Hello friends. I'm working on a small project of creating an audio book for my novella. It's pretty hard work to be honest. Here are the first two small parts. They are only a few minutes. I'd appreciate any feedback you could give.
Poll: How does it sound?
Sounds good (1)
33%
Seems promising but needs more practice (1)
33%
Don't bother (1)
33%
Get someone else to do the reading (0)
0%
3 total votes
Your vote: How does it sound?
(Vote): Sounds good (Vote): Seems promising but needs more practice (Vote): Get someone else to do the reading (Vote): Don't bother
Maybe it's just me but I feel like your S sounds tend to peak and are harsh in the first video, it might be the way you talk, your mic, or maybe you're just too close to your mic? Also I notice that you stutter a bit, and audiobook narrators are remarkable in that they very rarely mispronounce words and have to step back, and that takes practice for sure. Other than that, good voice and intonation, IMO.
Thanks! Yeah, I definitely feel my esses a lot when I'm reading. I have lots of practice reading out loud, but it's definitely a lot more difficult than I expected. I'm considering abandoning it or hiring a pro.
I dont' have a clue about doing audiobooks or anything but here are my thoughts. First off, I think you got a good voice for this. It's easy to listen to and has a pleasant tone. If you practice the parts long enough, I'm sure you would get it all without stuttering once, so I don't think thats the big problem. The best part were the first 30-40 seconds of the first video. The speed at which youre reading feels just right in those seconds. Objectively it's kind of slow but I like to other things while listening to audiobooks/ podcasts, so I can follow the story better. For me the difference to podcasts is, that a discussion or a conversation between people is easier to follow at a high speed, than a read out story is. In general I feel youre a little too fast in the second video and the pauses between sentences(or your pauses in general seem a little off) is a little too short. And because you're too fast, you lose the element of delivering the story by voice. To me it sounds like you're reading out loud, while everyone who listens is reading along and can easily follow the story and what it wants to express. I don't know if any of this makes any sense to you but maybe it does. Cheers!
Thanks for the feedback! (no pun intended) Believe me, I can tell all of these problems when I'm recording. It's just a lot harder than I imagined to read even a few paragraphs, let alone a page, without taking breaths or swallowing or any of the other things we usually do. The weird pauses are probably because I was spicing and dicing a lot.
I like your voice and way of reading. Audio quality is pretty low, get some sort of equalizer to prevent all the peaking. The writing is ... not for me, it feels very unpolished. I'd probably recommend reading something like "the elements of style" and putting out another draft, before going forward with the audio book production. Good luck.
EPT
