Narrating Blues

Paul Whybrow

Inspiration! New Year's Resolutions

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Jonny

Question: Is this you? Certainly not... :-)

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KateESal said:
I'd add to Peter's warning to avoid the Scarlett...I haven't had much luck with those interfaces wither. I have a very reasonably priced Behringer U-phoria audio interface and I've been much happier with it.

It's worth having a reasonable audio interface (the Behringer's only about fifty quid or so) and a decent-quality mic (again, there are some well-priced models that will do a perfectly good job). :)
Click to expand...
I see that the Behringer u-phoria um2 computer audio interface is available for under £40 on eBay and Amazon, so I'm going to wait for Amazon's Prime Days on the 13th & 14th to see if it's discounted. What cables would I need, though? I have a Røde microphone which connects to the USB on my laptop, so I guess that would plug into the interface, but then I'd need a cable to connect the interface to the laptop....is that all?
 
You'd need either an XLR or 1/4 inch jack to connect your mic to the interface. The Behringer connects to the computer via USB cable and it's provided with the interface. By all means wait for Prime Days, but also, I recommend Thomann, who currently have the Behringer available at £30 plus £8 shipping. I've used Thomann for years and they're bloody good. :)
 
My main reason for acquiring an audio interface would be to clean up background noise. One aspect of Audacity that I’ve never understood, is how some projects are afflicted with more background noise than others, even though I haven’t altered any settings and the physical setup for recording is exactly the same.

I’ve noted comments in several audio forums that Audacity is considered to be noisy in this way.

Audacity’s Noise Reduction effect is basic—removing hiss, but sometimes leaving peculiar ‘chatter’—it reminds me of the old days of using reel-to-reel tape when recording over used tape that had been erased still left echoes of the previous recording.

Would a Behringer u-phoria um2 computer audio interface allow me to filter out such noises?

Researching this issue this morning, I stumbled upon a narrator’s website and have purchased her well-reviewed Audiobook Recording eBook. I hope to learn more about equipment from Crystal Wascher:

Audio Equipment Guide — Krystal Wascher

In the meantime, @KateESal, @AgentPete, anyone, please tell me what the advantages are of using an audio interface?

Her book was delivered in seconds to my new Kindle Fire 8: I’ve been assimilated into the Amazon Borg!

iu
 
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Paul, USB mikes do the same thing as an audio interface such as Focusrite, Behringer, etc. They take an analogue signal (the microphone's output) and turn it into a digital signal. IE they do two things – they’re a mike plus a analogue to digital convertor.

The first generation of USB mikes weren't as good as “regular” mikes – they were often cheaper quality mikes and the A/D conversion wasn’t very good, either.

But today, you’ll find little real difference between kit in the same price bracket, i.e. a decent USB mike is as good as a decent “regular” mike plus audio interface. Sometimes better, in fact.

The key advantage of having a separate audio interface is that it gives you the flexibility to connect a huge range of XLR-type mikes to it. Thousands and thousands!

Also, most modest audio interfaces have at least two inputs, i.e. you could connect two mikes, very handy for interviews or discussions. Most of them also allow you to have a line input too, so you could add e.g. a musical instrument or other external source. Finally, most of them also give you, for free, some kind of basic mixing program you can set up on your computer, again giving you lots of possible options and flexibility.

As far as the noise you’re hearing – artefacts – that’s not normal. I think @Rich. may have some suggestions on this. It can be quite fiddly trying to track down the source, usually a process of trial and error. I would look for external sources of interference (unshielded cables – computer monitors can put out quite a bit of magnetic field) and then failing components...
 
Hm, I'm not sure the addition of an audio interface will instantly solve your hiss and chatter problems, Paul.

HOWEVER

Mic "hiss" often happens when the original recording input volume is at too low a level, so a post-recording volume-boost also boosts the volume of the white noise that is always there. One advantage of an audio interface is that you can monitor your input volume more precisely and adjust it to ensure your input is at the optimum level (just touching the "red" zone, is what you're aiming for). Ideally, you want your volume peaks on input to be such, that you don't have to employ any amplification (or "normalisation") to the recording afterwards.

