Audio books; preferences of style

[chrispenycate]

I have an actor friend (yes, lowly technicians are allowed to befriend actors and musicians, 'talent', as we say in the postprod geekspeak) who is planning to read an audio book version of "A Christmas carol" by Dickens (and ultimately more of his works, if that nice short test works out) Reason? None of the versions we can find are uncut, full texte; the Beeb version for schools cuts over half of the original words (assuming that children wowadays have not the attention span for all that description).Thing is, he's planning to do voices for characters, and perhaps sound effects and music; almost a radio play, to sugar the pill of non-simplification of the prose.

The idea is to generate short, 'a book at bedtime' episodes, plus a continuous, full length file. This will mean that in a few months I will be considerably more au fait with audio book technologies, and possible ready to offer another service…

While this more theatrical outlook is fun (for me) do you think that it will detract, and possibly distract, from the writing?

 

[The Judge]

I'm not a great listener of audiobooks, so this probably won't be of much help, but one I did have was a Sharpe novel read by Sean Bean and he did the voices (which was a shock as I didn't think he could do posh!). I can't recall know if it had sound effects and everything else. Anyway, I enjoyed it and I think it was better like that than a straight non-acting reading. And let's face it, Dickens is just crying out to be theatrical!

 

[Lord Soth]

I listen to quite a few audiobooks, as my radio in my car is broken I play them using the audible app on my phone.

The ones I have listened to have been in both camps - those that introduce accents and new voices for the characters and those that play it pretty much deadpan all the way through.

To be honest I don't mind either way, of much more important is the actual voice of the reader and the story itself. I don't mean how good the story is, but just that some stories lend themselves much better than others to audio format. Also for me, it needs to be an English voice actor, as for the few I have sampled which were not were awful to listen to.

The best I have listened to was Rivers of London (http://www.audible.co.uk/pd?asin=B004VMVS1S) read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. The story and narrator gelled perfectly for me.

Oh and the last point is that (for me) with every new book I listen to there is an initial 'ergh not sure if I like this narrator as much as the last one', but that soon fades, a bit like the start of a black and white film where you soon don't take any notice of the lack of colour. I would guess that it is because everything you have every read it always done with your own internal monologue voice, so its a little strange when someone reads it to you without any associated visual queues (of that makes sense!).

 

[Vertigo]

I would say it depends very much how well your actor can do the different voices/accents. Done well it can and probably will work very well, done badly it will destroy it completely.

 

[Rodders]

I've only listened to a couple of Audio Books and i am impressed and amused in equal measure at the voices. I'd agree with Vertigo, but it does go to show that it's not just reading out loud, but voice acting.

As a preference though, i do thoroughly enjoy full blown audio dramas such as the Radio version of The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I love all styles of radio play/audiobooks. I listen to them a lot between the radio and well just listening to them. Allows me to read and do things. They are also prove great for books that make me laugh or cry too much to read.

It can work very well.

 

[jojajihisc]

My guess is their will be just as many students that don't have the attention span to listen to an audio book either. I've found it's easier to get distracted with audio books than printed. The problem is it's more passive. I've listened to a lot of short fiction podcasts in the last few years and I don't think accents have to be accurate necessarily so long as each voice is distinctive. I also like some of the sound effects that are added when it fits the story well and isn't overdone.

 

[Montero]

I use audiobooks when I am doing something boring - e.g. painting a room. Usually have it on speakers, rather than on headset. Listened to a whole mix, biography, autobiography, history, thrillers, Terry Pratchett, Dorothy Dunnett (The 6 Game of Kings series), quite a few Elizabeth Peters detective novels (Amelia Peabody).

