Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion FoLC Productions AudioFic: Readers Wanted!

According to the good people at LibriVox, USB headsets generally offer better quality than traditional microphones. The downside with them is that the volume can be a little harder to control.

Personally, I'm fond of Logitech. They make two good models: the 250 and the more upscale 350. I have a 250. Not sure how easy the 350s are to find, or if they're even worth the extra money. But Logitech products in general tend to be good quality.

But... go to the electronics store and see what they have available.

One thing you can check while buying is the microphone's frequency range. Higher quality mics will be sensative to a broader range of frequencies, perhaps even up to the nigh-inaudiable 21,000 khz level.

Oh, and my Logitech headset has a handy feature... there's a second sensor on the outside of the mic, directly opposite the part that faces me. It uses that to automatically cancel out some degree of background noise. Not sure how effective it really is, but it's cool to have.

Paul

Oh, I'd love to read fics aloud. Count me in (if I can get the program to work) Oh but where to begin? Too many fics!

hi, i am the trucker that left a comment on the audiofic poll.i read a lot of fan fiction on the archive and i don't really read the forum much, but i was so thrilled about this idea that i had to make a comment.(i am not sure if this is the place for this post, so move it if you want to) i just wanted to say how excited i am about this project!!! i think its just wonderful of all of you to want to do this!

i think Paul did a fine job on the first story, i put it on my MP3 player and listened to it in the truck, and the sound came thru just great, he was easy to understand and i got caught up in the story completely. Good story too.

i think the different accents will be a lot of fun and i encourage everyone to participate. as i was reading the threads on this subject about the accents, i thought it would be really fun if the Tank/Wendy challenges could be read in the appropriate accents or genders. they always write about the different spellings in the opening comments, so hearing the story read in the accent it was written in would be a real giggle.

on a selfish note--i would love the longer stories to be narrated! i drive for 8 to 10 hours straight, and like long involved books. the short stories are good for commuters, but the longer ones would be so nice for long haul drivers or anyone going on vacation with a long drive.

thank you, thank you, thank you....
just can't thank you enough!! Peggy

I would love to be a reader. I do have some questions though. I have a MacBook and wondered if I need to download anythng special to record and send my files to you. I have something called GarageBand preinstalled and wondered if any of the more tech-savy friendly FOLC could help me out getting started The gargeband software is PODCAST ready if that information helps. So if someone could just help me get started I would appreciate it Thanks for starting such a wonderful project.

Molly, how about browsing the aforementioned rapidly growing list of available stories to see what strikes you?

Peggy... welcome! Very cool to see this project bringing in a new face, and I love your enthusiasm. Thanks, too, for the comments on my efforts. Much appreciated.

As for longer stories, there are a couple currently being worked on. Might be a little while, but be patient. They'll get there...

Wanda, we've already been in contact, and I'm glad to see your progress. For others who may be reading this... Nope, you don't need anything else. Garage Band seems to work just fine. As you've noticed, LibriVox even has some tutorial information for it.

Paul

I am new, but would LOVE to participate - please let me know how to go forward.

Tony

Sorry - did not read the entire thread. My error.

I now see how to do it. I am looking forward to this!

Tony

Cool. Welcome to the boards! And I look forward to your participation.

And thanks for reminding me to update the first post in this thread. Kept forgetting to do so, but it now has better information and links to the other threads.

Paul

Ok, I know I'm a pain, but here's my problem. I bought my cool headset and am now ready to record. I went to the Audacity link and it keeps coming up as a bad request.

I could record on "Sound Recorder" which will generate a .wmv file. Can you tell me where else to go for Audacity or is a .wmv file ok?

I'm all ready to go and I'd appreciate help on this one.

Don't apologize. You're volunteering. You're trying. And we could use all the help we can get. If you need some help getting started, I'm glad to provide whatever assitance I can.

Sound Recorder isn't great. IIRC, it's got a fairly short recording limit. It also has zero editing capability.

(Trust me, you'll need editing. I just finished Part 1 of my latest project, and when I was done editing out the places where I fumbled and rerecorded, what had been a 67-minute recording ended up as 49 minutes long... Which means I edited out over 1/4 of what I'd had.)

