static_whisper | Entries tagged with auralphonic

Auralphonic Episode 5: Sexy Podfic. Dated: April 2015.

It really depends on the person. Some people don’t get as embarrassed when they don’t try to voice act, add heavy breathing, moan, etc. Some people don’t feel embarrassed unless they’re reading something they actually like (one host gave an example of reading a particular kink). Others get in the reading zone and may not even be physically affected, even if they are when listening to other podfic. There’s an NC-17 Podfic Advice Document, but it didn’t really seem very helpful on my read through.

Auralphonic Episode 36: How We Choose What to Podfic. Dated: January 2018.

Various reasons: Drawn to certain authors (writing style), or permission factors in (waiting for replies vs blanket permission [BP] and mostly relying on FPS List). [FPS List = Fanworks Permission List organizes Fanlore’s BP page by fandom.] Some people have done a lot of outreach with particular fandoms. Pod farr (riff on pon farr from Star Trek), or the excitement of needing to record Right Now. Changes in when you can record and how long you can record (f’ex, one host can’t record for more than one hour at a time these days). Personal reasons (only read below a certain word count, liking certain tropes, doing different voices, etc.). The one host makes a point of doing relatively short podfic that match environmental factors (f’ex, it’s raining where you are, so you do a fic that involves rain).

You don’t always love the fic you read, though. Challenges can have requirements (Podbang, ITPE (Informal Twitter Podfic Exchange), Podfic Bingo, Amplificathon, etc.). Some collaborative challenges may involve working with other podficcers and cross fandoms. Some charity exchanges [listeners donate to XYZ, podficcers will read certain requested fandoms and such] also might not be what you like (or even be a fandom you’re in, officially speaking).

Auralphonic Episode 34: Pre- and Post-Production. Dated: November 2017.

Vocal warm-up tips, and some commonly repeated advice (like avoid dairy right before). Experience with podfic betas. From the notes: Avoiding Mouth Noises in Podfic, and Forvo (Pronunciation Dictionary).

Auralphonic Episode 15: Audacity Tips and Tricks. Dated: February 2016. (It’s possible this predates the Audacity update that integrated the MP3 Encoder plugin for exporting MP3 files.)

Equalization gets rid of certain decibel ranges. Several presets are already under Effects. (An example tutorial from the notes uses this to get rid of pops - Tutorial: Pops, Pop Screens, And Equalizing.)
You can make labels (f’ex, fix pronunciation of X).
You can go to Preferences to see the Keyboard Menu and change what your keyboard shortcuts will do. (Labels might still think you’re trying to do a shortcut when typing certain letters.)
Plugin to download to add an Effect → NoiseGate filter. Set a decibel level to automatically filter out if you go below (removes noise clicks).
Leave 5 to 10 seconds of silence at the beginning to make Noise Removal better. You can also run it more than once if need be.
The one host uses Auphonics to equalize volume and for noise removal.
Someone found adding Bass Boost helps make their quiet voice sound better.
When dealing with multi-voice projects, you can split track to stereo (to edit one person’s bit) and export the file as mono.
Sync Lock Tracks. If you cut something from one track, it will cut from the others highlighted. You can also use this technique to add music in a separate track.

Auralphonic Episode 28: How Platforms Affect Podfic. Dated: April 2017.

I ignored the LiveJournal stuff at the beginning, tbh, but there’s a tie-in with the one host’s vidding experience and YouTube. My Little Pony podficcers are on YT, but more communities that the hosts can think of don’t tend to use YT (including copyright issues, especially for those who include music).

Through trial and error, Tumblr has an upload limit around 10 - 15 MB, which probably can’t handle more than a 10 - 15 minute podfic. Most people don’t host solely on tumblr because it seems more based around songs than podfic itself.

The bit about Flash isn’t true for AO3 anymore (episode is from 2017, and the phasing out of Flash happened in 2020). This platform has affected where some people choose to host (so they can easily post to AO3), coming up with podfic posting stuff ([Podfic] Title), and what they include (some read the content warnings).

Auralphonic Episode 20: Posting Tips. Dated: July 2016.

Talkback for the previous episode (GarageBand tips and tricks) mentions that there are other sound editing programs than Audacity and GarageBand. It is noteworthy that a lot of podficcing tips are aimed at free options, though, so some sound editing programs don’t catch on for people who have to buy programs separate from work (or other) purposes.

I’m not sure why there’s so much about spreadsheets and Excel, tbh. It sounds like they keep all that info I put in “Top Matter” sections there. I can admit that keeping track of cross-posting across platforms and multi-voice would be helpful for some podficcers.

