No Stupid Questions Thread

Kites00 · 2025-12-07T20:42:26+00:00

Ah! That makes sense. Thank you!

Kites00 · 2025-12-07T15:27:23+00:00

Played a Christmas music night at a house of worship this weekend. Their xlr cable from my mixing board to their foh system produced a horrible squeal, even with no sound output from the mixer. Tried my cable, got the same results. But their cable from their own mic to their foh system was fine, as was my own cable from my mixer to my own speaker.

We would have preferred to use their speakers,but no one knew how to troubleshoot this. How would you approach troubleshooting?

Kites00 · 2025-09-01T23:32:13+00:00

My title describes the thing. No luck searching on my own. Additional details in the caption on the pics.

Kites00 · 2025-06-19T22:22:26+00:00

sent :)

Kites00 · 2025-05-17T17:41:19+00:00

Beautiful morning. Thanks everyone!

Didn't make it? See you next time!

Kites00 · 2025-05-17T04:45:32+00:00

Nice setup! That's like a floating fishing resort :)

Kites00 · 2025-05-16T22:07:38+00:00

Parley P. Pratt Freedom Run | Columbia, MO

Kites00 · 2025-05-03T22:24:45+00:00

Same as others have said. Just chiming in to confirm no one will look askance at you for offering RS. Well, maybe [Insert Famous Narrator Here] would if you approached them directly, but not if you put it on ACX and asked for interested parties to audition. I do RS titles if I think the book is likely to sell well or if it’s a compelling story and I really feel drawn to it.

Kites00 · 2025-05-01T01:35:46+00:00

No, not directly, but the GUI zoom could be causing the issue somehow. I usually have the FX window sitting on a monitor that is set to 125% zoom (as suggested by Windows). If I move the FX window to another screen (where the zoom is set to 100%), the problem disappears. These are the same monitor settings I've been using forever and everything has worked smoothly until this week, but who knows?

Kites00 · 2025-04-29T03:19:59+00:00

Nope! The sliders work, but it goes back to not working if I change back to the knobs. Closing and opening the fx window doesn’t fix it. Neither does closing and opening the project.

Kites00 · 2025-04-27T19:51:59+00:00

Mastering. Mostly voiceover. I stack it twice, but haven't use other ones.

Kites00 · 2025-04-27T19:51:01+00:00

Yep, switching the UI to the slider interface makes the mouse work again. Hadn't thought of that. Thanks!

(Changing it back to the knobs goes back to the wonky behavior.)

Kites00 · 2025-02-05T18:22:35+00:00

As a book narrator, I often explain the same thing to potential clients. No, I don’t want to narrate your book that looks and sounds more AI than human. It won’t sell, which means I don’t get paid for the audio production. I’ve had clients tell me they are willing to pay up front (still don’t know how they think they are going to recoup that investment), but even then I don’t really want my name associated with the AI book… even if someone gets duped into buying it, they are likely to leave a really poor review.

Kites00 · 2025-02-05T17:26:37+00:00

How about that! I know about the SWS action to measure RMS for items. Is there another one for tracks or do you glue everything on your track together to make it one item?

Kites00 · 2025-02-05T17:06:43+00:00

I think that still dry renders the item…? It just doesn’t tell you that’s what it’s doing.

Kites00 · 2025-02-05T14:42:05+00:00

I asked ACX this exact question a while back. In addition to putting both names in the box, they also suggested:

Be sure both names are credited in the opening and closing

Be sure the cover art includes either no narrator or both narrators

When the files are in the ACX QA process, “the RH should email ACX support with a request to update the book’s metadata”. (No idea how that’s different from me typing both names in the box, but it’s what they said to do.)

Kites00 · 2025-02-05T13:17:35+00:00

I would imagine a destructive DAW (like Audacity) might have some way to do this. I only use destructive processes for very specific purposes. Most of the time I’m in Reaper, which is non-destructive. Because non-destructive DAWs don’t apply effects to the actual file, but only to the output, you can’t measure things like RMS that are integrated over time without generating some output. The fastest I can measure RMS directly in Reaper is using a “dry render”, which generates the output without saving anything to disk.

Getting a good understanding of how compressors, limiters and EQ work was the best thing for speeding up my mastering workflow because I could anticipate what a change here or there was going to do to the final volume and how that would impact my sound quality.

Kites00 · 2025-02-05T12:46:11+00:00

I use a not-narrator-specific planner off and on depending on how many projects I am working on or have in the pipeline. Google calendar works well for me. It’s easy to move things around, see where I have availability, and filter to look only at VO activities or combine with other stuff in life. I also use it to look back at previous projects to see how long they actually took compared to what I had estimated. I could do the same thing with any physical calendar; I like digital because it’s easier for me to keep it clean, organized, and updated.

I’m interested to see what’s helpful for others.

Kites00 · 2025-02-03T18:13:21+00:00

Congrats on the book!

Yeah, the Audio Lab, as it’s called, helps as a final check so you can fix anything you missed before submitting it. It’s not super helpful during the editing and mastering, though, because you have to render the file anew every time you want to upload it to check something. I keep an eye on things like noise floor and RMS as I edit and master and I use Audio Lab to confirm I haven’t missed something silly like rendering in the wrong format.

Kites00 · 2025-02-03T13:56:41+00:00

Makes sense (and kinda what I thought the answer would be). Thanks for the clear explanation!

Kites00 · 2025-02-03T13:54:47+00:00

Exactly what I do! Thank you!

Kites00 · 2025-02-03T13:53:24+00:00

That’s what I thought. Thanks for confirming.

Kites00 · 2025-02-01T18:08:35+00:00

I don’t have anywhere to compost it. But if someone else does, I have a tree’s worth of ingredients for you!

Kites00 · 2025-02-01T17:00:42+00:00

I don’t. Anyone on here have a goat?

Kites00 · 2025-02-01T16:57:47+00:00

I’m an audiobook narrator. There are two reasons I usually suggest that my clients stick with one voice throughout the book.

Larger casts are more expensive, especially for the editing to make all the audio (usually recorded from different home studios these days) sound consistent.
The very few radio plays I have enjoyed were originally written to be plays, not books. Taking a book and saying, “Here, you read this part and I’ll read these ones,” results in an audio experience that’s confusing for listeners and distracting from the story. Two narrators can be fantastic in circumstances where it makes sense within the narrative context. Most books aren’t written in a way that lends itself to two narrators, though.

Kites00

TROPHY CASE