I have found that:

1. Some books I like much better on audio than reading from the page (Amelia Peabody for example).
2. Listening while doing something else limits slightly the pace of the book - as in slower paced books work better as my brain can process the plot and control the painting at the same time.
3. Accents, and different voice emphasis can be very useful for distinguishing what is going on, but only in moderation - too much, particularly of an accent I don't hear very often - and I struggle to make out what is said.
4. Don't recall any sound effects (ie doors slamming, footsteps or whatever).
5. Wouldn't like any sound effects at the same time as the text is being read, as it would make it harder to make out what is being said.
6. I do like the story reading with a little bit of input from the narrator - as in the voice varies with "here comes a good bit" to put it crudely.

Further thought - if you have sound effects as well as the text they represent - as in "the door slammed in the wind" together with the sound of wind and a door slamming is that going to be too much? If you move towards radio play presentation - as in replace text with sound effects where appropriate, then the students won't get the full Dickens text anyway.

Good luck with it all.

BTW, even though I am a keen reader, have read some of the classics of English literature as well as genre, autobiography etc, I can't stick Dickens. Was made to read Hard Times at school by an enthusiastic English Master who adored Dickens way of describing a character by an obvious characteristic - "a mouth like a letter box". Yes, this was clever but I just found Dickens really, really long winded. So I hope you succeed, with promoting an author you like but......

 

[j d worthington]

I don't listen to a great number of these at present, though I used to; and, as others have said, it depends on how well the voice artist does with such. A multi-casette recording I had of Ray Bradbury reading his stories had him doing very little of that, and it worked very well. Ditto for Tolkien, who did some, but wisely went with a light touch on it. C. L. Moore doing "Shambleau" did not attempt to do so, and I found hers interesting, but just a wee bit lacking. Harlan Ellison's attempts in that department are intermittently very successful and so-so (though it must be said that his presentation overall is very well done).

On the other hand, many of those done by professional actors tend toward doing voice characterizations, and these are often very fine. Derek Jacobi's readings of M. R. James' ghost stories, for instance, bring a new level to these well-known tales. And, on an older front, Karloff's reading of Avallone's Tales of the Frightened seldom attempted such, yet are among the best spoken word recordings I've ever come across....

Not really much help, is it....?

 

[GOLLUM]

I dunno JD....it all adds up...

I have a few audiobooks. My favourite amongst them has to be Carlos Ruis Zafon's Shadow of the Wind. The single narrator is Johnathon Davis who handles male and female voices and accents with aplomb. He is a superb young narrator and apparently also been involved in audiobooks ranging from Kurt Vonnegut to Robert J. Sawyer to the Star Wars franchise to Neal Stephenson to Jose Saramago.

Actually sorry Chris, I'm not sure I added to much to your question either lol!

 

[chrispenycate]

Actually, you all did, thank you all very much; I wanted to be certain that people didn't consider effects vocal or added, like reverberation on a ghost, to distract from the essential:- the words themselves.

Last time I did audio books they were "talking books for the blind", on 16 2/3 vinyl LP disks, not even cassettes, and speed was of the essence, over and above quality.

The guy is very good at voices and characters; I have a recording of "Undermilk Wood" where he performs all the rôles, mostly in direct, some himself but recorded, with the background sound effects/atmospheres. I'm not sure we can go that far economically, but I'm not sure that readers would appreciate it, anyway. It's unfortunate I can't post audio in critiques for people's opinions; perhaps I'll put a short extract somewhere and do a link to it; if I can work out how to do a link, that is, or build a public box, or just eMail anyone who shows interest…

Fades off into unintelligibility – yes, you're right, that wasn't very far, was it?

 

[Dozmonic]

Effects and voices don't detract at all. His Dark Materials is done like a radio production and is fantastic. Sometimes you'll have just one voice actor, such as in the hobbit audio book I had, or the harry potter ones (various readers), and they work just as well too. As long as the production isn't massively overdone, it's very effective and greatly improves the listening experience.

If you'd like people to have easy access to a sample, I can host it on my webspace.

 

[Montero]

Could I just repeat - be careful with effects so it doesn't mask words. I find background music (not that you'd be having that) on some films and series make it really hard to make out what is being said. Sad to say, Dr Who sometimes falls into that category. I cannot catch a certain line, but if it happens to be one of the ones on the Confidential, without the background (foreground at times) music, then I can hear it just fine.

