[COMPLETE][History]World's Story 13: The United States - kit

[WiltedScribe]

Rejoice! My sections are finally here!

https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_012_tappan_128kb.mp3 (2:43)
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_015_tappan_128kb.mp3 (1:57)
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_019_tappan_128kb.mp3 (1:37)
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_030_tappan_128kb.mp3 (1:11)
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_041_tappan_128kb.mp3 (3:22)
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_055_tappan_128kb.mp3 (2:01)
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_081_tappan_128kb.mp3 (2:17)
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_100_tappan_128kb.mp3 (1:40)

[Kitty]

Here is Section 79:
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_079_tappan_128kb.mp3
22:20

Quite the narrative in that section. I think it does a great job showing the duality of war: the exciting adventure, and the stark sadness.

wow, yes that was an interesting and action packed narrative. It shows well the horrors of battles and how many friends are lost needlessly. Especially near the end it was quite sad and you conveyed it well with your concerned tone of voice. Wonderfully read, thank you so much, especially for the fast turn-around now near the end of the project.

Also a perfectly flawless reading, so this is PL ok right away. I could only mention one thing for future recordings: your volume is right at the lower end of the accepted limits (only 86.9 dB). By the audiowaves I can see that many parts in the beginning are too low and later they become louder. Best thing is to try to keep the volume of your voice nearly even throughout the recording, that way it's also easier to amplify uniformly later on if you have to. I usually watch my Audacity waves while recording and when I see a peak pop up, I repeat the sentence with a more level voice.

But no need to reupload this time or change anything, all is well.

Also, if it's not too much of a bother, could the URL in my reader profile please be changed from "https://smlavine.xyz" to "https://smlavine.com"?

ok it's changed, better now ? https://librivox.org/reader/15265

See you in the next World Story, I remember you already claimed a section there. That will be a totally different kind of narrative though.

Sonia

[Kitty]

Rejoice! My sections are finally here!

o-ho, thank you, Tomas, this is a nice surprise for the weekend. Thank you so much, wonderful recordings all. I especially liked the more funny poem about the visit to Lady Washington. The lady gave them a good lesson All 8 sections PL ok. Wow that gave us a boost towards the finishing line. Only one section left.

Sonia

[smlavine]

Also a perfectly flawless reading, so this is PL ok right away. I could only mention one thing for future recordings: your volume is right at the lower end of the accepted limits (only 86.9 dB). By the audiowaves I can see that many parts in the beginning are too low and later they become louder. Best thing is to try to keep the volume of your voice nearly even throughout the recording, that way it's also easier to amplify uniformly later on if you have to. I usually watch my Audacity waves while recording and when I see a peak pop up, I repeat the sentence with a more level voice.

I'm glad you liked my reading! On the volume: for all of my recordings, it seems that the volume without any messing with the file is around 82-85 dB. After normalization and DC leveling that bumps it up a few, and this time I also used the Amplify effect to get it above the threshold. I assume that the Checker program takes the average dB throughout the whole file, which is why it is inconsistent. Is there a way for me to see within Audacity how many dB a section is? The audio waves that show when I record are on a scale of -1.0 to 1.0, and I don't understand how that correlates to the final mid-80s to low-90s that we talk about. Any pointers from anyone reading this would be much appreciated

Also, if it's not too much of a bother, could the URL in my reader profile please be changed from "https://smlavine.xyz" to "https://smlavine.com"?

ok it's changed, better now ? https://librivox.org/reader/15265

Yep, that's perfect! Thank you so much!

-- Sebastian

[Kitty]

I'm glad you liked my reading! On the volume: for all of my recordings, it seems that the volume without any messing with the file is around 82-85 dB. After normalization and DC leveling that bumps it up a few, and this time I also used the Amplify effect to get it above the threshold.

I never do any normalization or DC levelling, I only use amplify. But as I said, this only works if your voice is more or less level throughout the whole recording. If you have too many spikes in it, it won't let you amplify uniformly. If there are only handful of spikes I decrease the volume there manually first and then amplify it all.

I assume that the Checker program takes the average dB throughout the whole file, which is why it is inconsistent. Is there a way for me to see within Audacity how many dB a section is? The audio waves that show when I record are on a scale of -1.0 to 1.0, and I don't understand how that correlates to the final mid-80s to low-90s that we talk about. Any pointers from anyone reading this would be much appreciated

the Checker program was specifically designed to calculate the dB for LV and check the technical settings as far as I know.

