Adding Silence to the End of a Recording

[Stephan]

Noooo! Hate the 3 seconds allready.

[hugh]

it gives you some time to reflect, if it is done right.

do you know john cage's 4' 33" ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3

[trioptimum]

it gives you some time to reflect, if it is done right.

Do you have any hints for doing it right? I'd hate to be the one to do it badly.

Maybe we need to create recordings of periods of silence, for reflection and meditation on the works, which can be queued up behind the regular recordings in somebody's player should they choose.

We could do it like the weekly poetry -- many different contributors.

[fae]

hehehe 4'33'' is like an acoustical version of Pi! I love it!

psst Stephan there's a little button on most players that looks like this: >>|
that could help you (it does me!)

[hugh]

I wonder if we should do a LV recording of it? we could get many contributions and put them all together... though I wonder if it's in the public domain?

[trioptimum]

I wonder if we should do a LV recording of it? ... I wonder if it's in the public domain?

Ask Mike Batt:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2276621.stm

[MariaSC]

I agree, we shouldn't give special treatment to specific software -- which can easily be replaced with something else -- at the expense of all others. A popular mp3 playing device might be a different matter, but RealPlayer can just be switched with iTunes, or WinAmp, or Windows Media Player, or VLC if its performance is unsatisfactory, and without cost... and if this problem really exists then surely most listeners of audiobooks will have already made the change.

To be (probably too) blunt: If someone's using software they know is broken then I don't see how that's our problem. If they don't know it's broken then we should let them know of the issues with it and point them to the range of alternatives.

I'm not suggesting we should be software advocates, I actually think it's very important that we remain neutral. But being platform-agnostic doesn't mean we can't say something doesn't work as it should do (if that's verifiably true). If RealPlayer isn't suitable for listening to LibriVox recordings then it's down to us (and nobody else) to inform people. I don't think it's down to us to accommodate it.

For the overwhelming majority of listeners who do not use RealPlayer, more than a few seconds of terminating silence is unbeneficial, and may be annoying. 10 seconds for recordings of 30min+, as given in the templates, seems very excessive to me.

I use RealPlayer because I find some of the features to be more accessible to my text-to-speech reader. Isn't one of the many advantages of audio books their accessibility to those of us who cannot otherwise read the printed page? I was under the impression that RealPlayer is pretty popular. Besides, the line, "End of recording," should alert listeners that they need not keep listening. I don't think that silence at the end is nearly so problematic as silence at the beginning. I hope we don't decide to drop it. If anyone knows of an MP3 player that is not so graphics driven and accessible (e.g., can be controlled through standard menus or keyboard commands, etc.), please let me know.


Maria

[kri]

I agree, we shouldn't give special treatment to specific software -- which can easily be replaced with something else -- at the expense of all others. A popular mp3 playing device might be a different matter, but RealPlayer can just be switched with iTunes, or WinAmp, or Windows Media Player, or VLC if its performance is unsatisfactory, and without cost... and if this problem really exists then surely most listeners of audiobooks will have already made the change.

To be (probably too) blunt: If someone's using software they know is broken then I don't see how that's our problem. If they don't know it's broken then we should let them know of the issues with it and point them to the range of alternatives.

I'm not suggesting we should be software advocates, I actually think it's very important that we remain neutral. But being platform-agnostic doesn't mean we can't say something doesn't work as it should do (if that's verifiably true). If RealPlayer isn't suitable for listening to LibriVox recordings then it's down to us (and nobody else) to inform people. I don't think it's down to us to accommodate it.

For the overwhelming majority of listeners who do not use RealPlayer, more than a few seconds of terminating silence is unbeneficial, and may be annoying. 10 seconds for recordings of 30min+, as given in the templates, seems very excessive to me.

I use RealPlayer because I find some of the features to be more accessible to my text-to-speech reader. Isn't one of the many advantages of audio books their accessibility to those of us who cannot otherwise read the printed page? I was under the impression that RealPlayer is pretty popular. Besides, the line, "End of recording," should alert listeners that they need not keep listening. I don't think that silence at the end is nearly so problematic as silence at the beginning. I hope we don't decide to drop it. If anyone knows of an MP3 player that is not so graphics driven and accessible (e.g., can be controlled through standard menus or keyboard commands, etc.), please let me know.


