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Here's some notes on using audacity for recording, and how to get your recordings edited for public consumption if you dont have a huge production team. Hopefully it saves you some time.
Audio recording on audacity (info is for ebooks but works well for podcasts)
How to do that
Leave 5 secs of silence at start of recording for audio engineering; delete later.
Talk about 6 in from the mic, talk across it not directly at it.
Make special noises to ID in the podcast where interuptions/notes/to listen to again - basically the audio version of a post-it note before prepping as podcast so as to create a recognizable 'marker' when looking at the audio as a wave-form. Smacking the table or tapping three times works well.
From another site I now cant find on editing ebooks - these are the best notes Ive found when looking into this during the pandemic; the ebook audio editing community is much closer to what you want to get something produced and public-ready than the 'music sound engineer' stuff, which is too complicated and ARTISTE-MOI syndrome. With good equipment you are good to go; editing can be gotten down to about 20 mins per podcast or if you want to be precious, about 4x the length of the podcast.
There's also a decision to make about whether you leave your ums and errs and sighs in the release or spend 4x of the recorded length editing them out - thats how long it takes. I found removing them all sounds creepy; removing the obvious ones on a first pass is worth it if things are over-length. You do have to remove long silences of +2s or so. I'd suggest leaving the sighs in to start, then if the Americans childishly lose their shit and demand excessive perfection you can consider deleting them. But it is arduous. It would be a good pocket money job for that Croatian nephew in the next village!
(The notes below refer to menus within audacity, and will make sense in that context. You need to load in some additional filters/tools into audacity, they arent prepackaged e.g. ACX-check to make this work but they are googleable and easy to find).
Process
These instructions are in short-form: Location > Tool: Options > OK
Select the whole reading or chapter by clicking the Select button at the bottom of the Track Control Panel.
Effect > Filter curve... > Manage > Factory Presets > : Low roll-off for speech > OK.
Effect > Loudness Normalization...: Normalize RMS to -20dB > OK.
Effect > Limiter: Soft Limit, 0.00, 0.00, -3.50dB, 10.00, No > OK.
Analyze > ACX-Check.
The first two readings, Peak (no louder than -3dB) and RMS (between -18dB and -23dB) should be nearly perfect. If the noise is quieter than about -65dB (-60dB limit), and the show sounds reasonable, you may be done.
The tool settings are sticky and you don't have to keep typing them in. If you do no other editing, mastering a chapter comes down to:
Once you have found those items on the menu, the basic edit takes about 5 minutes to process. The time-suck is editing umms and errs and any post hoc self-censorship you want to do; that stuff is where the time disappears - expect 4x time once you have technique, 6x time when you start it, 8x if you are a perfectionist double-guesser self-critical.
Mastering the audio-signature post-it note saves a LOT of time at editing - you can just find the signature, and delete or edit things quickly.
Regarding audio, whatever you do with it please provide transcripts and/or bookmarks in the audio track that allow the listener to skip subjects of little interest. The program Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar is exemplary in regard to segment markings, though they don't get the exact timepoints correct, the concept works well.
I say the above because audio is not by itself random access and forcing people to listen at length in order to get to the part they want to hear is asking much. I realize this makes far more work for you, but I hope you will consider it.
Greenland, Argentina and Australia...just add Antarctica and the Second Empire falls into place quite nicely. Imperialism with minimal Wilsonianism is humanly bearable provided that we are spared mass migration from US allies in the Global South.
Agreed, but the skilled migration is going to be transformative in the long run. The implications of this are starting to dawn. So far no serious pushback.
Skilled migrants aren’t violent criminals, usually. Certainly not lighting random women on fire, or eating cats, etc.
we aren’t short engineers here, I doubt you are, but I can live with it. We have always been able to live with controlled migration.
Despite legendary history, there’s never been mass migration like this before, and they certainly didn’t come and get on welfare, and exist mainly to provide social workers and NGOS a parasitic middle class existence.
Ireland has a very open visa program for skills shortages, where there is full vetting and verification. The illegal entrants come without either to draw on our hard won social welfare.
Re the audio project, obscure historical stuff has its place but I'd very much appreciate some reportage of life in Croatia and the surrounding region. Stuff on lifestyle, standards of living, developments in local film or publishing. The stuff we never hear about. The Balkans is surely more than ethnic grudges and cigarette smuggling. Just a suggestion.
The dynamic duo, Aussie Philip and Yankee LW, yaaay. Truth told, unpalatablele though it may be, as it often is.
Gotta love the increasingly frantic Zel. The Ukraine genocide yarn unsustainable, as well as Russian barbarism, when the real thing is there to be seen in Palestine.
Hit the like button at the top or bottom of this page to like this entry. Use the share and/or re-stack buttons to share this across social media. Leave a comment if the mood strikes you to do so.
And don't forget to subscribe if you haven't done so already.
Arriba Espana
Personally, I prefer reading to listening, but let's see what happens.
Short spicy takes on Atatürk and Tito would be interesting . . .
Noted!
Looking forward to the episodes.
And I am looking forward to some constructive feedback
Listen to Philadelphia sports radio stations to get the correct amount of feistiness
Niccolo, if you'd like a (short) musical theme I can whip one up for you.
Let's talk. Do you have samples?
of course. timhofmann@gmail.com.
