Babel Audio - Here's A Guide!
I've been down the AI training rabbit hole for a while now, and so far the best one for me has been Babel Audio. You can easily make a few hundred per week treating it like a part time job. I very very very highly recommend them. I've been off-and-on there for over a year now. If you want to actually be successful at it, PLEASE read this entire post.
and keep in mind, you WILL need to provide ID, your full name, number, birthday, all the stuff you would normally need for a job. There are some e-docs to sign as well if you get accepted. its a contractor/1099 job, so work when you want, but still.
WHAT IS IT?
Babel is an AI training company that uses mostly voice data provided by normal folks to make AI voice assistants and whatnot more "human." It should go without saying, but doing the work you have to agree to give them rights to your voice and whatnot. that's kinda the whole point. If you're uncomfortable with AI taking over the world, this might not be for you. But at least their paying people for the data instead of just skimming the internet and stealing it.
WHAT DO YOU DO?
There's a bunch of aspects to doing contract work for them, but almost everyone will start on their "generalist" project, which is their lowest paying (17.50ish USD/recorded hour) and also the simplest. When you start out, their dashboard is dummy easy. You click the project and once you do a sound check you go in to a deliberation room with 1 other person. There you pick a topic you can both talk about for 15 minutes. EASY things. "what's a movie you can go back to over and over and why?" or "what's the best piece of advice a mentor ever gave you?" These are just prompts to get you and your buddy to have a conversation. Then you both agree, click ready, and you just have a conversation with a stranger for 15 minutes. Then the call ends, and you get credit for the call special note: the people I've talked to are all wonderful. some of the kindest folks with amazing stories. not a single bad experience since I've started doing it.
After the call is over, you'll see how much you made and eventually it will get reviewed. You'll have to acknowledge any feedback and make corrections to your setup to make sure the audio is as good as possible for them. your call cap will increase or decrease based on your quality.
HOW DO YOU GET PAID?
Payday is typically every Tuesday for the calls you did up until midnight (est I think? maybe? maybe pst not 100% sure) Tuesday. so once tuesday hits, you start a new pay week. They use a payment processor site you'll have to get set up with, but its easy and quick. I do instant bank transfer, but they do venmo and paypal and AirTM. I think there's 1 or 2 other options as well. bank transfer is instant from the time you initiate it in the processor thingy. venmo and paypal have slight delays, but its like 10ish minutes. easy peasy. you're a 1099 so you're responsible for paying your taxes and whatnot.
WHAT'S THE WORK SCHEDULE?
It's whatever you want. Me personally, I'm usually on in the middle of the night because I get nice crisp audio with no risk of background noise or car alarms going off. But as long as you can get good audio, do it whenever.
There's mixed feedback on extended absence though. Plenty of people have been removed from projects for extended inactivity, but that hasn't happened to me. They say you can message the admins (who are VERY responsive) and just let them know you won't be around for a bit. you don't need to request time or have an excuse, you're just letting them know you're not giving up. I have taken like 3 month gaps before and not had any problems.
Your call cap starts off at 5 calls per day. so for generalist, that's an hour and 15 minutes you can do once you're accepted. That cap gets updated daily based on your quality metrics. It can go down to 1 and if you're still not up to standards, you can get removed from the project. It can also max out at 30 calls per say, which is about 7.5 recorded hours. With pee breaks, snacks, TV breaks, deliberation time with your partners, that's probably 8.5 hours of real time. It took me about 3 days to max out my generalist cap at 30. It isn't that hard.
So in theory, if you work 7 days a week and do all 30 calls every day, you would be paid $918 for the week. And that's before any bonus rates or rewards programs they run, of which there are plenty. Again, that's for generalist, their lowest paying one.
They also have video you can apply for, but I'm not in that. I'm not sure if they're still taking people or not, honestly.
SO WHAT'S THE CATCH?
Well...there's a couple. First, you can't assume there will always be work. As long as I've done work for them I've always had SOMETHING to do, but not always A LOT to do. Most of the time its fine though, just with periodic gaps between projects as they change gears for their needs as a company.
Next, and this is the one you'll see an endless string of complaints about, is AUDIO. If you start getting dinged for background noise or static or movement sounds, etc. your cap will go down. Sometimes this can't be helped. If your neighbor's car alarm goes off and your mic picks it up, your cap will take a hit. it can't be helped. So you MAY get penalized for things that are not your fault, which sucks.
HOW TO APPLY AND BE SUCCESSFUL
I'm gonna do these both in 1 grouping because they're closely related. When you go to apply, you'll submit an audio sample of yourself talking. Then it gets reviewed and hopefully they get back to you and you're in. Sometimes this process is very fast - I've heard of people getting accepted in 2 hours - sometimes its super slow taking several weeks. SUPPOSEDLY if you use my referral code you get priority processing, but I don't know how true that it.
But before you just apply willy-nilly you need to be prepared to maximize your chances of getting in, and then having great quality reports to boost your call cap.
Audio quality is king. DO NOT TRY TO USE A PHONE MIC OR AN IN-BUILT LAPTOP MIC. YOU WILL FAIL. You'll need some type of external mic. I personally suggest a "dynamic" style mic, which should help with background noise. I use a condenser mic that can pick up chipmunk farts 2 miles away, so I've had to take extra steps to make it work. But there's plenty of options out there in the $50 range if you don't already have one. You'll also want a headset so your speaker sounds aren't registering in the mic. you CAN use a combo headset/mic, just make sure its decent quality.
