Audiobook Production Phylosophy Changing

We have two significant updates.

The one I caught first was ACX/Audible shifting over to full theatrical production for audiobooks.

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-can-i-emulate-a-mic-on-a-large-stage/61202/12

No more setting your Yeti up on the kitchen table, get fresh coffee, and have at it. The question is whether or not they still accept the plain, non-orchestrated kitchen table format.

But there’s a more subtle change. I saw an ad for audiobook classes. In the past, this meant training how to promote your work and how to manage billable hours, presentation services, and accounting. Nobody ever mentions microphones. That’s a problem because microphone technique just kills New Users.

Maybe not any more. I noticed there are no more forum postings about making my voice sound good for my book or how to get rid of the dog barking next door. I suspect someone finally posted classes that start from the performer’s lips instead of corporate management. Buy this microphone and put it here, etc.

I haven’t gone down any of the class pathways, but all you would need is somebody to produce and post a class competently once and even if it was only partially successful, many of the forum postings would vanish as word got out.

Koz

Sound effects, background music and so on has been allowed since at least 2018. (I know that because I helped a friend with his audiobook that was published by Amazon in 2018 :wink:

and so on has been allowed since at least 2018.

It’s a close secret. The promotion I saw claimed that “everybody knows” audiobooks are one person reading the book.

I suspect what we’re seeing is an effort to create a more enjoyable product for the listener (so far, so good) and as a side benefit, peeling off the thousands of performers who just took the shrink wrap off their Yeti.

You suddenly have to be good at radio theater, not just forcing your voice to sound OK.

No word on whether stereo is now recommended. They were clear before that Mono was good, Stereo if you had to.

Human Quality Control is particularly important now. “Sorry, your background music is too loud.” That and as far as I know, you still have to produce the whole book before a human listens to it.

“No copyright music, thanks, and no MP3s.”

I wonder if they have a music analyzer. They could. “Sorry, the background music in Chapter 14 is Copyright 2019 Warner Music Group.”

You thought it was a nightmare before…

Koz

Steve wrote:

Sound effects, background music and so on has been allowed since at least 2018.

I concur, although not sure when exactly it was first allowed.
Helped a client with sfx and music (in stereo) to publish a story book for kids last year (2021).

I based the sfx and music to dialog level ratios according to the BBC TV animated programs.
It was accepted on the first submission.

All the sfx were recorded by me and the music was written and performed by the client.
I had to furnish the client with a written statement that the sfx were original which I’m assuming he in turn submitted to ACX,
along with another for the music.

If they actually do check (manually or via algorithms), I have no idea.

The final audio book was submitted in stereo MP3 (320 Kb/s) at 44.1 KHz.
The usual ACX peak and RMS levels still apply and it’s what I used.

I based the sfx and music to dialog level ratios according to the BBC TV animated programs.

Which I bet you listened to on a good quality music system or high quality headphones and not the speakers in the laptop. Or perhaps you checked it on a small sound system, but you didn’t produce it there.

I had to furnish the client with a written statement that the sfx were original

[Writing that down] So that’s how they take care of copyright exposure. No discovery software needed.

submitted in stereo MP3 (320 Kb/s) at 44.1 KHz.

Perfect since the submission standard is 192 Kb/s minimum.

It was accepted on the first submission.

How did they shoot their voice?

Koz

Koz wrote:

Which I bet you listened to on a good quality music system or high quality headphones and not the speakers in the laptop. Or perhaps you checked it on a small sound system, but you didn’t produce it there.

I recorded some short clips then measured the relative RMS and peak levels of sfx to dialog and also music to dialog and used the same ratio.
Note that I didn’t measure the absolute levels, as audio for TV is broadcast as per EBU R128 whilst audio books need to conform to ACX.

[Writing that down] So that’s how they take care of copyright exposure. No discovery software needed.

It’s the same for Netflix and Amazon Prime, a declaration has to be supplied as to the origin of all audio.
(I suspect it’s the same with video but I don’t deal with video).
If they actually take one’s word for it or do a double check, no idea, I’m assuming that they will do a check.

How did they shoot their voice?

By that I’m assuming how it was recorded. Used a mono mic, I think it was the Shure 55SH (no A/B or X/Y), then made it center except when the story called for some panning.
The trick is to make sure that when there is background music and dialog at the same time, it’s important to minimize frequency masking,
especially in the mid-range, else it sounds very muddy and muffled.

It’s also important to limit and control the high end.
It’s a kids book and their hearing is much better than an adult’s.
Last thing that we want is to make it sound shrilly and painful to the intended audience.

It’s probably sufficient that someone “may” check. Imagine if you produced an audiobook, and just as it was starting to sell well, some big corporation decides to sue for breach of copyright. Not worth the risk imo :wink:

Steve, absolutely not worth the risk.
Not only would you get sued by the corporation claiming copyright, but your production would be pulled and probably
be sued by ACX/Audible/Netflix etc as well for costs incurred.

Netflix is very picky about sfx and Foley, even if you get them from a free library, they are generally not accepted as
there is no guarantee that they (the library/website), recorded it themselves versus getting it “else where”.
One could always try your luck but I highly recommend recording them yourself.
Foley is much harder than it looks so it’s best to hire someone that does it all day, every day.