8 ms·

Full-time freelance audiobook editor? I didn't realize that was a position. What exactly does this entail and how did you get started with it?

by Kopion 11y ago

AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
I got my education in audio engineering at a leading music conservatory, so moving into audiobook editing was a pretty easy sell for me. An audiobook is made in four basic steps: 1. A voice actor records the narration for the book. 2. The editor takes the raw audio recordings and edits these files for pacing, flow, and aesthetic flavor. The editor also makes note of any errors in the narration which require a re-record. 3. After making all re-records and inserting the new audio, the audio is listened through one more time. They call this a "QC pass." 4. Finally, the QC'd audio is mastered and encoded for delivery. I was the owner of step two for all Audible Studios productions.
- BHSPitMonkey 11y ago
  That's really interesting! And it also sounds really exhausting given the amount of material in a typical book. Thanks for sharing.
  - AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
    No problem :) Honestly, though, it was a great job. It never felt exhausting. Not only was the pay rather good for a 21 year old fresh out of university - the job was really fun. I got to read medium-to-high quality novels and create the audiobook experience. Later, I got to witness Audible's rise into the mainstream and evangelized producing audiobooks for ACX [1], bringing it to a new generation of actors and engineers. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmtV1Pe1hA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmtV1Pe1hA
- Kopion 11y ago
  If you don't mind me asking, how were you compensated for this? What was the model?
  - AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
    I worked 40hrs per week in the Audible HQ. I was paid at the rate listed above - $30/hr. So, I walked out of Audible's offices on Friday with a $1200 check in my hands. This is how it worked until Audible was sued for not providing health insurance benefits, and lost the case. So they had to hire us as full-time employees, and didn't allow two out of 8 to continue to work with us as they didn't "make the cut." (They both were African American women.)
- snacksthecat 11y ago
  I really enjoy when the voice actors do different voices for different characters. I've always wondered how they do the recording for that. Do they read all of the dialogue for one character in a big chunk, then move on to the dialogue of the next character? Or do they read through the book naturally and switch voices? I would think that the latter would be very difficult.
  - AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
    Great question! :) Narrators actually do switch all character voices in real-time. This does not commonly cause issues that require recording to stop, as the narrators are usually very experienced professionals that come from the Broadway stage or from other voice acting professions (cartoons and the like.) I've also recorded and edited my fair share of bad voice actors (for instance, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich narrated his book 'Beyond Outrage' even though he was told that it really wasn't a good idea.)
    - derefr 11y ago
      Simple question on a similar topic: how "real-time" is the source audio that you work with? I always imagined that voice actors would have arbitrary pauses between the delivery of every line, and it'd be the editor's job to tighten all of those up.
      - AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
        Wow. I love how curious folks are here about audiobook production! :) The pauses between lines/phrases were often tightened up, yes, by pasting room tone over the pauses. This way, the near-silence of the room tone is consistent throughout each pause, which makes the narration easier to comprehend and allows the listener greater immersion into the experience. The exact duration of room tone impacts the pacing of the narration. This is, in a way, the audiobook editor's "art." They can't over-edit because it would ruin the narrator's dramatic delivery - they need to be able to edit within the stylistic flow of the narrator. At the same time, if they are not careful enough to make the resulting delivery consistent, then the extraneous audio may distract listeners and lead to a lower quality result. That balance is acquired with experience. The reason this all happens, really, is to ensure a clean "noise floor" - the background sounds heard in addition to the narrator's voice. The sound of the room and the gear, if you will. The narrators are such pros (my experience) - there are many who I could get away with not editing at all, if it weren't for the incredible need for near-silence throughout the entire finished production.
- dzhiurgis 11y ago
  Hey what software are you using for this? I was thinking I really wish there was a good app where you can listen to audio articles. It is partly solved in iOS as you can speak selected text, but problem is you cannot select all text easily and you don't wanna mess with it while driving. Was wondering what would be a great UI for the transcriber and whether you could create p2p network to share the transcriptions.
  - AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
    The audiobook editors at Audible used SoundForge. I started out on SoundForge, but I led a real charge to get the department to switch to Wavelab. I was able to get Audible to buy me a license for Wavelab and I never really got anyone else to switch, but it made me super efficient. At that point though I was heading into a more dev role at the company so I was already drifting away from audiobook editing at that point.
    - msutherl 11y ago
      Wavelab is so good – it's a shame it's not more commonly used.
  - tommyd 11y ago
    I've thought about this too, but I'm not sure I've got the patience to listen to articles read in TTS voice. Anyway, on iOS if you enable voiceover you can read the entire screen by swiping down from the top with two fingers (I think - check the Apple website for accessibility information if not!)
    - dzhiurgis 11y ago
      You have to use the Speech from accessibility menu, and turn Speak Screen on. Another possibility i just realised is the possibility to pass texts from reader mode into 3rd party text-to-speech application. Will have to research some of them.
- rdl 11y ago
  I wish you'd blog or do an AMA or something; your responses in this thread are fascinating. (I discovered a couple years ago that I really like audiobooks.)

