Vacancy for editor on Audio Book Production team

Special Interest Groups Audiobook Production
1

Hey all,

I represent a production group who’s setting out to produce audio books of some my little pony fanfiction that we found enjoyable.
We have yet to find someone and are thus looking on various forums for anyone who may take an interest in joining our team.

About us
We’re a group called The Living Library Player Society. From 2012 to 2014 we’ve done live readings of My Little Pony fanfiction to a brony audience.
This past year we’ve made a switch to do pre-recorded stuff only to up the quality of our productions which has proven successful.

We have over 700 recordings in our archives of increasing quality, though it all pales in comparison to pre-recorded materials.

Our team consists of voice artists, visual artists, musicians, programmers/game devs, all with diverging interests (meaning, capable of more than their speciality).

The voice artists/actors/actresses all have professional equipment and software to work with such as Blue yeti’s and Blue snowballs or Samson C01(U) or higher.
They’ve all worked in various voice productions before and have high tier setups suitable for both their previous productions and our productions.

All of us are volunteers. We’re very welcoming to new members and we love sharing our hobbies, both in learning from each other as well as teaching others; It’s an enriching and loving experience.

We have our own homepage: http://www.tllps.tk

Our quest(ion)
Our situation is as follows:

We can produce all of our audio and video materials at proper quality levels. This includes voice work, sfx, imagery and animated parts.
However, we do not have anyone on the team who deems themselves qualified enough or eager enough to compile all of the audio.
All of us can do basic noise reduction and audio balancing, but none of us can really stick the parts together to a working whole.

We’re looking for someone with a knack for audio like how we have people on the team who have a knack for art, writing, music or programming.
That audio techie who knows what they’re doing and loves doing the things they do with audio: making a quality product.

Originally we started this group because some My Little Pony fans asked us to, despite us not being into the show.
It’s not necessary to be a “brony”, though it would probably help, especially with character driven stories and certain lines need to be picked or emphasized for example.

Prospect
You’ll be joining a group of mostly teenage bronies who also like to hang out together, typically on steam, skype or google hangouts (in art livestreams).
The group is run by two adults in their late twenties who know what they’re doing, mostly.

All of the audio samples you’ll be working with will be edited to your liking: raw, noise removed and or balanced, most simple operations can just be requested of the VA’s or musicians in question.
People’s equipment and setup are medium-high to high tier. There are directors on the team. Even though that is thus not part of your responsibilities, any and all suggestions will be taken to heart.

Our website has a back-stage where we share our documents, can chat in private with everyone (not everyone has steam, skype or other social media/chat) and manage our projects.
You’ll have your own portfolio/profile that will automatically showcase things you’ve made/uploaded.

The work is also voluntary. We started this group because we wanted to give back to the MLP community and offer a platform for youngsters to be able to show off their talents in a team and project setting.
We do strive to make content that may earn us some money on future occasions like developing games or animations and such (we’re looking into various avenues). Same with making content for conventions like buttons or posters.

So if you have a love for audio editing and mastering and would like to join a friendly team who can help expand your horizons, we’d love to welcome you on board.

Contacting us
You can add me, freehomebrew, on skype, steam or any place you can find me.
Alternatively you can email us at thelivinglibraryplayersociety@gmail.com.

With kind regards,
FreeHomeBrew on behalf of The Living Library Player Society

PS. I hope this is the right place to post. I’ve read all the rules about posting and didn’t see anything regarding my post or it being against the rules. Still, if I messed up, please inform me so I may improve my posts/behaviour.

2

We would normally cover up direct contact information, but I’m inclined to leave yours posted.

I will not be on the edge of my seat seeing if someone posts back. I don’t think anybody on the Audacity team has any more free time over and above volunteering to keep the forum and Audacity itself floating, and almost all the posters are in over their heads trying to get to ACX AudioBook compliance so they can record books, make a fortune and retire to Majorca.

Majorca is optional. Some are going to Cote D’azur.

