The Sacrifice - My first Audio Book!

Studio Mike · The Sacrifice

Well, I finally did it! After a month or so working on the first 17 episodes of the Studio Mike Presents podcast, I decided it was time to try and record an audio book. It is now online.

Recording an Audio Book:

This, of course, was something I had wanted to do for quite awhile but I was always worried about how it would turn out. My voice and throat are very unpredictable and I never know from day-to-day how I'm going to sound.

Step 1: Deciding which story to convert into an Audio Book

I've written 29 books to date, that's a lot of crap to choose from, let's be honest. Crap being the important word here. Do I start with a 200 page book? Or with a short story, just in case the whole thing blows up in my face?
I chose a short story.
I decided that my dark fantasy fictional story, The Sacrifice, would probably be a good place to start.

Step 2: Now what?

After deciding on a story, I was put in the position of: now what?
The next step was to turn my short story into a radio play, broken up into four parts and divided into two categories: Narrator and Characters.
I also kept an eye out for parts that could use sound effects in the final product.

Step 3: Recording, First Day

I dreaded this day. As much as I wanted to do the record, I was worried about all the ways things could go wrong. In particular, I don't speak well, I'm hard to understand and people constantly ask me to repeat things, does that sound like someone who would make a great orator? Not bloody likely. But, I did it anyways.
To ease myself into things, I decided I would record 1 of the 4 parts each day, for 4 days, thinking that wouldn't be too much pressure.
It took me ten minutes to record the first part. Less than an hour later I'd completed the whole story.
I also recorded myself playing guitar, trying to find something for the intro.

Step 4: Recording, Second Day

On the first day, I recorded the whole piece, including dialogue, knowing I'd be replacing most of it.
On the second day, I wrote out all the dialogue for each character and then it was time to record.
I pulled out the trusty old voice processor pedal I had purchased years ago and had never used. I went through all the sounds and choices and put it back into storage. I thought all the voices sounded way too processed and made everything sound robotic.
Here were the characters I needed to voice:
- A goblin general
- A skeleton commander
- A mummy king
- A monk
- A dark empress
Now, picture in your head, how they should sound.
I'd never done voices before and was starting out with some pretty difficult ones.
I went through the dialogue, character by character. I'd pick a character, try and find a voice that might be appropriate and hit record. Staying in character was difficult but I believe it is something I can get much better at. You have to start somewhere.

Step 5: Editing, Voice Over

With everything recorded, it was time to go through the often heart-wrenching - because of how much I suck - editing process. Overall I was pretty happy with my performance, I could understand most of it, lol.
I had to remove all the breaths and long, awkward pauses - something I'm a pro at! - and try and assemble the parts with pacing and appropriate pauses.
That was tougher than I thought it would be. I think as I went along I got much better at it, my next project will greatly benefit from all the errors I made doing this one.
First edit - VO, completed.

Step 6: Editing, Mixing VO and Music

With the VO edit in the can, it was time to do the VO/Music mix. I went through the guitar parts I had recorded and chose two parts that seemed to work.
I used one part for the intro music. The rest I used way down in the mix, just to add a little atmosphere to the story.
I mixed it all together and recorded it.
Second edit - VO and Music, completed.

Step 7: Making the Sound Scapes

What is a sound scape?
I don't know, it's just two words I've strung together to make myself seem smarter than I really am.
I thought the story could benefit from having some sound effects in the background, thinking that when mixed with the VO and Music, the SFX would bring some character to the overall sound of the project.
Luckily, these days, you can find good sound effects online for free. The hard part is finding ones that work for the project.
I wanted to build a track that would mix howling wind, marching, cheering, thunder, bats etc. I mixed together 4 sound scapes, 1 for each part. I actually really enjoyed making these things and in fact, listened to them a bunch of times, like I'm some weird avant-garde musician. Which I'm not.
Ultimately I used two of the sound scapes, twice, because thunder turned out to be a bad idea.
Sound scapes - completed.

Step 8: Editing, VO, Music and SFX

I slid the VO/Music mix and SFX track together and fiddled with them until I thought they worked together.
I think in the final mix the SFX might be a little louder than it should be, but it's important to note that I can't save my music sessions. That's 17 podcasts and an audio book, all completed without saving! Thank you, Pro Tools First.
And yes, I have put hours into a project just to have it deleted by Pro Tools and had to start over again.
Anyone want to give me $800 so I don't have to deal with this anymore?
I'm actually looking into grants for this but doing that stuff is so exhausting!
First final mix - completed.

Step 9: Edit, Final Mix

Things were beginning to sound good, but I thought the project could use a couple incidental sound effects, just for fun. Again, just making up things as I go along, what the heck is an incidental sound effect??
I found some sword, door and footstep sound effects, added them to the mix and recorded all 4 tracks, for the last time.
Final mix - completed.

Step 10: Upload, listen, complain, accept things.

With all four parts mixed, it was time to upload them to sound cloud.
I had to erase one of the podcasts to make room, I took out the one with the least plays.
I am now at my limit on sound cloud, so no more podcasts or audio books will be posted until I can afford to pay for a host.
Anyone want to give me $12/month for a proper host site?
Yes, I'm looking for grants for this too. So tiring!

And now, I am officially the author/narrator of an audio book that can be found online!

The whole process took a couple days, not very long, considering it was my first attempt. I think recording 17 podcasts prior to attempting an audio book was a surprisingly smart decision.

Please give the book a listen, it was years in the making and I put in countless hours of blood, sweat and tears to make it happen.
Lol!
I did not.

And again, here I am thinking, now what?

I am recruiting voice talent for my next project. Have you ever wanted to try voice acting? Do you want to do voices for a radio play? You don't need experience, you just need to be reliable and want to do the best job you can. You might not need to do a 'voice', your voice might be silly enough as it is, lol.
Listen to my first book, see what you think. Can you do a better job?
Yes, you can.
Contact me if you are interested.
Coolio!

Studio Mike, The Hellhound, The Hellcat and sweet potato Tito.
June 2020