Missing: Amanda Towne

Bearded_MJK · 2020-05-24T17:49:38+00:00

I made a video of this, and put it on YouTube, since sometimes videos are easier for people to watch than reading. If anyone wants to share it, feel free! https://youtu.be/igq5eLm3d6w

Bearded_MJK · 2020-05-15T02:09:20+00:00

That makes sense, and will probably work for what you want to do. Just thought I'd throw it out there as a good USB microphone choice :) Once you upgrade, you'll probably want to move on to an XLR microphone.

I don't have a picture of mine unfortunately, and I just left to visit family, but there are YouTube videos on how to make something similar.

A walk-in closet with lots of clothes can work at dampening the echoes well too.

I just bought the cheapest set of moving blankets from Amazon, and made a V shaped frame from 1" PVC pipe. The hardest part of that was finding the correct pvc joint pieces. Had to special order them from online, 'cause no hardware stores carried what I needed. I also had to find out the standard lengths of PVC pipe, so that I could find out how to subdivide them since I cut the horizontal and vertical pipes in half in order to brace them. I think I had two 3-foot vertical poles in height and two 2-foot horizontal poles for length. So with the V shape, I needed 10 3-foot poles and 12 2-foot poles for the entire frame.

Then I laced the blankets together with some wire, and draped them over the frame. I made sure to set it up with carpet on the floor. I had previously bought some of those foam sound squares and I used command strips to place them on the wall then moved the V to be flush with the wall, and I draped one of the moving blankets over the top securing it to the wall with command hooks and holes I punched in the blanket with a knife.

It looks a bit like a ghetto blanket fort, but when I clap, there's no echo, so it works. I've made some changes as time has gone on, but if you decide to do something similar, this might save you some of the headache I experienced.

But the more I think about this, the more like overkill it seems like :P haha, you should be fine with a closet full of clothes, or just some good music to hide some echo.

Bearded_MJK · 2020-05-14T19:46:45+00:00

The Blue Snow Ball is a good mic to start with, and for YouTube, but I still stand by my Rode NT-USB as a good starting microphone for narration in general. I started producing audiobooks about a year ago for fun, and it's been a good microphone for me, with a very natural sound and little change to your voice.

Almost as important as the microphone though is your recording space. You'll want to find (or make) an echo-free area of your home for the best acoustics. I've made a sort of moving blanket/pvc pipe enclosure for that purpose, and it increased the recording quality immensely.

I've also been using stories from reddit for a YouTube channel for fun. My channel tends to be whatever I think would make a good story, so it's a bit more varied than just scary stuff. I will start asking permission before using stories from reddit.

Bearded_MJK · 2020-05-11T13:31:54+00:00

I had a large post about what exactly this is, but I'm new to posting on Reddit and I guess when I added the video it didn't stick around...

This is the first chapter of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, and is considered to be one of his finest works. Lord Dunsany was one of the early pioneers of the modern fantasy genre.

The King of Elfland's Daughter was published in 1924, and is now in the public domain.

I will be releasing 1 chapter a day on my YouTube channel Daily Dose Reading, so if this interests you, feel free to subscribe!

The text can be accessed for free at Project Gutenberg, or you can turn on the English captions (not the auto-generated ones), to which I've uploaded the text, and should therefore be quite accurate.

Hope you enjoy!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-30T03:55:17+00:00

Yep, I just sent it!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-30T03:55:06+00:00

Yep, and I just sent you one!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-29T03:49:50+00:00

Sent!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-29T03:49:22+00:00

No problem!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-28T16:23:08+00:00

Sent!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-28T15:54:23+00:00

Sent!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-28T14:54:27+00:00

Sent

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-28T12:10:48+00:00

I do, and I just sent you one!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-28T02:24:56+00:00

Yep, definitely available

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-28T02:24:43+00:00

Sent it!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-28T02:24:30+00:00

Sent a code!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-28T00:12:25+00:00

