I Finally Got to the NEXT STEP
Added 2025-06-18 08:54:28 +0000 UTCFriends, I have submitted my audio files to Audible. I now have to wait to see if they pass QA, which allegedly takes ten days.
I have a compiled file of the whole audiobook, which I will be making available to $10 Patrons as soon as the opening credits and end credits sound levels are fixed. Audible is very strict about RMS, which is some kind of average sound level, but that's very hard to achieve in a file that is four seconds long without making it SUPERLATIVELY LOUD.
Nonetheless, we progress.
I have also discovered that to submit the files to Findaway Voices (to distribute to platforms that aren't Apple or Audible) the silence lengths at the beginning need to be different.
WHY.
Still, this is progress! I am all in favour of progress! (Deep sigh) Eventually this project will be finished, I'm sure of it. In the meantime, please enjoy these kitten pictures.
Comments
RMS stands for 'root mean square'. The significance here is the sound energy is the square of the amplitude. Taking the mean energy over time gets you power, and who doesn't want power? Optional physics bit: As a deliberately simple example, suppose a sound wave last for 4 milliseconds, and increases the air pressure by 1 millibar, pushes the membrane in a microphone by 1 micrometre and generates 1 millivolt from the mike. And then you have 3ms of silence followed by another wave lasting for 1 millisecond in the opposite direction, which lowers the pressure by 2mB, to pull the membrane 2μm and generate -2mV. The first 4ms interval has 1 x 1 = 1 and likewise another 1, 1 and 1 units of energy, for an average of 1 unit of power. The second has 0 + 0 + 0 + (-2 x -2) = 4 units over the same time, so the same power. Roughly speaking, power determines how loud something sounds - and if the power is extremely high, how much it damages your hearing. Of course, this is only an approximation, because it also depends on frequency (especially when the frequency is barely audible). And there are trick waveforms beloved of TV advertisers that sound louder than they are supposed to.
Sagitta
2025-06-18 21:56:20 +0000 UTCThe only changes findaway seems to require a different amount of silence at the start…and they want the title in a different file to the dedication, whereas ACX can have that as one file 🙄
Jill Bearup
2025-06-18 14:44:51 +0000 UTCCongrats! FYI - I am able to submit the same files to both ACX and Findaway for my audiobooks. My narrator makes the files, so I don't know what tech magic they do, but maybe you could find more info on a narrator-centric forum.
Faraday
2025-06-18 13:51:38 +0000 UTC
