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Editing Audiobook?

 
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AndreaK



Joined: 01 Aug 2012
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 8:09 pm    Post subject: Editing Audiobook? Reply with quote

Hi all!
So, if you've read the question above, you can probably tell I'm a greenhorn. You don't have to be gentle, but please try not to draw blood...here goes:

I was recently hired to do my first ebook (yay!). I've been given instructions on how to label files, how to send them, what format, etc. Now that I'm actually recording the script, I'm wondering - do I edit more than just my breaths and such if there is no direction to do so?
This place has their own audio engineer and they are going to review everything I send, so I know my work isn't done just because I've read the sentence once - I might have to go back and that's fine.
But, I don't want to come off as REALLY amateurish and not give them a completely edited piece if that's the norm and I just don't know about it. I'm thinking that cutting out breaths and having cohesive sentences is a definite, but what about longer silences between paragraphs or sentences or page turns? This will be used for teens with reading deficiencies who might want to listen along with reading, so I'm doing myself a favor and going at a slow to moderate pace, just like my audition. Do I need to worry about EQ, normalizing, and the like? I just don't know if I need to keep pauses in and expect them to be edited out or not...While I'm waiting to hear back about correct pronunciation, I'm constantly thinking about this.

Does that make any sense? Is there a norm for narration editing? Any help is appreciated!

Thank you in advance.
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Jason Huggins
The Gates of Troy


Joined: 12 Aug 2011
Posts: 1846
Location: In the souls of a million jeans

PostPosted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 8:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.acx.com/help/production-standard-terms/200485540

Check this out to start.
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Bish
3.5 kHz


Joined: 22 Nov 2009
Posts: 3738
Location: Lost in the cultural wasteland of Long Island

PostPosted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 10:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There are a couple of key phrases in your question... "a slow to moderate pace, just like my audition"... go with the pace of your audition... it's part of what got you the gig. If they want it changed, they'll tell you. As far as breaths are concerned, you don't have to be breath-less. The general rule is that you should cut out any breath at the start of a paragraph, and any that are obviously not at punctuation points and were taken in mid-phrase because you were turning blue! As long as the remaining breaths are natural and non-obtrusive, they should be fine. If you remove all breath sound, it'll sound lifeless. Personally, I would not worry about pausing for the page turns. That's a really specific requirement (which I've never come across)... they will tell you if it's needed.

The other thing is that you say the place has their own audio engineer. You may not need to worry about compression or sweetening. They may actually want to do it in house. Concentrate on getting good, clean, wav/aiff masters that bounce around a good level without ever clipping or dipping down too far into your noise floor. I usually shoot for getting the "normal" passages to slide in around -6dB or thereabouts, and I try to maintain a -60dB noise floor.

There is nothing amateurish (quite the contrary) about asking their engineer about what format he wants and if he'll be doing the file prep and conversion. Just ask what his preferences are for received files. Some production houses like to keep this stuff in-house for QC purposes (or even outsource to a single producer). You say that they've told you what format they want already... I would guess that if they want wav/aiff, then they want to process in-house. If they're asking for mp3, then I would assume they expect you to process etc.

Good luck... hopefully one or two of our audiobook ninjas will join in.
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Donna
King's Row


Joined: 08 Feb 2008
Posts: 1118
Location: The studio or the barn.

PostPosted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good for you Andrea! I think you've gotten some very good advice so far.
By all means ask as many questions as you need to. Having everything clearly spelled out at the beginning will save everyone time and headaches.

Some things you need to know - and I assume they have already put in the specs - are they expecting a punch-edited file, finished edit, or dry read from you? If you don't know what punch edit, or punch-and-roll is, I suggest you look around this forum or head over to Voice OverXtra or the LinkedIn Audiobook Voices Network group and search for the topic.

I have also found that a 'rough edit' means different things to different producers. Some of them want you to supply what is essentially a finished piece, minus processing. Others are good with just the best takes and they'll clean it up from there.

The main thing is to keep communication open and update your team with any new developments. Getting and giving feedback throughout the process will result in fewer surprises for everyone and fewer corrections in the end.

Oh- the REALLY main thing - have FUN! Audiobook narration isn't everyone's piece o'cake, but it can be incredibly satisfying. Like cake. Really good cake.
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Donna Postel
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Festus
Contributor


Joined: 10 Nov 2012
Posts: 34
Location: Stratford, Connecticut

PostPosted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:57 pm    Post subject: Editing Audiobook? Punch n' Roll in AA3. Reply with quote

As Donna Postel mentioned in reply to this, I have tried Adam Verner's method he outlined in this article for doing a punch n' roll in AA3.
http://www.voiceoverxtra.com/article.htm?id=27umwzdu

I defaulted my keystrokes and followed his method precisely. My script will back up 3 seconds from the mistake and do a pre-roll to the point of the flub, but stops at that point. It does not go into record mode so I can record a good take instead of the flub. Does anyone have some insight on what I could be missing? Thanks in advance.
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