Another handy tool is a plug-in for Audacity, called ReplayGain:

Replay Gain plugin for Audacity: - http://forum.audacityteam.org/download/file.php?id=4668

1. Save the file to your computer - your desktop or somewhere where you can easily find it.
2. Now browse to the folder in which Audacity is installed. It's probably in C:\Program Files\Audacity) and then open the Plug-Ins folder.
3. Drag the file you saved into the Plug-Ins folder.
4. When next you start up Audacity, you will be able to select the whole recording (Ctrl+A on Windows), then go to Analyze | ReplayGain, and it'll tell you how much to amplify your file to get to about 89 dB.

I use it all the time before I export to mp3, because it calculates the amount you need to amplify or decrease before you go to Checker. Again there, the spikes could mess up the calculation, so it's better to have them decreased before you run this program.

Hope that helps.

Sonia

[Availle]

Well, let's try and get this into the catalog in November still!

Here's my final section, at 13:32:

https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_094_tappan_128kb.mp3

[Kitty]

Well, let's try and get this into the catalog in November still!
Here's my final section, at 13:32:
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/worldstory_volume13_094_tappan_128kb.mp3

woah ! I didn't expect your section that fast, Availle. Thank you so much for giving this the final push. I was hoping for a 2020 cataloguing, but wouldn't have dreamt of a November finale !

And oh the story was sad I felt for the poor people being driven from the homes by greedy men. A tragic story in the history of the US. But excellently narrated and PL ok.

So that means we reached the end of the project faster than I expected. Time for the traditional thank you speech :

21 readers have given their voices in finishing this project. Big thanks to you all:

readers in each one of the 13 books: adr6090 / Kitty / mightyfelix / neecheelok70 / WiltedScribe
readers in 12 books: alanmapstone / Availle
readers in 11 books: ColleenMC
readers in 10 books: ToddHW
readers in 8 books: knotyouraveragejo
readers in 5 books: thestorygirl
readers in 4 books: Piotrek81
readers in 3 books: adrianstephens
readers in 2 books: GregGiordano / RitaBoutros
and readers for whom this was the first book in the series: IlliniThom / MegH / mleigh / smlavine / srewis194 / valeriemarino

Another special mention and warm welcome to our brand new volunteers: IlliniThom, MegH, smlavine, srewis194 and valeriemarino. Hope you liked your first experience with LV.

And for the milestones in this:

1) the first PL ok section achieved by Alan with Mollie Pitcher
2) the 50% PL ok mark was reached by Rita with a celebration in Philadelphia
3) the 100th PL ok section was recorded by Jim, a story relating the gathering of the Great Army
4) also, the most sections, 17 this time, again were recorded by Jim. Thank you so much for your undying support in this series, Jim. Also thank you for PLing my section (with the help of Alan this time !)
5) the longest section , nearly 31 minutes long, was also recorded by Rita, a story about the Privateers
6) and last but not least another huge thanks goes to Miguel (Basquetteur), who again found a beautiful cover to illustrate this book

But everybody deserves praise because I enjoyed each and every of these sections, thanks to your beautiful narrations.

Starting cataloguing right away, stay tuned for the link.

Thank you all, and hopefully I'll see you in the last two parts of this series. Only 2 books to go, wohooo.

Sonia

[Kitty]

DONE !!!

This project is now complete! All audio files can now be found on the catalog page for this project https://librivox.org/worlds-story-volume-xiii-united-states-by-eva-march-tappan/

Thank you all. Moving this to completed projects now.

Sonia

[alanmapstone]

Congratulations and a big thank you to Sonia
From all of us

[mightyfelix]

Congratulations and a big thank you to Sonia
From all of us

Hear, hear!

[smlavine]

I'm so happy that I could contribute to this project! One small thing, though: is it just me, or is the cover image not displaying on the catalogue page? I just see the "LV" logo.

[mightyfelix]

I'm so happy that I could contribute to this project! One small thing, though: is it just me, or is the cover image not displaying on the catalogue page? I just see the "LV" logo.

It can take a day or two, or sometimes more, after a project is catalogued before it gets its cover art. That is almost always a separate and secondary step.