Memoirs

  • Thread starter Thread starter bobupthecreek
  • Start date Start date
B

bobupthecreek

New member
Yes, I am a newbie at 72 years old!? I've decided I want to record some memoirs to leave behind for my family and friends. So, I purchased some equipment: Zoom H6, Sure WH20, headphones. Seems like this should be relatively easy. I'm just recording my own narration, one channel. Online, I googled best sound levels and it recommends to "aim for levels that peak around -6dB and maintain an average around -12dB, ensuring you don't clip or distort the audio". Does that sound about right? Any other tips you'd like to share will be appreciated. This is a terrific forum. Thanks - Bob
 
Yes that’s what you want - and you may want a DAW as well to Edit the audio - getting rid of artifacts, coughs etc...
 
bobupthecreek said:
Yes, I am a newbie at 72 years old!? I've decided I want to record some memoirs to leave behind for my family and friends. So, I purchased some equipment: Zoom H6, Sure WH20, headphones. Seems like this should be relatively easy. I'm just recording my own narration, one channel. Online, I googled best sound levels and it recommends to "aim for levels that peak around -6dB and maintain an average around -12dB, ensuring you don't clip or distort the audio". Does that sound about right? Any other tips you'd like to share will be appreciated. This is a terrific forum. Thanks - Bob
Click to expand...
I don't have any advice - I just want to commend you for doing such a thoughtful thing. My parents died young and there is so much I wish I could ask them.

I spent considerable quality one-on-one time with my elderly-but-lucid grandfather before he died at the age of 95. He disclosed *incredible* things to me about his life and the family in general. Stuff that would have been lost for ever to me had we not had those long talks together. One of my biggest regrets is not asking him if I could record that time together.

So yeah - kudos for doing this. It's a very giving and valuable thing to do. (even if some of what you have to say may not be what people want to hear :-) )
 
Papanate said:
Yes that’s what you want - and you may want a DAW as well to Edit the audio - getting rid of artifacts, coughs etc...
Click to expand...
Thanks Papanate. Yes - good idea. I'm learning Audacity. I should have asked what format to record narration. Zoom H6 looks like I have a choice between WAV or MP3. Is MP3 sufficient?
 
bobupthecreek said:
Thanks Papanate. Yes - good idea. I'm learning Audacity. I should have asked what format to record narration. Zoom H6 looks like I have a choice between WAV or MP3. Is MP3 sufficient?
Click to expand...
MP3 at 320kbps is sufficient and convenient.
Kudos, by the way. Some folks are reluctant to share for some reason (in my experience anyway).
 
bobupthecreek said:
Thanks Papanate. Yes - good idea. I'm learning Audacity. I should have asked what format to record narration. Zoom H6 looks like I have a choice between WAV or MP3. Is MP3 sufficient?
Click to expand...
What @Serendipity Records said - there is not much difference between and MP3 at 320kbps and a Wave File at 24/48 - the MP3 is less space to store - but I would record both and see if you can hear any difference - are you putting any room sound on your recordings? - Like capturing the room or just the Room sound that bleeds into your narration microphone?
 
Papanate said:
What @Serendipity Records said - there is not much difference between and MP3 at 320kbps and a Wave File at 24/48 - the MP3 is less space to store - but I would record both and see if you can hear any difference - are you putting any room sound on your recordings? - Like capturing the room or just the Room sound that bleeds into your narration microphone?
Click to expand...
Papanate - I will do some comparisons: WAV vs MP3. Not trying to capture any room sound -- just what bleeds into narration. I also plan to record much of the narration as I am driving on trips, using the head-worn Shure WH20. So, I expect to have some ambient road and car noise. That's one reason I got the Sure WH20 - which is suppose to be pretty good at isolating sound source (me). Any other thoughts? Thanks. - Bob
 
For simple voice recordings, I think a 320K MP3 should be more than sufficient. What you will get with the recording setup is worlds better than the recordings that I got when my father passed away. When we were kids in the 1950s, he bought a reel to reel recorder. It came with a crystal microphone. He recorded several tapes with family members, and stored them away. A few years ago, I transferred them to digital and gave copies to my siblings.

The quality was horrible, of course, but that wasn't the point. We have recordings of my parents, some aunts and uncles and us as kids at 2 to 6 yrs old. Luckily they also took 8mm movies as well (no audio) but we can look back at our grandparents and parents when they were in their 20s and 30s.

The Zoom recorder does a very good job. I have the H4n and have used it for doing multitrack recording of music. A friend uses his H6 to record his band's performances.

RE: the WH-20, which version did you get? Hopefully you ordered the WH-20XLR, There are 3 options, 1/4", XLR and a 4 pin connector. The XLR version would be the correct one for use with the Zoom. The TQG version has a special 4 pin female connector for use with Shure's wireless pack.
 
RE: Audacity

This is perfect situation for using Audacity. Editing is very easy. You can edit out any extraneous bits. You aren't trying to synchronize multiple tracks like a typical music recording would demand. You also won't need extensive plugin support. Audacity comes with lots of basic features (EQ and MAYBE compression will be of the most use).

Simple editing will the most valuable tool. If you find that a section of audio is different in volume, you can simply highlight that section and adjust the volume. It's an easy way to equalize different sessions of you record at multiple times.

Have fun and let us know if you have any question.
 
Hello whippersnapper Bob! (I am 79) Yes, Audacity is fine for your purpose but since it will cost you nothing but time do try Reaper?

Re MP3/WAV, I would always record to a 'linear" format initially and archive it, warts and all, storage is SO cheap now. I may be wrong but I think MP3 can start to sound a bit weird if you try to process it?