Also, with an audio interface, you can directly monitor your sound, which will help you determine whether the source of the extraneous noise is external or internal.

The main benefit of an audio interface is an improvement in the overall quality of the recording, as the interface is much more sensitive in the way in which it converts analogue signals into digital information, compared with a computer's standard onboard sound card. This is important if you're a musician, but for speech-only recordings where you only need one input at a time, it's less important.

In general, you're aiming for the cleanest original recording possible, at the optimum volume level. But that said, if you have some half-decent audio software, you can apply certain "fixes" in post-production. Compression is one of the most useful and you can also use various hi and lo-pass settings to eliminate some of the background noise issues in your recordings. There is software available for cleaning up noise whereby you can sample a section of the recording (that doesn't have any speech on it...just the raw sound of the room and whatever else the recording system picks up), then the sample will use that noise profile to eliminate it from the rest of the recording. NB this isn't always a perfect fix..some software does it better than others, but you may find there are unwanted effects on the recordings of your voice, too. But it can help. Quite a few audio apps...including Audacity, I believe...have this feature available.

Beware Paul, too much involvement in recording WILL turn you into sound geek....just look at myself, @Rich. and @AgentPete :D (I can think of far worse clubs to be in, though....);)
 
Thanks for the reply, @AgentPete, the Røde microphone I'm using connects to the USB port. It was favourably-reviewed, though I found various YouTube videos suggesting that interference can be caused by connecting leads and the solution is to wrap them in cooking foil!



Other audiophiles suggest that putting as much distance between the mic and the laptop is the solution. The lead of the Røde is over 7' long, so I tried pushing the laptop away, but it made no difference.

Another possible source of interference is my laptop's soundcard: How To: Eliminate Noise From Sound Card wrt: Mouse Moving, HD Access, Etc. - Ars Technica OpenForum

As I understand it, an audio interface is essentially an advanced form of soundcard, which would dominate my laptop's potentially-flawed soundcard, allowing me to rectify the artefacts. It's at this point that my brain gives up! o_O
 
KateESal said:
Hm, I'm not sure the addition of an audio interface will instantly solve your hiss and chatter problems, Paul.

HOWEVER

Mic "hiss" often happens when the original recording input volume is at too low a level, so a post-recording volume-boost also boosts the volume of the white noise that is always there. One advantage of an audio interface is that you can monitor your input volume more precisely and adjust it to ensure your input is at the optimum level (just touching the "red" zone, is what you're aiming for). Ideally, you want your volume peaks on input to be such, that you don't have to employ any amplification (or "normalisation") to the recording afterwards.

Also, with an audio interface, you can directly monitor your sound, which will help you determine whether the source of the extraneous noise is external or internal.

The main benefit of an audio interface is an improvement in the overall quality of the recording, as the interface is much more sensitive in the way in which it converts analogue signals into digital information, compared with a computer's standard onboard sound card. This is important if you're a musician, but for speech-only recordings where you only need one input at a time, it's less important.

In general, you're aiming for the cleanest original recording possible, at the optimum volume level. But that said, if you have some half-decent audio software, you can apply certain "fixes" in post-production. Compression is one of the most useful and you can also use various hi and lo-pass settings to eliminate some of the background noise issues in your recordings. There is software available for cleaning up noise whereby you can sample a section of the recording (that doesn't have any speech on it...just the raw sound of the room and whatever else the recording system picks up), then the sample will use that noise profile to eliminate it from the rest of the recording. NB this isn't always a perfect fix..some software does it better than others, but you may find there are unwanted effects on the recordings of your voice, too. But it can help. Quite a few audio apps...including Audacity, I believe...have this feature available.

Beware Paul, too much involvement in recording WILL turn you into sound geek....just look at myself, @Rich. and @AgentPete :D (I can think of far worse clubs to be in, though....);)
Click to expand...
Thank you @KateESal, tracing the source of a noise appears to be a process of elimination...that is, finding what it isn't!

I should have mentioned, that I returned to using Audacity, despite a rogue version of the app stabbing me in the back before by dumping one-third of my recorded projects into the ether. I tried using Ocenaudio, but it had lots of artefacts as well, so I went with the devil I already knew. I tested the latest distro of Audacity by recording and saving and reopening a dozen projects, all of which played back without problem.