I was going to suggest samples to you and its already been said. My comment is by all means test it on SFF but I was going to suggest testing samples on your intended audience as well if you can. Before you spend too much on it.

Other thought which many of you probably know - Dickens often came out in serials in magazines, so was designed to be read in short chunks. "Penny readings" were also popular in the Victorian period - someone with a good voice reading out loud either in a hired hall or in a pub, the audience paying a penny each. So quite a lot of the literature of the period works well read aloud.

Two vivid memories from primary school.
1. A lady who came in and performed the Ugly Duckling song, accompanying herself on what I now think was a small lute and with plenty of quacking.
2. the Headmaster telling the whole school, in the school hall, Kipling's Elephant's Child complete with swinging his arm for the trunk and rendering "the great green greasy limpopo river" with gusto. We were all riveted.

 

[chrispenycate]

Effects and voices don't detract at all. His Dark Materials is done like a radio production and is fantastic. Sometimes you'll have just one voice actor, such as in the hobbit audio book I had, or the harry potter ones (various readers), and they work just as well too. As long as the production isn't massively overdone, it's very effective and greatly improves the listening experience.

If you'd like people to have easy access to a sample, I can host it on my webspace.

Just to say I have noted your offer, and we were discussing how to do a three minute sample today (we've recorded, effected and mixed the first stave, about 52 minutes). I could, of course, put it on my ftp site, but I might take you up on your offer, as I don't know if everyone can receive ftp, without buying a special program.

 

[Dozmonic]

If the ftp is password protected then they wouldn't be able to, no. If it's just password protected to upload, then they would be able to get it

 

[chrispenycate]

Oh, I can put up a special folder and put the password here, as I normally do in an eMail to clients. I'm not very computer savvy, but I get enough practice in that.

 

[ktabic]

I could, of course, put it on my ftp site, but I might take you up on your offer, as I don't know if everyone can receive ftp, without buying a special program.

Yes, they can. Just about web browser this side of y2k will happily handle ftp in addition to http.

 

[chrispenycate]

Yes, they can. Just about web browser this side of y2k will happily handle ftp in addition to http.

So why did I get 'Transmit'? Oh, it's very handy for this, of course, and was useful for Taïwan (ten hour downloads the 'would you like me to start from where the line dropped out, or go back to the beginning and start again' option really comes into its own), but I was told I couldn't work without it.

 

[chrispenycate]

Right. I have no idea whether anyone will read this, or be able to follow the instructions if they do, but if you go to:-

ftp.maunoir.com
user roger
password worrod

You'll find a folder "Data", containing a folder "Christmas Carol" with a 12 minute demo of the reading "CC Stave 1 Trailer".

Any comments about sound effects being distracting, voice mimicry taking away from the text, anything will be appreciated.

 

[The Judge]

I managed the technology!!

First impressions:

Jolly good. Could do with a tiny bit more spooky atmosphere, perhaps. I liked his narratorly voice.

Some of the sound effects I found a tiny bit distracting -- the doors opening and closing, and the "boinnnggg" noises between the earlier scenes, in particular. Also checking the door locks. The bell scarcely ringing bit -- it was quite loud already when the actor says that, so it might perhaps be better if it started quieter or later. The chain clunking also seemed too loud to begin with, since it is on a separate floor.

Since it's being acted with the actor(?s) using different voices I didn't think the "said Scrooge" was necessary and it seemed intrusive. **

My main problem, though, was the accent used for Scrooge. It was too much for my taste -- too stereotypically miserly. It wasn't so much Ebenezer Scrooge, who is surely a Londoner/Kent person (though I've never read the book so I might be completely wrong) as Ebenezer Balfour.

I'll have another listen a bit later, and see if I can think of anything else which might be of help.


** EDIT: just re-read your opening post for a clue re the actor's name, and saw this was to be an uncut version, so if that's why they're there, then ignore that comment!