Voice recordings

Thread split off from Voice Assistant Thread.

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Ok, audacity downloaded, Github account in the name of SuttaVoice set up, and linked to SC-Karl.

Regarding the mic etc. After reading up on all the suggestions, this is what I’m looking at
https://www.soundcorp.com.au/zoom-h2n-and-aph2n-accessory-pack-6538

Any final words of advice on the equipment side?

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That’s pretty much the setup I have.

some audacity editing tips:

Audacity does have a feature to mark/flag all silences of adjustable length (default about 2 seconds I think). And then you can just jump directly to the flagged spots. But sometimes noise spikes in the background ruins the silence detection.

So thats why the 5 second silences to give yourself a big visual flag visible from a compacted view of the entire visual sound wave so you know the spots which definitely need to be edited, you can’t miss it visually.

my system is a min. of 5 second silence to indicate something needs editing, and I record a simple instruction to say what that edit is, for example, “delete last sentence” is the most common one. If there’s no instruction to edit something, then it means I just need to take a silence break to burp, rest, turn pages, whatever and to trim the silence.

A few tricks to minimize mouth noises in the recording:
1 ) the explosives: syllables beginning with “p” tend to create huge noise spikes. First, use the wind screen that goes over the mic. Then when you talk into the mike, try different angles and offsets so the force of your sound waves do not shoot directly at the mike, but under, or over the main hot spot.

  1. sibilance: the s-words that make a loud hissing noise when you record. Some of this is due to what we eat and drink, and the wind passing through our teeth makes that hissing noise. Not too much you can do about it if you drink a lot of tea and makes your teeth cause extra hissing, but what you can do is when you read words, to just say the parts of the words with “s” a little more gently and don’t sustain that “s” sound longer than necessary.

  2. mouth/saliva sticky noises: One thing for people who meditate a lot and have strong samadhi, it’s going to be a common problem that you salivate much more profusely than average (that’s a sign of good health, vitality, and samadhi), so obviously you’re not going to meditate less to get less saliva. I believe the only thing to do about this is talk much louder than you normally do when you record, so that the sutta reading is much louder than the mouth noises. If it’s that important to you minimize mouth/saliva noises. Me personally, I find that I make better recordings being my usual relaxed soft spoken voice so that my reverance and awe of the dhamma can come through the reading, at the cost of having annoying mouth noises.

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Thank you Frank :slight_smile: Really helpful info.
I used to use Dragon Dictate - voice to text software. In fact I started off with version 1 in the early 1990’s. I loved it!! so great for large amounts of text (Phd, etc etc) It’s so funny now to do the reverse :smiley:

BTW I really like your recorded Suttas - very easy and pleasant to listen to!

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@sujato

Dear Bhante, It appears I have bitten off more than I can chew. My commitments atm are such that I can’t take on voice recording of the suttas. I’ll be back in my secluded lovely place in the new year, and will take it up then.

Apologies for the enthusiasm generated false start :rofl:
:anjal::dharmawheel:

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