The Earthship Chronicles audio book is coming! ... but I need YOUR opinion on my chosen narrator!
Can u spare a few minutes to listen to this audio below? It is a small sample from the beginning of my Book, Earthship Chronicles... The magical tale of a man (that's me) who self built his self sufficient luxurious earthship home with no experience or training. This is a very special story, that I am sharing with the world to help inspire others to take the path of living a sustainable and self sufficient life. I have realised that these days a lot of people enjoy and even prefer audiobooks to reading, and so i hope my audio book will help me to spread my message even wider.
So I have had a few narrators to submit their samples and i think i have chosen the narrator and personally I am very happy with it! I chose a woman to speak for me, i always do things backwards.. so also please do let me know if you think that is just weird or whether it works! Also please just do listen to even a minute of it and let me know if it WORKS for you and you would like to hear more, or if you are totally bored, or find her voice hard to understand or uncomfortable etc..
Whatever your feedback it is very welcomed right now as I know my taste isn't always everyones taste!
Ok, so here it is.. Let me know how far you got in the comments.. If you all say 20 seconds ill know its not OK!
THANK YOU, I really appreciate your help with this.. your opinions really counts!
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I like it. I've just listend intro and prologue and find her voice clear and easy to understand (english is not my native). Although at first I was a little surprised to hear a female voice. When I read a book in my head sounded man's voice :)
Hehe! Thank u for this feedback!! Im glad u like her voice.. shes scottish also so i want to know if everyone can understand her accent!
Ok, sorry to say this but you asked for honest opinions....
The narrator is terrible, she sounds like she is reading the 'Tales of Peter Rabbit' to an audience of 5 year-olds. Yes, she is very clear, but the style does not match the content and I think she is trying too hard to use a neutral accent. If she is Scottish, use that beautiful soft accent! I couldn't listen to a book read in this style I'm afraid.
I would, however also suggest using a male narrator as it will stop the pronouns being contradictory and sounding so contrived.
I absolutely love what you have created and wish you nothing but success with the audiobook and accept my honest opinion simply as my opinion and without in any way wishing to be offensive.
Best wishes
PS I am a native speaking Englishman.
dont be sorry ;-) Thank you for your honest opinion ,.. thats what i asked for and what i want! I hear what you say, there are parts that sound really patronising.. She is also taking on myfeeback and ill be sure to pass this on to her if I go with her.. maybe i have to just try a guy and deal with it!
THANK YOU!
Why don´t you do it yourself? Don´t you like your voice in recordings?
I don´t like mine, that´s why I ask.
Your own voice would be the most authentic, also because there is the occasional I-perspective in the book.
If you don´t want to do it yourself, get David Attenborough to do it, that´s the kind of voice you need. 😘
Her voice is a bit too high pitched for my taste, and I also think she speaks a bit too fast.
There is this general advice to speakers:
"If you think your speed is ok, go half of it."
I´m not saying that she needs to do half her speed, but a bit slower.
The reason people like to listen to audio books and podcasts is that they can do other things at the same time, cycling, jogging, ironing etc., so it is necessary that the speaker speaks slowly and clearly enough, so that the listener does not need all his concentrational capacity to follow the audio, but has a few brain cells left for other stuff.
welll.. i did actually try it myself.. i was a good diligant geek and did a tonne of research how best to do it, and did even start making the first chapter to see how it went.
man its hard! my home is not acoustically suited to it, and any noise causes problems, so that already meant i have to do it at 5am or after dark when the birds and bees stop making noise!.. then also my breathing is not good, and with these sensitive mic's it was doubly hard to deal with.. i even found an audi plugin called debreathe which helps to alleviate that problem,, but i soon realised i not only have to read but i have to kind of ACT it out.. and its a pretty skilled and major job.. i think it would take me 2 months and even after that I may not have the quality of audio that i need..
THAT said, i could just GO FOR IT and make it amazing but i havent found that flow..
nice blooming idea to get David Attenborough on the case.. that IS inDEED the kind of voice i need.. i think most of the negative comments are probably right really.. BUT finally i have to decide who my target audience is.. and maybe it is young women rather than men.. Fook knows.. ill meditate on it!
as for the speed, OK, ill have listen again.. i didnt find it fast but I hear what you are sayin
Some of the Yoga guys I know do audio and they have, with modest means, constructed some kind of sound cabin to reduce/eliminate reverberation and disturbing back ground noise.
Not exactly with egg cartons, which would be the punk way, but with some foam and stuff.
@eco-alex#6971 - I heard it for 3 minutes, and in my honest opinion the voice & tone could better for the message. Agree with others that sound and english is clear it felt as kids audio story or audio Lesson in academia. Deep, calm, grounded voice would deliver the message much more powerfully. Sorry, didn’t mean to sound negative 😊🙏🏼
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THANK YOU DEAR! please dont apologise.. i like the truth! I have actually now cancelled her, luckily she was cool with it.. NEXT step i will TRY doing chapter one myself, or part of, and then see what you guys think again! what a challenge! so thank you it is important to me that it works out well to get this message accross
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thanks Pennsif! Just to say this post has provided the answers i need.. it might be nice to feature this one instead, which is a new series dedicated to teaching biotecture.. TO me this is gold, and so valuable to anyone wanting to understand how to build sustainably...
https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-5-how-to-retrofit-getting-permits-tire-toxicity
Let me go full hippie mode and say that i long for some manly calm and grounded voice for talking about Earthships. She does her job well but it strikes me as dissonant with the topic you so marvellously explored in this book, more down-to-Earth, less polish.
I would definitely pick your voice over hers for this subject. Better yet: find someone who talks in a normal voice and is older than 35, that would sound thoroughly convincing. It could even be an older gentleman who has understood the magic behind Earthships and could tell it with great grounded gusto!
Maybe i should ask Michael reynolds! Haha
THANK U , this really helps.. i think im going to try doing chapter 1 myself and c what happens!
I'd be thrilled to listen to it! I love audiobooks and always feel that spirit and passion in a reading outweigh perfect recording environments.
If you need any help polishing up your recordings or optimizing volume please let me know.
I have dabbled with all sorts of dubs and voiceovers in the last 5 years and know that great results can be accomplished with humble means. Especially if you wrote the material yourself and love to talk about it in general <3
Can't wait for that chapter reading <3
that's funny I also thought of Michael, but then he probably won't have none of it and would instead go on to build some new Earthship iteration. generation 391 ;)
I think the job of spreading the idea further falls to you
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That's weird, the recording didn't even appear on partiko. Maybe it's to much information for it.
Her voice is lovely and melodious, so I zoned out. I have to agree with some of the other comments here that it would go better in a male voice. A female voice is fine for fiction and being entertained, but this is knowledge that you want to give your full attention.
I'm reminded of something I heard a while ago, which explained why my husband tunes me out, but still loves to hear my voice! Lol! In general, when men hear a male, or low depth voice, they can listen to what is being said, but when they hear a female, or higher pitched voice, they hear it more as music, so they don't focus as well on what's being said. So if you're voice is higher pitched, keep important things short before the listener loses focus! I don't think it's just men this happens to. I sometimes find myself drifting when listening to higher pitched voices.
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wow, what food for thought..
i DONT know why im so resistant to having a man speak for me... i guess i dont want to feel misrepresented so i chose a woman so people know for sure its not me. and i also want an emotionally engaged person doing it, and i THINK women are better at that than men..maybe im wrong...
i understand what you are saying.,,.. im gonna have to give this some deep thought it looks like!
THANK YOU!
I'm sure you'll make the right choice for you in the end. I'm guessing author and orator will be credited separately, anyway.
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English is very clean, easy to understand even from a distance and seriously we want to build an Earthship. When I (@mr-greens) started listening, there was no way to stop. The Earthship concept is one of the things I tell young people, how can we find simple and effective ways to solve complex problems facing our society today.
Great choice of the narrator. She is awesome!
Need a copy of this book @eco-alex?
THANK YOU, thats good that you enjoyed it.
Yep, a man would suit it better because - you're a man. Plus, Peter Rabbit - yes! That was a very valid comment above, making me giggle. It's a bit cheery for me, definitely a bedside story kinda voice! I have to turn it off before I kill her! :P xx
Great idea doing it as an audio book though!
Okay im getting the message! Oh boy back to the start maybe! Thank u. Xx
I got to 22 seconds. Nope. Just nope. I want to hear YOUR voice, with all it's imperfections and tech issues, but also all of it's genuine inflections, enthusiasm and colour. She sounds just far to school marmy and nothing like anyone who'd ever build in, let alone set foot inside, an earthship.
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Fuck, im gonma have to do this armt i
Fuck yeah. I want your dulcid (authentic!) tones lulling me off to sleep when I listen... LOL.... 😂