I would also revise your recording level? IMHO you need to run 24 bits/44.1kHz or 48kHz and an average level of -18, -20dBFS and peak no higher than -8. Once you have your recordings 'in the can' and processed you can up the level if you need to.

Dave.
 
The thing to watch for with spoken word is that the loudest parts are often the clicks and pops of your mouth. Your voice is what people want to hear, so i always get annoyed when in my daw you see these unintentional spikes. In audacity look carefully at what you record and see if you have these little spikes. Audacity can remove or reduce them. Spend a bit of time experimenting with what you can do. Almost certainly, you will at some point speak louder or move away. Audacity will let you make everything perfect. Most people don’t bother but others sort of are on a quest. Depends if this is a one off, or turns into a sort of hobby. If you ever get stuck please post clips and ask, we always like advising on unusual recording things, you then either accept or reject what we say. Have fun.
 
TalismanRich said:
For simple voice recordings, I think a 320K MP3 should be more than sufficient. What you will get with the recording setup is worlds better than the recordings that I got when my father passed away. When we were kids in the 1950s, he bought a reel to reel recorder. It came with a crystal microphone. He recorded several tapes with family members, and stored them away. A few years ago, I transferred them to digital and gave copies to my siblings.

The quality was horrible, of course, but that wasn't the point. We have recordings of my parents, some aunts and uncles and us as kids at 2 to 6 yrs old. Luckily they also took 8mm movies as well (no audio) but we can look back at our grandparents and parents when they were in their 20s and 30s.

The Zoom recorder does a very good job. I have the H4n and have used it for doing multitrack recording of music. A friend uses his H6 to record his band's performances.

RE: the WH-20, which version did you get? Hopefully you ordered the WH-20XLR, There are 3 options, 1/4", XLR and a 4 pin connector. The XLR version would be the correct one for use with the Zoom. The TQG version has a special 4 pin female connector for use with Shure's wireless pack.
Click to expand...
Talisman - Thanks for your comments and info. Enjoyed your family recording history, which closely parallels my own. Growing up in the 50's, reel-to-reel recording. I've got a box full of old reel-to-reel tapes and a Sony deck in need of repair, so I can listen to them. Plenty of surprises, I'm sure. I got the Shure WH20XLR mic, so I should be ok. - Bob
 
ecc83 said:
Hello whippersnapper Bob! (I am 79) Yes, Audacity is fine for your purpose but since it will cost you nothing but time do try Reaper?

Re MP3/WAV, I would always record to a 'linear" format initially and archive it, warts and all, storage is SO cheap now. I may be wrong but I think MP3 can start to sound a bit weird if you try to process it?

I would also revise your recording level? IMHO you need to run 24 bits/44.1kHz or 48kHz and an average level of -18, -20dBFS and peak no higher than -8. Once you have your recordings 'in the can' and processed you can up the level if you need to.

Dave.
Click to expand...
Thanks Dave. I'll take a look at Reaper. - Bob
 
rob aylestone said:
The thing to watch for with spoken word is that the loudest parts are often the clicks and pops of your mouth. Your voice is what people want to hear, so i always get annoyed when in my daw you see these unintentional spikes. In audacity look carefully at what you record and see if you have these little spikes. Audacity can remove or reduce them. Spend a bit of time experimenting with what you can do. Almost certainly, you will at some point speak louder or move away. Audacity will let you make everything perfect. Most people don’t bother but others sort of are on a quest. Depends if this is a one off, or turns into a sort of hobby. If you ever get stuck please post clips and ask, we always like advising on unusual recording things, you then either accept or reject what we say. Have fun.
Click to expand...
Rob - Good advice. Thanks. I was looking at the "normalize" effect in Audacity. Does tht take care of some of the clicks and pops? - Bob
 
bobupthecreek said:
Rob - Good advice. Thanks. I was looking at the "normalize" effect in Audacity. Does tht take care of some of the clicks and pops? - Bob
Click to expand...
Nope - Audio Normalization is a process that increases the level of a recording by a constant amount so that it reaches a target - Normalization applies the same level increase to the entire duration of an audio file - OTOH mouth clicks and pops have to be edited out - or use something like RX11 Advanced ($$$) to do automatically - same thing with errant noises - a siren in the background - construction sounds - traffic noise etc…- Match EQ and Normalization would be good to keep all the audio sounding basically the same - Match EQ is a Plugin that you pick the EQ Profile you want and it applies to the files that you want.
 
You could use a clipper to get rid of spikes from clicks and pops, although I'd recommend using REAPER over Audacity if you want to go down that road.
 
"You could use a clipper to get rid of spikes from clicks and pops, although I'd recommend using REAPER over Audacity if you want to go down that road."

I have used Samplitude in the past to edit out clicks from daughter's punk 45s. You can expand the track ad.inf. in the 'X' direction, cut out the clicks and plops then stitch the track together again.

I have not used Reaper in that way* but I am sure it could do something very similar?

*NEVER want to clean up 50 sides of punk EVER again!

Dave
 
That is something I've thought about.
When you're dead and gone, who's going to know you ever existed?
The pharaohs had their pyramids to tell their story with.
We have maybe Google. Will they delete any records you made?
If you put your story on media, how long will that media survive?
Stone tablets and pottery seem to be good survivors.
 
I made copies on both DVD and USB flash drive. Copies were given to each of my siblings. From there, they can be transferred to any device they like, have 10 more copies made if they want.

They are far more "permanent" than the 7inch reels of audio tape (one copy) or 8mm films that were transferred to VHS about 20 years ago. If someday they create optical storage on magic cubes, they can be transferred to there as its digital data.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top