Audio books

RUINED CITY Nevil Shute Read by Robin Bailey

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RUINED CITY by Nevil Shute (1938)

Read by . . . : Robin Bailey
Publisher . . : Chivers Audio Books (1991) (Chivers bought by BBC Audiobooks)
ISBN . . . . . .: ISBN-10: 0816192782; ISBN-13: 978-0816192786
Format . . . . : MP3. 41 tracks, 226 MB
Bitrate . . . . : ~85 kbps (iTunes 8, VBR, mono, 44kHz)
Source . . . . : 6 CASSETTES (7 hours 13 minutes)
Genre . . . . .: Fiction
Unabridged : Of course


I believe this recording had not previously been made in digital format,
so I converted the cassette recording to MP3. Limitations of the source
material are evident.

From (library) audio cassette (Nakamichi Dragon, Dolby NR was
NOT used) to CD (Pioneer PDR-555RW) to MP3 (iTunes 8).
Some of the MP3s post-processed with Audacity to reduce hiss
(tracks 21-41). Sound quality varied greatly from tape to tape.
(For example, side 7 & 8 had degraded treble before processing).

Robin Bailey is one of the great readers.

Note:
"24 Ruined City - Chapter 7.mp3" - end garbled beyond repair (physical
tape damaged). See page 112 of the PDF. Two short paragraphs missing:

The German smiled. 'A war of international finance. M'sieur, let us begin.'
[-xx- The Minister returned after the second hand, and took another glass
of the champagne. 'M'sieur,' said Warren, 'I ask your pardon, but this game
is between us two. Herr Braum has doubted my financial standing, and-in our
English idiom-I go to trim the pants off him.'

Rita translated quickly, and in Rabelaisian manner. The Minister laughed,
and took another cigar. 'This will be good to watch,' he said. 'Germany
against England, to the death. Proceed, Messieurs.' -xx-]
Virginio dealt the cards again.
PDF and RTF of the book included - ebook, ESL and reference friendly.
Scanned cover included.

I have posted several other Nevil Shute audiobooks:
A Town Like Alice, Round The Bend, Trustee from the Toolroom, Pied Piper

Thanks for sharing & caring.
Cheers, FerraBit
July 2009

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevil_Shute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Bailey
http://www.nevilshute.org

Originally posted: Mini, Demonoid, TPB. (Please do not repost)
Please present your library card, and comment me some loving.
_____________________________________________________

From Wiki:
Ruined City, sometimes published as Kindling.

The book tells the story of Henry Warren, a City of London financier and head of his firm...
One night, out of desperation, and telling no one, he goes on a hiking tour to clear his head and gain some perspective.

He is taken to a hospital in the Northumberland town of Sharples. The loss of his wallet deprives Warren of any evidence of his identity, and everyone assumes he is one of the many who are on the road, unemployed because of the Depression...

Sharples, once a prosperous town, is so entirely bound up with the shipyard that was its major employer that when the shipyard failed, so did the town. Unemployment is very high, and few shops remain open. The hospital is still open, however, and Warren is operated on successfully. While recovering he learns of the town's plight, as he starts becoming attracted to...

The book is, to some extent, based on Shute's own experience as a director of Airspeed, Ltd.


From AudioFile:
Wealthy London banker Henry Warren's life has become a shambles until he stumbles into the severely depressed town of Sharples. The spirit of the unemployed townspeople gives Warren's life new direction and some surprises, which make for lively listening. Robin Bailey's reading is impeccably clear, and the pace is perfect. He depicts each character with a different voice. From the butler's imperious attitude to the bluster of the tram driver, the narrator captures our attention. Women's voices are done with equal professionalism. Highly recommended for any popular fiction collection.


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Technical notes:

Post processing on some tracks to reduce tape hiss, using Audacity 1.3.7.
"Noise Removal" effect, generating "Noise profile" on blank spots,
(specifying what we want filtered) then used conservative settings
to choose how much of that noise we want filtered. Preserving voice
integrity more important than noise removal.
Noise reduction: 7dB, Frequency smoothing: 180Hz, Attack/decay time: 0.17 secs.
Lastly, tracks were normalized, to -0.5 dB.
Then exported with Lame 3.98 encoder, still at 80kbps mono.

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