[ROMANCE] Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen - tg

[CherryBim]

Will do, I had already run the noise reduction. It’s weird. I was in a room in the early hours with nothing going on.

will go through your instructions carefully and amend.

[CherryBim]

Hi Winnifred

Here is the second upload of Chapter 13, which got a green light in the checker window and is now hopefully much improved.

Thank you for your patience.

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northanger_13_austen_128kb.mp3

Bw
Julie

Here is Chapter 13 (18:44)


https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_13_austen_128kb.mp3

Bw
Julie

Hi Julie,

I ran your recording through the Checker, which didn't pass it, mainly because the volume is too high, at 99.6. It also has quite a bit of background noise. You must have changed your settings since your 1-minute test, as that didn't have these issues. (The Checker is a simple little app that book coordinators (BCs) and dedicated proof listeners (DPLs) use to check the technical specs on all recordings.)

However, both volume and background noise are easily fixed. The acceptable volume range for Librivox recordings is between 86 and 92 dB. In Audacity, you can either use the "Amplify" effect to increase/decrease the volume to bring it up/down to the right range or "Loudness Normalization" (both under "Effects"). The latter option is simplest and doesn't require you to do anything but click "Apply" at the default setting (-19 LUFS).

There's also a plugin for Audacity called ReplayGain that can tell you exactly how far your recording is from 89 dB. If it tells you your level is at or near zero, you’ll know that your volume is very close to the 89 dB ideal. But you don’t have to be that exact: if it gives you a number between +3 and -3, you're within the standard range for LibriVox. Instructions for installing and using this plugin are here.

If you want to doublecheck your own technical specs, including volume, you can download the Checker and use it yourself to pre-check your MP3 file before you upload it. With that tool, you can see the exact volume in dB of the recording. If it doesn’t fall within the acceptable range, you can go back to Audacity and use Loudness Normalization to fix it OR use the difference as your value for increasing/decreasing the volume using Amplify (e.g., if it says your volume is 97 dB, you’d de-amplify by 8 to get to 89; if it says your volume is 85, you’d amplify by 4 to get to 89).

The Checker can also tell you what your background noise level is, but to get this to show up you first need to select the option for "Background Noise" under "Choose Validation Methods" (you only need to do this once).

Once you've reduced your volume, that will also bring down your background noise (currently at 55.7 dB). Anything over 45 dB may trigger a Checker warning (and could be audible and distracting for your listener). You can correct high background noise in Audacity as follows:

1. Go to a noisy part of your recording (a "silent" area where there's no speech recorded, but there's still lots of little dots and spikes on your waveform. A minimum of 0.05 seconds is needed, though a longer Noise Profile selection is better. Select that section. Be careful not to select speech or you'll delete your content.

2. With that section selected, click “Effect > Noise Reduction....”

3. Under Step 1, click “Get Noise Profile.”

Note: I use Noise reduction at least once on all my recordings, and apply it again to any corrections I insert into a recording after the first round. I try not to apply it more than twice to any recording, as more than two rounds may start to alter the sound of my voice.

4. Select the entire recording (double-click inside the track or click Command-A), 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"

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

That should bring your background noise down to acceptable levels. You don't want to eliminate it altogether or it'll sound unnatural. Somewhere between 24 and 40 is fine.

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with information. All of this will get easier with time and practice, I promise. With the tools I've described above, you can tackle the most common issues Librivox readers encounter.

Feel free to ask me any questions you might have along the way.

LATE EDIT: Please fix the volume and background noise and reupload your file. I'll PL it after you've done that.

Cheers,

[Winnifred]

Hi Winnifred

Here is the second upload of Chapter 13, which got a green light in the checker window and is now hopefully much improved.

Thank you for your patience.

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northanger_13_austen_128kb.mp3

Bw
Julie

Hi Julie,

This is a lovely reading of this chapter. Your content is just fine.

There's still one technical issue you could address, plus one that's optional. My Checker says this recording is "Passed with Warnings," and the warning is that the background noise is still in the moderate zone (46.7 dB). One more pass of Noise reduction would bring that down to an acceptable 33.6 (I tested it myself).

Background noise comes from a variety of sources (air conditioning, computer fans, appliance hums, etc.) I record next to a refrigerator myself and always have to apply noise reduction. Also, I wonder if perhaps you're speaking a bit too close to your mic? That might account for the high volume (and the clipping on your wave forms; they should spike at various heights rather than being mostly flat at the top). I would suggest for this recording just doing one more pass with Noise Reduction and reuploading. And maybe, in future, record with your mic at least six inches from your mouth (and speak beside rather than straight into the mic).

