Prepared by Karen Schweitzer, Iowa Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped
1. Export WAVE files from audio editing program (we use Cubase). Name the files using the 5-digit Production Tracking System (PTS) number XXXXX. Naming convention: Opening announcements: XXXXX_00, beginning of book: XXXXX_01, subsequent chapters: XXXXX_02…
2. Open each file in Studio Recorder. Spot check levels. Peak meter should straddle the -12dB point most of the time. Check the RMS level, should be around -25 to -26 plus or minus 2dB, per NLS specs (tools>measurements). Adjust as needed. (process>change volume) Note: there’s some subjectivity to this so check with Tim or Karen to learn more nuanced evaluation.
3. Mark the announcements file, usually level-1 marks at beginning, annotation if there is one, contents, foreword, etc., according to the ‘markers’ announcement. (See navigation tip in #19 below.) Re-save or save-as replacing “_00” with “ann”, ie: “XXXXXann”.
4. Mark the beginning of each chapter file: Generally level-1 marks are sufficient unless the book structure indicates more levels. Level-1 marks should be at beginning of book, chapters and end-of-book. Re-save or save-as replacing “_” with “s”. ie: XXXXXs01, XXXXXs02, etc. They must follow in numerical order. (NOTE: If there are “parts” to the book that has chapters within these “parts”, mark the parts level-1 and subsequent chapters at level-2. Some books may require more detailed navigation and more levels.)
5. Add ending announcement. Add the standard ending announcement to the closing announcements of every digital book. You can do this in Cubase by importing the audio file and placing it after “further reproduction or distribution in other than a specialized format is prohibited” OR you can add it to end of the last file in Studio Recorder as you are marking the nav points. Use “File>insert file” and choose the ending announcement file. The audio file can be found on the network drive here: S:\Housekeeping\Announcement files for narrators\Karen-Ending announcement It starts with “If you experienced any difficulty with your copy of this recording… and ends with “…report it to your reader advisor. Thank you.”
6. Create a BWP project. Once all files have been checked, marked up and re-saved into a folder containing ONLY those files, this will become your BWP project folder. Right click on the first file, Choose “Send to>Book Wizard Producer”. This will create a project and insert all the audio files in order and make a list of the navigation marks in the “contents” window. See also “Time-saving tip in #20 below.
7. Check the import. Before you do anything in BWP, check to make sure all your nav points and audio imported correctly. Sometimes it loses one or several for no apparent reason. Click on the first nav point and just cursor down to see that all the nav point audio you are expecting is really there. If not, close BWP without saving, delete the BWP files, check that your nav points are inserted correctly in the Studio Recorder file and then re-send. See troubleshooting tip, #21 below. Once you confirm all your stuff is really there, SAVE YOUR FILE! (File>Save), “SAVE AS” doesn’t work! 8. Set the title/author audio tags. Choose View>Wave to open the waveform view window or Wave view. (If you have trouble seeing the Wave view, try clicking on Window>Tile or Cascade) In the Wave view, click and drag the mouse to highlight the desired audio (the title) then press CNTL+SHIFT+T to set the title audio tag. You will hear the selected audio replayed for confirmation. Highlight the desired audio for the author and press CNTL+SHIFT+A to set the author audio tag. Save.
9. NOTE: Steps 10 – 13 detail actions using BWP but these steps can now be accomplished more efficiently using the Metadata and NCX AutoFill program created by Tim West. See Karen or Tim for instruction ‘til it is documented. It’s still a good idea to double check the audio headings and proofread metadata in BWP before you create a distribution copy as they can have slight errors or need updating/correcting.
10. Edit the first nav point label. In BWP, click on the first nav point, np-2. It will start playing from that point and highlight the nav point in the Contents view. Hit the space bar twice to stop playback. Right-click and choose “edit”. Name the nav point “Opening Announcements” and give it a nav class of “open”. NOTE: Don’t create an audio heading for the first nav point. That will just cause the title/author to repeat unnecessarily.
11. Set the heading audio for the rest of the nav points. Click on the next nav point and playback will jump to that location and highlight the nav point in the Contents view. Hit Spacebar 2X. In the wave window, click and drag to highlight the audio you want for the heading. Press CNTL+H to set the heading audio tag. It will play for confirmation.
12. Edit the nav point labels. Right click on the highlighted nav point, choose “edit” and name it. Leave the nav class as is or designate it according to “Table IV: Class Attributes of NLS Specification #1203:2006, pages 33-35” http://www.loc.gov/nls/specs/1203_revNov2006_2007.pdf Save as you go. There’s no “auto-save”. (Hint: After saving, you need to click in the waveform to “release” the last heading set or it states it for all clicks.)