On a couple of occasions, I was able to remove an artefact by enlarging the soundwave to find where it was and cutting it out. These were squelching sounds though, not the dreaded KRIK that's been dogging me. KRIK doesn't appear at all on the soundwave, but then nor do other phantom sighs and mini-intakes of breath—I can hear them through the earbuds, but they don't show on the screen.

I'll try passing affected sections through Compression.

I used to be a writer, you know....
 
Hmmm, I've just realised by reading @KateESal and @AgentPete's answers and by stumbling upon this useful article, that I wouldn't be able to use an audio interface with my USB microphone.

"You can’t plug a USB microphone into an Interface, because audio interfaces don’t accept USB as an input. They’re meant to be an all-in-one recording solution for improved quality on a budget."

I'd have to purchase another mic with an XLR connection. I've already invested enough buying equipment for recording audiobooks, so I'll save myself money on Prime Day.

I wonder if I'll ever find what's causing KRIK....I'm gonna blow its head off if I do! :angry-face-with-horns:
 
Upload an audio file Paul, folks here may be able to tell you what it is.

(actually, post a link to the file uploaded to e.g. Dropbox. You can't upload audio files here)
 
AgentPete said:
Upload an audio file Paul, folks here may be able to tell you what it is.

(actually, post a link to the file uploaded to e.g. Dropbox. You can't upload audio files here)
Click to expand...
The game of identifying anonymous sounds has made me realise how little we use most of our senses. I'm increasingly of the opinion that KRIK is generated by Audacity itself, at least, the previous distro, as it's not appeared (yet) in the latest version.

One of the vagaries of modern living is that when trying to find the solution to technical glitches it feels like you're the only person in the world who's afflicted. I am slightly annoyed that Audacity is so well thought of! :mad:

I'll try to track down examples of my audio gremlins to post on Dropbox.
 
AgentPete said:
Record a blank track in Audacity, ie with no input configured to it. That might assist in locating the problem.
Click to expand...
Good idea! What I did do, when first haunted by KRIK, was to record noises made by me kneeing the table, brushing against the power lead, moving in my chair and even moving my creaky knees! It wasn't any of them.
 
Hi Paul. Fault tracing is an onerous task. There's no getting round it.
  • Do as @AgentPete suggests above.
  • Turn everything off, reseat all cables (you may also want to try reseating your soundcard). Test.
  • Beg, steal or borrow another mic. Test.
  • Plug your mic into another machine (if possible – a phone would do). Test.
  • Record a test using any other audio program, not Audacity.
  • Record something on your phone. Import into Audacity and check for krik.
The most likely culprits are your mic or soundcard, then cabling, then the software (seems to me unlikely, but not impossible). If it's none of those things, it will be interference from something. I hope you don't get to that stage.

Just to check, the krik is appearing on raw audio files, right? It's not the product of some effect you're applying?

Let us know how you get on, and good luck! :)
 
Hannah F said:
I pop onto this thread now and then just to see if I understand any of it. The result is always the same: my brain explodes, and that's even before I discover that @AgentPete has an astronaut twin! . . . maybe my brain is a Scarlett Soho! Maybe this is Scarlett fever! o_O
Click to expand...
All the things I'm doing with the process of creating an audiobook conform to my attitude about anything I've done with creative writing. Namely, I don't know what I'm doing! Most everything that a writer does is speculative. Just because I am unsure is no reason to stop trying. Who wants to die with unpublished manuscripts in their bottom drawer? My stance is that determined bumblers get stuff done.
 
Rich. said:
Hi Paul. Fault tracing is an onerous task. There's no getting round it.
  • Do as @AgentPete suggests above.
  • Turn everything off, reseat all cables (you may also want to try reseating your soundcard). Test.
  • Beg, steal or borrow another mic. Test.
  • Plug your mic into another machine (if possible – a phone would do). Test.
  • Record a test using any other audio program, not Audacity.
  • Record something on your phone. Import into Audacity and check for krik.
The most likely culprits are your mic or soundcard, then cabling, then the software (seems to me unlikely, but not impossible). If it's none of those things, it will be interference from something. I hope you don't get to that stage.

