Author Topic: Anyone Care To Give Me A Little Feedback?  (Read 4590 times)

IT_Spook

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on: October 04, 2007, 05:18:15 AM
I got this really crazy idea to turn my novella into an audiobook for Podiobooks. I jury rigged a little recording system at home (I really need to take pics of it. It is fugly.)

I made a test recording file to see how it sounds volume and quality wise. I know its got some bumps and scratches in it, but I'll get those worked out ASAP. I really just want to know at this point if it is:

(a) loud enough
(b) clear enough

Thanks!

You can find the link to the demos and progress reports at the following location: http://www.therealitycheck.ca/podcast.html
« Last Edit: October 15, 2007, 03:52:54 PM by IT_Spook »

"You write novellas? Isn't that like the red-haried stepchild of novels?"


goatkeeper

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Reply #1 on: October 04, 2007, 05:41:33 AM
Howdy- my 2 cents.
First- Great idea asking for quick feedback with a quick and easy lil sample snippet.

1- Overall gain/volume up 30% atleast
2- Speak slower.

Audio quality was fine though.  Would love to hear more.



Russell Nash

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Reply #2 on: October 04, 2007, 07:21:03 AM
I agree with everything Goatkeeper said.

You have a very listenable voice (second time I've made this comment this week).  However, you garble your words a bit.  This is mostly, because you're speaking too fast.  Rerecord it and we'll give it another listen.



IT_Spook

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Reply #3 on: October 04, 2007, 01:38:16 PM
Well, I thought it would be better to do a quick snippet and see if my equipment was decent at least before I recorded another 25,000 words. :) The volume I can fix thanks to the software.

Regarding the garbled... I was afraid of that :). I hope with lots of practice, I will be able to slow the tempo down and announciate some words better. I don't think that it helped that I was pretty nervous about recording and then knowing I wanted to ask for help. It doesn't help either that I have a tendency to mumble and talk like a man hopped on Jolt cola most of the time. Comes from being 1 of 4 sibilings: fastest talker usually got what they wanted first.

Again, thanks for the quick feedback. It is greatly appreciated. I'll give it another try later in the week and try to toss up something new next Friday-ish.

"You write novellas? Isn't that like the red-haried stepchild of novels?"


BrandtPileggi

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Reply #4 on: October 12, 2007, 07:00:36 PM
How long ago did you put out the newer one? The volume sounds much better and yes, your voice is very listenable. Can;t wait to hear more.



Russell Nash

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Reply #5 on: October 13, 2007, 07:22:48 AM
The volume is good.  Your delivery is still a little fast.  You have good pauses, but then you come in with quick speech.  It's a little like a machine gun, tat-tat-tat-tat pause tat-tat-tat-tat.



BrandtPileggi

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Reply #6 on: October 13, 2007, 01:38:12 PM
how avoidable is it for that particular reading though? It is a military report. I can't imagine he could slow it up a whole lot more. I do think you can and probably should a bit. But I think you're going to get to a point where you still want to maintain that military cadance but not have him sound like he's smoking weed. You'r much closer with the second one though. Can I ask you what your setup is?



IT_Spook

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Reply #7 on: October 15, 2007, 03:51:25 PM
Thanks for the feedback so far.

The current "demos" are about a week old. I have recorded some new ones and I think they sound good. That machine gun delivery is me being an idiot and thinking about speaking like a teletype halfway through the demo.

The problem I am trying top overcome right now is my instinct to talk like an auctioneer. I was pretty happy I could get down from mumbling and garbling 50 percent of the words to maybe 3 in a paragraph. I find it takes me about 10 to 12 tries to nail a paragraph down decently. Thank goodness I am paitient and this is a labor of love as opposed a job.

Any ideas for slowing down my speech apart from practice, practice, pracitce? If I can nail that, I could get things down nicely.

Here are something I have done to help my speed and delivery:

(1) Reherse: Doh. Kind of obvious.

(2) Change The Wording: While my Canadian accent my be nice to listen to, I have discovered I have a speech impediment that makes me slur/mumble/garble certain word combinations. To combat this, I read the paragraphs alouda few times. Any place that my mouth has issues with, I change the words until I can pronounce them clearly.

(3) Tap My Leg Like A Beat: I don't know if this really helps, but I pretend I am playing an insturment. I tap my leg and try to focus on pronouncing each word clearly... but not too slowly.

(4) Learning To Record In Bits: I starting work on the first chapter (4 pages) and focusing on nailing down each paragraph. I'm trying to record just a paragraph at a time and splice them together. Shockingly, Audicity works very well in this regard and I haven't been able to hear a "bump/shuffle/click" when I splice paragraphs. The first chapter is pretty hard for me because it is descriptive as opposed to converstational (conversation is easier for me to speak).

As for my setup, I have a Sony SV-120 Dynamic Microphone... sitting in a tupperware container, propped up with hockey cards. My filter is a dollar stor stocking with a plastic hoop inside. The filter sits on a candle holder. I record using my SB Audigy sound card and using the old standby of Audicity.

I'll post an updated Prologue tonight around 9:00 EST as well as the first 1:30 minutes from Chapter 1, so you can check it out. Just follow the link. The news on the page will let you know what you are listening to and when it was recored.

Again, I really apprecaite all of you donating your time to listen and provide feedback. I just hope the project will be listenable when I finish it... and yes, I will post it to Podiobooks when I get it at least 1/2 complete. Maybe I can get away from writing children's books for a while. :)

"You write novellas? Isn't that like the red-haried stepchild of novels?"