🔑Please follow this link to check out Anthony’s ACX course that teaches you how to make money recording audiobooks using ACX: www.avosjourney.com/a/13362/b6LqM99h
To reduce background noise and get a lower “floor” number, highlight a space with no talking in the audio then in effects click noise reduction. Then click “take sample”. Then highlight the full track and go back into noise reduction and click apply. Audacity will then reduce all background white noise.
Thanks so much for this informational video. I have downloaded the audacity daw. I will go ahead and download the account check this was so good. I also tecently purchased the goyo noise de verb. I think it was like 30 bucks. I got that tip from Anthony Pica. I think I can use that to get rid of the floor noise or any other distorted sound. Thanks again.
I watched several other tutorials before getting to yours, and you made it *so* much simpler! Linux user here, and I was still able to set this up in seconds using your instructions. Thank you so much. *subscribed*
Great vid. Audacity has come a long way over the yrs. Good company. Got introduced to you on Anthony Pica's workshop. Now I am 1 of your subscribers. Thx for everything. God bless.
Thanks Sallie! Yes, Audacity has come a loong way! Thanks so much for subscribing! Hope to see you in A VO's Journey Monday Nite Voice Acting class!!! Take care and God bless you too.
Wow! Thank you. I am very new to recording, My new microphone (Cardoid!") arrived today so installed Audacity to make an aduo version of my first novel. Your video just made this a lot easier. Thank you. I have just subscribed to your chanel.
Excellent, excellent instructions! You teach so well - the details are excellent - thank you - others go way too fast and don't show all the steps - your video is really well paced and clear - thank you!
Thank you thank you thank is my second go-around watching your presentation I learned again so much more I think I'll watch it again! Until I get paid for enough to try for myself because when it doesn't work it is so very frustrating. Cheers
It's a choice now? NOW IT'S A CHOICE!!!!!! Holy Cow!! You newbies are so lucky!!!!!!!! Just go to Analyze menu and then to Measure RMS. Thank you for asking! I can't wait to make some new videos!!!!! Have a great day and all the best to you and your recording and editing!!! 😘
Thank you for your help! Wonderful videos. Quick question, my noise floor keeps saying too low too, -100 or even infinity. When I upload my final audiobook to ACX, will they reject it because my noise floor is too low?
Thank you for this video! Is the ACX check a good rule of thumb for all voice over auditions? Or do the RMS and peak volume levels change by type of assignment/audition?
Lisa, Once you get into working with production houses or agencies, they may have specific audio specs. But until then, just go with ACX standards. They will serve you every single time. 😘
Sofia, you can always use the copyright info included in the book. the opening credits will be: Name of Book, written by Author, narrated by You closing credits will be: This has been Name of Book, written by Author, narrated by You copyright Year of Publication of Print Book by Author production copyright This Year by Author the end
Do you hear a significant amount of white noise or background noise when you record and what do you use for that? I use the noise reduction setting however once its done then my voice becomes muffled or not as clear..???
