COMPLETE Policeman Bluejay by L. Frank Baum - pc

[limalily]

Hi, I'm happy to volunteer for sections 4 and 5 if you like.

[philchenevert]

Hi, I'm happy to volunteer for sections 4 and 5 if you like.

Great! those two sections are yours to enjoy.

[limalily]

https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_04_baum_128kb.mp3
05:22

Here is chapter 4 for review.

[limalily]

https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_05_baum_128kb.mp3
05:54

Here is chapter 5. Thanks again!

[loon]

https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_05_baum_128kb.mp3
05:54

Here is chapter 5. Thanks again!

Chapters 4 and 5 are PL OK - thank you.
Chapter 5 is a pretty sad story for little kids!

(Since you asked for feedback earlier) both of these chapters sounded a bit 'processed' when compared with your reading of The Beauty Dance (chapter 16). You might want to try reducing the amount of noise reduction you use in future recordings - that effect can do some strange things to the sound of a voice if used with aggressive settings.

[drandall]

Chap 7, The Bluejay’s Story
https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_07_baum_128kb.mp3
Duration: 13:10

[philchenevert]

Chap 7, The Bluejay’s Story
https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_07_baum_128kb.mp3
Duration: 13:10

Thank you

[loon]

Chap 7, The Bluejay’s Story
https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_07_baum_128kb.mp3
Duration: 13:10

PL OK. Thank you!

[limalily]

https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_05_baum_128kb.mp3
05:54

Here is chapter 5. Thanks again!

Chapters 4 and 5 are PL OK - thank you.
Chapter 5 is a pretty sad story for little kids!

(Since you asked for feedback earlier) both of these chapters sounded a bit 'processed' when compared with your reading of The Beauty Dance (chapter 16). You might want to try reducing the amount of noise reduction you use in future recordings - that effect can do some strange things to the sound of a voice if used with aggressive settings.

Thanks for that. I did worry a little bit about that, and will keep trying different adjustments

A slightly technical question: you're right, I think the distortion comes when I use noise reduction, but I thought it was necessary to remove the very slight ambient hum/drone that I hear in the silences? I select a few seconds of silence from the beginning of the clip where I always have extra silence for editing purposes, do the noise analysis on that clip, confirm that the "residue" it's picking up is the slight drone/hum, and then apply the noise reduction to the full clip... Is there something else I should be doing instead?

[loon]

A slightly technical question: you're right, I think the distortion comes when I use noise reduction, but I thought it was necessary to remove the very slight ambient hum/drone that I hear in the silences? I select a few seconds of silence from the beginning of the clip where I always have extra silence for editing purposes, do the noise analysis on that clip, confirm that the "residue" it's picking up is the slight drone/hum, and then apply the noise reduction to the full clip... Is there something else I should be doing instead?

If you've run Audacity's "Plot Spectrum" check on a blank part of your track and find that the noise is mostly low frequency stuff you can use a high pass (a.k.a. low cut) filter set to reduce frequencies below100 or 150 Hz by 6 dB/octave - no human voice, male or female, has much content at those low frequencies, so it won't affect how the voice sounds.

If the noise is indeed a hum - "Plot Spectrum" will show a peak at 60 and/or 120 Hz (50 and/or 100 Hz for countries outside the Americas or Austrailia) the noise is probably the computer's power supply not filtering out the frequency of your wall power. In that case there is a "Notch Filter" effect that can greatly reduce the sound at the selected frequency while letting sounds above and below that frequency pass (mostly) unmolested. Set the frequency to 60.0 or 120.0 and the 'Q' to something like 10, which will make the filter select a very narrow range near your set frequency.

If neither of these methods apply to your noise you can use 'Noise Reduction' but with the Noise reduction (dB) slider most of the way to the left - say around 6 dB. Some residual noise may remain, but more of the original sound of your voice will be left intact.

Have fun and keep recording!

[limalily]

A slightly technical question: you're right, I think the distortion comes when I use noise reduction, but I thought it was necessary to remove the very slight ambient hum/drone that I hear in the silences? I select a few seconds of silence from the beginning of the clip where I always have extra silence for editing purposes, do the noise analysis on that clip, confirm that the "residue" it's picking up is the slight drone/hum, and then apply the noise reduction to the full clip... Is there something else I should be doing instead?

If you've run Audacity's "Plot Spectrum" check on a blank part of your track and find that the noise is mostly low frequency stuff you can use a high pass (a.k.a. low cut) filter set to reduce frequencies below100 or 150 Hz by 6 dB/octave - no human voice, male or female, has much content at those low frequencies, so it won't affect how the voice sounds.

