71 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
71 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
Audiobook Recorder
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A system for easing the task of recording and editing audiobooks.
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* Zero editing
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* MP3 export
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* Chapter management
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Usage
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-----
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Step one is to open Tools -> Options and set the system up in the way you need. Mainly you will
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want to set the audio settings - select the device or sound system you want to record from and
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play back to. For Linux you probably want to select "the ear-candy mixer" for PulseAudio.
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Create yourself a new book either using File -> New Book or by pressing the New Book icon in the toolbar ().
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Your first action with a new book should be to record the "room noise" (). This is 5 seconds of silence recorded
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from your microphone. It is used to both calculate the "noise floor" for audio detection (see below) and also
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for stitching the recorded phrases together. You should keep as quiet as you can while it's recording.
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From here on much is controlled by key presses.
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* Press and hold "R" to record a new phrase - the screen flashes red while it's recording. The phrase is
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appended to the currently selected chapter, or to the last chapter if none is selected.
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* Press "D" to delete the last phrase you recorded.
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* Press "E" to re-record the currently selected phrase.
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Each phrase you record will be briefly analysed using FFT to find the start and end of the audio and set
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crop marks appropriately. These can be adjusted in the waveform display when a phrase is selected. You can also
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re-run the analysis using either the default FFT method or using a peak detector method (finding the first and last points
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where the audio amplitude rises above the backround noise).
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The phrases also have a "post gap" associated with them. This is the amount of room noise (in milliseconds) to place between
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the current phrase and the next phrase when playing or exporting.
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Speaking of playing - you have the option (in the toolbar) to either play the currently selected phrase in isolation () or
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to start playing from the currently selected phrase on to the end of the chapter(). This is good for testing your post gaps.
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Exporting the project creates MP3 files for each chapter using the settings selected in Options.
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Extra functions
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---------------
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The recordings are initially given a unique ID. You can
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edit the text of this ID to identify the recordings. You
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may, for instance, change it to have the same text as the
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audio contains.
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To help with this CMU Sphinx (US EN dictionary) is bundled
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with the system and can be used to try and convert the
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audio into text. Right clicking on a recording brings
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up a menu which includes the option to try and convert
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the audio into text. The detected text is then used to
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replace the current recording ID / text.
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It's far from perfect (especially for a British English
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speaker), but it can help you to navigate your way around
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a chapter.
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File layout
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-----------
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All data is stored in your "storage" directory (specified in Options). Each book (which is a directory named after the
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title of the book) has an associated XML file (audiobook.abk) and a directory "files" where all the audio (stored as WAV
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files) is placed.
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When you export the book as MP3 a new folder "export" is created within the book's folder where the MP3 files are placed.
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MP3 files are all tagged with the book title, chapter title, chapter number and comment.
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