13. Create/Check Metadata. (If using the “Autofill” program, some info gleaned from PTS may not be accurate, e.g. the AutoFill program uses the author as default copyright holder, so if it’s different, you must manually edit that entry. Also adding the publisher/imprint/city may be necessary.) When all markup is done, choose Edit>Metadata. Fill out the pages. SAVE. Time-saving Hint: See #20 below. Prior to creating a new project, you can click Settings>Default Metadata to create a template. This way you only need to enter the book-specific info. You can also use it to pre-label a nav class for each nav level.
14. Export from BWP. Validate the project. Choose TOOLS>Validation Tools>ZedVal. You should have 0 errors. To export from BWP, choose TOOLS>create distribution copy. Default output path puts it in a “noDRM” folder in your BWP project folder. [Our settings are Type of DTB: audioNCX. “Encode audio” is checked. Select encoder: 2: 3GP/AMR 6.5.0.0 AMR/WB. Target Media Capacity: 250 MB (This is the smallest early cartridge NLS had made. For newer 2G cartridges this value can go up to ~1800 MB needed for larger books ~24+ hours). “Validate on Complete” is checked.] Check that it’s OK and click FINISH. This will take a while. NOTE: When you get the ZedVal evaluation report, it will probably list some errors. It usually 1. indicates a problem with line 20 and sometimes 27 pertaining to “contents” and 2. doesn’t seem to recognize the .3gp extension. Having not discovered an explanation, we have been ignoring it and haven’t yet had a problem. (Yet)
15. Add Digital Rights Management (DRM). In the BWP project folder will now be a folder named “no DRM”. Open the encryption program (PDTB2-Network). Drag and drop the “No DRM” folder onto the “ProtectDTB.bat” icon and choose “Run”
16. Rename the protected book file. Open the ProtectedBooks folder and rename the “no DRM” file according to NLS naming conventions. This is the folder that should be copied to the cartridge. NOTE: The cartridge should NOT be write-protected if it’s a patron cartridge, complimentary or personal. It should be write-protected using the DTBC Cartridge Protect program if it is a collection cartridge or magazine cartridge.
17. ZIP the file. Compress (zip) the now-encrypted book folder. Don’t just right click on the folder and send to>compressed or it won’t unzip correctly. Open the folder containing the DTB files and select all. Right click and choose Send to> Compressed (zipped) Folder. Once it’s zipped, rename the zipped folder according to naming conventions. This zipped file should be copied to both the Local-DTB and NLS-BARD locations on the S: drive. (This is our network drive dedicated to archive or storage) Don’t forget to remove it from the original unzipped book folder.
18. Archive the BWP project folder containing the original wave files, the ones you “sent to BWP”. This is the folder that should be copied to S:\AudioBooks\Collection.
Tips and Tricks
19. Navigation tip in Studio Recorder: To help you find the locations to add marks for things like chapters or announcements you can use one of the “Previous or Next” functions (under “Navigate”). To set this up go to Options>Settings>Navigate and choose which phrase parameter you wish to use. For example, use the “Paragraph detection” and set the minimum pause to something like 3 seconds. Or set it to 2.9 seconds just in case the three-second pause is not quite precise. Set the “Time-out to 99, to make sure it looks far enough ahead. Once this is set, you can click Navigate>Next Paragraph, OR the shortcut “Ctrl+Down Arrow”, to jump to the next pause of at least 3 seconds. Make sure the default phrase parameters are selected. Tools>Default Phrase Parameters OR Shift+P.
20. Time-saving Tip: Prior to creating a new project (before choosing “Send to>Book Wizard Producer”), you can launch BWP, click Settings>Default Metadata to create a template. This way you only need to enter the book-specific info. You can also use it to pre-label a nav class for each nav level, saving time editing the nav points later.
21. A troubleshooting tip: If you have problems with BWP such as stray nav marks or it not playing all the audio content correctly, it may be best to start over with the “Send to BWP” step. Keep all the audio WAVE files (ann and s01, etc.), but delete all the files created after you chose “Send to BWP”.
22. Another troubleshooting tip: Over time starting and closing BWP tends to take longer. After several attempts to load a large XML file for conversion it was taking more than 5 minutes to close BWP. Investigation uncovered the fact that the bookshelf.xml file in documents and settings\local settings\application data\aph\book wizard had grown to more than 12mb in size. Killing this file restored prompt open and close functionality to BWP.
23. BWP is quirky! Try to do as little editing of the actual audio in Book Wizard Producer as possible. If I find I have to change something, I’ll generally reopen the file in the BWP project folder using Studio Recorder to make the changes and then they’ll be reflected in the BWP program. If necessary, I’ll go back to the original audio editing program, Cubase, to make my changes, re-export the file and then re-open it in Studio Recorder to re-insert the nav marks and re-save it in the BWP folder. BWP will usually incorporate the changes and that way you won’t have to start from scratch. (However, if the length of the file changes, you’ll have to edit the SMIL file to accommodate the additional time.) Recognize that starting over with the “Send to BWP” step might be faster and easier than trying to edit within BWP. Learned through hard experience. <smile> See Step #21.
Updated 05/10/2013 kjs