in there. Basically they happened every time I stopped or paused or restarted (all of which happened a lot). Quite by accident I found that I could smooth over the clicks by starting each next recording section with the cursor (or whatever the recorded section dividing line is called) positioned before (to the left of) the end of the previous recorded section.
I tried to keep the volume within the required range. The mic (Blue Yeti) is very sensitive, so it took some time and a lot of false starts, with various distances & angles between me and the mic. I finally left the recording volume at 1.0 because otherwise, I could hardly get the peaks to reach 0.5, let alone between 0.5 and 1.0 -- or on the other extreme, the peaks were way beyond the borders. At one point (34:10-34:14), where the narrator calls out (shouts), I tried setting the recording volume at .75, .80, .85, and .90, but even at .90, the quality of the sound was markedly different; it sounded like a different recording just pasted in. So I set it back to 1.0 and tried the line of dialogue at various distances and angles; I hope it's not too loud and is "fluid" enough within the overall recording.
I find that I'm very slow when reading aloud. (This is partly to make sure I enunciate clearly and don't trip over the words or accidentally skip anything.) I have listened to recordings on LibriVox and elsewhere, and I prefer relatively slow reading, because it's easier to relax and listen comfortably. But just as I was finishing this recording at nearly 40 minutes, I came across another recording of the same story that clocked in at 13:44!
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5RmHE-rO4) And it was a bit fast for me as a listener, but still sounded OK. So of course now I'm worried that I'm
too slow. I certainly don't want to bore anyone! (Maybe this is why I think I might be good at reading for the LibriVox "insomnia" collection.)
Sorry for the length of this post.
Any advice/help is appreciated.
...LJB