COMPLETE: Country of the Pointed Firs by S.O. Jewett - AF/tc

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » January 29th, 2006, 1:35 pm

Thank you Kara =)

I do wonder sometimes when I am reading from the Project Gutenberg text whether I am reading a typo if the word choices are truely that odd. Though in this case, as the one character is into herbology that "simple", as a plant makes sense.... ah, dictionary.com has this as one of it's definitions "A medicinal plant or the medicine obtained from it." ... so perhaps there isn't a word left out afterall =)

mshook · Post by **mshook** » January 29th, 2006, 2:16 pm

My recording of chapter 9 is complete:
http://mshook.python-hosting.com/librivox/countryofthepointedfirs/country_of_pointed_firs_09_jewett.mp3
The requested information is below.

-Michael

Please include the following with your file:
- Running time of your file in the format hour/minute/second (i.e. 00:32:14)
00:06:58

- Your name as you would like it to appear on the catalog page.
Michael Shook

- URL of your homepage if you have one you would like linked to your name on the catalog page.
http://thebary.blogspot.com

thistlechick wrote:
mshook wrote:I would like to record Chapter 9 - William

I'm getting set up to do it today.

-Michael
Michael, Hello and Welcome!
Glad to have a true Maine voice on this project =) I'll sign you up for Chapter 9. If you have any questions, feel free to ask here. Enjoy!

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » January 29th, 2006, 2:29 pm

Michael, sounds great! interested in another chapter? =)

Soprano · Post by **Soprano** » January 30th, 2006, 4:02 am

May I have Chapter X -- Where Pennyroyal Grew ? I spent many summers on the Maine coast, and love the area dearly. Thanks in advance!

Lydia

mshook · Post by **mshook** » January 30th, 2006, 8:04 am

Maybe. I'll see how the week goes.

What I'm really looking forward to is doing
The Old Peabody Pew by Kate Douglas Wiggin
(http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1902)

It's another Maine story, a Christmas romance, a little sappy but *very* funny, at least for someone who is a member of a small church community.

I'll sign up when I know I can commit the time.

On that topic (time) what is considered an acceptable error rate?

-Michael

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » January 30th, 2006, 11:09 am

Soprano: Chapter 10 -- Where Pennyroyal Grew is yours... enjoy =)

Michael: Are you planning to do the Wiggin piece as solo? or is it something you would like to see as a collaborative piece?... I'm be happy to work with you on it either way =)

I know how you feel about not having enough time... so many books, so little time and all that =) ... I"m not quite sure what you mean by "acceptable error rate" though... are you asking how strictly do we stick to our deadlines? (if that's the question, the answer is: We're flexible!... it usually depends on the popularity and complexity of the book)

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » February 1st, 2006, 7:33 pm

I've recorded chapter 21 and now need to edit it.

=)

treesh · Post by **treesh** » February 3rd, 2006, 7:41 pm

I will take Chapter 11: The Old Singers

I'm starting to get a bit of a list of things to do. I'll do another chapter if needed once I get a few other things done.

-Treesh

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » February 4th, 2006, 7:55 pm

Thanks Treesh... I'll sign you up for chapter 11 =)

If you need a place to keep track of your chapters you are welcome to do so here: http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1103 =)

mshook · Post by **mshook** » February 5th, 2006, 3:37 pm

Yes, that was my thought - to do The Old Peabody Pew as a solo. It is short and a favorite of mine. I've read it out loud several times.

My question about "acceptable error rates" is this. I love reading out loud, but I do make errors. When I'm reading live - that is I'm reading to someone else - it works out OK. I stumble over a word and either correct it or not as it seems appropriate at the time and everything works out OK. The story is told and enjoyed and everyone wins.

Is that different when I'm recording for the world & LibriVox?

I've been amazed at the quality of the LibriVox recordings I've listened to: The Secret Agent and The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and I'm listening to Psmith in the City now. I've noticed a few blips but I think the readers I've heard are doing better than I'm likely to without a *lot* of editing.

And I guess that's the thing - I don't think I want to do three or four hours of re-recording and editing for every hour of finished product.

Is this making sense?

I've not seen any guidelines or even discussion of this topic, but I might have miseed it. So I'd welcome your thoughts and pointers to any previous discussions if you're aware of them.