Wow!! That's awesome!!! Congratulations!! All audio requirements are the same. But, check your bit rate/kHz when you export your mp3 files. They need to be at 192kbps or higher MP3, Constant Bit Rate (CBR) at 44.1 kHz. --This is the standard mp3 specs, but it's something that might get you tripped up. Enjoy your first audiobook production!! Let me know how your progress is going!! 👏
9:15 actually the peak level isn't that. The peak level limit, in reality, is -0.1 dB because going to 0 dB in digital audio introduces clipping artifacts which ruin the sound of the recording. ACX standards are set at -3.0 dB for extra "headroom" so that, when they encode the file in different ways, there is virtually no chance that the peak levels will go above -0.1 dB and ruin the sound with clipping artifacts. Peak level has absolutely nothing to do with human toleration. As far as not blowing out your listeners eardrums, that is more related to RMS levels. If they listen to one standard audiobook at -18 RMS, and you brickwall limit your recording to -6 RMS, that is about 4x as much sound energy and, depending on the user's volume settings, it might be jarringly loud at best. It's also worth mentioning that -18 RMS is not some perfect standard. Music on streaming services is often around -14 RMS (though they do not use RMS as a standard) and a lot of people will turn off Spotify limiters and listen to their music around -6 RMS, though that number depends on how loudly that artist's music is mastered. You might have noticed that I never said that -6 RMS will blow your ears out and indeed it won't blow your ears out. It's just a different loudness level. Volume settings on your device are king. So then why is the ACX standard the way it is? One big reason is because if it is too quiet, some devices will be too quiet to hear the audiobook in a noisy environment like while walking next to a road or something. That being the case, you have to make it loud but what is the problem with it being too loud? Well there are a lot of potential problems. Music chooses somewhere around -14 RMS and that is a decent standard. When you have a voice only audio file though, it starts to sound unnatural even with the most transparent processing to make it that loud without the peak level being too high. -18 RMS is the upper limit because of the "dynamic range" of solo human voice audio. You could go higher but it is a disadvantageous tradeoff between preserving dynamic range (naturalness) and loudness. Also if you want bonus points and you have multiple different narrators, especially if they are different genders, consider confirming to ACX standards at the same time as measuring LUFS instead of just RMS. There are too many times where the chapters read by females are louder and I have to adjust volume between chapters because, while the RMS is the same, the perceived loudness (measured fairly accurately by LUFS) is different. And that's the real reason to conform to loudness standards like this: it's bad if users have to ride their volume setting.
This may be a bit late ( a year later according to posting) but I've been going down the narrator path (CHECK ME OUT) and I was wondering how to reduce the peak level? I'm at the dreaded 0.00 DB 😅 Thank you so much amazing tutorial!
Full disclosure, I do not do any engineering. I hire a guy named Don Baarns to remotely set all my levels in Studio One. So, I don't even think about what m Limiter, Compressor, EQ, etc do! I just know my levels are correct. I would highly recommend seeking out Don. At least watch his videos about audio engineering.
Hello. I wish for someone to help me please. My voice-over set up has the Behringer X1204USB going into my Lenovo L450 laptop, upon which I have ASIO4ALL installed, Audacity installed and yet, I cannot get the Behringer to "talk" to the Audacity and if I speak, the only recording is going into my laptop microphone. instead of my AT2020 Audio Technica. I'm at my wits end, even with 40 years as a radio DJ on 16 stations in 7 states (USA), I cannot seem to solve this problem . Furthermore, Now I only am getting the left channel on my Behringer to show a green light in the Main Mix! I have the mic going directly into the Behringer (three prong input on top mic one). I also have Adobe 3.0 on the laptop, but it makes no difference. I also have AVG antivirus on the Lenovo which I only use intended for voice-over or music recording from my Technic SL1200MK turntables. I have the phantom power ON...Susan I love your explanations, by the way! Thank you. DJ Jimi
Can you Narrate with USB microphone for ACX, and how difficult is it to get the audio settings in compliance with their requirements? Is it difficult to learn , I’m hearing that the audio is why people struggle with .
Durand, you can narrate an audio book with a USB mic. My first 5 audiobooks were all narrated with a Blue Nessie. USB mics have come a long way since just 10 years ago. It's not just the mic though that creates problems for narrators. It's also the room tone from your recording space. So, I believe the best thing you can do as a new narrator is use as much padding in your recording space to get your room tone down to -60 dB. Plus, if you have a computer fan, you need to figure out a way to get that computer out of your recording space. New narrators come up with all kinds of creative ways to do this. Check into voice over Facebook groups for the best USB mic now. And save up your money to invest in a DAW like Studio One or Adobe Audition that have settings to get the room tone nice and low. Audacity is free! It will work for you in the beginning, but you'll need to get a better DAW as soon as you can.
@@Voices4Learning Thank you! Just padded my room . So you are saying I can use Audacity but just download some plug ins to help decrease and even out noise levels?
@@Voices4Learning and do you go back in and edit your audio after you are all done with the recording, or is it something that’s editing during recording ? Would you ever record 5+ hours of material then have to re record because of audio compliance issues?