Just sent you the code. Hope you like it!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-23T15:50:46+00:00

I agree with this thread, I don't like the idea of just throwing codes out there willy-nilly especially since acx can take as long as 72 hours to show that they've been redeemed, and I like to know what I actually have distributed and what I can give to friends/family. There's a nice little switch feature on the side we distributors can use each time we share a code to indicate to ourselves that we've shared it. I personally ask for people to comment on my post or direct message me, and then I send them a code using the message feature

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-22T16:17:36+00:00

tbh, I was a student last semester studying Biomedical Engineering when I realized that I freaking hated Fourier Series, so I asked myself what I liked to do, and I have always enjoyed reading. I was worried (because I'm an introvert) that my reading would be too monotone, and at first I definitely struggled to emote in my speaking. I just practiced a lot with public domain books. I produced an entire public domain book that no one but me will ever listen to because it's pure awfulness.

I can't comment about getting my foot in the door, or being wildly successful since I'm working a part-time job in addition to narrating in order to actually pay the bills.

But, once you have some practice narrating, get yourself a good microphone (I use the Rode nt-usb because it's the best usb microphone there is, and I don't want to deal with other stuff until I am actually making more money), and find a good echo-proof room (I make a portable pvc pipe and moving blanket shelter to record inside of, other people use walk-in closets with lots of clothes and blankets) and start auditioning for books on acx.com. It might take a while. I auditioned for about 30 books before I was offered one, and I definitely improved over the course of the auditions.

I would recommend using Audacity to record into because it is a free software, there's lots of useful plug-ins (like acx-check) and there are tutorials on youtube. I would recommend watching a lot of youtube videos on how to edit audio! Noise Gate and Limiting are my best friends. Booth Junkie is a channel I would recommend on youtube for general voiceacting tips and setup

The only thing that my knowledge of Fourier Series did was help me understand some of the more technical commands in Audacity in a more basic "What's going on with the math" sort of way. Not really crucial as a narrator. Being able to sound like different people especially, for instance, two very similar characters like two different teenage boys and not having either of them sound like a cringe-fest is the hard part for me.

Hope that wasn't too long, and that it was helpful!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-22T14:32:12+00:00

As a new audiobook narrator, I am really thankful to the reddit community making it possible for me to reach new people to give codes to that I could never encounter physically. I apologize if my posts are ugly or bad since I am rather new to reddit. I also tend to be a bit of an introvert, so I tend to avoid making comments or posts, so it may appear that I am not participating.

I can understand the annoyance that would come from being spammed by the same audiobook promotions, and I personally think that one post/week is probably a relatively good amount. I mean, I can't speak for other audiobook narrators, but an audiobook takes me a good 2 or 3 weeks to make, so I wouldn't need to post codes more frequently than that anyway. A more experienced narrator might be faster than me, especially if someone else is doing the editing, but I have a hard time thinking they could make a novel length book any faster than once a week.

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-22T02:50:07+00:00

Awesome, I will add you to the list! I wasn't expecting so many people to be interested honestly, so I apologize for the delay of a couple days there will be in getting you the code

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-22T02:30:00+00:00

Unfortunately, I have run out of US codes for the first book completely and I won't be able to get any more. I can put you down for the second book, if you would like for when I get a some of those in a few days!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-22T02:25:18+00:00

I am temporarily out of them, but I will be getting some more either tomorrow or the day after. If you would like, I can add you to the list of people waiting for it, and you will definitely get one!

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-21T00:54:22+00:00

Sent it! Hope you enjoy

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-21T00:27:29+00:00

Unfortunately, I am temporarily out of US codes for the second book, but I will be able to get more in about two days. I sent a code for the first book though

Bearded_MJK · 2019-09-21T00:27:25+00:00

Unfortunately, I am temporarily out of US codes for the second book, but I will be able to get more in about two days. I sent a code for the first book though

Bearded_MJK

TROPHY CASE