Spoken Word Audiobook Settings

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Bart Windrum
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Spoken Word Audiobook Settings

Post by Bart Windrum »

Does HairerSoft offer any guidance, or might you the reader have any, for basic spoken word settings, problems/solutions and onboard tools/methods? I am soon to record an audiobook "in-house", planning to use Amadeus, saving each chapter as a file, then import all into another environment (GarageBand may be one) for assembly and export. I'm not an audio engineer; of course I can record something that sounds ok to my ear but I don't yet know how to engineer for the purpose.
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- The Promised Landing: A Gateway to Peaceful Dying
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Jim Edgar
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Spoken Word Audiobook Settings

Post by Jim Edgar »

Hey there Bart - 

I work in voiceover full time, and produce/master audiobooks as well. 


If you'd like to send a sample of your raw narration recording to me directly, I'd be happy to review it for quality at no charge. 
https://justaskjimvo.studio/audio-review


The most salient advice I can give is this:
- The best quality output begins with the highest quality input.
- A microphone never sounds any better than the space in which you record.
- Work in a quiet, isolated space with acoustic damping (can be as simple as moving blankets hung on a PVC frame).
- Record raw, clear audio with your peaks in the -12 to -6 dB range. 
- For all that is holy, don't use Garage Band for anything.... it has an extremely opaque interface and indirect workflow for VO projects.


Most commonly, the audio I get has environmental sounds creeping in and too much reflection in the space. If you fix those two problems, you'll be ahead of 85% of the audio I hear. 
You will not hit spec (likely you are publishing this to Audible via ACX) with the raw audio. There is always a mastering step to hit the values which ACX requires. I'd be happy to recommend specific plug-ins which will work with Amadeus (or other common DAW's). If you are working with another audiobook publisher, ask them specifically for their peak and RMS spec's. 


Editing and QC (accuracy against original text) are the most time-consuming steps, typically. Many narrators use programs which support "Punch & Roll" recording to limit the amount of mistakes which have to be edited out. There are other methods as well.  Depending upon the length of your chapters (and overall project length), you might consider a single chapter per file. 


Hope that helps - feel free to reach out to me directly if you have other questions - https://JustAskJimVO.studio


- Jim


Jim EdgarVO: JimEdgarVoices.com | @jimedgarvoices | Source-Connect - jimedgarvoices


For audio/studio help: JustAskJimVO.studio | Schedule a session













On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 1:54 AM Bart Windrum <forum2mail@hairersoft.com (forum2mail@hairersoft.com)> wrote:
Does HairerSoft offer any guidance, or might you the reader have any, for basic spoken word settings, problems/solutions and onboard tools/methods? I am soon to record an audiobook "in-house", planning to use Amadeus, saving each chapter as a file, then import all into another environment (GarageBand may be one) for assembly and export. I'm not an audio engineer; of course I can record something that sounds ok to my ear but I don't yet know how to engineer for the purpose.

------------------------
Author of:
- The Promised Landing: A Gateway to Peaceful Dying
- Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One's End-of-Life Hospitalization




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ioannis
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Post by ioannis »

As Jim wrote, environment & microphone first, plus all the rest.
I second avoiding Garageband, Amadeus Pro should be more than enough for most work.

If you're not in any kind of studio environment you might need some plug-ins to "clean up" the recording afterwards. I've recently bought and use the Accusonus suite (the Standard Bundle) and I'm very satisfied with it, but there are more options out there.

A pop-filter would be wise to have; better a metallic one with those tiny wholes (arched on top, finishing with a triangle pointing downwards) because it's sending the air to the floor ;-)

The settings (mostly EQ & evt. Compression) you'll have to choose so that they fit your voice and style of the text.

For saving editing time you can better get a dog clicker and after a mistake, chapter change, retake or whatever you need to mark / attract attention to and click 1, 2 or 3 times etc. This leaves very clear vertical marks on the sound-wave / track when you import it in AP or any DAW and, seen the number of these lines you know what kind of correction it is. Editing in this way is much faster if you start from the end to the beginning of the recording.

Hope this helps...

Bart Windrum
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Post by Bart Windrum »

Jim and ioannis, thank you for your helpful replies.

I had thought that GarageBand would be useful for final chapter/theme music assembly and exporting but I'm nowhere near that yet so I'll let pass an examination of that phase of work. Haha, yes I happen to have a dog clicker and would not have thought to use it if I go that route (now alerted to Punch & Roll I'm interested in that workflow, which I presume would negate the clicker. I'd already thought I'd need something to make a visible recognizeable spike (like thwacking something with a drumstick) but the clicker is much more elegant. I'm used to sometimes working backwards through a file with certain types of text editing; dunno that I'd have thought to work that way in an audio file, but I am UI sensitive :).
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- The Promised Landing: A Gateway to Peaceful Dying
- Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One's End-of-Life Hospitalization

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Jim Edgar
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Spoken Word Audiobook Settings

Post by Jim Edgar »

You are welcome.  

