We're giving away a $250 gift card to Barnes and Noble! The skills that actors use - finding the actable emotions in a scene, connecting to and analyzing text, figuring out a characters motivation, learning to speak text naturally, moving the plot along - are ALL part of being a narrator.

Just sayin'). Audition is easy to use, with a clean user interface and a wide range of templates and presets, but it also offers a high level of customization. NML: All of those. (Now, some people will tell you that when they started they recorded in an un-treated closet with a usb mic plugged into an iPad running the free program Audacity - and maybe they did, but either that was years ago or they weren't serious about competing at a professional level. So for the last five years to be able to do this full time, it’s something else. voiceguy.ca/the-warm-up-series/the-speech-warm-up-series, www.entnet.org/content/vocal-warmup-put-your-best-voice-forward, http://www.ljlseminars.com/vocal_warm_up.htm. The typical CD sample rate is. Looking for remote work?

[I work] every day, but I take a lot of breaks. I absolutely loved working on this project, and I felt like it was one of the best performances I had ever done. They will cast me based on what they know of my abilities and strengths to do certain projects. And so shortly after I moved back to New York, I ran into an old friend of mine, and it turned out that he had been editing audiobooks for Audible for about 10 years.

When using peak values, "upwards" compression is applied which makes the audio louder, but amplifies the louder sounds above the threshold progressively less than those below it. He narrates for such companies as Blackstone Audiobooks, Tantor Media, Gildan Audio, Harper Collins, Penguin Random House, and Christian Audio. Backstage has got you covered! I made sure no cables were touching (no small feat). You want the mic to be about the length of your hand fully extended (thumb against your chin, pinky reaching toward your mic) away from you. This was such a fun book series to do; [there were] a lot of crazy characters, but there was a lot of heart in it, and there was very dry humor.

Check out the authors social media. It seems ok now. Vikas Adam is a classically trained actor with numerous credits in stage, film, and television. Do something different at home tonight with a, Audie Award last year for Best Erotica Audiobook. Other Reaper information written by Steven Jay Cohen.

Your DAW will let you choose which format.

You can choose a project rate.

So it was it was a real challenge but it was such an enjoyable series to do. Part of the process a lot of people don’t understand is when you click record on your recording software, suddenly there are 10 different things happening at once: You’re reading the text, right? That’s the kind of acting work that I love to do. The Chronicles of the Black Gate. It’s written by a gentleman named Phil Tucker. The editing is being done by those production companies, so the actor is getting paid for the final runtime of the book, however long it takes them to record it. Give yourself a pat on the back and recognize all that you have accomplished toward making this narration thing happen! You have sound absorption and noise management items for that space (based on your budget). I make a lot of mistakes when I’m reading…which means you’re stopping and starting a lot and punching yourself in. You will be expected to voice characters who are a different gender than you are and you will be expected to do it so that it is not distracting to your listeners. Don't convert until all of your mastering work is finished - because each time you save an MP3 the quality degrades a bit. I'm sure there are other ways to go about this, and I'm sure if you google it you will find people who will tell you what those things are. More on this in a moment.

After that, I’ve never had to audition for another book for Audible. This will take years. Every narrator is different. The team over there at Audible is just really great. With the release of his new audiobook, The Mechanic’s Tale, we wanted to take a closer look at Matchett the narrator. Pull the boom arm so that the mic hangs down a little above your mouth (and potentially a little off to the side of your mouth - you will play with placement in a minute but you want a general idea). I am, once again, going to caution you that anything that sounds too good to be true, is usually too good to be true. sigh. Example: 00_EdW9876_HowToBeNarrator_Intro_deward). I’ve been acting and performing most of my life.

How do you get work? That’s the gasoline that runs the engine.

Audiobook narration is acting.

Yeah. Most often that will be into an MP3, but it could also be into a .flac file (at least one production house I know of requires samples sent in flac format). If it is just "buy 'Erin Writes Good' for $.99" over and over, you can bet they aren't doing any active work on building their brand. It’s dark. Are they engaged? The rates that actors get paid can vary from company to company, because many of the big production companies have signed an agreement with the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, but that doesn’t mean that they all signed to pay the same rates.

It is important to know that, for maximum shock absorption, the elasticity of the suspension must match the mass of the microphone.

Most narrators who are working for companies like Audible, Tantor, and Brilliance, they’re not doing their own editing.

conventional way to measure the effective average value of an audio signal as well as the perceived dynamic range values of that signal". If they’re also doing the editing, you’re looking at another hour and a half to two hours of work to edit and master the files. How do you land your first book? Through his eyes, you can get a glimpse into that secret life. Next, attach your boom arm.

You are looking for an author with a following if you can find one.

It’s pretty well deafened, but if a truck goes by and honks horn, it’s going to bleed into the track, so I have to stop. I had the privilege of interviewing Audie-winning narrator Noah Michael Levine. The important thing to know is that the narrator does not get paid for the amount of time it takes to record (or record and produce if they’re doing everything themselves). I always had that passion for performing. NML: I would admit to being probably a little slower in my production output than maybe some other narrators. That way the IRS won't suddenly want to audit you and you will be less embarrassed by your early narration work). When you click on it you can choose to search Producers for Hire (that's you now) and Titles Accepting Auditions. Sean is also the author of “To Be or Wanna Be—The Top Ten Differences between a Successful Actor and a Starving Artist.”. Click here for auditions you can do from home! For example…I started doing this five years ago…I had been acting and writing and doing all kinds of stuff, that it never even entered my field of vision to look at audiobooks as a way to be an actor. RR: Sounds like a lot of work. Photo Source: Photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash. Sit in it. NML: Well it’s different under under different circumstances. I’m prepping something or cooking something, but it’s great to be able to have that flexibility to work from home. Eventually, you may need to convert that .wav file into another format. NML: I would admit to being probably a little slower in my production output than maybe some other narrators. NML: That’s a great question. It’s just it’s not always easy of course but it’s just an absolutely wonderful job. For other bigger production companies like Tantor or Brilliance, they want you to send them samples. sample rate. Learning how to approach the work is of utmost importance and really must be the first step on your journey. So it becomes even more important to be conscious of things like how loud you are, what the pacing is, and if you’re consistent in your character voices. Bring your chair (if you are using one) into your space. Sample rate refers to the number of samples or measurements taken each second from a recording. There’s something about his writing that clicked so well with me.

From a production point, it’s very interesting, because, especially for the standalone narrator who’s not working with an engineer and a director, you have to be on top a lot of different things at the same time. Don't look at me like that.

I mean, we’re always challenged with bringing that actable moment into the audio, no matter what the quality of the writing is. Jamie Muffett is a British voice actor, audio engineer, and photographer based in New York City and Philadelphia. You have to self-direct within the scene to bring the appropriate emotional content based on the writing and the characters, have to be watching the software to make sure that there aren’t any weird glitches going on, have to constantly monitor your pacing.