Forum:UnNews Audio

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I read and uploaded audio for a few UnNews stories last night. I'll continue to do so for certain stories, if there's any interest in it. To conserve space, I've recorded them at 11kHz, but they probably still aren't download friendly for dial-up users.

Frankly though, while it's fun to declare myself SupremeHeadAnchorman, some extra voices would make it more interesting. If you've got a good news voice, upload something. Maybe we could even hold some auditions? VFAnnouncer?

Nah.

Anyway, I recommend Audacity to record with. It's cross platform (with an excellent Windows version), can export to OGG format natively, and is simple to use without actually having to read any documentation. Just set your track to mono 11kHz, press record, select and cut any blank space at the start and end of your story, export to OGG, and upload. Simple. ~ T. (talk) 12:32, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I really like the idea, though I'm curious if you have any views on the matter of pages getting editted after the audio has been recorded. --Sir gwax (talk) 15:19, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm not fussy about it. It's a wiki, and change is inevitable. For that matter, I make mistakes reading the copy and will improvise to keep going, so even my recordings aren't perfect matches. Time permitting, I can do updates to the takes to add improvements to the text, or to better my own bad takes (which I've left in so far, just to see if anyone cares). I'm also not against people replacing my audio with their own. It would be great to have a couple more announcers throw their hat in, if only to offer some variety from my baritone. Whatever works. Heck, I'll even read items using the Daryl Dipstick voice, if people want. ~ T. (talk) 15:52, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Consider the position of UK Correspondant to be filled. I'll upload some oggs later on. -- Sir Codeine K·H·P·B·M·N·C·U·Bu. · (Harangue) 17:18, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

(in a bad Montgomery Burns impression) Ehhhhhhhxcellent! :) ~ T. (talk) 17:25, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

That was horrible, congratulations. I mean really, no finger movement notes?   t o m p k i n s  blah. ﺞوﻦ וףה ՃՄ ண்ஸ ފއހ วอฏม +տ trade websites 23:39, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Wow, I just listened to this article and was quite impressed. Todd certainly has a voice (and a face?) for radio. Bravo.-- » Sir Savethemooses Grand Commanding Officer ... holla atcha boy» 19:10, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, moosie. :) With that praise, I think I'll do your next article, too. ~ T. (talk) 22:36, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Yours was actually the first I did (my first news reading since 1989) and was a bit rough, so I re-did it. No-one will probably care, but I'm happier with the re-do. There's OCD at work for you. ;) ~ T. (talk) 22:59, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Koolz! Now, I think you should do this one next. Heh heh. -- » Sir Savethemooses Grand Commanding Officer ... holla atcha boy» 23:14, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

I like the one where you say "Come to Daddy" at the end. Great stuff, though, really.   t o m p k i n s  blah. ﺞوﻦ וףה ՃՄ ண்ஸ ފއހ วอฏม +տ trade websites 23:18, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Heh, I read VFD Explodes, located here. I think it sucks, even if I could get the audio levels all the same (I also apologize to any UKers on Uncyclopedia, I can't do a British accent to save my life), but I want to hear what others think of it.--(~Sir)Nuke || Talk v MUN v Not An Admin v Completely Unimportant 07:14, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Not bad, the volume is pretty unstable though... idk what would cause that...   t o m p k i n s  blah. ﺞوﻦ וףה ՃՄ ண்ஸ ފއހ วอฏม +տ trade websites 07:18, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. Are you reading from the screen or from paper? Are you keeping your head completely still? ~ T. (talk) 12:15, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

I was reading from a paper, but wasn't paying attention to keeping my head still. I'll try again later.--(~Sir)Nuke || Talk v MUN v Not An Admin v Completely Unimportant 18:20, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Intro song

I created a quick possible intro song and uploaded it to my server, if anyone wants to use it. It sounds very corny, which is intensional. I have instructions on my site, but basically to use it you make a new channel in Audacity and keep pasting the loop in that channel until it is long enough, then fade out the end. I also recommend turning down the volume of the intro music channel to -12 to -15 dB.--(~Sir)Nuke || Talk v MUN v Not An Admin v Completely Unimportant 01:12, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I'll upload the time pips if people want to recreate the Radio 4 feel I was going for with mine.--The Right Honourable Maj Sir Elvis UmP KUN FIC MDA VFH Bur. CM and bars UGM F@H (Petition) 16:08, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I quite enjoyed that. I think it would be great to use that on all further recordings.   t o m p k i n s  blah. ﺞوﻦ וףה ՃՄ ண்ஸ ފއހ วอฏม +տ trade websites 18:52, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Media:Gts pips.ogg--The Right Honourable Maj Sir Elvis UmP KUN FIC MDA VFH Bur. CM and bars UGM F@H (Petition) 20:39, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Possible Closing Ad

Just putting this out there if anyone wants to use it.Media:Euroipods.ogg

Old UnNews that's funny?

I am now working on breaking out my old stories for audio versions. Anyone care? RFE needs a technology segment. I'm sure I can imitate the tedious BBC technology story style well enough, that's the style I tried to write it in - David Gerard 12:20, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I care, though Codeine or Elvis would be ideal for any BBC-like material. ~ T. (talk) 12:43, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I've actually found a Finnish-speaking Finn to read out the Nokia engineer bits onto my wife's Zire, which should be phone-line quality, and Festival does speech synthesis on my laptop well enough for the txt spk user! Now I just need one of my Dutch contacts to come forward ... - David Gerard 18:40, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Sampling Rate

