I see you use Audacity (looked at your original reading test post), but on a Mac and as I'm on PC, can only offer a bit of help.Owlivia wrote: ↑August 20th, 2020, 12:53 pm
Jane, thank you for your very gracious and encouraging comments!
I had a lot of fun doing the voices )particularly the "hag" ) so I'm glad to hear that you liked the variety. Thanks bunches, also for fixing the volume; I'm still working that out in my recordings. You were spot on, too; the difference was in two separate recording sessions.
best,
Deborah / Owlivia
In terms of showing dB volume, Audacity is not helpful, but Checker is. If you click on the Information tab after running it through, it will give you the dB reading. However, in this case, that would be an average, since the two halves were different.
I just highlighted the second half, and increased it a bit using Amplify, -2 (note the minus!), then went back and listened to the transition bit. It still sounded a bit much louder, so I repeated, this time decreasing it by 1.9 (ie, -1.9). At this point, it sounded the same, and the waveform looked consistent. That was all I did.
I always have to increase my volume, as my voice is quiet, and if I speak too loudly either I sound strained and/or it's uncomfortable and/or I risk too many plosives, even with a filter. So I regularly Amplify my volume, using ReplayGain to tell me how much. Not sure ReplayGain plays with the Mac version though.
I also sometimes use Compressor to reduce internal variations if needed (eg, I shout too loudly in one place).
Experience and practice helps.
Hope this helps you. Look forward to hearing more readings from you.