@@FittedMisfits1 You can definitely download some Audacity plugins to even out noise levels, but I don't know how well they work. If you're looking into the plugins, you're on the right track at least!
I honestly don't know!! I recorded this video a year ago and just updated my version of Audacity. There's a lot that's different in this new version! I need to get busy with some new videos!
@@inagoodway Congratulations on your first audiobook!! ACX has a level checker on their website. Just go to the help section in ACX and look for sound lab.
So do i read the whole chapter in order to edit, and move on, or am I gonna have to read about 15 mins of it, just to edit, and move along, how do i do it, im confused?
I think for my first audiobook I recorded a chapter then I would edit the chapter. But the chapters were pretty short! You may want to record for 10 minutes for example and then edit that 10 minutes until you are used to recording for longer periods of time. Thanks for your question. All the best in your recording. Let me know when your audiobook is live!
I've never heard of that. But I guess it's possible. If ACX does reject your files, you can always go back and adjust the levels. It won't be the end of the world.
Girl you give great information, but way too much over things that are really not very interesting. I say this with love, please use a script.....I kept if you were not so great at explaining thing I would have clicked out within a minute.
Hi Susan, l have followed your tutorial and everything works..........except, ACX-check.ny will not work on my Windows 7. Google search indicates .txt can be added but I'm not sure and have no idea on how to proceed step by step. Hopefully you can assist even if you know of a 'tech person'. Thanks Anthony.
Hi Anthony. I'm sorry you're running into trouble. You may want to try downloading the latest version of Audacity. That might help. If all else fails, there's a level checker on ACX's Audiolab. It will at least tell you if your audio passes the submission requirements. You can Google ACX audiolab. It's pretty straightforward.
🔑Please follow this link to check out Anthony’s ACX course that teaches you how to make money recording audiobooks using ACX: www.avosjourney.com/a/13362/b6LqM99h
THANK YOU! YOU made me LOL and I learned some good sh__tuff
To reduce background noise and get a lower “floor” number, highlight a space with no talking in the audio then in effects click noise reduction. Then click “take sample”. Then highlight the full track and go back into noise reduction and click apply. Audacity will then reduce all background white noise.
Stephen thank you so much for pointing this out! I know this will really help a lot of narrators.
Thank you I did exactly that and it worked perfectly!
Thanks so much for this informational video. I have downloaded the audacity daw. I will go ahead and download the account check this was so good. I also tecently purchased the goyo noise de verb. I think it was like 30 bucks. I got that tip from Anthony Pica. I think I can use that to get rid of the floor noise or any other distorted sound. Thanks again.
Anthony is great!!
I watched several other tutorials before getting to yours, and you made it *so* much simpler! Linux user here, and I was still able to set this up in seconds using your instructions. Thank you so much. *subscribed*
well, that's pretty cool that are a Linux user!!
You are such a brilliant instructor! Thank you so much. I am now closer to recording my audio book!!!! Whoopeee!!
Yay! Congratulations! Merry Christmas!
Thank you
Thank you this plug in will help me.
Thanks for making this, it was a great help :)
I needed every one of those "don't worry dont worry dont worry"'s. Thank you!
Thank you so much! You are the only one who help me accomplish this and I am excited.
Awesome! So glad to help!
Nice! When u say izotope rx is $30…isn’t it closer to $400 normally? What version is sufficient for cleaning room tone for audiobooks? Thanks
Get the cheapest version of iZotope. Not sure how much it is now, but it should be less than $400.
Great video, thanks for your help!
Glad you found it helpful!
Plug in worked! Saves lot of time. Thank you.
Great!!
Thank you! I finally have the ACX Checkpoint button and I passed!!! ❤
Awesome!!! So nice when that happens!
Thank you! You made the install painless.
you are so helpful! Bless you
Great vid. Audacity has come a long way over the yrs. Good company. Got introduced to you on Anthony Pica's workshop. Now I am 1 of your subscribers. Thx for everything. God bless.
