So I tried using Studio One’s editing software. But other than learning a bit about ideal sound settings, I basically spent a month stabbing my eyes out in frustration just to throw in the towel. It just does too much. It’s made for multiple instruments and inputs, like for a full band…or maybe a small orchestra. All of these options makes the editing area on the screen smaller and makes the options and buttons overwhelming. Aside from that, I’m pretty sure it was made for Macs.
Anyway! For today, let’s talk about the what, why, and how of editing in Audacity because it’s easy and it works! Check it out at audacityteam.org
As a general rule, I say record all your audio before editing so if you voice a character wrong, or realize you’ve been mispronouncing a town name, or whatever, you don’t have to re-record something you already wasted time editing.
However, since you’re probably taking jobs through ACX, you need to submit an edited 15 minutes as your first check-in with the author. So we’ll talk about editing that first.
Let’s say you have 20 minutes of raw audio that you hope to turn into roughly 15 minutes of finished audio. Grab a pen and paper and some headphones, and settle in.
Step 1: SAVE YOUR RAW AUDIO FILE by “exporting” as an mp3 file. When you export as MP3, a “format options” box should appear at the bottom of your save window. In the dropdown next to “Quality”, select 192kbps. This is ACX’s requirement.
(Note: Audacity will require an add-on called LAME to export your file to an mp3 format, but they’ll walk you through how to do that when you first try to “export to mp3”)
Step 2: Listen to the silence at the beginning of your recording and edit out any fidgeting or deep breaths so that you have a few seconds of good quality silence.
Step 3: Click and drag to highlight approx. 0.5 seconds of that silence and copy it (Ctrl + C). You’ll need that later.
Step 4: Listen to your recording and delete parts as you go. Remember, some breaths are ok and sound natural. You’re only deleting things that sound unnatural or take away from the listener’s experience.
- Delete pauses that are too long by highlighting them and then pressing “Delete” on your keyboard. Remove mouth noises in the same way.
- If you take an obnoxious breath or there’s a noise in the pause between sentences, paste in your 0.5 seconds of silence to get a clean, quiet pause instead. You can paste multiple 0.5 clips of silence next to each other for longer pauses, or just go back to the beginning and copy a longer portion of silence.
- As you listen, make mental notes about your pace so you can adjust when you continue narrating. Are you too fast? Too slow? If you’re WAY too fast or slow, you may just want to re-record your 15 minute segment.
- Listen to pauses between character dialogue. Did you have to pause longer than normal between speakers because you had to switch voices? Either delete some of it, or replace it with your 0.5 seconds of silence. If you need it to be even shorter than that, simply delete how much of the pause you want gone.
- If you recorded a passage twice to perfect your delivery of it, delete the one you don’t want…duh.
Step 5: Every time you delete something, move your mouse to a second or two BEFORE the change you just made, and re-listen to make sure your change flows nicely.
Step 6: Sometimes, no matter what you do, you will have to re-record something. Maybe you didn’t notice the creaking of your house in the background, or you made a horrendous mouth noise mid-word. Use your pen and paper to write down the minute and second of where your edit needs to happen, and the first and last 5 words in the passage that you need to re-record.
Ex: 3:04 “I didn’t think to tell her…..the moon and the stars”
Step 7: Save your audio again by exporting! Do NOT overwrite the raw audio you saved in step 1. When ACX Quality Control has an issue with any of your recordings, it will be a lot easier to fix things if you have it saved in its various stages of completion. Once the book is successfully published, you can delete these files if you want.
Step 8: Once you’ve reached the end of your recording, leave a few seconds of silence at the end. If your noise floor (the db of the quiet parts) is above -60db (ACX’s requirement), you’ll need to “noise reduce”.
- Highlight the few seconds of silence (at the end or beginning, doesn’t matter, whichever is better) and go to “Effect” in the tool bar at the top. Select “Noise Reduction” from the menu and click the button “Get Noise Profile” on the box that pops up.
- Highlight your entire recording by double clicking it.
- Effect > Noise Reduction > Reduce the noise to get you down to the -60db. (So if your noise floor is currently -48, your noise reduction field should be 12).
- I like my sensitivity at ___ and my frequency at ____ , but your needs here may vary depending on your microphone. So after you reduce the noise, listen to a section of your audio where you left in a breath sound (these seem to be more affected by noise reduction and can sound tinny if done wrong). If it still sounds normal after noise reducing, you’re fine. If it doesn’t, go to Edit > Undo Noise Reduction in the tool bar (or Ctrl + Z) and try the noise reduction again with different sensitivities and frequencies until the breaths sound normal.
Step 9: Save one last time. DO NOT overwrite either of your two previous saves.
Step 10: Submit your audio!
If that gets approved, you’re ready to narrate the rest of the book! Good luck! And always let me know if you have questions! Hit me up on Twitter, Instagram, or in the comments! You can find me at @stephspeakz 🙂