Hello N,
Here's some notes on using audacity for recording, and how to get your recordings edited for public consumption if you dont have a huge production team. Hopefully it saves you some time.
Audio recording on audacity (info is for ebooks but works well for podcasts)
How to do that
Leave 5 secs of silence at start of recording for audio engineering; delete later.
Talk about 6 in from the mic, talk across it not directly at it.
Make special noises to ID in the podcast where interuptions/notes/to listen to again - basically the audio version of a post-it note before prepping as podcast so as to create a recognizable 'marker' when looking at the audio as a wave-form. Smacking the table or tapping three times works well.
The audacity program for windows:
https://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows/
From another site I now cant find on editing ebooks - these are the best notes Ive found when looking into this during the pandemic; the ebook audio editing community is much closer to what you want to get something produced and public-ready than the 'music sound engineer' stuff, which is too complicated and ARTISTE-MOI syndrome. With good equipment you are good to go; editing can be gotten down to about 20 mins per podcast or if you want to be precious, about 4x the length of the podcast.
There's also a decision to make about whether you leave your ums and errs and sighs in the release or spend 4x of the recorded length editing them out - thats how long it takes. I found removing them all sounds creepy; removing the obvious ones on a first pass is worth it if things are over-length. You do have to remove long silences of +2s or so. I'd suggest leaving the sighs in to start, then if the Americans childishly lose their shit and demand excessive perfection you can consider deleting them. But it is arduous. It would be a good pocket money job for that Croatian nephew in the next village!
(The notes below refer to menus within audacity, and will make sense in that context. You need to load in some additional filters/tools into audacity, they arent prepackaged e.g. ACX-check to make this work but they are googleable and easy to find).
Process
These instructions are in short-form: Location > Tool: Options > OK
Select the whole reading or chapter by clicking the Select button at the bottom of the Track Control Panel.
Effect > Filter curve... > Manage > Factory Presets > : Low roll-off for speech > OK.
Effect > Loudness Normalization...: Normalize RMS to -20dB > OK.
Effect > Limiter: Soft Limit, 0.00, 0.00, -3.50dB, 10.00, No > OK.
Analyze > ACX-Check.
The first two readings, Peak (no louder than -3dB) and RMS (between -18dB and -23dB) should be nearly perfect. If the noise is quieter than about -65dB (-60dB limit), and the show sounds reasonable, you may be done.
The tool settings are sticky and you don't have to keep typing them in. If you do no other editing, mastering a chapter comes down to:
Select.
Effect > Filter Curve... > OK.
Effect > Loudness Normalization > OK.
Effect > Limiter > OK.
I've got some learning to do!
Once you have found those items on the menu, the basic edit takes about 5 minutes to process. The time-suck is editing umms and errs and any post hoc self-censorship you want to do; that stuff is where the time disappears - expect 4x time once you have technique, 6x time when you start it, 8x if you are a perfectionist double-guesser self-critical.
Mastering the audio-signature post-it note saves a LOT of time at editing - you can just find the signature, and delete or edit things quickly.
Regarding audio, whatever you do with it please provide transcripts and/or bookmarks in the audio track that allow the listener to skip subjects of little interest. The program Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar is exemplary in regard to segment markings, though they don't get the exact timepoints correct, the concept works well.
I say the above because audio is not by itself random access and forcing people to listen at length in order to get to the part they want to hear is asking much. I realize this makes far more work for you, but I hope you will consider it.
Merry Christmas.
Especially Greenland.
Greenland needs some democracy.
Thank god for the United States.
Greenland, Argentina and Australia...just add Antarctica and the Second Empire falls into place quite nicely. Imperialism with minimal Wilsonianism is humanly bearable provided that we are spared mass migration from US allies in the Global South.
I think we’ll get a pause or check on mass migration.
Agreed, but the skilled migration is going to be transformative in the long run. The implications of this are starting to dawn. So far no serious pushback.
Skilled migrants aren’t violent criminals, usually. Certainly not lighting random women on fire, or eating cats, etc.
we aren’t short engineers here, I doubt you are, but I can live with it. We have always been able to live with controlled migration.
Despite legendary history, there’s never been mass migration like this before, and they certainly didn’t come and get on welfare, and exist mainly to provide social workers and NGOS a parasitic middle class existence.
Ireland has a very open visa program for skills shortages, where there is full vetting and verification. The illegal entrants come without either to draw on our hard won social welfare.
Uh sure , sorry. You have to deal with that- merry Christmas
Apparently we’re taking Canada and Panama too.
SPQR 🇺🇸🫡
Long time listener, first time caller etc…
FBF podcast, hell yes.
I enjoy listening. I would love a podcast! I'll even sub.
Re the audio project, obscure historical stuff has its place but I'd very much appreciate some reportage of life in Croatia and the surrounding region. Stuff on lifestyle, standards of living, developments in local film or publishing. The stuff we never hear about. The Balkans is surely more than ethnic grudges and cigarette smuggling. Just a suggestion.
The dynamic duo, Aussie Philip and Yankee LW, yaaay. Truth told, unpalatablele though it may be, as it often is.
Gotta love the increasingly frantic Zel. The Ukraine genocide yarn unsustainable, as well as Russian barbarism, when the real thing is there to be seen in Palestine.