The other thing I noticed is that there are a lot of small clicks throughout the recording (you'll see these as straight lines in your wave form, and hear them as clicking noises). You can choose whether or not to remove these distractions from this lovely recording.

Audacity doesn't really do click reduction very well, but there is a plug-in that can eliminate them (with a little work on your part). You do have to download it (see https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/updated-de-clicker-and-new-de-esser-for-speech/34283 and look for the link at the bottom of the first post).

To install it in Audacity:

1. Download the De-Clicker.
2. Open Audacity, and go to Tools > Nyquist Plugin Installer.
3. Click Browse and locate your downloaded plugin.
4. Click Open and then OK and OK again.
5. Restart Audacity.

The plugin should now be available in your plugins list.

Source: ‪https://support.audacityteam.org/basics/installing-plugins‬

If it doesn’t show up in your Effects menu, you may have to enable it in the plugin manager:

1. Click Effects > Plugin Manager.
2. Scroll through the list till you find the De-Clicker.
3. Select it.
4. Click Enable.

To use it, highlight a section containing the offending click — it works best to select more than just the sound you want gone so the plugin has some kind of baseline of what is "normal," and can recognize what to remove. You can either apply it only to those areas that seem to have clicks in them, to avoid unnecessarily softening the sound of your p, t, k, and b sounds, or try applying it to the whole recording, then listening to see if you think it has altered your reading for the worse (and if so, undoing it). I generally adopt the former approach, unless my reading is very short. I repeat, this step is not mandatory; it's up to you whether you want to do it for this recording, but you might find this plugin useful in future.

Let me know if you have questions.

Thanks,

[RitaBoutros]

Would you please put me in for chapters 15 and 16? Thanks

[victoriaalicebell]

Would you please put me in for chapters 15 and 16? Thanks

Yes! Thank you.

[victoriaalicebell]

Hello

Could I claim Chapter 13?

Bw
Cherry

It's yours.

What would you like your catalog name to be? It can be a pseudonym, real name, or anything you like.
Thanks,

Thank you!

Catalog name, Julie H will be fine.

Ok, here is your page.

[Winnifred]

Section 10:

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_10_austen_128kb.mp3
26:22

Nicely done. PL OK.

Cheers,

[Winnifred]

Chapters 4 and 5 are ready for PL:

Ch. 4 (7:26)
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_04_austen_128kb.mp3

Ch. 5 (7:22)
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_05_austen_128kb.mp3

Thanks,
Amanda

And both are PL OK. Nicely done.

Cheers,

[Amandaleung]

May I read the rest of the open chapters? Chapters 21, 22, 28, 29, 30

Thank you,
Amanda

[Winnifred]

Hi Winnifred

Here is the second upload of Chapter 13, which got a green light in the checker window and is now hopefully much improved.

Thank you for your patience.

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northanger_13_austen_128kb.mp3

Bw
Julie

Whoops. One more thing. Before you reupload, please change your file name. You seem to have dropped "abbey" from the file name.

Thanks,

[victoriaalicebell]

May I read the rest of the open chapters? Chapters 21, 22, 28, 29, 30

Thank you,
Amanda

Yes, thank you for being a big part of this project!

We are now full!

[Winnifred]

The following chapters are ready for PL:

Ch. 20 (17:33)
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_20_austen_128kb.mp3

Ch. 23 (14:15)
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_23_austen_128kb.mp3

Ch. 24 (15:43)
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_24_austen_128kb.mp3

Thanks,
Amanda

Chapters 20 and 24 are PL OK. One note for Chapter 23: your closing silence is 6 1/2 seconds long. Please snip off 1 1/2 seconds to bring this down to 5 seconds.

Thanks,

[Amandaleung]

The following chapters are ready for PL:

Ch. 20 (17:33)
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_20_austen_128kb.mp3

Ch. 23 (14:15)
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_23_austen_128kb.mp3

Ch. 24 (15:43)
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_24_austen_128kb.mp3

Thanks,
Amanda

Chapters 20 and 24 are PL OK. One note for Chapter 23: your closing silence is 6 1/2 seconds long. Please snip off 1 1/2 seconds to bring this down to 5 seconds.

Thanks,

Hi Winnifred,

Sorry about that! Here is the revised ch. 23 file:
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_23_austen_128kb.mp3

Amanda

[Winnifred]

Sorry about that! Here is the revised ch. 23 file:
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_23_austen_128kb.mp3

Amanda

And it is now PL OK!

Thanks,

[Amandaleung]

Chapter 21 is ready for PL:

(17:17)
https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/northangerabbey_21_austen_128kb.mp3

Thanks,
Amanda