How does this sample sound for ACX?

Report · Dec 09, 2019

Hi... I'm getting ready to submit my first audiobook to ACX.

(It's a book about XC skiing in today's era of low snow, climate change and skewed cultural values, such as people who live in the north hating cold weather or playing in the snow being labeled as a luxury activity.

I prepped my files by wandering around online and then going for it. I'm a total layman and I understand basically no technical jargon.

I processed my files to meet the ACX requirements but the resulting waveforms had a strange look to them: they were solid black looking, blocky, and often solid in appearance along the top. ...And had more of a jaggy look along the bottom. I don't understand why a waveform is assymetric.

So I went back to the drawing board when Steve told me about the mastering how-to info on the ACX blog. I re-did a file using an original source file and the result also met the specs but had a more overall "jaggy" look -- no solid portions at all. I thought it would likely sound better in my earbuds but to me it sounded about the same. So I'm wondering if I need to bother. I lose perspective since it's my own voice, my own work, that I'm editing. It sounds both bad and good to me.

But I have no idea if my source files are good enough to matter. Maybe both samples are equally bad and the source files are the problem. ? I've posted about this as the grand finale of another thread but thought maybe it is a simple issue that can stand on its own: are either of these samples any good?

Here are the two 30 second samples:

Sample mastered using ACX tips (Hard Limiting): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dPN4zHuJLWRSRsMKtyn4kweCcF1wgOA_/view?usp=sharing

Sample mastered using YouTube tips (Match Volume):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kM-Q4Kb0h0IspfolCKSSfQK5GNgRaHMc/view?usp=sharing

Report · Dec 10, 2019

Well, I've just made a direct back and forth comparison between the two samples using a rather expensive pair of monitors in an acoustically-controlled environment, and I can tell you definitively now that the second one (the one based on the ACX blog) is going to be easier on the ear for anybody listening over an extended period - and that's rather important...

Report · Dec 10, 2019

Thank you, Steve!

But, ha, still confused: the *second* one was based on YouTube. The *first* is based on ACX tips.

Both meet ACX specs.

I'll edit the phrasing in my post to make it clearer since I talk about ACX specs in my YouTube link...

Report · Dec 10, 2019

I'll check it again, but whatever it was, I'm pretty sure it's the second one that sounds less 'strained' in terms of processing.