[COMPLETE] Five Little Peppers in the Little Brown House by Margaret Sidney - loa

[Winnifred]

Thank you so much, Winnifred. I appreciate the kind gesture and the effort to help me out.

Yes, pardon my ignorance as I am new to voice recording and in navigating Audacity. A screenshot, as you suggested will be a BIG HELP, really.

It has been my longtime dream to do voice recording. And I am hoping to achieve it through this platform.

Much Thanks!
MooMin

Sure! I’ll work on getting screenshots out to you later tomorrow, MoonMin.

Cheers,

[Winnifred]

Hi MooMin,

Here are those instructions again with screenshots this time. To re-record a short bit, here is what you need to do in Audacity:

Listen to your recording until you get to the spot where the fix or replacement is needed. You can either listen to it all the way through (more time consuming) or use the magnifying glass to zoom in (see top row below: + to zoom in and – to zoom out) to reduce the length of the track so you can see more of it and go to the exact spot you need to work on (see the timestamp just above the wave form below to figure out where you are; when you're finished, you can use the - glass to zoom back out):



Put your cursor at the start of the section you want to replace (black line shows where your cursor is).



Then mute the main track (mute button is on the left side of your screen, next to the blue waveform).



Then press Shift on your keyboard and the round red Record button at the same time, let go of both and start speaking. This will start a recording on a new track below your existing one. Your new recording will likely have a bit of silence before it starts so it won’t line up exactly with the original.



Record until you’ve finished the new bit and press the square black Stop button. Listen to your new recording.
If you’re happy with it, select the part you just read and press Ctrl-C (or Command-C if you’re on a Mac) to copy your new text. Mute the new track and paste your new recording over top of the original (by pressing Ctrl-P).



Your old and new recordings will be roughly the same length, so you’ll be able to see how much to copy over.
When you’ve finished, put your cursor a bit earlier in your original recording, unmute it, and listen to it to see if you’re happy with it. If you are, you can delete the (now muted) new track (look for the x to the left of your track and click it to delete the new track).



If you do anything you later regret, you can always undo it by pressing Ctrl-Z.

Let me know if you have questions about any of this.

Cheers,

[MooMin08]

A million thanks for the help, Winnifred!

[Winnifred]

A million thanks for the help, Winnifred!

One more tip. If you don't mute the second track, both will play at once. I kept doing that by mistake when I first started, and wondering why I was hearing my voice twice over.

[MooMin08]

One more tip. If you don't mute the second track, both will play at once. I kept doing that by mistake when I first started, and wondering why I was hearing my voice twice over.
[/quote]

Experienced it as well... had me surprised as well LOL

Here's chapter 3 again Might end up memorizing the whole chapter already LOL

https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3
47:48

Hi Elijah,
might not be too perfect, but please PL it again. Sorry.

Thanks Much!

[Winnifred]

One more tip. If you don't mute the second track, both will play at once. I kept doing that by mistake when I first started, and wondering why I was hearing my voice twice over.


Experienced it as well... had me surprised as well LOL

Here's chapter 3 again Might end up memorizing the whole chapter already LOL

https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3
47:48

Hi Elijah,
might not be too perfect, but please PL it again. Sorry.

Thanks Much!

You're almost there. The volume is just a tad too low at 85.9 dB (off by .1 dB!) and there's a high amount of background noise. Two simple steps to fix that; first, select the whole track and go to Effect > Loudness Normalization. In the dialogue box that pops up, make sure it's set to -19LUFS and "Perceived Loudness" and click "Apply." That will bring your whole track up to around 90 dB.

Next, apply Noise Reduction as follows:

1. Find a section of your recording that contains only background noise and no speech, but where the waveform isn't flat. A minimum of 0.05 seconds is needed, though a longer Noise Profile is better. Select that section.

2. With that section selected, click “Effect > Noise Reduction....” Under Step 1, click “Get Noise Profile.”

3. Select the entire recording, then check your Noise Reduction parameters under Step 2. Mine are set as follows, and I’ve never needed to change them:

Noise Reduction (dB): 12
Sensitivity: 6.00
Frequency smoothing (bands): 3
Noise: Choose "Reduce"

4. If they’re set to this already, just click OK.

That should fix both of these issues (I hope). Give it a try and send us a new file.

Thanks,

[MooMin08]

One more tip. If you don't mute the second track, both will play at once. I kept doing that by mistake when I first started, and wondering why I was hearing my voice twice over.


Experienced it as well... had me surprised as well LOL

Here's chapter 3 again Might end up memorizing the whole chapter already LOL

https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3
47:48

Hi Elijah,
might not be too perfect, but please PL it again. Sorry.

Thanks Much!

