Creating podcasts and books-on-CD is turning out to be harder than expected, Abigail author Mark Walma now admits.
"I got into it on a whim, to be honest," he said. "A person with a vision impairment emailed Abigail some time ago saying that, although she has heard the Abigail Massey books are pretty good good and although she had purchased copies for friends and family around the world, she still hadn't been able to enjoy the stories herself."
Mark first sent the woman the stories in their electronic (Word) format, so that a program on her computer could read them to her.
"But I thought, 'maybe I can do better'," he said with a laugh. "I didn't realise what I was getting myself into."
First, there's doing the recording itself. Mark had to bring together the right equipment and software just to get started. Once that was done, he needed to find quiet time to read the stories into the computer.
"All it takes is for the dog to bark or a loud truck to drive by and you have to stop and rewind," he said. "I had one 'take' ruined when someone flushed a toilet!"
Then came the actual reading part of it.
"Reading like that isn't as easy as one might expect," he said. "There's nothing like a digital recording to show you how many ums, ahs, coughs and sniffs you commit in a single minute of reading. And then there's the problem of stumbling over words, mispronouncements and stuff like that."
It took him more than two hours to record each of the four stories from the first volume in any kind of decent shape and editing each one has taken many hours more.
"You want to remove the blemishes, sure, but you also want to make sure you get the pacing right," he explained. "You have to deal with the fact that, when you do so many 'takes' in the course of reading a single story, you're going to have sometimes significant differences in volume as well."
And then there's the problem of time. Mark's goal is to fit the four stories from the first volume on a single CD. Well, most CDs handle only 80 minutes of recording. And not a minute more.
"Each story turned out to be between 18 and 25 minutes in length," he said, laughing. "So, when all was said and done, when I had the recording of each story in pretty good shape, I found out I was still about two minutes over the limit."
So now it's back to the editing booth.
"I'll get there, I'm sure," Mark promised. "It's just a much more difficult journey than I expected."
The ongoing story of the creation of the Abigail Massey stories
Showing posts with label podcast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label podcast. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Sunday, June 15, 2014
First four podcast recordings are complete!
The podcast recordings of the first four Abigail stories are now in the bank. Or in the hard-drive's memory, at least.
Author Mark Walma has completed the readings for "Passing the Test", "In Trouble", "Behind Bars" and Canada's Sweetheart", the four stories that make up Abigail Massey at McAdam Station, Volume 1.
"It's a lot harder work that I thought it would be," he said, his voice sounding a little hoarse from all the vocal exercise he's put in.
"There's so much to focus on when you're recording for a podcast: from keeping your voice at a consistent volume to making sure you don't read too quickly to trying to create and maintain interesting voices for each of the major characters."
Artist and designer Lynn Walma has already completed designing the cover package for the promotional CD the project team plans to make out of these four recordings. Fans of the books will find that the new CD cases look remarkably familiar, as Lynn has been careful to carry the same design elements from the book covers into the CD envelopes.
So that leaves Mark to iron out the final challenges he faces with converting his vocal recordings into a format that will fit onto a standard CD and play in your average CD player.
"I'm no techno expert," Mark laughs. "I'm learning as I go and, even though I'm pleased to have the recordings themselves put to bed, I still have a lot of work to do to actually 'write' the CDs themselves."
And then he'll turn his attention to putting samples of the recordings online as podcasts for Abigail readers around the world.
"I'm a writer by training," he said. "I loved writing the Abigail stories and I've enjoyed much of what has followed from their publication. But this technological stuff is really testing my ability to learn new skills and master the computer-related aspects of promoting a book."
Mark said his goal is to have the CD ready for release at his Canada Day appearance at the McAdam Railway Station in two weeks.
"But there's still a lot of work to do to meet that goal," he said, shaking his head. "I can only do my best..."
Author Mark Walma has completed the readings for "Passing the Test", "In Trouble", "Behind Bars" and Canada's Sweetheart", the four stories that make up Abigail Massey at McAdam Station, Volume 1.
"It's a lot harder work that I thought it would be," he said, his voice sounding a little hoarse from all the vocal exercise he's put in.
"There's so much to focus on when you're recording for a podcast: from keeping your voice at a consistent volume to making sure you don't read too quickly to trying to create and maintain interesting voices for each of the major characters."
Artist and designer Lynn Walma has already completed designing the cover package for the promotional CD the project team plans to make out of these four recordings. Fans of the books will find that the new CD cases look remarkably familiar, as Lynn has been careful to carry the same design elements from the book covers into the CD envelopes.
So that leaves Mark to iron out the final challenges he faces with converting his vocal recordings into a format that will fit onto a standard CD and play in your average CD player.
"I'm no techno expert," Mark laughs. "I'm learning as I go and, even though I'm pleased to have the recordings themselves put to bed, I still have a lot of work to do to actually 'write' the CDs themselves."
And then he'll turn his attention to putting samples of the recordings online as podcasts for Abigail readers around the world.