I didn't mention the clicker (or finger snap or clap) method as it tends to be less efficient if you are working on projects longer than 45 minutes in running time. I've used both methods extensively and am very fast with the clicker method. But when I track my production time (which I do kind of obsessively on projects...), there's a clear falloff at about an hour.  I don't recommend the clicker for audiobook work, as those projects tend to be multiple hours in finished audio.


in terms of budgeting production time, most practiced audiobook narrators who are doing the production (comprising editing, retakes, QC against the text and final mastering) will tend to run in the 6:1 range.  Newer narrators or producers will typically run longer than that, with 10:1 or so being not uncommon. The biggest time commitment will be in editing/QC. You may gain some time benefit as you are familiar with the text (those of us doing the work have to pre-read the book - otherwise we may find out on page 324 that one of the main characters has a raspy Irish accent that the author didn't bother to mention...


- J
Jim Edgar

VO: JimEdgarVoices.com | @jimedgarvoices | Source-Connect - jimedgarvoices


For audio/studio help: JustAskJimVO.studio | Schedule a session


















On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 7:04 PM Bart Windrum <forum2mail@hairersoft.com (forum2mail@hairersoft.com)> wrote:
Jim and ioannis, thank you for your helpful replies.

I had thought that GarageBand would be useful for final chapter/theme music assembly and exporting but I'm nowhere near that yet so I'll let pass an examination of that phase of work. Haha, yes I happen to have a dog clicker and would not have thought to use it if I go that route (now alerted to Punch & Roll I'm interested in that workflow, which I presume would negate the clicker. I'd already thought I'd need something to make a visible recognizeable spike (like thwacking something with a drumstick) but the clicker is much more elegant. I'm used to sometimes working backwards through a file with certain types of text editing; dunno that I'd have thought to work that way in an audio file, but I am UI sensitive :).

------------------------
Author of:
- The Promised Landing: A Gateway to Peaceful Dying
- Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One's End-of-Life Hospitalization




Verla Fortier
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Post by Verla Fortier »

I am a novice narrator. Just starting out and narrating my first book. How do you tell where your decibels are because it jumps around so much?

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ioannis
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Post by ioannis »

@Verla Fortier
You must be happy that it jumps much, you're not a robot in a '50s movie! :-)

Well, give your recording equipment enough headroom and it's no problem at all.
If you see things getting into red, it's not a favourable sign (or even orange for too long).
Excessive "jumping" you can "correct" (if it's not meant that your voice has big differences of soft & loud) with compression, or a leveler plugin. This last one is an easier choice if you don't want to spend time tweaking the compressor's parameters. In cases of need I'm using the "voice leveler" of Accusonus and I'm happy with it. But I think any other will do.

Verla Fortier
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Post by Verla Fortier »

Hi Ioannis,

Apologies for the delayed reply and thank you for responding. I am just getting the hang of this forum. So just saw your message today -- when I had another problem (my files stop after 10 minutes of recording).

I had not heard of a voice leveller. I got some great advice from Jim Edgar to keep my voice between the -12 to -6 Db - so maybe I have it sorted without a plug in. But on the other hand, I would like to try. How do you add a plug in to Amadeus Pro?

Thanks again for your reply, Verla

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Jim Edgar
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Spoken Word Audiobook Settings

Post by Jim Edgar »

I generally don't recommend the various Leveler plug-ins for audiobook work.  I've used them a few times for wrangling podcast interviews which tend to have wildly varying levels. But for audiobooks, they can cause noise floor issues.  And generally the performance is much more controlled - both in terms of recording environment and performance dynamics.

I actually had a chance to listen to Verla's raw audio and she has a nicely contained vocal style in terms of dynamics. So, that's really not an issue for her project.


- Jim


Jim Edgar

VO: JimEdgarVoices.com | @jimedgarvoices | Source-Connect - jimedgarvoices


For audio/studio help: JustAskJimVO.studio | Schedule a session













On Sat, Nov 9, 2019 at 5:05 AM Verla Fortier <forum2mail@hairersoft.com (forum2mail@hairersoft.com)> wrote:
Hi Ioannis,

Apologies for the delayed reply and thank you for responding. I am just getting the hang of this forum. So just saw your message today -- when I had another problem (my files stop after 10 minutes of recording).

I had not heard of a voice leveller. I got some great advice from Jim Edgar to keep my voice between the -12 to -6 Db - so maybe I have it sorted without a plug in. But on the other hand, I would like to try. How do you add a plug in to Amadeus Pro?

Thanks again for your reply, Verla




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