In response to a question from a Twitter person, there are different attitudes to multi-chapter works-in-progress. Some will not listen to a WIP whatsoever, and some feel differently if the original work is a WIP (such as uploading a new chapter as each one comes out). On the podficcer end, some people don’t want to wait until a long fic is done to upload everything (f’ex, it’s not unreasonable for someone to want encouragement and smaller steps while working on a +100K fic that might take months, over a year, etc.). So, you do you.

For multi-chapter fics, there are different preferences for posting chapter by chapter (multiple files) vs “Entire work” (one file). Some people don’t want to download a ton of files. One host gave an example of offering individual chapters as MP3 files and a M4_ file with all of the chapters. Another one talked about an audiobook program (Chapter and Verse; for iPod, iTunes, and QuickTime on Windows) where they can have each chapter file literally be its own chapter. [M4A is for music on Apple/iTunes, and M4B is specifically for audiobooks.]

Auralphonic Episode 9: Music and Sound Effects. Dated: August 2015.

Music: Not everyone’s a fan of intro/outro music clips because music taste can come into play, but some podficcers like to use music that’s been indicated by the author in their notes. It mostly overlaps with atmospheric notes and some scene break bits, but it also depends on the fandom (Bandom has quite a bit of songfic, and for those who don’t want to sing, it’s easier to add a snippet of music).

Atmospheric examples fit with basic background noises, a sound effect on an elf’s voice that fits the textual description, violin music included in a Sherlock piece where he plays violin music, and so on. It does help, but some people still don’t do these because they started out not doing so. (Early music and sound effect examples also had some volume and talk over issues, so some internalized not wanting to interfere with understanding what’s being said. As more people have gotten experience and the editing skills have gotten better, attitudes have softened from being Anti-Music Included.)

Common uses of sound effects: Clarity around scene breaks, flashbacks (Gverb example played, but Audacity has changed their settings, so YMMV), text messages (message ping), epistolary (a different sound effect for letters, emails, etc.), sound effect to indicate footnote (I’m not sure about the example, tbh). Some people use distinct sound effects for these purposes, but some use a little clip of music for certain usages (like scene breaks).

Free Sound Effects: https://freesound.org/

(On that epistolary example: Some people don’t want to cut out what’s written on the page, but some people don’t want to listen to (f’ex in emails) “To Such-and-such. From So-and-so” because you can skip that when reading, in a manner of speaking. Some people extend this to text message info or an example played that included code that would be mentally skipped.)

Auralphonic Episode 3: Editing Styles. Dated: February 2015.

Broadly split into two groups: 1) Record all at once, and edit everything afterwards, and 2) Edit while you go in recording. One host does very little editing, but another one does more inspired by her video editing experience (relistens and takes notes for edits on commute). For super long recordings, she has sometimes had a podfic beta catch mistakes (listening too many times can lead to zoning out or missing stuff). The third didn’t use GarageBand (actually used Nero Wave Editor for 8 years before switching to Audacity after using it on her job). She also started using Auphonic for noise cancellation, levelling, and such (2 hours for free per month) before doing her own editing. Times for editing an example around 30 minutes they all did range from [very little] to around 2 hours to between 5 and 6 hours, and a small Twitter poll averaged out to between 2 and 4 hours for a similar length recording.

Common editing tip: Snap fingers or create a noise after a mistake, so you can go back in the audio file and easily find the visual bump to remove.

Auralphonic Episode 27: Podfic Permission. Dated: March 2017.

I’m rather late to some of the controversy around whether it’s a requirement or a courtesy to get permission from fanfic authors [see also: Podfic Permission], especially when certain fandoms have different etiquette around this [references episode 26 about My Little Pony where fans do not get or expect permission to podfic]. For people who don’t list permission in their AO3 profile, you can check the Fanlore pages Blanket Permission to Podfic and Blanket No to Podfic where lists of users have already been compiled.

From Episode 36: FPS List = Fanworks Permission List organizes Fanlore’s BP page by fandom.

Auralphonic Episode 7: Tips for Newbies. Dated: June 2015.

Various and sundry tips. Some are about tech stuff, and they may not be necessary if I look up Audacity specific tutorials. There’s also general tips like trying out a 1K or under fic instead of a super long one. You may want to hold off on special effects heavy fic if you don’t have pre-existing experience with that, but regardless, making notes ahead of time might help (so you don’t forget which section has the alien language, f’ex).

AO3 Guides, Tutorials, and Links

AO3 FAQ: How do I post audio content, such as a podfic or playlist?

If you don't want to use a site's embed code, or it's not hosted on a permitted site, you can host the file in MP3 format on any external site and then use the HTML <audio> tag to embed the file in your work. [Click the above link for more.]