audio

ready to get going!

i know i've been m.i.a. from the blog until last week. i know, and i'm sorry.  but you know one of the reasons why: i've been typing 300+ pages into my computer for broken pieces.

another reason is that i've been recording an audio book for falling stars. 

i hadn't really thought about doing it until i started getting the question: is there an audio book? more and more. and even then, i had never actually listened to one myself, so what you don't know...is scarrrrry...or at least undiscovered territory.

so i called my mentor tammy kling, asked her opinion. called my dad, asked for the keys to the sound kingdom (really his home studio), and went straight to the library. all in one day. i checked out like five books on tape–ones i already had read in print. 

my plan was to listen to all of them in parts, learn the differences, find out my options. 

i checked out the following audiobooks: 

1. safe haven by nicholas sparks

2. saving grace by jane green

3. where'd you go bernadette by maria simple

4. the good girl by mary kubica

5. the husband's secret by liane moriarty

this is where people usually start to think i'm either crazy or thorough. i choose thorough:) 

oh, but first, i realized when i got home that i no longer had a cd player. we switched to computers without the cd drives in them for longevity of the hardware, and...and i'd checked out five audio book cds. luckily, my cute neighbors used cd alarm clocks (and they hadn't started back at school), so i was in business. 

you can see the pictures of my methods. i wrote down the intros, the narrator (jane green did her own but everyone else hired out)  and the voices used (were there multiple for each character or just one throughout), how long each track was, was there intro music, how many tracks per cd, how many cds in case i ever got to that point of wanting it to be on some. 

basically, you get the gist. i went to town. 

i loved all five of these books, so i know the writing was on point. but i will say, as a sort of mini review, not all audio books are the same. i won't go through all of them, but i'll point out a few things i  took from them.

i loved jane green's. she's the author, and she's friggin' british, so she knows what she's after. she knows exactly what it's supposed to sound like. 

i loved where'd you go bernadette. if you've read it, you know it could have been very tricky to pull off, not to mention a very funny manuscript...so the orders were tall, and they were fantastic. if you want a funny audio book, this is your pick. 

then, the husband's secret. this was very good. the hired australian voice actor was a perfect choice. she clearly understood the the story, and i was in love with the characters even more the second go round. 

after listening to all of them and comparing notes, i decided that narrating myself was not going to sound weird. in fact, it might be the only way.

the set up for a book is a tad bit different than music! massive iPad? check!  

charlie normally can sit with me the whole time when i record music. but since this is just reading, i found out how loud his snoring was. he had to take that outside the booth. ;) 

so, next it was the studio. i took a week when my family went on a trip to start recording. i literally showed up to their empty house with charlie, made coffee, booted up the studio (which is so much better with my dad in it) and talked to myself for hours. 

reading your words is great. it should be easier, right? well, it might have been, but i realized something: unlike learning a song to record, you never learn a book. not word-for-word.

you literally have to sit there and read a sentence in the right vocal tone (lilah, jobeth, jake, mom, dad, little summer) and simultaneously look ahead to what's next. your brain fries at twice the speed. and there were so many times when i found myself speaking as the mom in a rapid-fire dialogue, only to find out that it was the dad by the time i got to the end of the long sentence. on the tape, there are soo many times i sigh with frustration :) or say a clipped "no" or "start over" to myself. 

now i am at the editing process (which i love), but i had to leave town to come out to california for a week. editing shan't take as long, however. so stay tuned! 

right before i finished recording the last chapter

editing begins now!