Don't listeners find a switch in narrators... jarring?

[rasputin]

Here's a question I probably should not ask for it is probably impolitic.

Still, since I'm a n00B, I'm curious:

Don't listeners ever find a switch in narrators, over the course of a novel, say, a little... well.... jarring?

Readers' interpretations, or dramatic tones, or word pronunciations possibly differing from chapter to chapter, even recording quality?

Or is that just all part of the aleatory fun?



Dave "rasputin"

[Starlite]

They certainly will in in this case. But seriously, I like the different voices. I always try to figure out who is reading before they say!

Esther

[Cori]

Our focus here is on recording books ... and not really on "listener experience". Of course we hope people like what they hear, but the main focus at LibriVox is having fun putting books into the audio public domain.

Part of what makes it fun is that lots of people, by contributing several hours here and there, can produce a Work which would be beyond any of them individually. For instance, I've contributed recordings to 5 out of 6 volumes of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Not in a long month of Sundays could I record that behemoth alone, nor would I want to! By breaking it down into chunks, it makes it possible for many people to contribute, in different ways, as a fun hobby -- obviously it's a completely different situation for professionals who are paid to record War and Peace and have help in the studio, someone else is paid to edit, and so on. For listeners, yes, the change in voice / pronunciation may on occasion be vexing -- but that's just the optimal production method for our books. Often, listeners have a choice between slicing the salami this way or just plain not having an audio version of the book at all (if they're lucky, they may be able to pay for a professionally-read version, or borrow one from their local library.)

[russiandoll]

Here's a question I probably should not ask for it is probably impolitic.
...
Don't listeners ever find a switch in narrators, over the course of a novel, say, a little... well.... jarring?

Hi, Dave,
No, by all means ask!
And, well, some do, plenty don't. People can choose to listen to solo works if they do. And poor shaken-up listeners are very welcome to become readers and create their own non-jarring solos - multiple versions of texts are welcomed! Just as everyone's free to read what they like, anyone's free to listen to what they choose, if they choose.
Collaborative readings allow people who would never take on a whole book (or even just that particular whole book) to contribute, they can get large works recorded much more quickly than a soloist would, and I quite enjoy listening to them because - yes, as part of the aleatory fun - I come across unexpected new voices that I can then go and find more of.

Listener satisfaction is not what we're orientated towards so much as reader satisfaction. Put it this way: if LibriVox were the monk in your signature, it wouldn't cut the strings.

rd

cross-posted...

[Starlite]

Listener satisfaction is not what we're orientated towards so much as reader satisfaction. Put it this way: if LibriVox were the monk in your signature, it wouldn't cut the strings.

rd

Yes! Even if there were no listeners, there would still be readers.

Esther

[Hokuspokus]

I have to confess that I have a slight preference for well read solos.
But I do enjoy the "salami books" a lot. They are like a box of chocolates as someone said before. You'll never know what you get. There might be some you don't like that much but there will be many that are just delicious.

[catchpenny]

And some you have never run across that you now find you like.

[Bookwyrme]

I would have expected to find it jarring, but other than being sort of startled when I listened to my first recorded book from this site (I didn't know ahead of time about the multiple readers), I haven't found it an issue. In fact, I kind of like it. It's great having a whole community dedicated to books and making them available

And, overall, the quality has been really, really good. There've been a handful of chapters where I haven't liked the reading & one that drove me crazy, but mostly--it's well read, free, and fun. What more could anyone ask?