How long does a recording take you?

[julianpratley]

I'm curious how long people take to record, partly because it's just interesting, and partly because I feel like I take longer than necessary and want to see if that's the case. I would estimate the breakdown of time that goes into a 10 minute recording as follows:

• 5 min to glance through the text, claim the chapter, upload etc.

• 15-20 min to record, depending on my ability to string more than 3 words together (seriously, sometimes I can record a minute straight while other times it feels like I need 5 takes for every sentence )

• Maybe 10-15 min for editing

Thinking about this makes me appreciate prooflistening more because, among the other things it has going for it, it takes little more than 10 minutes to PL a 10 minute recording!

[david wales]

I think everyone works at this differently. I take almost twice as long editing as I do recording. Sometimes recording is on a roll and I make swift progress; other times my tongue seems to belong to an idiot. I also take a fair amount of time setting up the text I will be recording from so that I can move easily along when I am recording. I think we all have unique styles. You're new at this; don't get discouraged. It gets easier as you go along. You will become accomplished with practice. And welcome to our merry band of brothers/sisters!!!

[ej400]

I'm curious how long people take to record, partly because it's just interesting, and partly because I feel like I take longer than necessary and want to see if that's the case. I would estimate the breakdown of time that goes into a 10 minute recording as follows:

• 5 min to glance through the text, claim the chapter, upload etc.

• 15-20 min to record, depending on my ability to string more than 3 words together (seriously, sometimes I can record a minute straight while other times it feels like I need 5 takes for every sentence )

• Maybe 10-15 min for editing

Thinking about this makes me appreciate prooflistening more because, among the other things it has going for it, it takes little more than 10 minutes to PL a 10 minute recording!

This really depends on how long the Chapter is (obvious), but sometimes with longer sections, there will be long pauses to catch your breath or drink some water etc. I'd break it down into the word counts, or page counts. If you know how fast it takes you to read 1,000 words, say 5 minutes, then 5,000 words would take 25 minutes. So it's good to know how long it takes you to read, for one.

Then you have to think about editing. Some people don't make a lot of mistakes, some people do. Some people go through their entire recording and try to find everything, so that would take about 2.5 times as long as the recording. Some people use a techniqe where every time they make a mistake, they pause for a moment and then make a "click" or noise so a long spike will appear in the recording on audacity. Then you can find exactly where the errors on and editing is a breeze.

Personally, though I know how long every section I claim will take me to do because I have learned from experience. I can't exactly share that information hoping it would help you know how long things will take because we are all different. I could give estimates, but it all depends on your style of reading and how you approach your edits to be made. Do you want to check everything when you are finished recording? Or while you are reading mark where your errors are? Are you aiming to be word perfect (this might make editing a little more tricky), or are you going to let a few things slip by? Sometimes your DPL will check for more things than you expect and so you have to be prepared to fix things, too.

Have a nice day,
Elijah

[tovarisch]

I'm curious how long people take to record...

This is actually a FAQ, although it is not necessarily in the list of our FAQ (yet). The answer is, it varies. There is, I think, a normal distribution with the peak around 5-6 times the running length of the final recording. Some make fewer mistakes and their production time is less. Some trained themselves to do editing faster, that also helps. It is not the rate at which one reads, but how much time one spends converting the raw recording into the final one.

I (and some others, as I learned) listen to my entire recording (essentially PLing it) while editing. Some don't. They just fix the places they marked with a clicker, and give it to the PLer to point out mistakes, which they correct later. Doing so does save time as well.

[TriciaG]

Earlier this month I noted the time it took me:

"I just have to noise clean, export, and upload. I sent this about 2:30 pm? It takes about 1.5 hours to record and edit 2 chapters of 13-14 minutes each."

So I think that's about on par with your timeline.