You're almost there. The volume is just a tad too low at 85.9 dB (off by .1 dB!) and there's a high amount of background noise. Two simple steps to fix that; first, select the whole track and go to Effect > Loudness Normalization. In the dialogue box that pops up, make sure it's set to -19LUFS and "Perceived Loudness" and click "Apply." That will bring your whole track up to around 90 dB.

Next, apply Noise Reduction as follows:

1. Find a section of your recording that contains only background noise and no speech, but where the waveform isn't flat. A minimum of 0.05 seconds is needed, though a longer Noise Profile is better. Select that section.

2. With that section selected, click “Effect > Noise Reduction....” Under Step 1, click “Get Noise Profile.”

3. Select the entire recording, then check your Noise Reduction parameters under Step 2. Mine are set as follows, and I’ve never needed to change them:

Noise Reduction (dB): 12
Sensitivity: 6.00
Frequency smoothing (bands): 3
Noise: Choose "Reduce"

4. If they’re set to this already, just click OK.

That should fix both of these issues (I hope). Give it a try and send us a new file.

Thanks,

Thanks Winnifred.

Just to clarify:
1. I need to do noise reduction to the whole recording, right? Following the specs based on #2 & #3?
2. Loudness Normalization - do i apply this to the whole recording as well or only to the portion i edited?
3. Item # 1 would refer to the beginning and end of the recording?

Many thanks for your usual help!

[MooMin08]

One more tip. If you don't mute the second track, both will play at once. I kept doing that by mistake when I first started, and wondering why I was hearing my voice twice over.


Experienced it as well... had me surprised as well LOL

Here's chapter 3 again Might end up memorizing the whole chapter already LOL

https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3
47:48

Hi Elijah,
might not be too perfect, but please PL it again. Sorry.

Thanks Much!

You're almost there. The volume is just a tad too low at 85.9 dB (off by .1 dB!) and there's a high amount of background noise. Two simple steps to fix that; first, select the whole track and go to Effect > Loudness Normalization. In the dialogue box that pops up, make sure it's set to -19LUFS and "Perceived Loudness" and click "Apply." That will bring your whole track up to around 90 dB.

Next, apply Noise Reduction as follows:

1. Find a section of your recording that contains only background noise and no speech, but where the waveform isn't flat. A minimum of 0.05 seconds is needed, though a longer Noise Profile is better. Select that section.

2. With that section selected, click “Effect > Noise Reduction....” Under Step 1, click “Get Noise Profile.”

3. Select the entire recording, then check your Noise Reduction parameters under Step 2. Mine are set as follows, and I’ve never needed to change them:

Noise Reduction (dB): 12
Sensitivity: 6.00
Frequency smoothing (bands): 3
Noise: Choose "Reduce"

4. If they’re set to this already, just click OK.

That should fix both of these issues (I hope). Give it a try and send us a new file.

Thanks,

Hi Winnifred,

Here's the edited track.

https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3

47:48

Many thanks!!!

[Winnifred]

You're almost there. The volume is just a tad too low at 85.9 dB (off by .1 dB!) and there's a high amount of background noise. Two simple steps to fix that; first, select the whole track and go to Effect > Loudness Normalization. In the dialogue box that pops up, make sure it's set to -19LUFS and "Perceived Loudness" and click "Apply." That will bring your whole track up to around 90 dB.

Next, apply Noise Reduction as follows:

1. Find a section of your recording that contains only background noise and no speech, but where the waveform isn't flat. A minimum of 0.05 seconds is needed, though a longer Noise Profile is better. Select that section.

2. With that section selected, click “Effect > Noise Reduction....” Under Step 1, click “Get Noise Profile.”

3. Select the entire recording, then check your Noise Reduction parameters under Step 2. Mine are set as follows, and I’ve never needed to change them:

Noise Reduction (dB): 12
Sensitivity: 6.00
Frequency smoothing (bands): 3
Noise: Choose "Reduce"

4. If they’re set to this already, just click OK.

That should fix both of these issues (I hope). Give it a try and send us a new file.

Thanks,

Hi Winnifred,

Here's the edited track.

https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3

47:48

Many thanks!!!

I'm a bit puzzled. The results I got from this one were very close to what I got from your last one (volume 85.8 dB and background noise at 50 dB). So I downloaded your file, opened it in Audacity, ran the two processes I describe above (first Loudness Normalization, then Noise Reduction, both of the entire track), and then your file was just fine.

I don't quite understand what happened. You did re-export the file to MP3 after doing Loudness Normalization and Noise Reduction, right? It almost seems as if you fixed your Audacity file but then re-uploaded the original MP3 file afterwards without re-exporting. If that's the case, then you just have to re-export the Audacity (.aup) file to MP3 and upload the new MP3 file. I realize that I never mentioned that last step in my instructions.

Let me know if that's what happened. (And if it is, please re-export the file and upload it.) Keep the same file name.