Just to check, the krik is appearing on raw audio files, right? It's not the product of some effect you're applying?

Let us know how you get on, and good luck! :)
Click to expand...
Good ideas, @Rich. I've played around with cables. Ocenaudio recordings showed different artefacts to Audacity, and quite a lot of them, which is why I returned to Audacity—though, this made me doubt my recording equipment.

I've just acquired a new mobile phone, so I'll try what you suggest.

I don't know anyone with a mic.

I don't think that my phantom noise is caused by me altering any settings or effects, though I was concerned when I read somewhere that boosting the recording level too far creates odd noises. I had mine set at the recommended 6.0. Oddly, the latest version of Audacity doesn't allow the user to move the slider control, so it appears to be setting the level automatically.

Instead of buying an unusable audio interface on Amazon Prime, I got an electric blanket to wear over my lap this winter, as my flat plunges to 50F.
 
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Fantastic thread, @Paul Whybrow – thanks for posting, and I'm sorry to hear you've had so much trouble with Audacity and lost so much work. I've only just started dabbling with audio (for PopUps) and plan to set aside a few hours (days...) so I can read this post in detail and learn.

I'd already figured out it was better to stop after a mistake and just read the sentence or paragraph again. But the first time I thought the recording was all okay, I checked it against the hard copy and there it was – one wrong word in the very first sentence. So learning how to re-record and insert a small amendment will be invaluable. Best of luck with the rest of your recordings.
 
Audible has had a change of heart with their returns policy, after being berated by a petition from 10,000 writers. I received this mealy-mouthed statement:

Launched in 2011, the Audiobook Creation Exchange has paved the way for exponential growth in audiobook production and consumption, today supplying over 200 audiobooks in store per day to Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. The ACX online rights marketplace and production engine is available to all authors, publishers, literary agents, narrators and studio pros in the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland. ACX.com connects and educates independent authors and rising actors—many of whom are among 20,000 professional actors who have worked with Audible in the past 5 years—in the art of audiobook performance and creation, and provides title-promotion tools and methods to drive sales and audiobook awareness, allowing our creative stakeholders to reach new audiences on Audible and beyond. Free programs, including ACX University and the Promo Code Tool, seek to level the playing field and further expand opportunity for authors, narrators, rights holders and producers alike.

As you know, we’ve been working to address some ACX authors’ concerns about Audible’s overall exchange policy, and we appreciate your feedback. The intent of this program is to allow listeners to discover their favorite voice, author, or story in audio. In instances where we determine the benefit is being overused, Audible can and does limit the number of exchanges and refunds allowed by a member. But as designed, this customer benefit allows active Audible members in good standing to take a chance on new content, and suspicious activity is extremely rare.

We hope this helps convey perspective to our valued writers and ACX partners as to the impact of our current returns policies. However, in recognition of these concerns, moving forward and effective as of January 1, 2021, Audible will pay royalties for any title returned more than 7 days following purchase. This adjustment does not impact our customers' current benefits of membership, and we look forward to continuing to welcome millions of first-time listeners, enabling our members to discover new content they enjoy and growing the audience for our valued creative partners.​
Launched in 2011, the Audiobook Creation Exchange has paved the way for exponential growth in audiobook production and consumption, today supplying over 200 audiobooks in store per day to Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. The ACX online rights marketplace and production engine is available to all authors, publishers, literary agents, narrators and studio pros in the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland. ACX.com connects and educates independent authors and rising actors—many of whom are among 20,000 professional actors who have worked with Audible in the past 5 years—in the art of audiobook performance and creation, and provides title-promotion tools and methods to drive sales and audiobook awareness, allowing our creative stakeholders to reach new audiences on Audible and beyond. Free programs, including ACX University and the Promo Code Tool, seek to level the playing field and further expand opportunity for authors, narrators, rights holders and producers alike.

