oh dear lord thank goodness for iZotope; again

 

Man, there is nothing more frustrating than being IN FLOW narrating, acting, a really beautiful intense inward story, only to listen to the file and realize something in the studio was clicking, and there are random clicks throughout the recording.  Was it my headphones? they can be a little clicky.  Was it my glasse frames against the pop-filter frame?  I *was* pretty close to the filter.  Was it the headphone cable swinging into something as I moved?  I have NO idea, though you can be sure i’ll be chasing down the problem before i record the next thing!

The amazing thing is, iZotope has a click remover.  Now, I purchased iZotope RX7 specifically because it has this MAGIC FILTER that removes mouth-clicks.  Those are different from random ‘something in the studio hit something else’ – the de-click function won’t remove mouth-clicks.  BUT IT’LL REMOVE THESE CLICKS.  I’m playing with the settings, working on the right sensitivity/frequency/etc. to remove the clicks but not touch the overall sound.  my ear is SO DAMN PICKY…i’ll nail this one down.

I don’t announce books I’m recording – partly because it’s a privacy matter; if the author and I decide to say ‘nah, not the right narrator’ I don’t want anyone to be publically uncomfortable.  But also partly superstition – don’t announce projects!  It might make projects dissapear!

But I’m working on a short story anthology and really enjoying the writer tremendously.  Prose that makes the reading suuuuuper intense just by BEING that way…in a quiet, inward sort of way.  I’m having a blast ;D  Project tba when it’s DONE and BEAUTIFUL.

But meanwhile I’LL BE WORKING ON THIS CLICK ISSUE.

RIGHT NOW I HAVE TO GO TO BED.  SOUND ENGINEERING TAKES A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF TIME.

When I first started narrating…what advice would have helped me most?

 

Today a lovely fellow who usually does a radio show, but in this time of freely and joyfully given creativity, asked me if I had any tips on how to read an audiobook.  (audiobooks are markedly different from radio)  …and off the top of my head, here were my answers:

1. I think the two most critical things, and absolutely the most difficult, are 1) slow down  1a) slow down more  1b) ..eeeven more

  and

2. don’t be afraid to leave sPACE!

on radio space is DEAD AIR – BAD

in audiobooks space is EMOTION

space allows the listener to really hear what was said – if the line was funny, if the line was a gut punch – space is where the listener’s imagination takes over

(that said, there are times when zero space is the funniest thing you can do – but that is something that is almost certainly part of your radio repertoir!)

3.  The third thing that I would have told myself is, vary rate of delivery – vary the speed of the prose, based on the emotional roller coaster of the prose.

This is remarkably hard to do for some reason.  i mean, it’s easy to slow down as you reach the end of a sentence – but varying the rate of speed in a paragraph?  that’s not how we normally speak.

Variation of pace in the right places really ups the impact of the words.

4.  And kinda the last thing I’d put in the “OH GOD I WISH I’D KNOWN THIS” category, is vary the pitch of your delivery, ESPECIALLY the pitch at the end of sentences as pitch tends to fall naturally.  Don’t be afraid to let a sentence resolve all the way to the bottom of a declarative sentence!  Whole paragraphs that go by with each sentence-conclusion being a soft, non-commital, semi-tone are incredibly boring – the audience tunes out.

[as a coda I concluded:]  People tend to get too focused on ‘voicing’ – creating a specific voice for each character – you don’t need that nearly as much as allowing emotional cues to creep in – a breath-catch, a hesitation or stumbling, a clipped delivery, a soft one…. you do this kind of thing, and you don’t need to ‘voice’ characters at all.

I hoped this helps him give a lovely reading of the book he’s about to embark on!  May fortune favor your work 🙂