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Better FSI audio ?

  Tags: FSI
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
15 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
michaelmichael
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5016 days ago

167 posts - 202 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 1 of 15
01 June 2014 at 11:14pm | IP Logged 
I've been using the French FSI for awhile now and really enjoy the course, though it is quite challenging. While the free audio from the FSI is by no means terrible it is no where near the crisp audio that one would get with assimil for example. I wouldn't mind spending the money on some remastered version if the quality was noticeably improved.I've noticed that there are a couple of companies selling the FSI program but i fear that most of them are just taking the material that is free on the website and reselling as is. reading a review for Barron's version, that seems to be the case.

does anyone know or have bought a remastered version for the french version of FSI ? Is it noticeably improved ? Any recommendations ?

Thanks,
Mike.
1 person has voted this message useful



Random review
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5542 days ago

781 posts - 1310 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German

 
 Message 2 of 15
02 June 2014 at 12:29am | IP Logged 
Barron's Mastering French.

I have heard that they cleaned the audio. Hopefully someone can confirm.

Edited by Random review on 02 June 2014 at 12:33am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Speakeasy
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 3811 days ago

507 posts - 1097 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 3 of 15
02 June 2014 at 2:36am | IP Logged 
Generally speaking, the "Barron's Mastering French, German, Spanish" CD courses have clearer audio than the mp3 files on the FSI-Language-Courses.org website. Regrettably, these courses have been out-of-print for a number of years and locating copies of them can be difficult. Some resellers offer new/used copies, but at very steep prices. However, ...

La Librairie Michel Fortin
As it happens, a couple of weeks ago, I was browsing the offerings of La Librairie Michel Fortin and I noticed that they had one of Barron's Mastering French, levels 1 and 2, CD version, in the original packing, at the regular prices of about 100 $CAN per level. This would take you half-way through FSI Basic French. The owners and staff are courteous, competent, and reliable. Call them or send them an Email. Here's the LINK: Librairie Michel Fortin

Foreign Service Institute.COM
This is a commercial operation that has NO connection either with the U.S. State Department, Foreign Service Institute or with the FSI-Language-Courses.org website. I cannot vouch for the quality of their product. However, they CLAIM to have cleaned up the original FSI audio files. Obviously, the only way to find out is put down your hard-earned money and hope! They sell their versions of the courses as a DVD that contains PDF versions of the text and mp3 versions of the audio, all for 100 $US.
Here's the LINK: Foreign Service Institute.COM

Speed Learning Languages
This online reseller has, to a very minor extent, repackaged some of the more popular FSI language courses, including the FSI Basic French course. The offer mp3/pdf downloads that include some extra material that may very well have been copied from Librivox. I cannot vouch for the quality of their product. However, they CLAIM to have cleaned up the original audio files. Obviously, the only way to find out is put down your hard-earned money and hope! Here's the LINK:
Speed Learning Languages

Good luck!

Edited by Speakeasy on 02 June 2014 at 3:57am

3 persons have voted this message useful



Mutant
Groupie
United States
Joined 3670 days ago

45 posts - 60 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 4 of 15
02 June 2014 at 2:07pm | IP Logged 
I haven't started FSI French, so I can't really comment on that particular course, but the version of FSI Spanish Basic Course that I bought from Audioforum(Level 3, Advanced) has decent audio on the CDs, although there are some bad spots in parts. It does sound like they've cleaned it up though. If I recall, I paid about $100 (U.S. dollars) which isn't too bad considering that I got a book and 18 CDs.


2 persons have voted this message useful



luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6964 days ago

3133 posts - 4351 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Esperanto, French

 
 Message 5 of 15
02 June 2014 at 9:38pm | IP Logged 
Speakeasy wrote:

Foreign Service Institute.COM
This is a commercial operation that has NO connection either with the U.S. State Department, Foreign
Service Institute or with the FSI-Language-Courses.org website. I cannot vouch for the quality of their
product. However, they CLAIM to have cleaned up the original FSI audio files.