As you know, we’ve been working to address some ACX authors’ concerns about Audible’s overall exchange policy, and we appreciate your feedback. The intent of this program is to allow listeners to discover their favorite voice, author, or story in audio. In instances where we determine the benefit is being overused, Audible can and does limit the number of exchanges and refunds allowed by a member. But as designed, this customer benefit allows active Audible members in good standing to take a chance on new content, and suspicious activity is extremely rare.

We hope this helps convey perspective to our valued writers and ACX partners as to the impact of our current returns policies. However, in recognition of these concerns, moving forward and effective as of January 1, 2021, Audible will pay royalties for any title returned more than 7 days following purchase. This adjustment does not impact our customers' current benefits of membership, and we look forward to continuing to welcome millions of first-time listeners, enabling our members to discover new content they enjoy and growing the audience for our valued creative partners.
Respectfully,
The ACX Team
Respectfully,
The ACX Team​
 
My first Cornish Detective audiobook sailed through ACX’s quality control check, which surprised me a little, as I’m a rookie and there are loads of ways to make mistakes when mastering a recording.

I submitted the second story in the series, which was the monster of 139,000 words that a rogue version of Audacity devoured one-third of destroying 450 hours of work that I had to redo. ACX has been inundated with audiobooks by writers in lockdown, so it took them six weeks to get back to me with a rejection for what looked to me like a strange reason. I’m scrupulous in checking there are no unwanted noises, yet they found problems:

Issue: The production includes files that contain noise at the start and/or tail end. The first 0 to 2 seconds, and the last 1 to 5 seconds of each file must be revised to ensure none of them contain any noise, loud breaths and/or mouse clicks at the start before narration begins and at the end after the last spoken word.
I checked all the 64 chapters and the opening and closing credits and the retail audio sample finding just seven of the tiny, tiny, can-barely-see-them bristles (as I call them) which don’t make a sound at all. There were no loud breaths or mouse clicks.

It might be that my recorded files were checked visually, rather than audibly.

I could hear ambient noise, so I wondered if that was too loud. It was no louder than the first book, but how to make the background noise quieter? I recalled that I’d once used Audacity’s Generate – Silence feature to remove the noise of a helicopter circling where I live, which I hadn’t heard at the time, but which was audible like a mosquito on the recorded chapter. The blankness of total silence between words, sentences and paragraph sounds a bit strange, but it definitely removes “extraneous sounds.”

What puzzles me, is that if the ambient noise is too loud at the beginning and the end of the recording, how does it pass muster in the text?

I’m going to try resubmitting Book 2 tonight, so I’ll let you know what happens.

I’ve recorded and mastered the remaining three books in the series, which I need to listen to as audiobooks to hear if there are any more errors to correct. I don’t want to submit them to be rejected for the same reason as Book 2.

Have any of you encountered such problems?

200w.webp
 
ACX: Endless Problems

I should be jubilant, for after nine joyless months of creating audiobooks of my five Cornish Detective novels they are all finally submitted to ACX for scrutinising as being of good enough quality to appear on the shelves of Audible.

That I’m less than ecstatic is because I’m exhausted by working 12-hour days and because dealing with ACX is like entrusting your most treasured possessions to the village idiot! :oops:

I previously mentioned problems with ‘extraneous noises’ that ACX claimed appeared at the beginning and end of my submitted chapters. I found on the Reddit and Quora ACX forums that several other authors had also received this rejection, even though their recordings were perfect.

ACX is opaque in how it deems submissions fail its standards, which is even more aggravating when using its own submissions page reveals its failings.

Each chapter of an audiobook is treated as a separate project and has to be uploaded as an Mp3. It’s no problem for me to convert Audacity’s aup file to an Mp3 or WAV or OGG as their Export button offers these choices.

The difficulties start on uploading the Mp3, whereon two-thirds of the chapters are red-flagged as having technical issues with a referral to the Audio Analysis tab, which when clicked on shows nothing. Indeed, clicking on the Upload Manager tab there’s always a statement that “No technical issues were found” — contradicting the red flag. Despite this, the red warning message may stay next to the uploaded project, making the author look like a stubborn failure for persisting.

I’ve resubmitted chapters five times to make the red message disappear. Other problems that occur include the upload being stuck on ‘Analysing Audio’, sometimes for hours according to some Reddit members.

