In 2012, the World Shakespeare Festival surveyed Britons as to their favourite plays by Shakespeare. This collection consists of 21 scenes from the most popular plays written by arguably the greatest writer in the English language, possibly any language. It is an homage to the Bard in celebration of the 400th anniversary of his death in 1616 -- the Shakespeare Quadricentennial . ( John Burlinson)
How to claim a part, and "how it all works" here To find a section to record, simply look at point 5. below at the sections. All the ones without names beside them are "up for grabs." Click "Post reply" at the top left of the screen and tell us which section you would like to read (include the section number from the left-most column in the reader list, please). Read points 6. to 8. below for what to do before, during and after your recording.
Is there a deadline? We ask that you submit your recorded sections within 1-2 months of placing your claim. Please note that to be fair to the readers who have completed their sections in a timely way, if you haven't submitted your recording(s) after two months, your sections will automatically be re-opened for other readers to claim, unless you post in this thread to request an extension. Extensions will be granted at the discretion of the Book Coordinator. If you cannot do your section, for whatever reason, just let me know and it'll go back to the pool. There's no shame in this; we're all volunteers and things happen.Please do not sign up for more sections than you can complete within the two month deadline.
Please claim sections (the numbers in the first column below)! If this is your first recording, please let me know under which name or pseudonym you'd like to appear in the LibriVox catalogue. We can also link to a personal website/blog.
Prospective Prooflisteners: Please read the Listeners Wanted FAQ before listening! Level of prooflistening requested: wordperfect
Please don't download or listen to files belonging to projects in process (unless you are the BC or PL). Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!
Magic Window:
BC Admin
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Genres for the project: Dramatic Readings; Plays
Keywords that describe the book: Shakespeare, renaissance, Elizabethan
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Set your recording software to:
Channels: 1 (Mono)
Bit Rate: 128 kbps
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
DURING recording: No more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of the recording!
Make sure you add this to your recording:
START of recording (Intro)
If reading only one or more character parts:
Say: "[Role] read by [your name]" . Include statements for all roles if doubling characters. Please include all your character roles in the same file.
If reading the narrator:
Say: "Act [number], Scene [number] from [Title of Play] by William Shakespeare. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org"
Say: "Narrated by [your name]"
If reading the narrator AND one or more of the roles:
Say: "Narrated by [your name]" AND "[Role] read by [your name]"
END of recording
At the end of the section:
If reading only one or more character parts, say:
"End of [Role(s)]"
If you wish, say:
"Recording by [your name], [city, your blog, podcast, web address]"
If you are the narrator:
Say: "End of Act [number], Scene [number] from [Title of Play]. This recording is in the public domain."
At the end of the collection (end of Twelfth Night), say (in addition):
"End of Favourite Scenes From Shakespeare. "
There should be 5 seconds silence at the end of the recording, or 10 seconds for files longer than 30 minutes.
Please remember to check this thread frequently for updates!
AFTER recording Need noise-cleaning?
Listen to your file through headphones. If you can hear some constant background noise (hiss/buzz), you may want to clean it up a bit. The new (free) version 1.3.3. of Audacity has much improved noise-cleaning. See this LibriVox wiki page for a complete guide. Save files as
128 kbps MP3
favouritescenes_##_[role].mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is the scene number (e.g. favouritescenes_01_cleopatra.mp3)
Please use the following scene numbers when naming files:
01 -- Antony and Cleopatra
02 -- As You Like It
03 -- Hamlet
04 -- Henry IV (Pt 1)
05 -- Julius Caesar
06 -- King Lear
07 -- MacBeth Act 1, Scene 7
08 -- MacBeth Act 2, scenes 1 - 3
09 -- MacBeth Act 4, Scene 1
10 -- Merchant of Venice Act 1, Scene 2
11 -- Merchant of Venice Act 3, scene 2
12 -- Midsummer Night's Dream Act 2, Scene 1
13 -- Midsummer Night's Dream Act 3, Scene 2
14 -- Much Ado About Nothing
15 -- Othello Act 3, scene 3
16 -- Othello Act 5, Scene 2
17 -- Richard III
18 -- Romeo and Juliet
19 -- Taming of the Shrew
20 -- The Tempest
21 -- Twelfth Night
Filename for final files: favouritescenes_##_shakespeare_128kb.mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is the scene number (e.g. favouritescenes_01_shakespeare_128kb.mp3)
Example ID3 V2 tags
(To find out more about ID3 tags, go to our wiki: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/What_is_ID3)
Add the following tags to your .mp3 file (how you do this depends on which software you use – if you are unsure about ID3 tags, send me a message). Please mind upper and lower case!
