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Recording Audiobooks

Last updated Jan 11, 2023 Edit Source

As of January 2023 I’ve begun recording my own audiobooks. This page is my reference guide.

# My Equipment

# Why Record my own Audiobooks?

# Limitations & Problems

# My Recording Location

My tiny urban condo lacks a closet or small room suitable for recording, and cities are noisy, so I use my condo building’s movie room. It has moderate soundproofing and soft walls. Combined with my microphone’s isolation shield, it’s not bad!

Audiobook files need to have a noise floor (silence) of -60DB. When I choose a quiet time of day, I can record at -56DB. That’s pretty close, and I can tweak the noise floor a little when I process the files.

# Recording as Proofing (Workflow Experiment)

To streamline my work I’m combining audio recording with proofreading. Once a chapter is complete and edited (content edits + line edit) I begin recording.

When reading work aloud, proofreading errors stand out clearly. I pause the recording, fix the error in the manuscript file, and re-record that sentence, all on the fly.

# Before Recording (instructions)

# When Starting a New Project

# Useful Commands in Audacity

# Punch and Roll

For backing up and re-starting when you’ve messed up.

Place the marker (line) before your spoken error or flub. Hit SHIFT + D and the previous five seconds will play. You can speak over your own voice to get in the rhythm! At the marker, recording will resume. Keep on narrating from there.

more to come…

# Audiobook Plugins for Audacity

coming soon

# Audiobook Editing

coming soon

# Mastering the Audio Files

coming soon

coming soon