If anyone has time, I'd like to know what the best trade off is between file sampling rate and voice quality for our medium. Elvis and I have been using the 11kHz mono that I recommended, but some are using the default 44kHz rate which IMO is wasteful... it takes a lot of disk space without really benefitting the human voice, which doesn't have much range. There's probably some magic number where we all sound clear but the file sizes stay reasonable. Otherwise, we may have to start listing file sizes behind people's audio files. As a modem user, I'd want to know which files were 500k and which were 1.2 MB. All this would take is reading a sample into Audacity at various rates, exporting each, listening, and comparing file size with perceived quality. ~ T. (talk) 12:43, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

TBH I think I recorded some of mine at 44K but selected the project smapling rate at 11K, so we could probably just re-encode if need be.--The Right Honourable Maj Sir Elvis UmP KUN FIC MDA VFH Bur. CM and bars UGM F@H (Petition) 16:12, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I strongly suggest defaulting to 11K mono, with downsampling optional, and yes to listing file sizes there on the page, not just having a link to the info page - David Gerard 18:41, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Is there anyway to convert to 11K from 44 with Audacity? The software I use to record seems to crash when the settings are changed (which I found out the hard way...twice)--(~Sir)Nuke || Talk v MUN v Not An Admin v Completely Unimportant 06:10, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I've tried to convert a few people's 44kHz recordings to lower rates without success. For some reason, the downsampled file is larger than the original one. Ideas?

Anyway, I've been recording at 22kHz for the last couple of stories, as a compromise between size and quality. Brad's recordings sounded less muffled than mine, so I had to try it. I like! :) ~ T. (talk) 19:43, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm. I don't know Audacity at all, but I can offer some general advice if it helps.

The best way I found to shrink the file size is to reduce the bitrate during the encoding process. I use Audiograbber to encode my .ogg's with the Ogg Vorbis codec, and select a bitrate of around 40 - 50 Kbit/s. This converts (for example) a 3 minute 44.1k stereo wav @ 29.4 MB to an ogg with a size of 767KB. Obviously, the sizes will be reduced accordingly if you reduce the sample rate to 22k.

I suggest recording at 22k rather than 11k, because when choosing a sample rate, the frequencies that are higher than what is called the Nyquist Frequency (half the sampling frequency - for example, recording at 22kHz, you have an NF of 11 kHz) cause aliasing, which is a kind of non-linear distortion whereby distortion signals are created at lower frequencies as the input signal frequency rises above the NF. Since the frequency range of human "speaking" voice can range from 100Hz to 6kHz, if you're recording at 11k rate, intelligibility can start to suffer, especially when taking into account the overtones that comprise the overall sound of the voice. Generally, intelligibility can be improved by applying a 3 to 6 dB boost in the region between 2 kHz and 5 kHz (again, I don't know what kind of EQ function Audacity has - I suppose I should download it and have a look...) -- Sir Codeine K·H·P·B·M·N·C·U·Bu. · (Harangue) 01:22, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Ownership of articles

Do people mind if others record their articles? Right now it's pretty much a free for all, and I would hate to have two people record the same article. I personally don't think we are ever going to run out of articles, so anyone should be free to record to their hearts desire (assuming the quality is high enough to be understood), though the article writers should have priority if they desire. What do some of the more dedicated writers feel about this? If no one objects, I'm probably going to hijack my school's recording room and upload the A-Team article within a couple of days.--(~Sir)Nuke || Talk v MUN v Not An Admin v Completely Unimportant 06:10, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I think you record them, and if they hate it, you re-record them. If they still hate it after that, than you give up and wander off, never to be heard from again.   t o m p k i n s  blah. ﺞوﻦ וףה ՃՄ ண்ஸ ފއހ วอฏม +տ trade websites 06:16, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I think to prevent dual versions, a template like {{UnNewsAudioRecording|SirNuke}} (see below) should be put on the article while it is being recorded. Sort of an "I've got this one, wait until I am done before attempting" (4 hr limit maybe) --Splaka 06:20, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Excellent! Saved as {{RecordingInProgress}}, just because it was easier for me to remember. ~ T. (talk) 17:25, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Dunno about 4 hours. I'm currently gathering bits and pieces for Voice chat - I got a Finnish voice on Monday night, I got the Dutch voice in email this morning, I'm gonna hassle Keitei to do a really annoying MySpace-using txt spk user ... But yeah, 'in progress' might be nice if you got Big Plans with more than one person doing a recording for a piece - David Gerard 07:14, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, no time limit then? I think anyone recording one should use the template even if they are doing it in 10 minutes, just so two people don't do the same page. IMHO ^_^. Perhaps it should be extended to have another paramter (a time frame). --Splaka 06:16, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Intro clips

For anyone interested in having me read them an introduction (or several) to cement the UnNews studio/correspondent illusion, leave me a note on my talk page, or email me. I need your script(s), the rate (22k, 44k) and format you want them in (OGG, WAV, MP3), and how you want them delivered. Contact me by email if you want them mailed back. Great work everyone! (Nice one, Isra. You shouldn't have hesitated.) ~ T. (talk) 13:17, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

UnNews Audio daily synopsis idea

Hindleyite and I were talking about doing a daily summary thingy for UnNews on audio. Any thoughts? Rev. Zim (Talk) Get saved! 14:52, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, just thought it could be a good idea to have a daily audio UnNews digest, just reading the first paragraph or so of each article in one ogg file, or at least so people get the general gist of the articles. You know, like the 3-minute hourly bulletins on the radio. It might be more accessible for people who lead busy lives.

Who knows, perhaps one day this could evolve into video news, with a suited presenter and everything. By which I mean a gorilla suit. --Hindleyite | PL | GUN | WOTM | Image Review - Use it | Converse 15:00, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

• Not a bad idea. The trick would be condensing one of these UnNews stories to a joke or two. But since that's what most of our pieces are, it may not be difficult. And it could give a push to UnNews briefs.--Procopius 15:47, 9 August 2006 (UTC)