Now, once you have your gear, you need to check and recheck everything to make sure your audio is as good as possible. I use mictests(dotcom) and cleanvoice(dotAI)/mic-check to run tests. DO NOT use audio processing software like nvidia broadcast or steelseries sonar to clean up your audio. they can tell. you will fail. Babel's audio evaluation is way better than what you can hear yourself, and often better than even those websites mentioned above can detect. So you'll want to make sure your results are perfect in those first. As a final test, I like to record myself on my computer's voicerecorder for a few seconds going "test test 123 - 5 second pause - test test 123" then I upload that to chatgpt and ask if it can hear anything I can't that would get me flagged for echo or feedback or anything.
Echo/background noise is a pain in the butt to fix. My particular issue was a ground loop feedback in my USB cable that was causing a constant hum in my recordings that I couldn't even hear. There's a lot of things you can do like using a USB port in the back of your computer, making sure your PC is on a different outlet/strip than your other stuff, adjusting your gain, etc. Whatever your issue is, you can find a guide for fixing it. unfortunately for me it was a hardware problem I ended up paying $40 for a USB isolator which totally fixed the problem, and I got a better mic cable as well just to be safe. HOPEFULLY you don't have to go that route, but you might.
Next, environment is really really important. I use cheapo foam paneling to make a little desktop sound booth for my mic, and I hang a comforter on the wall behind me. I've seen people record in their closet because the clothes help kill echo, other people just wrap their mic in a blanket, and I've even seen some folks build a cushion fort to record in. Some people don't do any of that, and have great results. But there's more than just the "studio" environment. you want to be able to record when there's no distractions or interruptions. Turn off all your alarms, SILENCE (not vibrate) your phone. They WILL get flagged. My dogs are my achilles heel. When they're up, there's no stopping them. I can only record when they're napping. But I also live near a busy street and don't want traffic sounds, so I record at night or during the day when there's no traffic and the dogs are asleep. The point is, there's a lot you just can't control. But you CAN set yourself up with solid planning to lessen the chance of some random thing ruining a call.
But also, record yourself talking to a friend on discord or something once you're confident in your setup. SO MANY people will join the deliberation room and they sound fine, but as soon as the call starts I can hear their gross mouth sounds, or they start popping their P's. People talk differently when in an actual conversation, and you're meant to be engaged while in a call. so even when you're just deliberating people are often quieter or not facing their mic, then the call starts and everything changes. I guarantee those people are the ones getting dinged for bad audio and not understanding why. So record yourself in as close to a real situation as possible, talking to a friend or something, then listen back and adjust.
Once you get in to the project, LEARN WHERE THE MUTE BUTTON IS AND USE IT! its not a hotkey, you have to click it. I keep my mouse under my desk so my mic can't pick up the click sound if I mute. If something happens, mute yourself immediately, fix the problem, and get back in there. people are good about carrying the conversation and pretending nothing happened. If your partner has an interruption, know that you need to carry the conversation for a bit while they sort it out. Don't let it derail what would otherwise be a lovely chat. You ONLY get graded on your own audio, not your partner's. Don't say "hey its ok, don't worry about it." pretend it isn't happening. acknowledging stuff like that could count as "project talk" which is against the rules. But even things like needing to take a deep breath. I mute myself for that every time so my mic doesn't pic it up.
Sit still. their program WILL pick it up if you're moving around when you're talking and you will get flagged for it. Lately they increased how strict that part of the rubric is and people are getting very upset. But I also hear my partner moving half the time, so its not the app's fault, its definitely the people. I almost never get dinged for that stuff, and again, I'm using a mic that's whole job is to pick up EVERYTHING. If it helps, put some googley eyes on your mic or a picture of someone behind your mic so you can think of it as needing to keep eye contact the whole time. don't look around, don't check the timer or balance meter. just focus on the call for 15 minutes.
Don't beat yourself up over every strike. Their system is STRICT. Sometimes you won't hear what went wrong even in the review. Just take a mental note, maybe adjust your mic gain or something else, and move on. Don't let it ruin your chats.
WORK WITH YOUR PARTNER to pick topics you both can talk about. Don't try to force a topic on someone else or the chat will be super one-sided and sound fake. And that sucks. I never pick topics about music, because I am a music dullard. do I have bands and songs I like? do I have spotify and playlists? you bet! But I am not up to speed at all with music trends, and even bands I like I can't name their songs. So I just don't do those ones. It should be a conversation you both enjoy having.
And please, actually have a conversation. don't just wait for your turn to speak. listen, engage, play off each other. real humans DO listen to these recordings and you get graded on if it sounds authentic or not. So actually talk to people. make a friend.
AGAIN because it will make or break you... GET YOUR MIC RIGHT. exhaust every possible avenue you can think of to ensure you have good audio. Having good audio means a higher call cap. It means being invited to other projects that pay more. It means having much more reliable income. DO NOT half-ass your mic setup. And trust me, your mic setting for doing babel calls are not the same as they are for other things. so don't be afraid to learn and adjust your setup to maximize the quality.
FINALS THOUGHTS AND REFERRAL
I'm not just blowing smoke here. I've applied to loads of AI gigs, I've done driving gig work, and all sorts of things. This is hands-down the easiest and best source of side income I've found. I work when I want, wearing whatever's comfy, and have room to make some serious cash. I've done all that click-work BS you see constantly that pays like 12 cents/hr. this really is functionally at least $13/hr or more depending on projects and bonuses.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DM me if you have questions or need help getting set up. I LOVE helping folks get going. I'm more than happy to answer questions. And no, I am not part of babel's team. I'm a 1099 like everyone else doing this stuff.
I know its US and Canada for sure. I believe also large chunks of the EU, latin america, and asia. but not sure exactly which countries.
For referrals, if you do 10 hours of calls in 2 weeks I get like $30 and you get $15 extra. its small, but supposedly you get priority application processing, which is HUGE. if you don't want to use my link, that's fine. the website is www.babel.audio
good luck! hit me up if you need anything!
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/beermoney/comments/1sgftdc/babel_audio_heres_a_guide/
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