Thanks Sallie! Yes, Audacity has come a loong way! Thanks so much for subscribing! Hope to see you in A VO's Journey Monday Nite Voice Acting class!!! Take care and God bless you too.
Wow! Thank you. I am very new to recording, My new microphone (Cardoid!") arrived today so installed Audacity to make an aduo version of my first novel. Your video just made this a lot easier. Thank you. I have just subscribed to your chanel.
Wow! Congratulations on being awarded an audiobook!!! 🤜💪🤛🎯🔥
Excellent, excellent instructions! You teach so well - the details are excellent - thank you - others go way too fast and don't show all the steps - your video is really well paced and clear - thank you!
thank you so much!! glad it was helpful!
Thank you thank you thank is my second go-around watching your presentation I learned again so much more I think I'll watch it again! Until I get paid for enough to try for myself because when it doesn't work it is so very frustrating. Cheers
Hang in there. It gets easier!!!
@@Voices4Learning Not so far...been avoiding trying again until today...please see my comment above. I use Firefox btw. Bad?
You're right. So easy!! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Literally the only video I found that helped me. Thank you!
Incredibly helpful, thank you so so much!
You're so welcome!! Glad to help!
"it's sooo easy..." it's sooo easy..." 🤗
Thank you!
Is RMS now provided as a choice in Loudness Normalization in Audacity or do you still need to download?
It's a choice now? NOW IT'S A CHOICE!!!!!! Holy Cow!! You newbies are so lucky!!!!!!!! Just go to Analyze menu and then to Measure RMS. Thank you for asking! I can't wait to make some new videos!!!!!
Have a great day and all the best to you and your recording and editing!!! 😘
Thanks babe
You're welcome!
Thank you! I owe you a Dr. Pepper (Sorry, I don't drink alcohol). ha
Nice one
My ACX check didn't show up in Analyzer after doing everything , help😢
OK.. fixed, close, and reopened audacity, boom 🎉
Hmmm. Maybe try ACX audiolab. Sorry about that.
Thank you for your help! Wonderful videos. Quick question, my noise floor keeps saying too low too, -100 or even infinity. When I upload my final audiobook to ACX, will they reject it because my noise floor is too low?
No, you'll be fine. 🙂
Thank you for this video! Is the ACX check a good rule of thumb for all voice over auditions? Or do the RMS and peak volume levels change by type of assignment/audition?
Lisa, Once you get into working with production houses or agencies, they may have specific audio specs. But until then, just go with ACX standards. They will serve you every single time. 😘
Thank You!
Good
hello Please .copyright the book is not in acx wher can i find it
Sofia, you can always use the copyright info included in the book.
the opening credits will be:
Name of Book, written by Author, narrated by You
closing credits will be:
This has been Name of Book, written by Author, narrated by You
copyright Year of Publication of Print Book by Author
production copyright This Year by Author
the end
I have Audacity 2.2
Can you do this via mobile?
I don’t have a laptop or desktop
Hey Monica, I don't think you can do this on a mobile device.
This doesn't work on the newest updates on Audacity.
I'm sorry! I'll have to double check this!! Thanks for letting me know!
Do you hear a significant amount of white noise or background noise when you record and what do you use for that? I use the noise reduction setting however once its done then my voice becomes muffled or not as clear..???
I just got my first gig after my first audition. That being said, is there anything that has changed regarding the plu in vs their current standards?
Wow!! That's awesome!!! Congratulations!! All audio requirements are the same. But, check your bit rate/kHz when you export your mp3 files. They need to be at 192kbps or higher MP3, Constant Bit Rate (CBR) at 44.1 kHz. --This is the standard mp3 specs, but it's something that might get you tripped up.
Enjoy your first audiobook production!! Let me know how your progress is going!!