I bought FSI Basic Spanish from them and the audio was pretty bad. Muffled Definitely not worth it.
2 persons have voted this message useful



luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6964 days ago

3133 posts - 4351 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Esperanto, French

 
 Message 6 of 15
03 June 2014 at 12:55am | IP Logged 
I used Audacity to come up with a pretty good FSI French sound. This can be put in an Audacity chain to do the whole course:

Normalize (default parameters)
Equalization (curve FSI-French)
Compressor (default + Compress based on Peaks)
ExportMP3

The EQ is a big part of getting the sound right. Settings I used:
20-80hz -20dB
100 hz -18 dB gradually adding a bit more up to 600hz where the Eq hits 0 dB (flat).
From 800-100 increasing EQ until it is +12dB at 1000 hz.
Then gradually lowering EQ from 1200 Hz -8000 Hz. (flat 0 dB about 3000 Hz.)
Over 8000 Hz, a little bump in EQ to -18 dB.
The highest frequency is again minimized as much as possible.

Basically, the idea is to lower the amplification of the lower audio spectrum. The lowest part, below 100 hz is lower than speech, so taking it out reduces whatever shouldn't be there. The lower end of the vocal audio spectrum is also reduced, as that typically sounds muddy in an old tape recording. Audio is amplified right in the middle voice range around 800-3000 Hz. Then gradually lower the high frequencies.

The approach I used was to find a section of audio and just play with the EQ knobs until is sounded good to my ears. Then save that EQ setting as "FSI French".


Edited by luke on 03 June 2014 at 12:56am

5 persons have voted this message useful



michaelmichael
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5016 days ago

167 posts - 202 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 7 of 15
06 June 2014 at 5:45am | IP Logged 
luke wrote:
I used Audacity to come up with a pretty good FSI French sound. This can be put in an Audacity chain to do the whole course:

Normalize (default parameters)
Equalization (curve FSI-French)
Compressor (default + Compress based on Peaks)
ExportMP3

The EQ is a big part of getting the sound right. Settings I used:
20-80hz -20dB
100 hz -18 dB gradually adding a bit more up to 600hz where the Eq hits 0 dB (flat).
From 800-100 increasing EQ until it is +12dB at 1000 hz.
Then gradually lowering EQ from 1200 Hz -8000 Hz. (flat 0 dB about 3000 Hz.)
Over 8000 Hz, a little bump in EQ to -18 dB.
The highest frequency is again minimized as much as possible.

Basically, the idea is to lower the amplification of the lower audio spectrum. The lowest part, below 100 hz is lower than speech, so taking it out reduces whatever shouldn't be there. The lower end of the vocal audio spectrum is also reduced, as that typically sounds muddy in an old tape recording. Audio is amplified right in the middle voice range around 800-3000 Hz. Then gradually lower the high frequencies.

The approach I used was to find a section of audio and just play with the EQ knobs until is sounded good to my ears. Then save that EQ setting as "FSI French".


Thanks Luke, this idea never occurred to me (well i heard of bandpass filters in a fourier analysis course but i didn't realize i was learning anything that could actually be applied... to me anyways !)

tried your profile based on the details (piece-wise, looks like a deformed trapezoid). basically i put the points where you said to and connected them with lines. completely eliminated all background noise but seemed kind of wonky at certain pitches.

This is a free way to improve the sound and can be done immediately, what more can a person ask for. Thanks again for all your help.

Mike.

1 person has voted this message useful



twopossums
Newbie
United States
Joined 4116 days ago

34 posts - 53 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 8 of 15
06 June 2014 at 9:10am | IP Logged 
I just started Chapter 23 tonight and I really don't think the audio is all that bad. It is definitely of the time and can sound like an old radio program sometimes but that has it's charm. Plus 2 on the French tape speak clearly. There have been only 2-3 times that I had a sound bite was really unusable. But that was more about the sound cut out or something. Nothing that could actually be fixed.   

There is so much audio for me personally I think it takes long enough just to get through it than to add the time of cleaning it all up for some minor improvement. It really wouldn't be worth the time, in my mind.

Good luck in your studies. It's a long slog though FSI but fun too.


1 person has voted this message useful



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