Not sure what problem you're having with Audacity. The following should be the direct link to their download page:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows

Left-click on the link for the installer, and you'll be taken to the list of mirror sites for that file:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/audacity/audacity-win-1.2.4b.exe?use_mirror=voxel

Pick one (try for something geographically close) and left-click "download" to start the download. It may take a few seconds before the download prompt pops up, so be patient.

If, for whatever reason, you can't get it from there, I can email you a copy of the installer file. It's freeware, so there's no problem with passing it along.

Or you could try using a different program.

LibriVox has a list of available software:

http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/SoftwareWeUse

Looks like the only other program on the list which is available free for Windows and which allows you to record and edit and save as MP3 is Exact Audio Copy:

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

I've never used it, though, so I can't tell you any more than that.

If all else fails, the other option (pointed out to me last night by Kaylle) is Odeo:

http://odeo.com

Sign up with them, and you can record MP3s by phone. No editing, though. Which, come to think, is the same capability as you can get through Skype and Pamela ...

Hope something here works. Let me know if you need anything more. I'm glad to help.

Paul

Paul, you're the best. I downloaded everything and I recorded "Only Yesterday" by Wendy Richards this morning. I have 3 mistakes to fix, so I'm figuring out how to do that now and then I'm ready to send it to you. It's short so that you can let me know if what I'm doing is what you're looking for. Then, I'll do some longer fanfics. Thanks for all your help!

Glad to help, Cheryl.

What program are you using?

If it's Audacity, all you have to do is highlight, cut, and paste. Same as you would with a text file. Only trick is snipping out the right part. If you left reasonable pauses before rerecording, that shouldn't be too bad. If you tapped on the mic or something after each mistake, finding the right spot should be pretty easy.

Anyway, sounds like you're making good progress. That's great. And thanks again for pitching in!

Paul

Yep, I'm using Audacity. Cutting is pretty easy, especially since I actually remembered to tap the microphone so I could find the three errors again. I've been going through a tutorial (can you tell I have zero experience with technology?!), which has been really helpful. I'm almost to the part where I learn to paste a piece in. I assume I record a new piece on a separate track and "paste" it in. Tomorrow night is edit night, then I'm going to jump into a longer story. I don't know about the other readers, but picking a story is so hard, because there's so much talent here .

When I'm recording, I tap on the mic, wait a second or two, and reread from the beginning of the sentence. Then I just delete the flub, and I'm left with the second, clean recording.

If you want to paste something, just do it like you would with a text file. Highlight what you want, cut it (CTRL-X or edit -> cut), select where you want it to go (by placing the cursor in the right spot), and paste (CTRL-V or edit -> paste).

As for recording on a new track.. Audacity does that automatically when you stop and start a new recording. You can combine them using cut and paste ("edit -> select -> select all" or "edit -> select -> cursor to end" can help) or, if everything is already lined up, you can use "project -> quick mix".

Does that help?

Paul

It sure does. I'm sure I can figure it out (at last). Thanks again!

LaraMoon, I saw you said you can read French if it's desired. My dad speaks French but is getting rusty and needs practice; he drives around a lot and listens to stuff in the car, so if you get permission from any of the authors of French fanfics (or even the French versions of S5 and S6), he would love the practice. He's not really into fanfic, but showed quite a bit of interest in listening to French fanfic, so if that works out for you, it would definitely be appreciated over here.

ok, I hope I'm not going to make a complete idiot out of myself but I'd also like to give it a try. I just have to buy a new usb-mic the next days and then I'll have to see how to get it work.

One question at the end: are there by now readers who are not native-english-speakers (or whatever the right word for it might be ... )? The question is: has it worked out or are for example especially Germans bad readers ... ?

We've been awfully short on readers in general, actually. I haven't gotten a new file in months. So... no. No ESL readers as of yet. But as long as you can speak clearly, it shouldn't be a problem.

The archive also welcomes stories in other languages . If you can get permission from the author (and, preferably, someone who speaks German to beta listen), I don't see any reason why you couldn't read in your native tongue.

Paul

Is there any chance that new fics are being recorded? I don't have much time to read at the moment so I would love to be able to listen to some new fics.

I haven't had a new audiofic submitted to the Archive in...oh, must be at least over a year.

Sorry!

We'd like new ones, too. But until we get volunteers recording them....

LabRat