👏
hello!!
can u send me please the link for buy the plugins Izotope. Thanksssssssssss, regards
www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RX8UpRXEl--izotope-rx-8-standard-upgrade-from-rx-elements?mrkgadid=1000000&mrkgcl=28&mrkgen=gtext&mrkgbflag=0&mrkgcat=software&plugins&acctid=21700000001645388&dskeywordid=43700057009529859&lid=43700057009529859&ds_s_kwgid=58700006317027793&device=m&network=g&matchtype=e&adpos=largenumber&locationid=9013107&creative=635738982696&targetid=aud-297527862650:kwd-944906893107&campaignid=1079966093&awsearchcpc=1&&&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0tKiBhC6ARIsAAOXutkHojyQDmcQAgbYW1nW9TbSl4itoDblpmmFY7HhbJ42rmEt99ZkaV8aAlZmEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
9:15 actually the peak level isn't that. The peak level limit, in reality, is -0.1 dB because going to 0 dB in digital audio introduces clipping artifacts which ruin the sound of the recording. ACX standards are set at -3.0 dB for extra "headroom" so that, when they encode the file in different ways, there is virtually no chance that the peak levels will go above -0.1 dB and ruin the sound with clipping artifacts. Peak level has absolutely nothing to do with human toleration.
As far as not blowing out your listeners eardrums, that is more related to RMS levels. If they listen to one standard audiobook at -18 RMS, and you brickwall limit your recording to -6 RMS, that is about 4x as much sound energy and, depending on the user's volume settings, it might be jarringly loud at best.
It's also worth mentioning that -18 RMS is not some perfect standard. Music on streaming services is often around -14 RMS (though they do not use RMS as a standard) and a lot of people will turn off Spotify limiters and listen to their music around -6 RMS, though that number depends on how loudly that artist's music is mastered.
You might have noticed that I never said that -6 RMS will blow your ears out and indeed it won't blow your ears out. It's just a different loudness level. Volume settings on your device are king.
So then why is the ACX standard the way it is? One big reason is because if it is too quiet, some devices will be too quiet to hear the audiobook in a noisy environment like while walking next to a road or something. That being the case, you have to make it loud but what is the problem with it being too loud?
Well there are a lot of potential problems. Music chooses somewhere around -14 RMS and that is a decent standard. When you have a voice only audio file though, it starts to sound unnatural even with the most transparent processing to make it that loud without the peak level being too high.
-18 RMS is the upper limit because of the "dynamic range" of solo human voice audio. You could go higher but it is a disadvantageous tradeoff between preserving dynamic range (naturalness) and loudness.
Also if you want bonus points and you have multiple different narrators, especially if they are different genders, consider confirming to ACX standards at the same time as measuring LUFS instead of just RMS. There are too many times where the chapters read by females are louder and I have to adjust volume between chapters because, while the RMS is the same, the perceived loudness (measured fairly accurately by LUFS) is different. And that's the real reason to conform to loudness standards like this: it's bad if users have to ride their volume setting.
This may be a bit late ( a year later according to posting) but I've been going down the narrator path (CHECK ME OUT) and I was wondering how to reduce the peak level? I'm at the dreaded 0.00 DB 😅 Thank you so much amazing tutorial!
Full disclosure, I do not do any engineering. I hire a guy named Don Baarns to remotely set all my levels in Studio One. So, I don't even think about what m Limiter, Compressor, EQ, etc do! I just know my levels are correct. I would highly recommend seeking out Don. At least watch his videos about audio engineering.
@Voices4Learning thank you so much for replying and path forward! 🤗 Have a great day!!
Hello. I wish for someone to help me please. My voice-over set up has the Behringer X1204USB going into my Lenovo L450 laptop, upon which I have ASIO4ALL installed, Audacity installed and yet, I cannot get the Behringer to "talk" to the Audacity and if I speak, the only recording is going into my laptop microphone. instead of my AT2020 Audio Technica. I'm at my wits end, even with 40 years as a radio DJ on 16 stations in 7 states (USA), I cannot seem to solve this problem . Furthermore, Now I only am getting the left channel on my Behringer to show a green light in the Main Mix! I have the mic going directly into the Behringer (three prong input on top mic one). I also have Adobe 3.0 on the laptop, but it makes no difference. I also have AVG antivirus on the Lenovo which I only use intended for voice-over or music recording from my Technic SL1200MK turntables. I have the phantom power ON...Susan I love your explanations, by the way! Thank you. DJ Jimi
Can you Narrate with USB microphone for ACX, and how difficult is it to get the audio settings in compliance with their requirements? Is it difficult to learn , I’m hearing that the audio is why people struggle with .
