COMPLETE: Our Western Birds, by Elizabeth & Joseph Grinnell - jo

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

I would like to read section 21 - the Shrike. Thanks.
-Nat Spratt
KateTk
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Post by KateTk »

mleigh wrote: May 14th, 2021, 6:08 pm
KateTk wrote: May 12th, 2021, 11:43 pm This is the file for Chapter 3 The black phoebe
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/westernbirds_03_grinnell_128kb.mp3 (11:3.77)

It's my first recording (apart from the 1-minute test), so please feel free to comment :D
Chapter 3 was beautifully read - you have a nice and clear voice. I did, however, pick up a lot of background noise throughout. Running it through the Checker app showed it was over 44dB. A run through the noise reduction feature in Audacity or equivalent in whatever program you are using will clean that up nicely (I tested it). You also have a little too much silence, about 0.5 seconds, at the start, it should be between 0.5 and 1 second in length.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I look forward to hearing more of your recordings. :D

M
Hi M!

Thanks so much for the compliment on my reading :D and thank you for the technical suggestions.

Before I go ahead and fix the recording, can I bug you for some advice? This is a really embarrassing question... :cry: What is the dB limit for background noise? I did study the requirements on recordings that were posted but I must have totally missed this :oops:

I look forward to your reply so I can get the file right :D
Kate
KateTk
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Post by KateTk »

Hi Larry,
May I have Chapters 14, 23, and 29, please?
Kate
silverquill
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Post by silverquill »

KateTk wrote: May 14th, 2021, 8:22 pm
mleigh wrote: May 14th, 2021, 6:08 pm
KateTk wrote: May 12th, 2021, 11:43 pm This is the file for Chapter 3 The black phoebe
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/westernbirds_03_grinnell_128kb.mp3 (11:3.77)

It's my first recording (apart from the 1-minute test), so please feel free to comment :D
Chapter 3 was beautifully read - you have a nice and clear voice. I did, however, pick up a lot of background noise throughout. Running it through the Checker app showed it was over 44dB. A run through the noise reduction feature in Audacity or equivalent in whatever program you are using will clean that up nicely (I tested it). You also have a little too much silence, about 0.5 seconds, at the start, it should be between 0.5 and 1 second in length.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I look forward to hearing more of your recordings. :D

M
Hi M!

Thanks so much for the compliment on my reading :D and thank you for the technical suggestions.

Before I go ahead and fix the recording, can I bug you for some advice? This is a really embarrassing question... :cry: What is the dB limit for background noise? I did study the requirements on recordings that were posted but I must have totally missed this :oops:

I look forward to your reply so I can get the file right :D
Well, there isn't any specific value given or required for background noise, so you didn't miss anything.

There must be something I'm missing about Checker because I'm not aware that it measures background noise, so maybe our DPL can enlighten us both. :wink:

I just go by what I hear in my headphones. This is probably within our standard PL limits, but the recording would be greatly improved by applying noise reduction. I routinely do this for all of my recordings. You can take your noise sample from the beginning or ending silence. I set my noise reduction to 12 dB in Audacity and it works fine. Gave me a good result on this file. The beginning silence does need to be trimmed a bit since it is over one second. We need these spacings to that when compiled nothing gets clipped and so there aren't large gaps.

Excellent work!
~ Larry
silverquill
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Post by silverquill »

KateTk wrote: May 14th, 2021, 9:05 pm Hi Larry,
May I have Chapters 14, 23, and 29, please?
Glad to give you these additional chapters.
Chapter 29 is the last one, so don't forget the end of book closing.
~ Larry
knotyouraveragejo
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Post by knotyouraveragejo »

silverquill wrote: May 15th, 2021, 7:56 am
KateTk wrote: May 14th, 2021, 8:22 pm
Thanks so much for the compliment on my reading :D and thank you for the technical suggestions.

Before I go ahead and fix the recording, can I bug you for some advice? This is a really embarrassing question... :cry: What is the dB limit for background noise? I did study the requirements on recordings that were posted but I must have totally missed this :oops:

I look forward to your reply so I can get the file right :D
Well, there isn't any specific value given or required for background noise, so you didn't miss anything.

There must be something I'm missing about Checker because I'm not aware that it measures background noise, so maybe our DPL can enlighten us both. :wink:

I just go by what I hear in my headphones. This is probably within our standard PL limits, but the recording would be greatly improved by applying noise reduction. I routinely do this for all of my recordings. You can take your noise sample from the beginning or ending silence. I set my noise reduction to 12 dB in Audacity and it works fine. Gave me a good result on this file. The beginning silence does need to be trimmed a bit since it is over one second. We need these spacings to that when compiled nothing gets clipped and so there aren't large gaps.

