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@this-is-not-an-alien

Welcome back, Cathy!

*Holds and steadies the wobbling table* [Grins]

Catch your breath, now!  Daylight savings time was back in Spring,…might want to rewind that watch. [winks]
The bus is still here and we wouldn’t think of leaving without you, dearie.

My printer says it needs to update its driver.  I didn’t even know it HAD a driver. I thought it drove ITSELF with electricity. 😉 The fellow must be a real little guy, and I am not exactly sure where he sits in the thing, but I’ll have to ask him when he get’s back from his coffee break.  (*whispers, [cupping hand on the side of my mouth] “I highly suspect he’s a Liliputian, but don’t quote me on that. He eats an egg in that funny way. 😉”)

Okay, so…

*Wince* I knew THAT one would boomerang on me someday.  But, I am not the “Aboriginal” author… 😁 so I could not expect its loyalty.

I still have the character pictures for the “Character Game”, I was just lamenting the loss of the reviews I received from posting them during the… “Bermuda Triangle” days of site surfing.

So, to your tech troubles…

Audacity is a sound editing program primarily more than it is a recording platform, though it does that too, if you have a microphone.  But here’s an easier solution,… IF… you have a “smart phone”.  If not, then the easiest route is getting a simple plug-in microphone for the computer ($8 or less, can probably find one even cheaper in the gadget section of a Ross Dress-for-Less, T.J. Max or a Marshalls).  IF you have an i-Phone, the App Store has a free download App called “Voice Record Pro”.  It uses the phone’s mic and you can record, pause and stop an MP3 sound file of your reading.  Once complete, if you are on the same Wi-Fi connection in your home as your mom’s computer, you can just upload the resulting file directly from the Voice Record Pro to your mom’s One Drive (if its a PC) or the Google Drive you use to upload your current drawings to.  Then from Audacity, you just find the file you recorded (either in the One Drive, usually under a corresponding Folder called “Voice Record Pro” or a folder of the same name in the Google Drive, if you set the App up to upload there).
Open the MP3 file in the Audacity program and you will see the audio sine waves of your voice across a single line stretching from one point to the other.  You can cut out portions of the “sound waves” where you may have coughed, or feel like you messed up a word, the dog barked, etc., or have long periods of silence than you intended.  Just highlight one part and stop it at one part, then click the scissors icon to cut it out, or you can silent that portion “highlighted” by clicking the “silence audio” button or (Ctr+L) if you prefer the keyboard short cut.  To increase the volume of a section you believe is too quiet or soft, simply highlight the section of the sound wave you want to be affected and use the “Amplify…” feature appearing on the Effect menu at the top.  If the entire audio is recorded too quietly, you can highlight the whole audio waves with (Ctrl+A) and then click that same Amplify option.  The “New Peak Amplitude (dB): setting should be “0.0”.  dB is the short-hand for the word “Decibel”.  If, at any point you want to mark and label a point in the waves, so it is easier to find, click the pointer on that point in the waves, and click (Ctrl+B) to label it with a brief tag of text).  You can also import in another length of sound by copying the wave links on a separate sound file and pasting them on a sound line channel underneath the vocal track.  Be sure to maximize the volume on the Vocal track so that the music track sounds below it do not overpower your reading voice. (They are your background singers, but you are the main solo. 😉)

Once you have your recorded audio the way you want it, use the Export  feature under the File menu to Export your edited file as an MP3.  You will want to rename the edited file something meaningful so it stands out.
Ex. “Chapter02_Scene05_StoryTitle_Name_Date.mp3”
Once saved in your Google Drive or whatever Cloud Drive you use, right-click the file and make it Shareable to anyone who has the link.  Since you will only post it here on Story Ember…to your exclusive fan club…😉.  Only we proud and privileged few can access it.  (Psst. You can share it with your family too. Especially since your mom is letting you use her computer. 😁)

Well, that…as they say…is that.  I have exhausted my tech neurons.  I think my Printer driver is getting off his coffee break, so I’ll go have a talk with him…ask him about those speeding tickets, I keep getting… showing up on my car insurance premiums policy.  The little lead foot….!  A Lead Footed Liliputian is what I got here. [Sigh]  I think his days are numbered, as my printer driver.  I am now going to go see if I can get an upgrade to a Leprechaun. 😂