Cheers-
-Michael

thistlechick wrote:Soprano: Chapter 10 -- Where Pennyroyal Grew is yours... enjoy =)

Michael: Are you planning to do the Wiggin piece as solo? or is it something you would like to see as a collaborative piece?... I'm be happy to work with you on it either way =)

I know how you feel about not having enough time... so many books, so little time and all that =) ... I"m not quite sure what you mean by "acceptable error rate" though... are you asking how strictly do we stick to our deadlines? (if that's the question, the answer is: We're flexible!... it usually depends on the popularity and complexity of the book)

kayray · Post by **kayray** » February 5th, 2006, 4:59 pm

Hey Michael -- we all make mistakes. Somewhere Hugh mentioned that if we match Project Gutenberg's acceptable error rate, we could allow 12 seconds worth of errors every 20 minutes! Or something :) (count to 12 -- that's a LONG time)

When I'm reading and I stumble, I pause, say "AGAIN" in a loud voice, pause, then back up a sentence or so and read that part again. Sometimes I'll do this two or three times if I have trouble with a word or getting the emphasis right. I leave my recording program running the WHOLE TIME. Then, when the chapter is all finished, I listen back to the whole thing ONCE all the way through.

(I'll usually end up with a file that's maybe 10% longer than it will be after it's edited. Then, adding a little time for the actual process of cutting and copying and pasting, it takes maybe 45 minutes to edit a half-hour recording -- not too bad)

I edit out any bad takes of a particular sentence, and edit out loud swallowing sounds, coughs, the sound of me sipping water, helicopters flying overhead. Sometimes I'll add a little bit of "blank" space (by copying and pasting in a little bit of ambient room noise) if one sentence hurries after another uncomfortably. And I'll edit out any long pauses where I've stopped to take a breath in the middle of a 400 word sentence.

Obviously, there are some mistakes you just can't easily do anything about. I added a "the" in one of these chapters -- can you find it? :) it was smack in the middle of a sentence and couldn't be edited out without making the thing sound funny, and it didn't really change the meaning so i left it alone. I'd rather leave in a few little errors than try to paste in a new version of a sentence... it's hard to match your sound if you record at a different time.

Some readers just stumble, correct themselves, and keep going withough editing at all. That's ok, too, within reason :) You don't have to stress out over it as long as YOU feel that listeners will enjoy your recordings.

(i've been planning to post a "before" and "after" of a short file, to give people an idea of how easy it is to crop out errors. I'll try to get to this soon!)

Kara

mshook · Post by **mshook** » February 5th, 2006, 5:07 pm

Thanks Kara, that's very helpful.

-Michael

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » February 5th, 2006, 8:13 pm

*whew*
Thank you Kara for your explanation =)

ChipDoc · Post by **ChipDoc** » February 5th, 2006, 8:31 pm

mshook wrote: I think the readers I've heard are doing better than I'm likely to without a *lot* of editing.

Oh believe me, we do a *lot* of editing to sound that good!

mshook wrote: And I guess that's the thing - I don't think I want to do three or four hours of re-recording and editing for every hour of finished product.

Oh we don't want to be doing that either. Fortunately it doesn't take that long. Here's the skinny on how to do it pretty quickly:

Do NOT either stop the recording or re-record anything else after you've listened to it. When you hear yourself make a mistake, just stop and say that part again (and in my case again, and again, and again...) until you're satisfied with the way it sounds. When you're completely done with the piece, listen to it once. Whenever you run across an error, just cut out from the point just before the error to the beginning of the "good" take. If you do this, you can edit a half hour reading in about forty minutes.

Why not stop the recording and listen to it partway through? Because reading aloud puts you into a Performance Space and it's tough to get back there afterwards. When you get right down to it, each Performance Space is unique. But if you mispronounce something, just take a breath and do it again - both the mistake and the correction will have been done in the same Performance Space and it's really easy to edit the good pieces together (by simply cutting out the bad one in between) and make it sound very natural. Most folks will never even hear it.

Three or four hours is WAY too much to spend on a recording that runs about a half hour (as most of these do). But spending about an hour is another matter altogether.

Edit - I see I should have read a little farther down before repeating what Kara so eloquently stated!

sihaya_m · Post by **sihaya_m** » February 6th, 2006, 9:35 am

I'd like to do: Chapter 11 - The Old Singers please.

thanks
geetu