Full-time freelance audiobook editor? I didn't realize that was a position. What exactly does this entail and how did you get started with it?

by Kopion 11y ago

Full-time freelance audiobook editor? I didn't realize that was a position. What exactly does this entail and how did you get started with it?

AndrewUnmuted 11y ago

I got my education in audio engineering at a leading music conservatory, so moving into audiobook editing was a pretty easy sell for me. An audiobook is made in four basic steps: 1. A voice actor records the narration for the book. 2. The editor takes the raw audio recordings and edits these files for pacing, flow, and aesthetic flavor. The editor also makes note of any errors in the narration which require a re-record. 3. After making all re-records and inserting the new audio, the audio is listened through one more time. They call this a "QC pass." 4. Finally, the QC'd audio is mastered and encoded for delivery. I was the owner of step two for all Audible Studios productions.

BHSPitMonkey 11y ago
That's really interesting! And it also sounds really exhausting given the amount of material in a typical book. Thanks for sharing.
- AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
  No problem :) Honestly, though, it was a great job. It never felt exhausting. Not only was the pay rather good for a 21 year old fresh out of university - the job was really fun. I got to read medium-to-high quality novels and create the audiobook experience. Later, I got to witness Audible's rise into the mainstream and evangelized producing audiobooks for ACX [1], bringing it to a new generation of actors and engineers. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmtV1Pe1hA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmtV1Pe1hA
Kopion 11y ago
If you don't mind me asking, how were you compensated for this? What was the model?
- AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
  I worked 40hrs per week in the Audible HQ. I was paid at the rate listed above - $30/hr. So, I walked out of Audible's offices on Friday with a $1200 check in my hands. This is how it worked until Audible was sued for not providing health insurance benefits, and lost the case. So they had to hire us as full-time employees, and didn't allow two out of 8 to continue to work with us as they didn't "make the cut." (They both were African American women.)
snacksthecat 11y ago
I really enjoy when the voice actors do different voices for different characters. I've always wondered how they do the recording for that. Do they read all of the dialogue for one character in a big chunk, then move on to the dialogue of the next character? Or do they read through the book naturally and switch voices? I would think that the latter would be very difficult.
- AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
  Great question! :) Narrators actually do switch all character voices in real-time. This does not commonly cause issues that require recording to stop, as the narrators are usually very experienced professionals that come from the Broadway stage or from other voice acting professions (cartoons and the like.) I've also recorded and edited my fair share of bad voice actors (for instance, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich narrated his book 'Beyond Outrage' even though he was told that it really wasn't a good idea.)
  - derefr 11y ago
    Simple question on a similar topic: how "real-time" is the source audio that you work with? I always imagined that voice actors would have arbitrary pauses between the delivery of every line, and it'd be the editor's job to tighten all of those up.
    - AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
      Wow. I love how curious folks are here about audiobook production! :) The pauses between lines/phrases were often tightened up, yes, by pasting room tone over the pauses. This way, the near-silence of the room tone is consistent throughout each pause, which makes the narration easier to comprehend and allows the listener greater immersion into the experience. The exact duration of room tone impacts the pacing of the narration. This is, in a way, the audiobook editor's "art." They can't over-edit because it would ruin the narrator's dramatic delivery - they need to be able to edit within the stylistic flow of the narrator. At the same time, if they are not careful enough to make the resulting delivery consistent, then the extraneous audio may distract listeners and lead to a lower quality result. That balance is acquired with experience. The reason this all happens, really, is to ensure a clean "noise floor" - the background sounds heard in addition to the narrator's voice. The sound of the room and the gear, if you will. The narrators are such pros (my experience) - there are many who I could get away with not editing at all, if it weren't for the incredible need for near-silence throughout the entire finished production.
dzhiurgis 11y ago
Hey what software are you using for this? I was thinking I really wish there was a good app where you can listen to audio articles. It is partly solved in iOS as you can speak selected text, but problem is you cannot select all text easily and you don't wanna mess with it while driving. Was wondering what would be a great UI for the transcriber and whether you could create p2p network to share the transcriptions.
- AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
  The audiobook editors at Audible used SoundForge. I started out on SoundForge, but I led a real charge to get the department to switch to Wavelab. I was able to get Audible to buy me a license for Wavelab and I never really got anyone else to switch, but it made me super efficient. At that point though I was heading into a more dev role at the company so I was already drifting away from audiobook editing at that point.
  - msutherl 11y ago
    Wavelab is so good – it's a shame it's not more commonly used.
- tommyd 11y ago
  I've thought about this too, but I'm not sure I've got the patience to listen to articles read in TTS voice. Anyway, on iOS if you enable voiceover you can read the entire screen by swiping down from the top with two fingers (I think - check the Apple website for accessibility information if not!)
  - dzhiurgis 11y ago
    You have to use the Speech from accessibility menu, and turn Speak Screen on. Another possibility i just realised is the possibility to pass texts from reader mode into 3rd party text-to-speech application. Will have to research some of them.
rdl 11y ago
I wish you'd blog or do an AMA or something; your responses in this thread are fascinating. (I discovered a couple years ago that I really like audiobooks.)