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Re: [ARSCLIST] Preservation media WAS: Cataloguing still :-)
Hi Lou:
The thing to do is save your large blocks as the downloadable file before dividing them up into
chapters. That's the easiest method I can think of. Surely your audio editor allows this.
In Soundforge, which is what I use, I'd have my full edited recording file. Then, there's an option
to "create region marks every XX minutes." Then there's an option to "save each region as its own
file." Now, of course the PITA factor comes in because it is a computer -- the user needs to first
name each region something that make sense like "Disc01-Chap01" or some such thing. Then the files
get saved as those names in whatever folder you specify. The main file doesn't get changed except to
insert region marks. You can then save-as the main file in any format you wish (MP3, Real, WinMedia,
etc).
I'm assuming whatever software you have has the same or similar features buried among its menus.
Audible -- my brother used to be a VP there. They are very innovative and did big things in
advancing the audiobook format by making it convenient for the techie crowd. However, their format
has not evolved and the sound quality was a compromise from Day 1. Believe me, the Format 4 that was
launched a few years ago is head and shoulders better than the nearly-inaudible (pun intended)
original Format 1, which was the only way to squeeze a 4-hour book program into a file that could
download in 10 minutes or less over a dialup. Also, that Audible Manager software was a huge
innovation in its day. They literally hired a Russian rocket scientist to write it. Apple copied
parts of the interface liberally for iTunes but missed some great features, too. The whole way
Audible copy-protected an audio file, automated purchasing (including small-amount purchases),
automated transferring files directly from an internet location to a playback device (or hard
drive), etc was all brand new when they did it, and they were the first to get it to work in a
format that was copy-protected enough for publishers to sign on. Back in the early days, they had a
dozen people spending literally 24-hour days (in rotating shifts, of course) transferring cassettes
to digital. I did some of this work on a contract basis, including inserting chapter marks, etc.
That's how I know how bad cassette quality was in too many cases. Anyway, before books on CD became
the norm, that was how most of Audible's content library got built. The publishers would never sign
on enough to lend master DATs (most books on tape were mastered on DAT until the hard drive era came
along). I've been pleasantly surprised Audible has survived 10 years. Microsoft and Real own large
chunks of it now. Still no viable competition, although iTunes bites at its heals as clueless
publishers finally wake up to the portable-player reality (these are the same folks that only woke
up to CD economics -- ie more profit, less hassle -- only a handful of years ago).
Lou, I too have done a couple of self-publish book-audio efforts. I won't do anymore because the
authors are not professional readers and cannot possibly afford full-rate for the studio time
required to edit together their "masterpiece." As a result, three out of three were recorded but the
authors never got up funds to do the edit/production and thus they won't see the light of day.
Recording time generally took twice author's estimates, despite my more realistic predictions. Only
a professional reader can get through more than a few paragraphs at a time with no gaffes. I saw a
C-SPAN show once that was basically a videotape of Bill O'Reilly recording one of his books to audio
at the publisher's in-house studio. Being recorded directly to DAT. O'Reilly nailed chapter after
chapter with barely a gaffe and no stops. I do not envy the guy keeping take sheets because this
went so fast, it was almost all real-time. I imagine the editing took much longer than the
recording. The notes after the video said O'Reilly was in and out in 5 hours for a 4.5 hour final
product. I think some of the actors who do higher-profile books can work that efficiently, but
certainly not 99.99% of authors.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lou Judson" <loujudson@xxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 12:50 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Preservation media WAS: Cataloguing still :-)
I engineered hundreds of audiobooks in the analog and cassette days
(thousands if not millions of razor-blade edits of mouth noises and
breaths - I can claim to be a Master Editor from sheer expereince
alone, when I need to brag) and the cassette releases were always so
embarrasing to hear. I tried to keep at least a DAT copy of the master
whenever there was one I wanted to listen to again.
Lately I have been producing audiobooks for local authors, sort of like
the "vanity press" days, and would dearly love to know how to code
chapters in longer works and make them downloadable as a unit but still
play tracks. Anyone have hints on how to find that out? I have two or
three projects in the works that would benefit hugely from that! I
thought it was Audible that developed that method; at least that was
the first place I saw it, but their audio quality was abominable and I
discontinued using them after one purchase. I would guess iTunes took
the technology from them, as there has been quite a bit of crossover
between them... Anyone know about that?
I have one project about to see release where the author just decided
to do MP3s instead of physical CDs, and she can just barely wrap her
mind around it - she actually asked me in a session, "what is an ipod,
anyway?" and I felt like quoting the line in my sig here, but didn't,
as I wanted to educate her...
<L>
Lou Judson • Intuitive Audio
415-883-2689
Fats Waller as he left the bandstand was asked what jazz was.
He replied, "Lady, if you don't know by now, don't mess with it"
On Sep 2, 2006, at 5:59 PM, Tom Fine wrote:
Even audiobooks, which only recently have dropped the cassette format en masse, are getting with
the 21st century and usually offer illustration material or other non-audio content, or sometimes
and author interview, on the final disc of a set. By the way, audiobooks do their format a huge
service by killing off cassette releases. The general rule was bottom-basement tape quality and
duped by cavemen in a cave. Audibility was always an iffy proposition. CDs, the quality is better
and consistent. And, they got around the "resume quandry" (ie many CD players don't have a resume
function, although that's been solved in recent years) by putting track cuts every 3 minutes or
so. Thus, worst case, you'd have to re-listen to 2:59 the next time you put the CD in the player.
And the iTunes coders got into the act and put in the option to stitch all cuts on a CD together
for more convenient loading of audiobooks into an iPod. I'd suggest the final convenience for
audiobooks would be to include an unlock code on one of the CD's that allows the user to download
the book from the iTunes store, already crunched to digi-compressed format and ready to load into
the iPod.