Tell me about your ear
13/7/17 11:38![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkemeraldsWho here likes audiobooks? Can I ask you some questions?
What's important to you in a reader/narrator/actor--particularly in fiction? Have you ever figuratively thrown an audiobook across the room because some particular thing about the reading bugged the crap out of you?
For example, do you value voice quality above all? Can't stand certain types of voices? Would listen to Alan Rickman reading the phone book?
Or is vivid characterization most important? Do you like really dramatic character readings? Or are subtle variations enough for you to keep track of the story?
How much do you care about authentic dialect, accents, and accurate representation of, say, foreign words in a text?
What about male versus female voices? Have you ever felt that an audiobook would have been improved by an actor of a different vocal gender?
And pacing: do you use the playback speed control on your audiobook app if someone is too slow? Too rushed?
Here's why I'm asking: I'm thinking seriously of hiring a voice actor to create an audiobook of Restraint. I know what I like, but in the long process of workshopping the novel I've learned that my taste is pretty specific, maybe even alienating to people who might like my work if I opened it out a bit more.
I can't please everyone, of course, but if I'm gonna shell out for this production, I'd like to get a sense of your taste, too, and try to meet it.
What's important to you in a reader/narrator/actor--particularly in fiction? Have you ever figuratively thrown an audiobook across the room because some particular thing about the reading bugged the crap out of you?
For example, do you value voice quality above all? Can't stand certain types of voices? Would listen to Alan Rickman reading the phone book?
Or is vivid characterization most important? Do you like really dramatic character readings? Or are subtle variations enough for you to keep track of the story?
How much do you care about authentic dialect, accents, and accurate representation of, say, foreign words in a text?
What about male versus female voices? Have you ever felt that an audiobook would have been improved by an actor of a different vocal gender?
And pacing: do you use the playback speed control on your audiobook app if someone is too slow? Too rushed?
Here's why I'm asking: I'm thinking seriously of hiring a voice actor to create an audiobook of Restraint. I know what I like, but in the long process of workshopping the novel I've learned that my taste is pretty specific, maybe even alienating to people who might like my work if I opened it out a bit more.
I can't please everyone, of course, but if I'm gonna shell out for this production, I'd like to get a sense of your taste, too, and try to meet it.
Tags:
Re: Another audio-book reader
14/7/17 23:39 (UTC)Audiobook directors are rare these days. Seems like only the big publishing houses are dealing with the media production firms that do a full-crew type of recording. The expense must be enormous!
Most of the voice talent out there is freelance. They have their own studio setups and do their own recording and editing. Microphone and digital recording technologies have come such a long way that unless you're a huge audiophile, good enough really IS good enough for spoken word.
But of course we listeners are going to run across amateur work, and our only protections are ratings and samples. I've tried books with grossly underprepared readers, readers with sinus problems, readers who mispronounced key terms...someone's brother-in-law, basically. Lie-berry is way outside the pale, but I remember one book that featured some discussion of wine, and the reader seemed to think that the correct pronunciation of a certain French red was Château Nee-oof du Pa-pay. Sigh...
It's only fair to say that I've also run across errors in the top-of-the-line media-company productions of classic or bestselling works by big name actors. Mind you, these are typically editing errors where a repetition that should have been cut was left in. But a certain small percentage of slight misreadings seems to be allowable. I don't mind this sort of thing. It's clarity, voice quality, correct pronunciation and flow above all for me.
My own novel doesn't have a lot of pitfalls, but there are some accents (French, Scots, English regional and class-based) and a few French and Italian phrases and place names; the style is a bit on the classical, Jane-Austen side, and there's a large-ish cast of characters. It will absolutely require a real British actor with a fair education.
I still make those oatcakes regularly, and they're still a hit with the fam. I hope you give it a try. To me, the key is getting them baked to a crisp in a fairly slow oven--and eating them with delicious butter and cheese. :D