Would like to volunteer from Bombay

diabolick · Post by **diabolick** » June 16th, 2006, 10:06 pm

Chanced upon this wonderful website, must say that what you folks are doing is really awesome ! I've already downloaded an audo book and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Material on this site could also be very useful to our visually challenged brethren. The fact that it is a non-commercial volunteer driven enterprise is most heartning.

I have a very neutral accent and am also an avid reader of all sorts of material and would love to contribute to the collection. Could someone please guide me on how to proceed in this endevour.

Cheers,
Cris

earthcalling · Post by **earthcalling** » June 16th, 2006, 11:16 pm

Hi Cris, and big welcome!

If you read through the 'Volunteering' post in FAQ ( http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=877 ), that will tell you most of what you need to know and point you to the rest.

I'm curious, though, whether you speak other languages than English?

If so, there's a project to record the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in as many languages as we can muster. (See 'Readers Wanted - Poetry and Short Works').

Basically, whatever your interest, start with something short and easy, then jump right in!

David

a.r.dobbs · Post by **a.r.dobbs** » June 16th, 2006, 11:17 pm

Hi Cris from B o m b a y !

Welcome!
I see you're already under way, signing up for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! So here's a place to get the few technical bits of info you need:

http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/NewbieGuideToRecording

All the other information you need is specific to the book project itself and is in the first message on the book's thread ... the intro to read, how to name the file, how to deliver your chapter, etc.

My question is do you want to test out your setup at all? Do you want to do a one-minute test recording and send it to the moderator over at 20,000 Leagues (rayner/Rainer) -- or to me

-- and just hear such feedback as
"wow, excellent audio" or
"if the headset mic is a bit more to the side of your mouth it won't pop so much on the p's and f's" or
"the volume is quite low, could you check your input volume? here are the steps for that..." etc.

Do you have everything you need?
We love accents!
And you're right, this is an awesome place. It's a concentration of marvelous people sharing wonderful literature with each other and the world. And a whole bunch of people are interested in ... "lotsa stuff"

... so welcome aboard!

oh -- you accidentally clicked the start a "new topic" button when you intended to hit "post reply" -- it'll get scooted over into the Book thread you meant -- fortunately, you mentioned the chapter title in your post, so I could figure out your intentions. Wow, so many books to read for!

I look forward to hearing your chapters!
anita

David and I posted 1 minute apart! I'm so slow!
And David's suggestion is superb! I hope you'll record the Declaration!

ceastman · Post by **ceastman** » June 17th, 2006, 6:25 am

Hi Cris! Nice to have you, glad you stumbled upon us!

Looks like most of the basics have been pointed to already, so I'll just say that I look forward to hearing your voice. Have fun!

-Catharine

vee · Post by **vee** » June 18th, 2006, 11:27 am

We kindof mob the new volunteers. Welcome Cris, it's great to have you aboard. If there are questions we haven't answered yet, let us know.

Chris

diabolick · Post by **diabolick** » June 18th, 2006, 10:11 pm

Hi Chris ,Catharine ,David,

Am really overwhelmed by the response that i've got. Shows that the forum is alive and kicking ! I'm in the process of going through the material and setting up.

Liked the suggestion of sending in a test recording so as to get some valuable feedback ( hope my voice does'nt suck !). Will do this asap.

Yes I also speak other regional languages mainly Hindi, Marathi, Konkani, Kannada and Tulu but cannot read their scripts too fluently. I could probably rope in some of my friends, who can help instead.

And once again, thanks for such a warm welcome.

cheers,
Cris

earthcalling · Post by **earthcalling** » June 18th, 2006, 10:44 pm

diabolick wrote:Yes I also speak other regional languages mainly Hindi, Marathi, Konkani, Kannada and Tulu but cannot read their scripts too fluently. I could probably rope in some of my friends, who can help instead.

That would be wonderful! (Thinks...) You could hold a LibriVox party, a soir?e, with your friends, and get several versions recorded at one go!

David

a.r.dobbs · Post by **a.r.dobbs** » June 18th, 2006, 11:02 pm

diabolick wrote:Liked the suggestion of sending in a test recording so as to get some valuable feedback ( hope my voice does'nt suck !). Will do this asap.

That's the toughest -- fear of horrid voice that will make people say, "ew, horrid voice" -- but there is almost a cure for this*. Funny thing though, you'll hear so many wonderful readers here -- wonderful voices, wonderful reading -- and then read post after post on the threads in which they say, "I can't bear to hear my own voice," or "There's certainly nothing special about my voice," and similar comments. So you realize that most people dislike their own voice.

But the test is about checking out your settings and recording set-up
to see what adjustments could improve it easily
because while no voice is ever horrid

some technical issues can make a recording actually unusable or simply annoying to listeners (very low volume, distortion on loud volume, loud hiss hum or thrum, popping plosives ...)
which is a frustrating experience for the reader

*the "almost" cure is to record a LOT!

you just get used to how you sound
and if you record a WHOLE LOT you actually begin to enjoy your own voice for several seconds at a time! on a good day

anita

by the way... would you like to be the first volunteer "on the map" in India? http://www.frappr.com/librivoxvolunteers

kayray · Post by **kayray** » June 19th, 2006, 8:30 am

a.r.dobbs wrote: *the "almost" cure is to record a LOT! :)
you just get used to how you sound
and if you record a WHOLE LOT you actually begin to enjoy your own voice for several seconds at a time! on a good day ;)

So true, so true. I've gone from hating my voice to listening to my own recordings for fun! Y'know, I don't think I've ever heard a Librivox voice that I didn't like. Sometimes, as Anita said, the RECORDING quality can make things unpleasant, and some listeners prefer a faster or slower pacing, or whatever. But we love the wonderful variety of the human voice. So don't be shy, read us something! :)

ceastman · Post by **ceastman** » June 19th, 2006, 2:41 pm

You are very definitely not the only one to wonder, "What if I suck?" There's a thread dedicated to that very topic:

http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37&highlight=

There have been a few (very few!) occasions when we could not accept a recording, usually due to bizarre technical issues. If you can make a recording of yourself in which you're pretty easily understandable (i.e. you're not drowned out by ambient room/computer noise, or your cat meowing, or what have you), we'll accept it.

(I look back on my very first recording for Librivox with cringing shame. It's sooooo baaaaadd.... but I think I've improved since then.)

-Catharine

kayray · Post by **kayray** » June 19th, 2006, 3:29 pm

ceastman wrote:
(I look back on my very first recording for Librivox with cringing shame. It's sooooo baaaaadd.... but I think I've improved since then.)

Me too, me too. Psmith in the City. I can't even bear to hear it!