Excellent work!
Kate,

Generally the default settings in the Noise Reduction plugin are a good place to start. Two passes with lower values are generally better than one more aggressive pass. Just be sure to reselect a portion of the background each time. This article in the wiki may be helpful

http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Noise_Cleaning

or this one from the Audacity Help Files

file:///C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/Audacity2.4.1/help/manual/man/noise_reduction.html

Checker shows a background level in db on the information screen if you have it checked in the validation methods. In this case it is 44.6 db which is enough to be noticeable, but not enough to be flagged by the Checker program on the validation screen. It does flag really high levels of background noise, but I don't recall what the cutoff number is -possibly around 50 db. As Larry has said, listening with headphones is probably the best way to decide if noise reduction is needed or not, and to evaluate the results when applied.
Jo
silverquill
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Post by silverquill »

Ha! Thanks, Jo.
I didn't know about that setting in Checker.
I'll play with that a little and see if it helps me.
~ Larry
KateTk
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Post by KateTk »

knotyouraveragejo wrote: May 15th, 2021, 11:27 am
silverquill wrote: May 15th, 2021, 7:56 am
KateTk wrote: May 14th, 2021, 8:22 pm
Thanks so much for the compliment on my reading :D and thank you for the technical suggestions.

Before I go ahead and fix the recording, can I bug you for some advice? This is a really embarrassing question... :cry: What is the dB limit for background noise? I did study the requirements on recordings that were posted but I must have totally missed this :oops:

I look forward to your reply so I can get the file right :D
Well, there isn't any specific value given or required for background noise, so you didn't miss anything.

There must be something I'm missing about Checker because I'm not aware that it measures background noise, so maybe our DPL can enlighten us both. :wink:

I just go by what I hear in my headphones. This is probably within our standard PL limits, but the recording would be greatly improved by applying noise reduction. I routinely do this for all of my recordings. You can take your noise sample from the beginning or ending silence. I set my noise reduction to 12 dB in Audacity and it works fine. Gave me a good result on this file. The beginning silence does need to be trimmed a bit since it is over one second. We need these spacings to that when compiled nothing gets clipped and so there aren't large gaps.

Excellent work!
Kate,

Generally the default settings in the Noise Reduction plugin are a good place to start. Two passes with lower values are generally better than one more aggressive pass. Just be sure to reselect a portion of the background each time. This article in the wiki may be helpful

http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Noise_Cleaning

or this one from the Audacity Help Files

file:///C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/Audacity2.4.1/help/manual/man/noise_reduction.html

Checker shows a background level in db on the information screen if you have it checked in the validation methods. In this case it is 44.6 db which is enough to be noticeable, but not enough to be flagged by the Checker program on the validation screen. It does flag really high levels of background noise, but I don't recall what the cutoff number is -possibly around 50 db. As Larry has said, listening with headphones is probably the best way to decide if noise reduction is needed or not, and to evaluate the results when applied.
Thank you so much Larry and Jo! :D

This is the new file and the adjusted time
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/westernbirds_03_grinnell_128kb.mp3
11:3.28

As you mentioned Jo, doing two passes with lower values is really much better than 1 aggressive pass. The original file I uploaded went through only 1 pass. But the background noise in my room is horrible to begin with which is probably why the background noise is still as high as 44 dB. For this version, I ran through noise reduction for a second time and was able to bring it down to 27.5 dB. This is new for me and I will remember this! :D
Kate
silverquill
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Joined: May 25th, 2013, 9:11 pm
Location: Southern California

Post by silverquill »

KateTk wrote: May 15th, 2021, 5:52 pm
Thank you so much Larry and Jo! :D

This is the new file and the adjusted time
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/westernbirds_03_grinnell_128kb.mp3
11:3.28

As you mentioned Jo, doing two passes with lower values is really much better than 1 aggressive pass. The original file I uploaded went through only 1 pass. But the background noise in my room is horrible to begin with which is probably why the background noise is still as high as 44 dB. For this version, I ran through noise reduction for a second time and was able to bring it down to 27.5 dB. This is new for me and I will remember this! :D
[/quote]

Thank you!
I've marked this Ready for Spot PL
~ Larry
RitaBoutros
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Post by RitaBoutros »

silverquill
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Post by silverquill »

Thank you!
This in the MW Ready for PL
~ Larry
Jime1
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Joined: September 10th, 2020, 6:24 am

Post by Jime1 »

Hi good morning everybody! I'd like to read section 15 "Different Sparrows". Is it still available ? :)
silverquill
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Location: Southern California

Post by silverquill »

mgxlrfc wrote: May 14th, 2021, 7:42 pm Hi all! I am new to LibriVox :")
Could I get section 14 and 15 please?
(I actually jumped the gun a little and recorded section 14 already while I was waiting for my account registration to be approved by mods, and then saw in the threads above that the 1 minute test was required first. Since I already have 14 recorded, should I just upload that? Or go back and record the 1 minute test and wait for that to be ok'd?)
Well, yes, you did totally get ahead of yourself. :shock:

I think there is information about doing a test recording in the welcome message. It is best to do that since it is to make sure your recording set up is correct and that you have all of the technical specifications in order and identify any other issues on something short rather than a longer recording.

And, in the meantime these particular sections have been assigned. I've contacted the reader for Section 14 and if they are willing to relinquish it, I will give it to you and you can upload your recording in lieu of the test. If all goes well, you will be free to make another selection.

Do let us know how you would like to be listed in the LV catalog -- real name, pseudonym or any nickname you wish. While you're waiting, it might be good to do the test recording, though. And, please read through our Newbie Guide to Recording Info about the test recording is under point two.

Thanks for your interest.
~ Larry
KateTk
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Post by KateTk »

Kate
Gnatstomper
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Post by Gnatstomper »

Larry,
May I read section 21 The Shrike. Thanks.
-Nat Spratt
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