I devoted the last three days to checking my remaining three titles were perfect by listening to them all again, before uploading them. Time taken to complete an upload should be about five minutes, depending on file size, connection speed and how busy the ACX site is. It’s very common for there to be an "oops, something went wrong" message which doesn’t say anything more than that, so you’re not sure if the upload has completed, or not...so, you return to the Upload Manager and start the process again.

Bear in mind that ACX is the vetting arm of Audible which is part of Kindle Direct Publishing which is part of Amazon...which is owned by the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos—who seems to think that it’s OK to use shoddy software showing no respect for his traders.

After wasting almost four hours trying to upload ten chapters, I decided to vent my spleen by posting a message on Reddit. Logging on, I found that another Reddit member had just posted a complaint about the very things bothering me! We exchanged messages, which was of some comfort to me.



I sound grumpy, but it’s with good cause. As I’ve detailed in this thread, the process of creating an audiobook is enormously time-consuming (an average of 1,000 hours for an 80,000-word novel) and frustrating and boring when mastering your recording. To then be met with opposition from the sales portal of ACX is insulting.

You have been warned!

iu
 
How frustrating! Thanks for sharing all these details, though. I still want to do audiobooks of my dragon slayer series, and knowing what I'm up against is good (though it does make me less enthusiastic about it...)
 
I’ll make this post as a caution to anyone thinking of creating audiobooks. As I’ve indicated in detail, it’s a heartbreaking and time-consuming ordeal, but when the Audacity software I use is unreliable, as is the operation of ACX, the vetting arm of Audible, it’s enough to cause great fury! :mad:

Audacity is free, and as a modern app, it’s a miracle of simplicity compared to the old days when tape had to be spliced and reattached. What irritates the hell out of me, is that each version of Audacity that’s released contains a glitch that wasn’t present in the previous version.

I’m using the latest release 2.4.2 which has a flaw with the Filter Curve Effect. This is one of the adjustments one makes to a recording so that it passes Audacity’s ACX Check—that indicates you’ve got most things right—though it’s no guarantee that your audiobook will pass ACX’s quality control test when you upload it.,

Using the Low Roll Off For Speech option of the Filter Curve EQ should take about 12 seconds, depending on the length of the recording. But, the latest version takes four minutes to even open. While it’s thinking about opening Audacity is frozen, all of the buttons greyed over. Once open, it appears to apply itself to the recording, but I’ve been finding with at least half of mine that it hasn’t done so...meaning I have to go through the whole process of waiting again! Who would design something that delays users getting on with their work?

ACX might! I’ve been having increasing doubts about signing up to Audible, which I think was for a seven-year exclusive contract (I must check), as I’m hearing more and more disastrous tales of their operation from authors’ posts on Reddit and Quora.

I previously vented about Audible altering their returns policy. They’ve said to be thinking about amending it. I ‘sold’ 11 copies of my first Cornish Detective audiobook in the first week, but two were returned, meaning I don’t get paid for them. Imagine trying to do that with a bottle of cooking oil you bought at a supermarket, which still had one inch of oil in it and you demanded your money back as you didn’t like the taste.

I mentioned that my second audiobook was rejected on the basis of ‘Extraneous Noises’ at the beginning and end of the whole thing. There weren’t any, other than the usual ambient room sounds. To my great surprise, my ploy of using Generator-Silence to cover these parts of the recording with total silence worked! My submission was approved for being on Audible’s shelves.

Several folk on ACX forums suggested that this too would be rejected, as ACX demands ambient room noise...which was there before and they objected to it! I can now tell them that silence works!

I’m pleased, but I get the unsettling impression that ACX has wildly uneven standards and that Audible is out to shaft its producers for more of their money while allowing audiobook buyers to game the system.

Searching around for alternatives to Jeff Bezos’s tacky operation, I came across this outfit:


I’ve seen favourable reports about them on Quora & on Reddit, with claims that they can facilitate the process of getting submissions accepted by ACX.

I’ll be investigating and will get back to you.

iu
 
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Paul Whybrow

Inspiration! New Year's Resolutions

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Jonny

Question: Is this you? Certainly not... :-)

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