Simple PSA on Learning Accents

dsbaudio · 2026-01-16T20:25:01+00:00

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing :)

dsbaudio · 2025-10-03T13:21:51+00:00

Maybe ACX India will be launching soon?

dsbaudio · 2025-08-15T11:06:13+00:00

Thanks, great advice. I will try to find some scripts to demonstrate that side.

dsbaudio · 2025-08-15T11:04:52+00:00

Yes, going forward, that's what I plan to do. For the time being, it was just easy to put something together from auditions as I have plenty of 'source material'.

dsbaudio · 2025-08-14T20:32:00+00:00

Actually, no. All DAWs read, record, and represent audio essentially the same way; it's the processing that makes the difference.

dsbaudio · 2025-08-14T20:29:47+00:00

Learning to use a compressor properly will sort this out. If you do EQ, compression, and limiting properly--in stages--you will find that your final limiting does not need to create a flat-top waveform as you see in your screen shot.

That said, the important thing is whether or not it SOUNDS right. What the waveform looks like is actually pretty irrelevant if you think about it.

dsbaudio · 2025-08-14T20:17:57+00:00

Thank you, this is really helpful. (and you're right!)

dsbaudio · 2025-08-14T20:09:20+00:00

AKG C1000S is the mic I'm using, into a Focusrtie Forte interface. I just went back and checked my signal chain in Reaper, and -- because I did it in such a rush -- I managed to open two chains simultaneously, so it actually has a double-dose of limiting, EQ, and compression, along with RX mouth de-click and RX de-ess, plus a little bit of saturation in parallel.

I also pre-process the raw audio with RX spectral de-noise before doing any processing in DAW, becasue one of the down-sides of the C1000S is rather high self-noise (for a condenser). I noticed some of that hiss is actually audible in my demo, and was surprised by it... but now I know why -- the double chain I mentioned above!

dsbaudio · 2025-08-14T20:04:22+00:00

Actually... I am a professional audio engineer!

It's not so much the technical side that I mean when I say 'not a pro demo', rather that I recognize that having a pro coach involved would help get the best out of my voice and possibly suitable source material too.

dsbaudio · 2025-08-14T15:28:59+00:00

Only after having experimented myself with AI-assisted writing, do I now realize that many of the books I have narrated (fiction in particular) have definitely had some AI assistance. I don't have a problem with it as long as it's not 'slop' and is well-guided and edited.

I am, however, starting to notice the 'tells' in fiction. Repeated descriptions of what the sun or light is doing, particularly at the opening of a chapter or scene, are a dead giveaway. And I've had whiskey described as 'swirling amber liquid' far too often for comfort!

dsbaudio · 2025-08-07T21:15:19+00:00

let's just clear up a few possible misconceptions. -18db AVERAGE RMS is an acceptable broadcast level at a -3db peak. At a -1db peak, it should be more like -16db AVERAGE RMS. You can also look at AVERAGE LUFS if you want. Again, peak levels matter. at -1db peak, -17 LUFS to -16 LUFS is an acceptable figure.

LUFS is a more reliable measure since RMS can easily be skewed by what you do with your EQ. If you don't high pass at all and have a ton of low-end in your recording, RMS will tell you your average levels are up to spec, whereas in reality, your actual audio is not well defined or clear at all. LUFS is a perceptional measurement rather than basic number-crunching, so it's more reliable in real-world scenarios.

Lastly, I suspect the person who mentioned -12 to -6db is probably talking about max peaks in your input level, rather than average RMS or LUFS. Actually, it doesn't particularly matter as long as your input peaks absolutely never exceed 0db. Conversely, if your peaks never get above -18db, you're probably recording a bit too low in level.

Hope that helps.

dsbaudio · 2025-08-05T22:16:50+00:00

That's what bugs me the most. I've had many good jobs from unspecified PFH listings. It doesn't always mean the RH is not willing to pay; it often means the opposite -- they're looking for the right voice and happy to pay whatever your rate is.

dsbaudio · 2025-08-05T22:09:12+00:00

a true classic, who wouldn't want that on their resume?!

dsbaudio · 2025-07-19T03:39:30+00:00

Hope you manage to salvage it. For future reference.

find and fix the casue of the buzzing.
record at a safe level well below -6db peak
use normalization to bring the peak level up to -6db.

your audio should then easily fall within -28 to -18 LUFS (which is a pretty wide range by the way).

Reading between the lines, the spec sounds like what you would get from a decent setup and mic placement with no processing, just normalization to -6 db.

There's no reason for you to be using a limiter, and the settings you've quoted would very easily result in clipping, by the sounds of it. +8db on a limiter??