"I'm a writer by training," he said. "I loved writing the Abigail stories and I've enjoyed much of what has followed from their publication. But this technological stuff is really testing my ability to learn new skills and master the computer-related aspects of promoting a book."
Mark said his goal is to have the CD ready for release at his Canada Day appearance at the McAdam Railway Station in two weeks.
"But there's still a lot of work to do to meet that goal," he said, shaking his head. "I can only do my best..."
Thursday, June 12, 2014
The challenge of the voices
The recording of a podcast in a dramatic reading style is a fairly challenging task.
Not only do you have to read the story in a clear, articulate voice; you also have to create consistent voices appropriate for the recurring characters in the story (or stories).
Abigail author Mark Walma is currently in the process of creating recordings of the first four stories in the Abigail Massey collections, the stories contained in Volume 1. He has built his own personal recording studio in his home, using two computers, the Apple "Garageband" program and a special, professional quality USB microphone he received as a gift last Christmas.
But building the studio was nothing compared to the challenge of coming up with distinct voices for the many characters in the stories.
"Yes, it's been tough," he laughs. "I'm a writer, not an actor or a voice-over specialist. I'm no Mel Blanc so I have been finding it a bit of a struggle."
He says the fact that the stories contain more female characters than male makes the challenge even more difficult. "Every story features Abigail, Martha and Miss Pierce. Plus you've got Jenny and Alice to account for. That's a lot of women's voices to create and keep consistent."
Mark reports that, despite these challenges, he has finalised the pod casts for the first three stories and, after doing a little polishing, is pretty happy with them.
"I got 'Passing the Test' done first and then played it for my partner to get her take on it," he says. "She really liked it, at least most of it. She didn't like the voice I had created for Miss Pierce, though. 'It's too nasal sounding,' she said. So I had to go back and re-record all of Miss Pierce's dialogue and then stitch it into the main recording. That was a fun experience!"
He plans to record the fourth story, "Canada's Sweetheart", in the next week or so and hopes to have a CD of the recordings for the entire fourth volume finished and ready for sharing before his appearance at the McAdam Railway Station on Canada Day, July 1.
"It would be great to have it ready for Canada Day," he said, "just to have something new to offer people in the long break between last Christmas' release of Volume 3 and the launch of A McAdam Station Christmas, our new Abigail Massey novella, this November."
Mark will be on hand at the Station on July 1 to take part in the Canada Day festivities. Come out and say hello!
Not only do you have to read the story in a clear, articulate voice; you also have to create consistent voices appropriate for the recurring characters in the story (or stories).
Abigail author Mark Walma is currently in the process of creating recordings of the first four stories in the Abigail Massey collections, the stories contained in Volume 1. He has built his own personal recording studio in his home, using two computers, the Apple "Garageband" program and a special, professional quality USB microphone he received as a gift last Christmas.
But building the studio was nothing compared to the challenge of coming up with distinct voices for the many characters in the stories.
"Yes, it's been tough," he laughs. "I'm a writer, not an actor or a voice-over specialist. I'm no Mel Blanc so I have been finding it a bit of a struggle."
He says the fact that the stories contain more female characters than male makes the challenge even more difficult. "Every story features Abigail, Martha and Miss Pierce. Plus you've got Jenny and Alice to account for. That's a lot of women's voices to create and keep consistent."
Mark reports that, despite these challenges, he has finalised the pod casts for the first three stories and, after doing a little polishing, is pretty happy with them.
"I got 'Passing the Test' done first and then played it for my partner to get her take on it," he says. "She really liked it, at least most of it. She didn't like the voice I had created for Miss Pierce, though. 'It's too nasal sounding,' she said. So I had to go back and re-record all of Miss Pierce's dialogue and then stitch it into the main recording. That was a fun experience!"
He plans to record the fourth story, "Canada's Sweetheart", in the next week or so and hopes to have a CD of the recordings for the entire fourth volume finished and ready for sharing before his appearance at the McAdam Railway Station on Canada Day, July 1.
"It would be great to have it ready for Canada Day," he said, "just to have something new to offer people in the long break between last Christmas' release of Volume 3 and the launch of A McAdam Station Christmas, our new Abigail Massey novella, this November."
Mark will be on hand at the Station on July 1 to take part in the Canada Day festivities. Come out and say hello!
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Help us to choose a podcast reading style
Just click on the link to our Youtube video: Abigail Podcast Style.
What did you think? We know, it's a bit raw and the pictures don't quite match what is being read but, to be honest, we're not the most technosavvy people and couldn't figure out how to put a simply sound recording here or on the Abigail website: Abigail Massey.
We promise the final podcast product will be more slick and well produced but we wanted to get these samples up so that people like you could listen and give us your feedback.
There are three ways for you to provide feedback on which reading style you prefer:
1. Use the little chooser buttons at the end of this post;
2. Take part in our poll on this website; or
3. Send us an email at abigail@abigailmassey.ca to tell us your preference and provide any other feedback or advice you may wish to include.
Thanks again for your help. Watch this space for more exciting news about the Abigail project, coming events and the launch of the Abigail Massey Christmas Story, coming this fall.
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