The process of recording podfic

[nny]

I just saw an interesting comment on the multipodicity/podremix that stated that the ratio of finished podfic length to recording/editing time is something like 1:10 although it can be up to 1:20. I confess this kind of shocked me since my ratio is more like 1:3 or 1:4.

Possibly this is related to my tendency to not edit fics hugely but to try to write them well first time, since once I've done something I don't generally then find it easy to 'hear' it in a different way? I don't know. I'm intrigued because I kind of want to know if my podfics are suffering because of it, if there's something I need to be doing better.

Those of you who record podfic, a couple of questions:

What's your finished podfic: recording/editing time ratio, roughly?

How many times are you likely to re-record a podfic/sections of a podfic? Is this due to mistakes or trying out different expression etc?

What takes up the most editing time?

Any answers would be hugely appreciated, thanks!

(Maybe I should make a poll...)

Comments

[general_jinjur]

wow. 1:10 would kill me. mine is a steady 1:4.

i rerecord flubs as i go, until i get them right. i only rerecord for emphasis if it becomes obvious immediately that i forgot where the next line was going/that it was a joke/whatever.

and i am just listening for and cutting out flubs when i edit.

<3

[nny]

Oh good! That's my process exactly, I feel reassured now. XD

Also to remove the giggling when I realise I've just bellowed a line that ought to have been whispered, or whatever...

[general_jinjur]

yeah, i also need to remove the giggling. and the occasional off-book conversations with my cat. :D

[nny]

Hee, for me it's more likely to be John Sheppard's honking laugh, which is my text tone. Sometimes appropriate, but never wanted...

[thingswithwings]

omg, 1:20? No, for me it's more like 1:3 - finished length 20 minutes, original recorded length 1 hour, say. But that's just recording time - then I'd say that it takes me twice the length of the original recording to edit it. So, in that example, another two hours. One hour to record, two hours to edit, twenty minute finished podfic. But that's still nowhere near 1:20.

I'll re-record sections of the podfic up to ten times if it's a really difficult bit and I want lots of options - like, a character screaming at someone, or a pivotal moment in the story, or whatever. Sometimes mistakes, sometimes different expressions. But a lot of the time I'll just do it twice, or once.

The most editing time is taken up, for me, by parsing out those sections where I've done the same bit over and over trying for a good take; it takes time to figure out how many there are, which bits of which attempts I like, where the good bits are in the waveform, and all that. Sometimes I get really picky and want the first half of the sentence from take two and the second half of the sentence from take four, or whatever.

[anatsuno]

3 hours for 20mn is not 1:20 but it's already 1:9, which is already a lot! :)

[anatsuno]

my recordings are about a third longer than the edited fic once I'm done, and I think I spent about 3 times that editing, possibly - it varies quite a bit. To keep Twings' example, I take altogether 2 hours to do a 20mn fic, probably. Very often I split the work in two, recording one day and editing later (often, much later).

Even when I record a long fic I tend to want to record it in one sitting (with breaks), because I don't enjoy the slight differences in sound that occur from recording on different days with different acoustic properties (but I have done it regardless, because I can't always do it!)

What takes the longest while editing is picking all the duds out, choosing which 'take' to keep (but unlike T'wings, I often don't have more than two or three valid takes of a given passage/sentence - I spend more time removing bad bits than choosing among various good ones).

[pennyplainknits.livejournal.com]

You have a new layout! It is very blue

My edit:finished ratio depends on the story and how I am feeling, but mostly it is 5 to 1 or 4 to one, so a one hour podfic can take 5 hours to produce. My podbang took almost a month because of beta-ing and what have you.

I don't try out different expressions a lot of the time. If I read something I know how I want to perform it even before I read it. A lot of the editing is taking out clicks and background noises, flubbed words etc. I don't stop and start- if I make a mistake I click my tongue (the audio equivalent of underlining I suppose) then once it is finished go back and edit.

I think it highly unlikely your podfics are suffering because you don't take as long to edit! People have different processes and different ideas of what constitutes a finished product, but you must please yourself, as you can't please everyone :D

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I am experimentating with layout - I want to have the sloth picture at the top like in my dreamwidth journal, but I can't find a layout I can do that with that I actually like. This layout pleases me in shape and blueness, so.

Last point = very good, but I find it far easier to please other people than to please myself, most of the time. I hold myself to impossibly high standards a lot of the time which is unhelpful and contributes to low self esteem. Oops? XD I'm reading the Art of Happiness at the moment, though, and that's actually really helpful, I like.

I don't try out different expressions a lot of the time. If I read something I know how I want to perform it even before I read it. Yeah, that's pretty much me too. It worries me a little that I don't think about it though, because I think I might get monotonous if I read all podfic the same way.

[pennyplainknits.livejournal.com]

I find the blue kind of dizzy-making, oddly.

(also oddly, lj did not notify me of your reply. What gives lj?!)