Our team consists of voice artists, visual artists, musicians, programmers/game devs, all with diverging interests (meaning, capable of more than their speciality).
We’re looking for someone with a knack for audio like how we have people on the team who have a knack for art, writing, music or programming.

What’s scary about that paragraph is you seem to have flown at high altitude over mentioning anybody good at recording voices. It’s been our experience that you can’t just set up a Yeti and crank out performances. The longest thread on the forum is Ian who needed to do a good job recording his voice in an apartment in Hollywood. It’s been 39 forum chapters and over a year.

ACX AudioBooks sets up post production, matching and graceful, book-length integration by insisting on very stringent technical standards for peaks, overall volume and background noise, and an automated testing process before anybody gets the first file in the door.

I can imagine without that process, nobody, no matter how talented is going to be able to turn out a quality product.

But we’ll see how it goes.

Koz

3

Hey Koz,

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah before posting we did notice the ACX postings. I was unaware of how many people here strive to actually become professionals rather than just doing audio processing as a hobby (hence the “scary paragraph”).
We are aware that you need more than professional hardware to get quality output of course.

Our standards will obviously be lower than those of the ACX as we’re hobbyists and are doing this for fun. People on the team also take interest in other people’s hobbies as a learning experience. I’m learning from the musicians who in turn learn about programming and algorithms from me personally.

Like I said in the OP, we’re looking for someone with audio as a hobby the same way we have authors, musicians, programmers, artists and VA’s on the team. I’ve found that these people are really hard to find. If this is the wrong place to look I’d like to know where else to look, or if anyone knows someone who might fit the bill. I imagine that if you’re looking to do professional recordings for ACX you might have one or more friends who like doing audio like you do, just not at the same level or with the same ambition: just for fun.

Again thanks for the response, I’ll be looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Even if all we get is a redirection to some place better to look :stuck_out_tongue:

Regards,
FreeHomeBrew

4

I’ve found that these people are really hard to find.

People have an audio concept gap.

“We don’t need professional audio. We just need clear sound at good volume and no distortion or noise.”

That’s pretty much what my professional clients want.

Koz

5

transom.org has a lot of good documents on audio production. They do equipment shootouts, recommendations and illustrations.

“How to use music”, “How to change characters,” etc. Ever wonder how NPR manages to crank out week after week of clear interviews and sound shows?

Koz

6

Thanks for the replies Koz,

What do you mean by “People have an audio concept gap”?

At the moment, we are mostly curious to find out if there are people who have a passion for editing and mastering audio the same way we have some artists, musicians etc on the team.
And of course, where we may find/contact them. I’d think that there would be at least, since there are so many things people can dedicate themselves to, we figure this would be another one of those things.

Like I said earlier, some of the people have “the crayons and the paper” of audio editing, but not the background, know-how, talent and passion to engage in it as they do with the things they are passionate about.

Are we really just looking in the wrong place here? I’m half tempted to ask a specific format for the audio file such that I can make a program to do the essential editing automatically for us…

FHB

7

Audacity defaults to WAV (Microsoft) 44100, 16-bit, Stereo. This is the same standard as Audio CDs and it’s a close cousin to basic television sound (48000, 16-bit, Stereo). It’s uncompressed, so the files are sized according to time and not “quality” settings like MP3. WAV is always at maximum quality.

Audacity works internally at a much higher bit depth of 32-bit floating in order to allow for effects and filters without encountering overload and distortion. Say, for example, that your tone adjustments accidentally increase the volume of your show. In a WAV editor, that work may be permanently damaged. In Audacity, you adjust the volume back to normal and keep right on working.

After you prepare the work and get the show exactly the way you want it, it is recommended you Export a WAV archival copy and only then burn an MP3 for your personal music player or uploading or distribution.

People who start out life with MP3s generally have quality problems because MP3s degenerate during production. There is a producer in the North-East US who edits a show from download MP3s and sends it to broadcast. He’s fine until the station prepares the compressed podcast and then his music turns to honky trash because of multiple compressions. He posted here looking for a solution. Sorry.

Is that what you’re looking for?

Koz