Maria

It's not a matter of dropping it, but a matter of never having done it before. We've never told people that they should add silence at the beginning, and those that did were mistaken.

Why is it that you think there should be silence at the beginning?

From what I know, Winamp has pretty good HotKey support.

[fae]

I agree, we shouldn't give special treatment to specific software -- which can easily be replaced with something else -- at the expense of all others. A popular mp3 playing device might be a different matter, but RealPlayer can just be switched with iTunes, or WinAmp, or Windows Media Player, or VLC if its performance is unsatisfactory, and without cost... and if this problem really exists then surely most listeners of audiobooks will have already made the change.

To be (probably too) blunt: If someone's using software they know is broken then I don't see how that's our problem. If they don't know it's broken then we should let them know of the issues with it and point them to the range of alternatives.

I'm not suggesting we should be software advocates, I actually think it's very important that we remain neutral. But being platform-agnostic doesn't mean we can't say something doesn't work as it should do (if that's verifiably true). If RealPlayer isn't suitable for listening to LibriVox recordings then it's down to us (and nobody else) to inform people. I don't think it's down to us to accommodate it.

For the overwhelming majority of listeners who do not use RealPlayer, more than a few seconds of terminating silence is unbeneficial, and may be annoying. 10 seconds for recordings of 30min+, as given in the templates, seems very excessive to me.

I use RealPlayer because I find some of the features to be more accessible to my text-to-speech reader. Isn't one of the many advantages of audio books their accessibility to those of us who cannot otherwise read the printed page? I was under the impression that RealPlayer is pretty popular. Besides, the line, "End of recording," should alert listeners that they need not keep listening. I don't think that silence at the end is nearly so problematic as silence at the beginning. I hope we don't decide to drop it. If anyone knows of an MP3 player that is not so graphics driven and accessible (e.g., can be controlled through standard menus or keyboard commands, etc.), please let me know.


Maria

It's not a matter of dropping it, but a matter of never having done it before. We've never told people that they should add silence at the beginning, and those that did were mistaken.

Why is it that you think there should be silence at the beginning?

From what I know, Winamp has pretty good HotKey support.

I think this might be a case of crossed wires...

Maria is saying she would not like the silence at the end to be eliminated, because it is the end of the file that gets cut off, not adding silence at the beginning.

As for adding silence at the begining I have see it asked, but I can't remember who did the asking at the moment...

[earthcalling]

Do you have any hints for doing it right?

My favourite way is to use the 'envelope' tool in Audacity to create a fade-to-silence after the last words. That's particularly good if, like me, you don't use noise cleaning to get rid of the ambient noise. It gives a very pleasing fade, and of course masks any clunks, page turns, sighs etc. that might otherwise appear in your 'silence'. I do the same in reverse for the second or so leading into the beginning of the recording.

Here's how it looks in Audacity:-



And here's how that clip sounds.

David

[MariaSC]

Do you have any hints for doing it right?

My favourite way is to use the 'envelope' tool in Audacity to create a fade-to-silence after the last words. That's particularly good if, like me, you don't use noise cleaning to get rid of the ambient noise. It gives a very pleasing fade, and of course masks any clunks, page turns, sighs etc. that might otherwise appear in your 'silence'. I do the same in reverse for the second or so leading into the beginning of the recording.

Here's how it looks in Audacity:-



And here's how that clip sounds.

David

Thank you, Fae, I NEVER said we should have had silence at the beginning.

David,
As for editing, this is one of the reasons I use Realplayer (with other software): An envelope is a visual thing, and not doable with a screen reader. While RealPlayer is not fully accessible, and is not really an editor, it does have a "Seek To" feature which uses a dialog box where one can type a location in minutes and seconds. When the file is positioned correctly, I can then here at which point in the file I am adding or removing something... I then use other programs to add or remove material. Any suggestions about software that is accessible in that way? (I'm realizing that I should probably start a different thread.)

Maria