Yoruba text/audio don't match

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Re: Yoruba text/audio don't match

Postby Oberon on February 5th, 2010, 8:39 am

OK - Here is a suggested course of action:
    1. Download and install Audacity Beta 1.3 along with the optional Lame MP3 encoder. The other extra plugins can be downloaded and installed if desired. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
    2. Clean the tape heads with a Q-tip and alcohol. Rubbing alcohol will work fine. Wait a minute or so for the head to dry. Demagnetize the head if a demagnetizer is available (tape player must be off when used). Repeat every 20 hours or so.
    3. Record the tapes. Audacity can be used for this. The default settings (stereo, 44.1Khz) is fine. The default sample format could be set to 16 bit since standard cassette tape only has about a 12 bit resolution (60dB). The extra resolution is only not useful and only increases the file size.
    4. Trim the front and back to leave a lead-in and trail-out of about 1/2 second. You can zoom in and out using the entries in the 'View' menu. Sliders at the bottom of the application window allow moving in the audio waveform. Select the audio to trim by left clicking and dragging the mouse. Delete using menu "Edit:Delete".
    5. Select the entire remaining audio by using the keyboard combination Ctrl+a or by clicking in the panel to the left of the audio waveforms. Both channel waveforms will highlight.
    6. Convert to mono by using the menu "Tracks:Stereo Track to Mono". A single highlighted mono track will be displayed.
    7. Set the Project Rate in the lower left corner to 22050. This will cause a re-sampling when the file is exported in later steps.
    8. Normalize the amplitude to -2dB by selecting "Effect:Normalize..." and setting to -2.0. Both check boxes should be set to true. A value of -2.0 leaves some head room for later filtering if needed.
    9. Save the file in a lossless compressed FLAC format: "File:Export" Select "FLAC files" as the type. Use a name that matches the format used on the FSI site. Click the "Save" button. Keep this file as a backup.
    10. An "Edit Metadata" screen is displayed. Fill in using the standard values used on the FSI site. Example: Artist Name = Foreign Service Institute. Track Title = Yoruba Basic Course Tape 01 Side A. Album Title = Yoruba Basic Course. Track Number = 1. Year = 1963. Genre = Speech. You can save the values as a default and then edit the values for later tapes. Click the "OK" button. A file with a ".flac" extension is created. Audacity can open these compressed files. There are also free players. I use the "foobar2000 audio player".
    11. Export an MP3 version:"File:Export". Select "MP3 files" as the type. Click the "Options" button and select "Bit Rate Node" = Average. "Quality" = 56kps. Don't worry about the "Stereo" selection, it will be ignored on mono files. This will create a variable bit rate MP3 file. 56kps is pretty much lossless for voice. Keep the current meta data when the Edit Metadata panel appears.

If you want, you can try applying different filters between steps 10 and 11 to reduce the hiss noise. On the other hand by providing a high-quality unfiltered file, others more expert than you or me can experiment to come up with a good noise removal method.
Last edited by Oberon on February 17th, 2010, 11:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Oberon
 
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Re: Yoruba text/audio don't match

Postby sawasawaya on February 5th, 2010, 1:34 pm

Oberon,

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to write out detailed instructions. I appreciate it.

Last night I redid a 4-minute sample of the first drill tape in seven different ways using my existing software and was going to post a link to ask for feedback, but now I think I'll just chuck all that stuff and follow your instructions with Audacity.

By the way, I should clarify that I'm aware my file names were unconventional, but it's necessary for me to point out that these tapes are not labelled 1a, 1b, 2a, etc. That would be too easy. It's not hard to guess correctly that a tape labelled "Units 20 & 23" actually contains 20 through 23, but one doesn't expect the seventh tape in the box labelled "Drill 7 Units 14-16" would actually contain the drills from a segment of Introduction on pages xiv-xvi preceeding all the other tapes in the box (labelled Drill 1 through Drill 6). Other tapes aren't labelled at all. I was using temporary file names until I could sort out which was what, and fully intended to redo them later.

I laughed at the name of your audio player "foobar2000." :lol: Fubar, indeed.

Also, I always intended to send the WAVs along with the mp3s to VP just in case a more experienced hand might want to apply its magic at some point in the future.

Thank you again for the detailed instructions. I'll try to plough through as many tapes as I can this weekend.
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Re: Yoruba text/audio don't match

Postby liddytime2 on March 8th, 2010, 1:35 pm

Just curious... How is the status of the Yoruba tape re-do going?

Thanks for your efforts!

foobar2000 - I love that!
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Re: Yoruba text/audio don't match

Postby ragnhild on June 23rd, 2010, 1:03 pm

Is there any progress on the work on the audio files? :)
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