Audio Book Time Scheduling

[danijel]

Hi everyone,

what are your experiences on the time needed for audio book recording and editing?
We will do the casting, so we'll pick a good talent with as little speech problems as possible, and the director will be present at the sessions.

Can you give me an average timeframe for a, say, 200 pages book?
What is the ratio between the number of pages, audiobook duration, recording time and editing/mastering time?

Thanks!

PS there's an interesting old thread here, but I didn't find answers I'm looking for....

[Thomas W. Bethe]

I have only done two of these types of projects but my experience is that you should figure more time than you think it will take. All kinds of things can come into the equation. Everything from the talent getting sick to the talent having a coughing or sneezing fit. The one project I did was with multiple readers doing multiple stories. The sessions went mostly as planned with some notable exceptions like when the the talent started having hiccups and could not stop for 15 minutes Or the talent came in with a very bad head cold and after about 20 minutes we had to stop the session and had to reschedule. It took him about two weeks to get his "normal" voice back. The other project was one reader doing the entire project and mostly it went as planned until the talent got laryngitis and we had to stop for over a week.

Most people who are professional readers know how to get around most illnesses but...they sometimes have health problems that can delay any schedule.

FWIW and YMMV

[renec]

we've recorded a few books for Random House.

George W Bush recorded his book in about 2 and half 6-7 hour days, although the producer tells me the audio version is pretty heavily abridged from the print version.

Laura recorded hers in 4.

another author did his in 2.

These are nonfiction works read by the authors though, so a work of fiction read by an actor may run slower. Also, we did not edit the recordings - we just sent raw tracks off to the publisher for editing.

I'd advise to keep the mic at about 1.5 to 2x the distance that you usually use for tight vos so that your talent has some latitude to move his head a few inches without it being audible.

another thing: either be listening or have someone listening on cans. GL!

[Bill@AudioVision]

For a good reader, we usually plan on about 25 pages an hour. A page is full width, 12 point, double spaced. We allow 3 hours per finished hour to record a basic, single voice book. We punch edit, so other than a cleanup pass, we are pretty much done. Mixing and mastering varies because some books want music bridges and maybe SFX, others none. Multi-voice dramatic material can run up to 6-10 hours/finished hour.
Again, this is assuming a good reader. Most talent is happy with a 3 hour morning block with 10 minute breaks every hour, followed by at least 1 1/2 hour lunch break. Afternoon block is usually less, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. We find that this helps keep energy consistent.

[cubivore]

with a good professional voice actor you should get 3-4 minutes a page. so 200pages = 10 hours recording. usually when it's an author reading, they either 1) know the book really well so there are less mistakes and it's not much longer than pro VA, or 2) the author is not a pro VA and has poor vocal technique and requires many retakes or editing therefore defeating your latter advantage.

editing phase is usually 3-6x the recorded amount if professionally edited.

mastering is maybe 1.5x final edited package runtime.

a 200pg book is probably 3.3 cds.

[danijel]

Thanks guys, invaluable info! And punch recording all the way! Leave no prisoners!