Thanks,

[MooMin08]

Oh, i think you are right, Winnifred.

After i edited the track, i did export it using the same file name. then, uploaded it.

should i just replace the old file with the new one when i export the file?

will try again. sorry..

[MooMin08]

Hi Winnifred,

After editing in audacity, i exported the track as MP3 and replaced the file i previously saved by this new track. hope this is ok. sorry for keeping this going on and on.. sorry.

 
https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3

47:48

[Winnifred]

Hi Winnifred,

After editing in audacity, i exported the track as MP3 and replaced the file i previously saved by this new track. hope this is ok. sorry for keeping this going on and on.. sorry.

 
https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3

47:48

The volume is still too low at 83.3 dB, though the background noise is lower. I still have your original file, so I tried doing what you say you did above, and I'm getting different results. The only way I get similar results is if I run Noise Reduction but not Loudness Normalization. I think maybe that's what's happened.

The dialogue box for Loudness Normalization should look like this (these settings, with your entire track selected):



If this is indeed what it looks like, you should be able to click "Apply" at that point and get a file with an acceptable volume. Give that a try.

There is a tool you can download to check your own files before upload. It's called the Checker and it's what most of us use to check tests and our own recordings. You just drag your file into the top area of this interface, and then see if the Validation tab says it's passed. If not, look under the Information tab to see what the exact settings of your MP3 file are.



To get it to show Background Noise, select Validation > Choose Validation Methods in the menu at the top of your screen, and tick the box for Background Noise. You only need to do this once.

The Checker reviews the last 5 seconds of silence in a recording to assess background noise (all Librivox recordings are required to have 5 seconds of silence at the end so they work properly in all media players).

No need to apologize; we all went through this process when we first started out. I'm happy to help you figure it out.

Best of luck,

[MooMin08]

Hi Winnifred,

Loudness Normalization is set at -19. I listened and its loud enough. I hope this merits favorable feedback. huhu

https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3

47:54

Thanks!

[Winnifred]

Hi Winnifred,

Loudness Normalization is set at -19. I listened and its loud enough. I hope this merits favorable feedback. huhu

https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3

47:54

Thanks!

Oh, dear. It's still only 85.9 dB, which is close, but not quite there yet. And I now notice that the volume throughout varies way more than in your previous one. In some places it's too loud; in others so quiet that it can't be heard at all. And it's starting to get distorted because of all the editing you've done to it.

You can't tell whether your recording volume is in the correct range just by listening to it (after all, you could just crank up your volume high enough that you can hear it, but that doesn't change the file volume for anyone else). The only way to know for sure if it's within range is by running it through the Checker. I strongly recommend that you download and use that tool. It's not hard to use.

What I don't understand is why Loudness Normalization isn't working for you. It should bring the volume up to 89-90 dB the first time you use it. There must be something different about your settings that's preventing that.

Have you been trying to apply other effects to it? That's the only reason I can think of that would cause the variance. Or have you tried to noise reduce just certain parts of it and not others?

In any case, time for a different approach, I think. I've still got the earlier version of your file that I downloaded and applied Noise Reduction and Loudness Normalization to on my own computer. I'm going to upload that one to the Magic Window and ask Elijah to check your corrections on that one. I think we'll have to tackle getting your settings right on another chapter instead, because if we do any more to this one, it will only get worse.

Chapter 4 sounds like you've noise reduced all the silences but not the speech. There's no way to fix that now because there's no noisy silence left to use for a Noise Profile. I'm afraid you might need to re-record that chapter. But before you do, please adjust your volume settings to make sure that your next recording is at the right volume level from the start so you don't have to go through all of this.

Make sure your recording environment is as quiet as possible (no traffic noises, no computer or appliance hums, etc.)

Here's how to set up your volume correctly in the Audacity Gain Slider and on your mic.

Top of Audacity screen



Move the input gain slider (upper row beside the little mic icon) well to the right.

Then adjust the input gain dial on your mic, if there is one, and record a bit to see whether your raw recording has wave forms that peak at about the 0.5 marks in the Audacity window, like this:



Play around with your volume before you start recording. Make sure that the waveforms are peaking at the 0.5 mark and create some test files. Then use the Checker to see if they're coming in at the right volume. If they're not, go back and adjust the volume some more. Once you can create a test file that passes Checker, you'll be ready to record Chapter 4.

When you upload Chapter 4, make sure you use the file name that's asked for in the first post of this project (I notice you changed the file name on Chapter 3). The file name needs to stay the same for all versions, no matter how often you upload it.

I'm sorry you're having so much trouble with this. I hope Chapter 4 will go better.

Thanks,

[Winnifred]

Elijah, here's MooMin's Chapter 3 for PL: https://librivox.org/uploads/lorda/littlebrownhouse_03_sidney_128kb.mp3 (47:54)

Thanks,