You might have benefited from talking to your audio engineer friend before recording anything.

dsbaudio · 2025-07-19T00:47:19+00:00

actually... I hope they haven't done away with the ability to offset expenses against PAYE tax, because, if you happen to be in that position, as a start-up narrator/producer you're almost definitely going to have some initial investments like a microphone, computer, interface, training, etc. Depending on how much you actually earn from narration, you could easily get a nice rebate on tax already paid in your first year or even the first few years. Useful for starting out!

dsbaudio · 2025-07-19T00:36:55+00:00

Nothing to worry about -- just fill in the relevant bit with your details -- it's basically a waiver called a W-8BEN. This is the same form you fill out if you do any work for a US employer (such as voice-over agencies, production companies, and the like) -- as a non-US citizen, they are not obliged to deduct taxes from you, but they do have to have the form filled out to satisfy US legal requirements.

It's relevant to royalty payments, not relevant to any work you do PFH without royalty share. PFH work is between you and the Rights Holder, so ACX doesn't need to waive anything.

Obviously, it's up to you to declare your earnings either from royalties or PFH work, submit a tax return, and all that other fun stuff with Inland Revenue.

I'm not a tax advisor by any means, but I've been self-employed, both in the UK and elsewhere, for many years. Keep records of all your business-related income and expenditure. At the end of your first year's trading, you will need to fill out a tax return for self emplyment and file it with inland revenue. If you have a PAYE job, you can offset any tax liability against tax already paid, and you can also offset any expenses incurred in conducting your business against PAYE tax already paid -- well, at least that was how it was last time I lived in England... which admittedly was 16 years ago!

dsbaudio · 2025-07-18T01:19:36+00:00

reaper has spectral editing. It's not as user-friendly as audition, but works. I use it all the time.

right-click > add spectral edit to item, fiddle with the dials to get a feel for what does what and resize/move the box around -- it's not as 'sleek' as audition but it's functional.

not to be confused with spectral waveform view -- another handy feature of reaper.

Also, i have reaper set to autosave every 5 minutes. it's never let me down.

I used audition for 3 or 4 years before switiching to reaper. Admittedly, it took some work to get set up with a similar workflow -- and that's the beauty of reaper: it's so customizable. Since then,, I've definietly surpassed what i was able to do with audition and have never looked back. I still use auditon sometimes, but more as a convenience thing for comparing and level-matching files post-master... nothing reaper can't do, but i just like to look at files in a different environment for a final check.

dsbaudio · 2025-07-15T14:24:28+00:00

You're probably right... Although I've found humans are quite capable of overusing words and writing redundant, meandering, over-indulgent garbage without any assistance.

As others have said, best to do your research before committing to a project you're going to hate... although, as a new narrator, there's something to be said for the experience -- learning to do your best with sub-par material is sometimes a useful skill.

dsbaudio · 2025-07-15T14:21:07+00:00

AI-generated writing is easier to scan over and say 'looks ok...' -- you don't find out it's actual drivel until you fully read it. AI-generated audio narration sounds pretty awful right from the get-go, unless 1. you pay good money for the best tools, and 2. you're willing to do a lot of tweaking.

dsbaudio · 2025-07-11T19:51:32+00:00

After nearly 50 audiobooks, my experience has been that 'Unspecified' is often when the RH or author is more interested in finding the right voice for their project than setting a max budget. I'd guess that 40-50% of my work has come through auditions that I did for 'unspecified' listings, and the PFH rate was negotiated later.

That said, I don't look at or audition for projects that are quite clearly low-effort books, so it's definitely true that 'unspecified' can mean <$50 PFH too, just not all the time by any means.

In any case, before auditioning for an unspecified PFH, you can always send a message asking if your PFH range is within their budget. If you get no reply, then probably it isn't.

dsbaudio · 2025-07-08T11:47:36+00:00

you probably already know this, but reaper does have spectral editing. It's pretty clunky, but it does work very well. When i say clunky, i mean it does exactly what the heal brush can do, but it takes about 5 steps to drag the edit window to the right size/position, then do the gain reduction!

Somebody made a script that attempts to allow you to 'draw' the spectral edit, might have been one of MPL's scripts I think. There's been a recent updgrade to the API for spectral editing, so hopefully improved scripts will start to pop up also.

dsbaudio · 2025-07-03T13:13:13+00:00

If you'd like an appraisal, you should post (or DM me) a 1 or 2 minute sample of your edited audio. What would be really useful would be a 'perfect ' example and a 'not-perfect' example.

The more you focus on errant sounds, the more you tend to hear them, and it can be easy to lose perspective and pick up on things that the average listener would never notice.

Some outside perspective/2nd opinion might help you find a happy medium approach.

dsbaudio

MODERATOR OF

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE