4 Min read
How a book becomes voice
Creative process
Voice actor’s guidebook
Toolbox ages 9 to 99
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“You did about ten full length solo shows with an audience of one,” the director said. “Broadway performers only do an eight-show week.”
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Hello, dear readers! I want to welcome the new readers and send a shout out to the long-time readers. I’ve missed you and I’ve been busy.
I spent last week in New York City narrating my book.
I learned how to NOT aspirate my T in the sound booth. I learned to punch and roll–which meant doing another take on a word or phrase.
My director and sound engineer, Danielle, explained how to go back to the last correct phrase or word, then to immediately begin to narrate, or roll, after the punch. Punch and roll.
Can’t hear the TH in death. Let’s go from here. Then she replayed the misspoken word in the phrase so I could hear it. Then backed up for the punch, then I jumped in just after the last good phrasing to continue the recording.
Missed the D in that word.Let’s go back.
You’re creating a break or pause around the word.
Let’s go back for some FLOW.
Can you do that in one breath?
If I finished a paragraph without stopping the recording, I was surprised, especially the first day.
And I was physically beat at the end of each day—sitting on the edge of the seat, feet flat, shoulders down, soft cotton clothes, headset on, eyes glued to my galley or final print version, which I scrolled through on the iPad.
And, if I was not careful the click of my finger made noise. My stomach made noises around 1:00 to 2:00 pm each day. The mike was so sensitive it would pick up any verbal tic and the tiniest move.
The mouth makes a lot of noise that aren’t actual words.
Leave the mouth slightly open and breathe from down here, she said, pointing to the bottom of the belly. I blew on a straw into water to reset the vocal chords.
In fact, just narrating the opening credits and sentences was not for the faint of heart. Voice acting or narration is performance art. The four vocal components are volume, pitch, tone, and tempo.
Too rushed. Let’s go back.
The opening is too loud.
What are you saying here? This is happy, right, let’s get the tone.
The foreign phrases required a lot of takes, checking various sources, her dictionaries. She was very nice, positive, and relentless.
What did I learn from narrating a book?
To record nine to ten hours of good audio it took me 35 hours in the sound booth.
I learned that writing is meant to be spoken. My book is over 80,000 words. As a writer, I believe writing has to have rhythm and make sense when spoken.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was spoken. Then it was written. So speaking is primary and takes precedence over writing. Writing is the human way of getting it down. As audiobook sales continue with double digit growth each year, people want to hear the author–especially for memoir.
Danielle is an exceptional sound engineer and director. She’s also a choreographer and theater director, an actress, dancer and consummate professional. She read ahead in my book and edited the audio continuously throughout, and she helped me act out the words.
I began calling her the warden, because I didn’t leave the booth until the recording was right. When I got home the last night, I told her I was pooped. Then she explained: You performed 10 full length solo shows with an audience of one. Broadway performers only do an 8-show week
To narrate my book, I had to relive each scene and story, every description and reflection, to inhabit the writing as an actor would. The difference in this case, was I was also the author and I had already lived this.
The delivery process was so intense, I began to break down and cry in three passages from the emotion of the scene. I stopped narrating, holding up my hand. She brought me tissues and kept the recording of the first scene — said it felt right, authentic. The other two spots, I slapped my arms and shook out my hands, flipped my head shoulder to shoulder, did a voice exercise. Then we did a punch and roll.
Danielle said this.
Every author cries — every one of them. That gave me pause.
They care a lot about it to write a book.
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I want to welcome the new readers who’ve joined since I posted the book cover on social media. AND, here’s a shout out to the long-time readers.
The proofs arrived for my memoir, the hardcover and paperback.
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FOOTNOTES
*Learn more about Edge Studio in New York City’s Theater District. Talented people and musicians, sound engineers. I asked the director about a man with a familiar face who turned out to be an academy award-winning actor.
*Danielle has a website with dance and audio clips which you can visit at this link.
**The Voice Actor’s Performance Guidebook by David Goldberg. David was often in the studio and we chatted about the industry. This helpful guide provides insight on the two performance styles, the vocal components, techniques, etc… It was an excellent primer if a bit intimidating. Reading is another thing altogether than narrating, as I learned. Danielle said my voice reminded her of Kathleen Turner in Body Heat, a comparison she likely made to lift my spirits as a newbie to voice work. So I went and listened to an old video clip, and it helped.I sound like that, cool… OK, I can do this.
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