Constructive Criticism?

[Jud3]

Hi all,

I’m a complete newbie and hoping to improve my work and am presently the SOLO reader of My Story of the Civil War...Railroad. Today, I posted Chap. 4 and have run most of my chapters through De-clicker, De-Esser, Compressor, Normalize, and Limiter using the default settings.

Do you detect any issues in my style? Can you suggest technical changes or other tools?

Secondly, I have found that blending corrected audio tracks with the original track works better with full sentences rather than single words or short phrases, but it’s still noticeable sometimes. How can one improve on that?

Any help/advice would be very appreciated !

Jud3[/size][/size]

[Availle]

We actively discourage people to download / listen to files in projects where they are not the DPL or BC.

So, this is a question your DPL can help you with.

She is very experienced and will give you exactly what you need - just ask in your solo thread.

[Jud3]

Ok, thank you!

[barleyguy]

Some tips for blending audio... (I don't even need to listen to explain this).

1. The biggest difference between two tracks is generally caused by microphone placement. Because rooms have uneven frequency response, moving the microphone even a couple of inches will make the track sound like it was recorded in a different room. So if you have a situation that allows you to do so, I recommend leaving the microphone in the exact same spot once you find a spot that sounds good. (A wall or desk mount is ideal for this.) That will make it much easier to blend between an original track and the corrected track. (If you can't leave the microphone set up, marking the position of the base with tape could help to get it back in the same spot.)

2. The other thing that's very noticeable is volume differences. When you punch in a correction, try to get the volume to match exactly, especially between the last word of the old track and the first word of the correction. If it still sounds very different once the volume is the same, it's probably because the microphone is in a different spot though, so refer to #1.

3. Microphone distance is also important, because of a thing called "proximity effect". Proximity effect is boosting of bass frequencies when you get close to a microphone, often starting around 3-5 inches away. To avoid this, your recording distance should generally be in the 6-8 inch (15 cm) range. Once you are at that range or larger, moving the distance of your face to the microphone shouldn't affect the sound much as long as the microphone itself is in the exact same spot.

If you get all 3 of these right, you might find that a single word or short phrase actually sounds more seamless than a sentence does, if your vocal style was similar.

Hope that helps,

Harley.

[Jud3]

Harley,
Sorry for the delay here!! Thank your for the help. I had the microphone in a horizontal position and now have made it vertical. Makes all the difference! Have heard good things about the Yeti for quality sound and that just sits on the desk rather than the desk boom I am using now with a cheaper microphone.

J.

[iBeScotty]

Hey it sounds like you are on the right track. I didn't listen to your recording and cannot make any comment on style, nor should I ... who are we to judge? We are all different with different voices and styles but I do understand the desire to improve the craft. For what its worth, I would just find what you like to hear and then after recording something, give it a week or two and go back and listen for yourself with fresh ears and maybe changes you would want to make to reading style would be evident. Really there is no substitute for just keeping on doing it and experimenting along the way (at least that is what I tell myself, haha).

As for editing, seamless punch-ins are definitely tricky. As already suggested, keeping everything in the recording setup as consistent as possible really helps. I usually just replace the whole sentence the erred word is in for ease of cutting. The other thing that helps is getting into the same headspace. Selecting auto punch recording mode (in Reaper, I don't know if audacity has a comparable mode) I highlight the phrase to replace then place the cursor a sentence or two ahead and listening with headphones on one ear, read along to match the way I was reading then when the highlighted section is reached the playback goes silent and I continue reading the replacement take. Even still, volume can be a little different and I might tweak that replacement section slightly to match.

I hope that makes sense as it is one of those things that takes a lot longer to explain than do.

good luck and hopefully this helps you or any other new librivoxer reading this

~scotty

[Boomcoach]

I have had decent luck finding the word that needs corrected elsewhere in the recording and doing a copy/paste. Levels, any vocal details usually map out pretty well.

[Jud3]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm just experimenting every day for the best mixes and sounds. Repeating entire sentences and tweaking the volume to match the rest seems to work for me....
J