Audio books - do they work for you?
I'm discovering they're hard to make
I mentioned to some friends that I'm planning to get into audio book creation - starting with my own books, obviously. I have in mind several intense weekends of hiding away from friends and family; talking to myself, drinking mint tea to lubricate my vocal chords and staring at a flashing representation of my voice on the sound ribbon as it peels by. At the moment, my rising enthusiasm is matched by mounting frustration at the courier service employed by the online retailer from whom I sourced my equipment.
I have received a microphone stand and attached POP filter (to shield the mic from ‘plosives’ such as would be caused by reciting ‘Peter Piper Picked a Peck of…’) You know the rest, I’m sure. That piece of kit came from Amazon on Tuesday. Overnight…
Today I received a tiny box, stuffed with shredded paper inside which was… an even tinier iRig pre-amplifier. This will plug into the computer – happily fitted with a 3.5mm socket already.
But I still need the mic itself! Supposedly, it will come with an ‘XLR’ cable – essentially a high quality and quite thick audio cable. These are supposed to convey the mic signal with very little loss of quality into the amplifier and thence into the computer where the Audacity programme (almost a D.A.W. – Digital Audio Workstation) works its magic.
I behold the growing pile of matt black bits on my desk and realise they are, at the moment, utterly useless. Much like a chocolate fireguard.
You know how a watched kettle never boils? Well, my frequent peering up the front garden path to spot the courier delivery driver is probably preventing him or her from arriving. I must resist looking…
Have any of you done audio recordings? Any advice for the tyro?
While I wait, I’ll try to work out how long this is going to take me – after the mic arrives, of course. Let’s see. Online sources reckon about 5 hours of recording time to achieve a single hour of audio - for a beginner. But how long will my books take to read? Each is around 100,000 words – that’s got to be around 11 or 12 hours of listening, no? Say, 11. Therefore 11 x 5 = 55 hours of recording time?
Blimey. And I also read that a beginner won’t have the voice stamina to sit down for 8 hours straight. Maybe I can manage a couple before taking the dog for a walk.
Perhaps I haven’t thought this through enough…
