A Good Book But A Terrible Reader

clayw1pi · Post by **clayw1pi** » August 14th, 2016, 11:06 am

I don't want to insult or embarrass a reader so I will not be to specific. With that said, I am listening to a book about [edited by admin to remove specifics]. The story is extremely interesting, but the female's reading of the book is high pitched and grating on the nerves. She means well, but her voice is terrible and not suited for a book and story of this type. After listening to 10 segments, I finally gave up and couldn't take it anymore. It looks like I'll have to actually download the book itself from the Gutenberg Project. (I am a Distributed Proof Reader)

I imagine this situation has come up before and wonder if you ever have a book that is being read by different readers?

gypsygirl · Post by **gypsygirl** » August 14th, 2016, 11:14 am

Yes, we have many books that have been recorded multiple times. Search almost any popular title in the catalog, and you'll probably find more than one result.

We do not assign the books that are being recorded. Each volunteer records what they like. You are more than welcome to record your own version of this book, if you'd like to provide future listeners with a "choice of voice".

Timothy Ferguson · Post by **Timothy Ferguson** » August 14th, 2016, 8:52 pm

You might try this:

https://digicompdiy.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/how-to-deepen-your-voice-in-audacity/

SonOfTheExiles · Post by **SonOfTheExiles** » August 15th, 2016, 1:33 am

Well, you know now, it all comes down to "horses for courses", as we say in Australia. Which would be "different strokes for different folks" in the States. What might be "high pitched and grating" to one person in one situation, could be exactly what was called for in the heroine of a gripping murder-mystery, or the soprano of a silky seductress in a romantic novel.

I'm not all that adventurous in selection of material myself, so I can only admire those that try to push their artistic performance envelopes. My short story and novel recordings have been exclusively Australian so far, and Outback Australian at that. Which means that my voice characterisations are basically "Me Intensified", if that makes any sense to anyone. And in some cases, they were influenced by the real-life voices of older relatives of mine and their neighbours in the Far West of New South Wales.

(I got a phone-call some time ago from an 80 year old cousin (several times removed), after I had previously mentioned in passing that I was recording some Henry Lawson material under the moniker of "Son of the Exiles" on Librivox. He skipped all preliminaries and baldly asked "Was that ME you were taking off in 'Send Round The Hat'?" What could I say? Other than "Well, yeah, some." He surprised me by then saying, "Always liked that yarn. And now I'm in it, in a manner of speaking. When are you coming for a visit again?"

I wonder if that's what's meant by "Cast your bread upon the waters"?)

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, with six billion or whatever people in the world, someone is bound to like your interpretation, so just go for it.

Regards,
Son of the Exiles

SonOfTheExiles · Post by **SonOfTheExiles** » August 16th, 2016, 11:03 pm

Oh, and by the way, feedback will sometimes come to you from places other than the Librivox website. In my case recently, from two dual-language websites that pick up our Librivox recordings, one German, the other Brazilian. Try an occasional search on YouTube or Google if you're interested in feedback.

SOTE