[sjmarky]

Well first of all, I never record anything without reading the text through beforehand, whether it’s one chapter or an entire book. Then I check the pronunciations of any words I’m unsure of. I spend about 2 hours in the booth for every hour of finished audio. My post production time is pretty short. It only takes me about 15 minutes to edit an hour of recorded audio. So overall I spend about 2.5 hours to produce 1 hour of final, finished audio.

[Algy Pug]

I find that it takes as long as it takes - often longer.

Cheers

[DACSoft]

I find that it takes as long as it takes - often longer.

Cheers

I couldn't have said it better.

I (and some others, as I learned) listen to my entire recording (essentially PLing it) while editing. Some don't. They just fix the places they marked with a clicker, and give it to the PLer to point out mistakes, which they correct later. Doing so does save time as well.

I'm in the "listen to the entire recording during editing" group. It's rather easy for me to fix a mistake by redoing it during recording, then removing the mistake during editing. But, what it more often the case is when I didn't realize I made a mistake, until I'm in the editing phase. One of my goals is to make my recordings as word-perfect (even though I use "standard" in my projects) and error-free as possible before submitting it to a proof-listener.

So my efforts probably take longer than a majority of other readers ... and that's OK since I enjoy what I'm doing.

Don

[MARTIN GEESON]

Well first of all, I never record anything without reading the text through beforehand, whether it’s one chapter or an entire book. Then I check the pronunciations of any words I’m unsure of.

(DACSoft)
How I wish some of the professionalreaders on Audible would do the same. I recently listened to a murder story featuring a "crème passionelle" - and no, it wasn't Death by Chocolate.

Personally, for solo recordings, I've always gone for books I already know quite well. It takes me 5 or 6 times as long to edit as to record - not that I make lots of mistakes, but because I have the auditory equivalent of OCD. I will re-record a correctly-read phrase or sentence if it doesn't have the 'right' intonation. Sad case?

Martin

[kenzeavo]

Preparation time can't be estimated. My explanation later.

Actual production time, for me, I think I spent about 4-5 hours on a 35 minute chapter. I'm a Virgo, we're perfectionists. NO, my work is far from perfect. But, I try.
I might spend more time in the record process, itself, than some others.
My initial editing time, editing out my mistakes, is probably about average. After that, I'll listen to the entire file. Shorten any long pauses, and try to fix, as much as I can, any mouth noises, excessive heavy breaths, tongue clicks, etc. This can be very time consuming, but, PROBABLY NOT NECESSARY.

I pause, a lot, during the record process. I stop to drink. Dry mouth, and, too much mouth noise, if i don't. Get up, move around a bit, stretch. (By the way, every time you stop record, SAVE YOUR FILE! Recording software, like Audacity, can crash, and you lose everything.)
I may stop to re-read a few paragraphs to make sure I have the right "feel".

Now, a word about prep time.
If I'm going to narrate a chapter in a book, I'll try to read the entire book, first. Then, I'll reread each chapter, before I record.
I'm finding that the language, wording, phrasing, used in the books I've been involved with on LibriVox, is a lot different than today's common speech. I need to look up a lot of these words, to understand their meaning, as well as to have the correct pronunciation.

The first 3 sentences of this post answers the question. Maybe I should have stopped there?

[KevinS]

What takes me the most time is adding the subliminal messages to my recordings.

By the way, how many of you get listless and drowsy listening to my chapters? Most people respond 'All the time,' which only proves something about my nefarious technique.

[lorda]

Actual production time, for me, I think I spent about 4-5 hours on a 35 minute chapter.

You're not alone.

[kenzeavo]

Actual production time, for me, I think I spent about 4-5 hours on a 35 minute chapter.

You're not alone.

Maybe I'm kinda weird, (OK, no maybe about it). I subscribe to the "It's the journey, not the destination" mindset. In this case I think, for me, that the journey and the destination are about equal. I enjoy doing this stuff. Yeah, it's tedious, sometimes frustrating, but I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't like doing it. I like the sense of accomplishment when I submit the finished product. Take all the time you need. Take all the time you like.