Step 2: Record & Master

Now all the boring bits are done, your ready to go, again the following steps have screen shot, so be patient as they may take a while to load! Some tips before you start:

• Do not attempt to do all 59 samples straight away, do some tests with some of the longer commands, like “You have arrived at your destination”, then play it back, it will give a good representation as to if you’ve got the right volume setting, as this will give you the opportunity to raise or lower the input volume beforehand, or move the voice-ee.  The blue wave representation marks should reach the limits of the preview window, but not exceed it.  Too quiet and it won’t be loud enough, too loud and it will cause clipping (distortion), here is some examples of what the blue marks should look like:

too quiet  > 

too loud  > 

ahhh, just right! >   

• Try and leave a silence gap before and after each sample, to avoid accidentally cutting off part of the sample, we will cut the sample down later on.
• Always read the samples in order of my recommendation text file, as this will help later on.

1.) Cue the voice-ee, hit record () and starting from the top, cue the voice-ee to speak each command, hitting stop after each sample.  When you hit the record button, Audacity will automatically start on a new sample window, which makes things quicker and easier!  When they complete each line, hit the stop button

2.) Repeat step 1 for each of the 59 voice commands, ensuring you leave a small gap before and after each clip, they should look something like this (This was an example of “You have reached your destination)

3.) Once that is complete, it should look something like this. TIP: You may like to play back some of the clips, to do this you must click ’solo’ on the sample you wish to play back and then hit play, otherwise they will ALL PLAY together and that’s just scary, and loud!  Use the scroll bar on the right hand side to view all the samples.

4.)  Before you do anything else record one more sample, about 5 seconds of nothing but any background noise and static that may be around, this sample will be used to profile and remove the background noise from your other clips, neato!

5.) Next you will profile the background noise.  To do this click on the information pane (Where it says ‘Mono, 22050Hz etc.) of the last ‘background noise’ sample you just made, or by clicking and drag-selecting it using the ’selection tool’

6.) Select Effect > Noise Removal… and click on the ‘Get noise profile’ button, this will analyze the sample, and it will happen very quickly, so don’t think it hasn’t worked, it will automatically close the ‘Noise Removal..’ window and return you to the main screen. TIP: do not remove the ‘background noise’ sample just yet!

7.) Now you can apply the noise removal to all you samples. Do this by pressing CTRL+A, you will notice this will highlight all the samples. Then go back into ‘Noise Removal..’ and hit the ‘Remove Noise’ button. TIP: you may find you want to move the less/more slider.  However be careful, too less and you’ll still here background noise, too much and the voice will sound ‘muffled’.

8.) Once the task has finished, you will noticed the ‘gaps’ before and after the sample will now look more like a straight line than jagged one, this will indicate the ‘noise removal’ has worked.  Now you can delete the ‘background noise’ sample by clicking on the ‘X’ on the top left hand side of the sample window.

9.) Next you will cut down each clip by removing the unwanted gaps before and after each sample. This will probably be the most difficult bit to get right, as it’s important to leave just enough gap after each sample to that it will sound natural when on the road. It you leave too much gap it will sounds like the person is having a nap between each part of the command (After………….100……………yards……………keep left!).  On the flipside if you cut too much, it will all sound like a racetrack (After100yardskeepleft!). I achieved this my clipping as closely before the clip as possible, and leaving an specific amount afterwards. On top of this, it’s important to remember certain samples will require more gaps afterwards than another.  For example, the sample “After” will require more gap afterwards than “100″ as in normal speech you would pause, for example “After, 200 yards”. Below is a screenshot of about how much I recommend should be left.  But this is a rough guide.

Once you repeating step 9 for all 59 samples, you have completed this section of the guide.  Now you are ready to convert and save each sample. You should now have a list of 59 samples in order of how they are listed on the guide sheet, they should all be free of any background noise, and should be cut so that there are no big gaps are before or after each sample.

Click on the following link to proceed to the next step……