Sound quality

[Catlady]

I've noticed something odd in the book I'm currently listening to (Sinatra: The Chairman, by James Kaplan). Every once in a while, the sound quality seems to change slightly for a few sentences or so, then change back.

What I'm theorizing is that the written book might have had last-minute edits and the audio needed to be re-recorded in spots to reflect the edits, then incorporated into the whole. But this sort of thing must happen frequently when an audiobook is put together, yet I've never noticed it before in the couple of hundred books I've listened to in the past few years. Have any of you noticed something like this?

I've occasionally been aware of a bit of difference from chapter to chapter, say, in other books, but that seems like it would just be a natural break from one recording session to another.

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I've noticed something odd in the book I'm currently listening to (Sinatra: The Chairman, by James Kaplan). Every once in a while, the sound quality seems to change slightly for a few sentences or so, then change back.

What I'm theorizing is that the written book might have had last-minute edits and the audio needed to be re-recorded in spots to reflect the edits, then incorporated into the whole. But this sort of thing must happen frequently when an audiobook is put together, yet I've never noticed it before in the couple of hundred books I've listened to in the past few years. Have any of you noticed something like this?

I've occasionally been aware of a bit of difference from chapter to chapter, say, in other books, but that seems like it would just be a natural break from one recording session to another.

I've definitely noticed it. It seems to be pretty rare though. I've done it when editing audio books and something changed in the background between the original recording and the recording for the edit. It's much easier to record a complete sentence or two even when there's only one word that needs to be fixed.

Greg

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by gweeks

I've definitely noticed it. It seems to be pretty rare though. I've done it when editing audio books and something changed in the background between the original recording and the recording for the edit. It's much easier to record a complete sentence or two even when there's only one word that needs to be fixed.

It just seems so surprising that I've never heard these kinds of variations before.

Since you've edited audio books, I'm curious about how long it takes to record one--say the book ends up being eight hours long; how much time goes into the production?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Since you've edited audio books, I'm curious about how long it takes to record one--say the book ends up being eight hours long; how much time goes into the production?

Can't speak for Greg, but here's what ACX has to say...

How long does it usually take someone to produce 1 finished hour of an audiobook?
We have found that it generally takes a total of around 6.2 hours for a Producer to complete one hour of an audiobook.

Here’s how you get there:

It takes about two hours to narrate what will become one finished hour.
After the narration is recorded, it then takes an editor (who might be the same person as the narrator) about three hours to edit each finished hour of recording.
And then it’s a wise move—we might even say STRONGLY recommended—to run a quality control (QC) pass over the finished project. This means spending time re-listening and suggesting words, sentences, or sections to re-record. And that takes about 1.2 hours for every finished hour.

http://www.acx.com/help/production/200474640#duration

[issybird]

I wish, for all the listening and relistening that goes into editing and QC, that so many mispronounced words didn't slip through. Nothing takes me out of a book faster.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Can't speak for Greg, but here's what ACX has to say...

Thanks; that's really interesting. So the 40+ hour book I'm listening to might have taken 250 man-hours to produce.

Originally Posted by issybird

I wish, for all the listening and relistening that goes into editing and QC, that so many mispronounced words didn't slip through. Nothing takes me out of a book faster.

I think it's often because the people involved have no idea they're mispronouncing. I listened to one book in which the narrator repeatedly pronounced Black Maria as Black Mah-ree-ah rather than Black Mah-rye-ah. If they'd never heard the term, why would they realize it has an unexpected pronunciation?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by issybird

I wish, for all the listening and relistening that goes into editing and QC, that so many mispronounced words didn't slip through. Nothing takes me out of a book faster.

I encountered one horrendous example of that recently, in a Librivox recording of the Jules Verne book "The Castaways". Now admittedly, these are not professional narrators, but three different narrators of the book mispronounced the word "Maori" (ie the indigenous people of New Zealand) as "Ma-orry", and I just don't see any excuse for that. Surely it's just everyday general knowledge to know how that word is pronounced, isn't it?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Surely it's just everyday general knowledge to know how that word is pronounced, isn't it?

Well, clearly not!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Well, clearly not!

It would appear not for these three people, certainly. But it did surprise me.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I encountered one horrendous example of that recently, in a Librivox recording of the Jules Verne book "The Castaways". Now admittedly, these are not professional narrators, but three different narrators of the book mispronounced the word "Maori" (ie the indigenous people of New Zealand) as "Ma-orry", and I just don't see any excuse for that. Surely it's just everyday general knowledge to know how that word is pronounced, isn't it?

Yes, it is! Or so I would have thought.

I class mispronunciations in three categories. The first is when a common English word is mispronounced and that's inexcusable. Not only am I shocked that the reader doesn't know the word, I think errors of this kind should be caught somewhere in the editing/production process and fixed; other people are listening, don't any of them have more than a rudimentary vocabulary? In any case, a professional should find out the pronunciation of a word with which he's unfamiliar, instead of just taking a stab at it.

The second is in the Maori category. It's understand that some proper nouns are unfamiliar (although not this one). But unfamiliar proper nouns should be identified in advance and the pronunciation discovered. People are being paid to get it right, not close.

The third is the toughest; a proper noun where it's not obvious that the pronunciation is not what you'd expect. I recently finished listening to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire read by the thoroughly professional Nadia May. One of the recurring personages in the book was Lady Mary Coke. As I happen to know, her last name is pronounced "Cook," not Coke. Unfortunately, that's the kind of mistake it's hard to guard against, since if you don't know, you'd not suspect. Just the same, I winced every time Nadia May said "Coke."

[rjcchan]

Ya have to unnerstan that in the UK youse guys say a lot of English words funnily.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by rjcchan

Ya have to unnerstan that in the UK youse guys say a lot of English words funnily.

Really, things like jag-u-wire for jaguar. Y'all just don't know how to talk the queen's English, and that's a fact!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Really, things like jag-u-wire for jaguar.

No, we pronounce it "jag-you-uh".

[Catlady]

The British pronunciation for pasta is like nails on a chalkboard.

[HarryT]

I didn't know there was more than one way to say "pasta" . How do you say it?

All this, of course, reinforces the view I expressed previously, that British readers should read British books, and American readers American books.