Audiobook Recording and Production
Hopefully you’ve read our Part 1 of this Audiobook Recording Series and it guided you towards the right path of Audiobook greatness! If you’ve not read it yet, click here to quickly catch up: Audiobook Recording Tips and Tricks (Part 1)
As usual, if you have any recording studio questions (whether it’s regarding voice recording, music production, editing, mastering or anything else) please contact us and we’ll do our best to steer you in the right direction!
Let’s continue our Audiobook Recording discussion!…
Record Intros and Outros
These are the small clips that the tells the listener what they’re actually listening to. Keep your intros/outros short and simple. No need to use long fancy text and loud annoying music. Some of the best intros are simple spoken word along the lines of “Audiobook Title. Written by: John Doe. Narrated by: Bob Doe.” That’s it! No need for more (unless you’re obligated to state the publisher and copyright as well, but they generally go in the Outro).
Depending on who will host/publish your audiobook, these intros and outros may need to be separate files. Otherwise they can go directly in front of Chapter 1 (in the same file) and at the end of your last chapter. Of course if you have a “Forward” or “Acknowledgements” segment in your book, the intro would be placed before those sections.
Always Maintain Your Distance To the Microphone
I can not stress this one enough. Please remember to measure the distance from your mouth to the microphone, and write it down. The amount of hours it takes to properly record an audiobook means that you’ll be breaking your recording sessions into several days. And each day’s recording should sound the same; hence the need to “keep on mic” the same way, consistently every time.
If you move off mic even an inch or two it will become a very obvious sounding change in tone when the listener hears your edit. And more than just sounding amateur, it can actually distract and ‘remove’ the listener from your intended message.
Do Your Edits After Recording
This tip is similar to the above tip. If you do all your edits after you’ve finished the recordings, then you won’t have to interrupt your “flow” and timbre of voice in order to do something technical (like editing). I simply mark the location of the mistake and start that sentence again, while keeping your DAW (Pro Tools, GarageBand etc) running the whole time. You can easily edit the mistakes out later, but it’s much more difficult to match your tone to previous recordings if you have to stop for editing every mistake.
Drink Lots of Water
That’s it. Nothing more….nothing else. Just water. Don’t drink coffee, tea, milk, Coke or anything else while recording. Water is all you need. It keeps you hydrated. It refreshes your mouth and lips and helps minimize the lips smacks and clicks that annoy every engineer on the planet. Plus it’s good for your voice and throat and pretty much every part of your body! Yes, you might have to visit the bathroom more, but at least that’s a chance to get out of the stuffy vocal booth once in a while and stretch your legs! You can hit the scotch after your session 🙂