[COMPLETE] The Travels of Ibn Batuta by Ibn Batuta - tg

pattymarie · Post by **pattymarie** » April 7th, 2019, 2:05 am

Some_Old_Bird wrote: ↑April 6th, 2019, 1:54 pm Finished the dedication, about to start the Preface, just have 2 quick questions :

1. what do I do when the author casually inserts sanskrit into the middle of a sentence? I can't read that, maybe if someone else could I could frankenstein it into my recording but idk.

2. Footnotes: skip'em? If not do I read them right when they come up or at the end of the page, or the end of the chapter?

Just letting you know this has been seen, but I'm leaving it for TriciaG to advise you. She knows the rules about this kind of thing better. I pretty sure it's Arabic (at least it's in the Arabic script which is also used for Farsi) that's inserted here, not Sanskrit. These Arabic insertions have always been a problem with this section. My personal preference is to just skip them, but, as far I know, it's against policy to do that. I do believe we're skipping the footnotes, but let's see what Tricia says.

Post by **TriciaG** » April 7th, 2019, 6:02 am

Regarding footnotes, the original BC said:

carteki wrote: ↑January 10th, 2018, 11:54 pm Regarding footnotes, it is up to the reader's discretion whether to include them or not. And yes, you're correct in thinking that they should be inserted at a logical break, rather than where they are noted in the text.
We use the format "Footnote"..... "End of Footnote" when including them.

Regarding the Arabic directly in the text: taking a look at it, I don't see how it could be excluded. So yes, it needs to be recorded. I suggest posting a "Arabic Phrases Needed" type post over in "Need Help? Got Advice?" asking someone to record them for you so you can insert them into your recording.

Some_Old_Bird · Post by **Some_Old_Bird** » April 7th, 2019, 9:28 am

Got it, Thanks Tricia

Some_Old_Bird · Post by **Some_Old_Bird** » April 9th, 2019, 10:55 pm

Until someone responds to my Help Needed ad, theres not much else I can do. Would you like me to send the dedication for now and do the preface later? Or are they a package deal?

Post by **TriciaG** » April 10th, 2019, 5:05 am

They're a package deal. It doesn't do much good to send part of a section separately.

Some_Old_Bird · Post by **Some_Old_Bird** » May 1st, 2019, 8:46 pm

Hi all, just wanted to touch base, I am still working on this, I got a bit distracted starting a new job, having parents in town, and a sore throat. Back in action now and expect to have this done in the next week. I think you'll like it when its done.

pattymarie · Post by **pattymarie** » May 2nd, 2019, 6:15 am

Some_Old_Bird wrote: ↑May 1st, 2019, 8:46 pm Hi all, just wanted to touch base, I am still working on this, I got a bit distracted starting a new job, having parents in town, and a sore throat. Back in action now and expect to have this done in the next week. I think you'll like it when its done.

Thanks, Old Bird; looking forward to hearing it.

Smriti · Post by **Smriti** » May 14th, 2019, 7:02 am

pattymarie wrote: ↑November 18th, 2018, 8:41 am Somebody at Listeners and Editors Wanted should listen to it fairly promptly and let you know if it matches all our technical specs. I'm not competent at that - had to rely on their work myself with my test.

I've listened to the cleaned version entirely and a few seconds of the raw one. The raw one definitely needed the cleaning; it had quite a roar of background noise. The cleaned version is much better though there remains a slight hum in it. Are you recording on a computer or on a portable, hand holdable recorder. I get fairly clean recordings on a little Sony recorder that could be held in a hand though I put it on a shelf and sit beside it speaking crosswise to it with my mouth close to its level. I record in a back room of my basement apartment where refrigerator, heating unit, and outdoor traffic noises don't reach. The best recordings I've ever done were with a friend's Zoom H2 recorder that I don't have around my house any more. Recording on a computer always gives you some computer motor hum and if you're using a cooler under it you get a lot of that. I find that using even the latest noise reduction in Audacity at a high enough level to really remove all the background noise distorts my voice and makes the recording sound like its coming from inside a tin container.

Even when all your specs are in order, it's possible to produce a file that's louder or softer than the desired volume for Librivox. I always forget but I think the desired volume is between 86 and 91 dB. This program called Checker will let you check each file before you upload for volume and anything else that's necessary and give you the diagnosis of what's wrong if the file fails the check. https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Checker You just drag and drop the exported mP3 file into it and it checks it. It's sorted me out when I've forgotten to choose "mono" when I import a file from my Sony recorder and produced a stereo file which Librivox doesn't support. I think you'll soon be off to a good start recording.

I am very sorry I disappeared randomly, was really looking forward to doing this recording, but life. Anyway, I am really happy (and sad) to see almost all sections are done / claimed. I still need to work on fixing my test recording. So I will work on that first. Thank you for considering me for your reading

pattymarie · Post by **pattymarie** » May 14th, 2019, 4:04 pm

Smriti wrote: ↑May 14th, 2019, 7:02 am ]
I am very sorry I disappeared randomly, was really looking forward to doing this recording, but life. Anyway, I am really happy (and sad) to see almost all sections are done / claimed. I still need to work on fixing my test recording. So I will work on that first. Thank you for considering me for your reading

Thank you for your interest, Smriti. There are many worthy projects you can contribute to if you check the readers wanted forum and the project launch pad. Best wishes.

Post by **TriciaG** » June 22nd, 2019, 5:21 pm

Sections 0 and 14 have been reopened.

oulfis · Post by **oulfis** » June 24th, 2019, 8:12 pm

Hello -- if it would be useful, I could read either or both of the remaining sections. I can read Latin pretty well and Arabic pretty poorly; I glanced over the preface and I think I could sound it out well enough that an Arabic speaker would understand what I was saying. (For the in-line stuff, anyway -- probably not those huge Arabic footnotes.) But it might be better to wait for someone who is more fluent in Arabic to step in. Would you like me to try? Maybe tap me in if nobody more suitable volunteers?

pattymarie · Post by **pattymarie** » June 25th, 2019, 1:44 pm

Thank you so much. I would be happy for you to step in. Tricia is an admin, though, so I'll leave the final decision to her. She should be along soon to say what she thinks.

Post by **TriciaG** » June 25th, 2019, 1:50 pm

Absolutely! It's been 1.5 years for this project, and so far no one has stepped up to record that section that has even a half-smattering of Arabic. Go for it!

Oh, and please do skip the footnotes.

oulfis · Post by **oulfis** » June 25th, 2019, 6:38 pm

I will take on the preface, then! And when I've finished it, I'll see if I want to sign up for the last chapter too. I'll do my best!

pattymarie · Post by **pattymarie** » June 26th, 2019, 4:59 am

Thank you! I'm sure what you do will be thoroughly acceptable to the vast majority of listeners.