Durand, you can narrate an audio book with a USB mic. My first 5 audiobooks were all narrated with a Blue Nessie. USB mics have come a long way since just 10 years ago. It's not just the mic though that creates problems for narrators. It's also the room tone from your recording space. So, I believe the best thing you can do as a new narrator is use as much padding in your recording space to get your room tone down to -60 dB. Plus, if you have a computer fan, you need to figure out a way to get that computer out of your recording space. New narrators come up with all kinds of creative ways to do this. Check into voice over Facebook groups for the best USB mic now. And save up your money to invest in a DAW like Studio One or Adobe Audition that have settings to get the room tone nice and low. Audacity is free! It will work for you in the beginning, but you'll need to get a better DAW as soon as you can.
@@Voices4Learning Thank you! Just padded my room . So you are saying I can use Audacity but just download some plug ins to help decrease and even out noise levels?
@@Voices4Learning and do you go back in and edit your audio after you are all done with the recording, or is it something that’s editing during recording ? Would you ever record 5+ hours of material then have to re record because of audio compliance issues?
@@FittedMisfits1 You can definitely download some Audacity plugins to even out noise levels, but I don't know how well they work. If you're looking into the plugins, you're on the right track at least!
No longer works this way in Audacity 3.3.1
I know!! I just upgraded!! I have to make some new videos!! Exporting to U-Law is different too!!!
Please can you help me for creating complete my profile on acx.
Does the ACX Check link still exist? I can't find it anywhere.
I honestly don't know!! I recorded this video a year ago and just updated my version of Audacity. There's a lot that's different in this new version! I need to get busy with some new videos!
@@Voices4Learning Oh. I just downloaded Audacity today. Editing my first Audiobook. 🙂 Trying to figure all of this out. Thank you.
@@inagoodway Congratulations on your first audiobook!! ACX has a level checker on their website. Just go to the help section in ACX and look for sound lab.
@@Voices4Learning Thank you very much! Appreciate it! And I will do that. Thanks!
I think that's my problem. I don't have tools
So do i read the whole chapter in order to edit, and move on, or am I gonna have to read about 15 mins of it, just to edit, and move along, how do i do it, im confused?
I think for my first audiobook I recorded a chapter then I would edit the chapter. But the chapters were pretty short! You may want to record for 10 minutes for example and then edit that 10 minutes until you are used to recording for longer periods of time. Thanks for your question. All the best in your recording. Let me know when your audiobook is live!
@Voices4Learning I'll try it out, thanks
Is it posible to pass the ACX Check but still get your file rejected?
I've never heard of that. But I guess it's possible. If ACX does reject your files, you can always go back and adjust the levels. It won't be the end of the world.
@@Voices4Learning Thanks for your prompt reply. That was super helpful ❤️
its no longer available
Michael, the newest version of Audacity has the ACX check installed by default.
Girl you give great information, but way too much over things that are really not very interesting. I say this with love, please use a script.....I kept if you were not so great at explaining thing I would have clicked out within a minute.
Hi Susan, l have followed your tutorial and everything works..........except, ACX-check.ny will not work on my Windows 7. Google search indicates .txt can be added but I'm not sure and have no idea on how to proceed step by step. Hopefully you can assist even if you know of a 'tech person'. Thanks Anthony.
Hi Anthony. I'm sorry you're running into trouble. You may want to try downloading the latest version of Audacity. That might help. If all else fails, there's a level checker on ACX's Audiolab. It will at least tell you if your audio passes the submission requirements. You can Google ACX audiolab. It's pretty straightforward.