Artist: William Shakespeare
Title: ## - [Scene title]
Album: Favourite Scenes From Shakespeare
Please ignore tags for Genre and Track Number - these will be filled in automatically at the cataloguing stage.
Transfer of files (completed recordings) Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file. Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link.
Will have. There is a Complete in Gutenberg which uses practically the same text; and each of the individual plays is available there too. So that should be no problem.
It is rather awkward to use, as it is everything in one file, but it's all there!
Alternatively, there is this site which has all the plays separately. it says it is all open source and public domain: http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org
Would that be suitable? It has the plays all listed separately which I think is more convenient for quick access.
The open source Shakespeare; it isn't going to be convenient unless I can download it to Kindle in Kindle format. Other formats I can sometimes get as text on my Kindle, but I can't enlarge the print sufficiently. At a certain point (in non-Kindle format) the page starts to expand beyond the screen or doesn't grow large enough for me to see it at all. Also, the capacity for seeing print is enhanced by having the screen black, the print white. I can't get that on my Kindle Fire (bought specially for the purpose) unless I can download in Kindle format. All this is perfectly possible with Gutenberg texts; and I much prefer to use those. The complete Shakespeare is a little awkward to navigate around but it is only a little and it is only awkward; it isn't even difficult, it just needs a little learning how it works. Then, as I say, there are the individual texts, also available in Gutenberg.
adonis wrote:The complete Shakespeare is a little awkward to navigate around but it is only a little and it is only awkward; it isn't even difficult, it just needs a little learning how it works. Then, as I say, there are the individual texts, also available in Gutenberg.
Tony
I was actually planning on reading from the individual Gutenberg texts, as we had all the links already beforehand. I hope the texts don't differ too much as we want word perfect. I already recorded 4 small roles, but I better wait with the bigger ones until we have decided on a text we all use.
Sonia
I will be on vacation from Wednesday 27 March till Sunday 14 April
and unable to PL during that time. Thank you for your patience.
Just posting to get this in my email alerts can't wait to get going with this project.
Michele When you're having what you feel like is a 'bad day' and then someone comes along out of nowhere and extends to you the simplest of kind gestures, you feel it so deeply within your heart.” ―Miya Yamanouchi
Hi everyone! I'll be your MC for this project I'll go set it up!
About the text, always check the Bibrec tab at Gutenberg.org. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100 is copyrighted. Perhaps the best option is the texts individually available in Gutenberg.
I've changed the filename a bit to suggest favouritescenes_##_shakespeare.mp3 for the final files. Will that work for you? If not, feel free to edit it to your preference
Looking forward to how this project will develop!!
adonis wrote:The complete Shakespeare is a little awkward to navigate around but it is only a little and it is only awkward; it isn't even difficult, it just needs a little learning how it works. Then, as I say, there are the individual texts, also available in Gutenberg.
Tony
I was actually planning on reading from the individual Gutenberg texts, as we had all the links already beforehand. I hope the texts don't differ too much as we want word perfect. I already recorded 4 small roles, but I better wait with the bigger ones until we have decided on a text we all use.
Sonia
Sorry about the confusion. I'm thinking that it might be easiest for the listener to have only one text to worry about if she or he wants to read along with the speakers. (This is almost always the way I do it with LV, unless I'm driving in my car!)
For that reason, the Complete Works might be the best (most consistent) option. The other gutenberg texts are almost all virtually identical to the Complete Works -- in many cases, they're exactly the same. The only difference sometimes comes in the stage directions -- so if you haven't read any of the narrator's lines, your existing files will probably be totally fine.
I've changed the filename a bit to suggest favouritescenes_##_shakespeare.mp3 for the final files. Will that work for you? If not, feel free to edit it to your preference
Looking forward to how this project will develop!!
Thank you so much -- you've made my day. Actually, you've made my year
The favouritescenes part of the name is OK by me, as long as we don't forget to spell "favourite" the same way. (I may be the only person amongst us who doesn't spell words correctly.) It might work best for the editors, though, if the filename included both the scene number and the character's name. So -- favouritescenes_##_[role].mp3. E.g., favouritescenes_01_cleopatra.mp3. The scenes will all be numbered in the MW from 01 (Antony & Cleopatra) to 21 (The Tempest).
This way, the editor can easily assemble their scenes & roles together.