VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[vkuehn]

I did a search on this topic and just read through a lot of interesting Chat Sessions, but didn't find anything that directly speaks to my anxiety.

I am voicing and producing my FIRST book narration for ACX. I have a quiet studio and a quiet rig. After I do a bit of "Noise Removal" using Adobe Audition... there is nothing there that can be called "Room Tone". (Even without Noise Removal, I'm not sure there is anything there that qualifies as Room Tone.) I understand their instructions that if your recording has a room tone, you should add that same sound into gaps where you cut out breath sounds, and at the end of the chapter to fill out the few seconds at the end. (They don't use the word IF. Their instructions assume there will ALWAYS be Room Tone.)

Are they going to bounce my recordings back and insist that I add some artificial room tone to fit between the syllables as well as at the beginning and end of the recordings?

I went on a search for Room Tone and found that is a big topic in movie and video production. The Room Tone of a cafe, a train station, an office sound, etc. If I wanted to acquire a sound track of pleasant but not identifiable by location Room Tone... where would I find such a product?

[todd ellis]

yes, virginia, every recording has room tone.

room tone is simply that - a recording of the room. hit "go" on audition leave the room & close the door. wait 2 minutes - then come back in - chop out 30 seconds or a minute (whatever they are asking for) of "room tone" and send it to them.

they will use it for timing, filling, whatever ...
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[georgethetech]

May I direct you to this webinar I taught last fall? Explains how to do this FAST, easily, and repeatably.
They will email you a link to download the 2 hour video.
There is a lot to learn and if you record and edit the slowest way, you'll never make a profit.
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[Bruce]

When I need room tone I shut my mouth, stop breathing and hit "record" for a few seconds. Works like a charm. Thankfully my room and my mic are nice and quiet so I never have to match something unusual.

It bugs me when film makers (field audio people) don't record room tone and use it when editing. It's really obvious if there's replaced dialogue recorded in some quiet studio laid into a slightly to very noisy scene. It needs that "room sound" or "outdoor sound" underneath to even it all out. Even when you're recording two sides of the same conversation, your mic is pointing in a different direction for each person so the room tone quality is different for each direction shot. Subtle, but noticed by the ultra picky like me.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[vkuehn]

Well, I'm new in the neighborhood and have been slow to move into the conversation. Apparently I wasn't careful enough in wording my question. I wasn't asking "What is room tone?" (I made my first recording in 1949 on a wire recorder.)

My question was really: "What is your experience with ACX. What do they expect? Since they are a bit "specific" on this topic in their guidelines, I am curious to know if this is a biggie over which they really get hung up.

I submitted an audition, thinking it would take multiple tries over maybe a couple of months and I ended up getting the gig more quickly than I expected. All of that to say: My web page and demo recordings were not yet polished to the point I wanted so I put the web site on the back burner and focused on the project.

Maybe in a couple of weeks I can report back to you on how ACX responded to my work, and maybe a bit sooner I can point you to some of my product and let you folks evaluate it against your own standards.

I can already report to you that I could not have asked for a better author to work with. I think maybe we are twins separated at birth and never knew about each other. And it turns out we live maybe 25 - 30 miles from each other. And this is HIS first audio book!!! Two rookies, both with lots to learn, and both with a lot of patience trying to get the project right.

[Jason Huggins]

ACX (as with ALL audiobook producers) is VERY specific about room tone. This is because with audiobooks, a lack of room tone between speaking gets really annoying and obvious to the listener. Leaving the room tone (especially when it is minimal) will be more pleasant to the listener, as the mind tunes it out. If you just put silence instead of room tone, no matter HOW awesome your room is, you will absolutely be able to hear the difference in headphones.

Many audiobook producers don't want any processing because they do it. ACX, however, is different. You are the producer of the book, so you have to do all of the mastering.

I have found that ACX is not nearly as picky as they appear. Some of their specs for audio (like their processing specs) are downright goofy. When I did my first book with ACX, I did not follow their specs 100%, but instead, did some RMS normalizing, some compression, then a tiny limiting, and made sure all the chapters were even.

You DO have to follow the timing specs to a T. These are pretty standard, and they are not difficult to follow. Just make sure you add room tone and not silence to do the proper timing.

If you do noise reduction as part of your processing, just make sure it is completely transparent. If you hear even a hint of audio pulsing, don't do it. A noise floor of below -60db is acceptable to them (I believe...don't quote me on that one). I've listened to some really poorly done books that are for sale on ACX, so if your standards are what you say they are, you'll be just fine.

[Jeffrey Kafer]

ACX is not picky. I've pushed all manner of utter rubbish through there and rarely have anything bounce back.

You're over-thinking it. No need to add artificial room tone, And if your sound is that quiet from the get-go, there's no reason to use any Noise Reduction, which should keep your room tone intact (unless you're gating).
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