If the noise is indeed a hum - "Plot Spectrum" will show a peak at 60 and/or 120 Hz (50 and/or 100 Hz for countries outside the Americas or Austrailia) the noise is probably the computer's power supply not filtering out the frequency of your wall power. In that case there is a "Notch Filter" effect that can greatly reduce the sound at the selected frequency while letting sounds above and below that frequency pass (mostly) unmolested. Set the frequency to 60.0 or 120.0 and the 'Q' to something like 10, which will make the filter select a very narrow range near your set frequency.

If neither of these methods apply to your noise you can use 'Noise Reduction' but with the Noise reduction (dB) slider most of the way to the left - say around 6 dB. Some residual noise may remain, but more of the original sound of your voice will be left intact.

Have fun and keep recording!

Thank you for sharing all of this wisdom!!

[edenwillow]

Hi there, here is chapter 21 for review. We had a few plosives coming through so these have mostly been clipped out, hopefully that's ok. Edenwillow is ready to do chapter 22 once 21 has been reviewed.
https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_21_baum_128kb.mp3
Duration: 4:08

[loon]

Hi there, here is chapter 21 for review. We had a few plosives coming through so these have mostly been clipped out, hopefully that's ok. Edenwillow is ready to do chapter 22 once 21 has been reviewed.
https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_21_baum_128kb.mp3
Duration: 4:08

Yes, there are quite a lot of plosives in the recording. For future recordings, you could improve this by using a purchased or home made pop filter between mouth and microphone and/or by moving the microphone slightly around to the side (with the mic still aimed at the mouth). Both of these methods reduce puffs of breath on 'P' and 'T' sounds blowing into the microphone and thus the plosive sounds in the recording.

Two things need to be fixed in this recording:
1) The silence at the beginning should not be more than 1 second - but it's just about 2 seconds in chapter 21. Trimming about 1.5 seconds from the very beginning of the chapter will fix this.
2) The end of the chapter needs the words "End of chapter 21" added between the last word of the story and the ending 5 seconds of silence.

I'm marking the chapter See PL notes until the two changes are in.

Some of the very loudest peaks come very close to the limit, but nothing is clipped, so that's fine. It's nice to have a younger voice reading a couple chapters in this book. :-)

[edenwillow]

Hi there, here is chapter 21 for review. We had a few plosives coming through so these have mostly been clipped out, hopefully that's ok. Edenwillow is ready to do chapter 22 once 21 has been reviewed.
https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_21_baum_128kb.mp3
Duration: 4:08

Yes, there are quite a lot of plosives in the recording. For future recordings, you could improve this by using a purchased or home made pop filter between mouth and microphone and/or by moving the microphone slightly around to the side (with the mic still aimed at the mouth). Both of these methods reduce puffs of breath on 'P' and 'T' sounds blowing into the microphone and thus the plosive sounds in the recording.

Two things need to be fixed in this recording:
1) The silence at the beginning should not be more than 1 second - but it's just about 2 seconds in chapter 21. Trimming about 1.5 seconds from the very beginning of the chapter will fix this.
2) The end of the chapter needs the words "End of chapter 21" added between the last word of the story and the ending 5 seconds of silence.

I'm marking the chapter See PL notes until the two changes are in.

Some of the very loudest peaks come very close to the limit, but nothing is clipped, so that's fine. It's nice to have a younger voice reading a couple chapters in this book.

Thank you so much for your feedback!! We're just recording directly into a laptop (no external mic) so will play around with the setup to try and reduce plosives for next time. Here are the changes, let me know if there are any more.
https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_21_baum_128kb.mp3
Duration: 4:17

[loon]

Thank you so much for your feedback!! We're just recording directly into a laptop (no external mic) so will play around with the setup to try and reduce plosives for next time. Here are the changes, let me know if there are any more.
https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/policemanbluejay_21_baum_128kb.mp3
Duration: 4:17

Thank you edenwillow (and ccsdg), Chapter 21 is now PL OK; 22 is up next. Since that is the final chapter in the book you'll also get to read

End of Policeman Bluejay, by L. Frank Baum.

after the regular chapter ending.

Recording directly on the laptop microphone absolutely makes it a harder to make adjustments - particularly if you are reading the book off the laptop screen. If you happen to be reading from a tablet or phone you have a chance to move the laptop a bit around to the side, or perhaps set the laptop on a box to get it a bit higher relative to your mouth. If you can't do that -- well, the point of LibriVox is to do what you can with the equipment you have access to. Onward to chapter 22!