Something a little different...

[avevale_intelligencer]

Background Music - a story!

About seventeen minutes long, so probably not worksafe in that sense.

First time recording this kind of thing since schooldays, so feedback very welcome.

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Preface: ah, it's a good thing I 'hibernate' the computer instead of rebooting it, I actually started this (well, almost all of it) when I listened to it originally. I've tidied it up (speelinge erors and such) and added the technical details (specifically, the timings) which I meant to fit in before. Thanks for reminding me to find the window I'd opened for it...

Content: You have a way with voices. OK, only one (apart from your normal one) on this, but I'd like to hear more. I've been interested since you first mentioned that you were reading aloud to the Countess. I like it, and it's an interesting story told in an interesting way. The 'twist' at the end reminds me of something, and I'll track it down eventually.

I didn't find the plot hole though, and that is probably because of my next point. Or possibly because I'm pretty bad at spotting plot holes.

It's a long time since I've listened to "audio books", and I've re-found why (apart from my tendency to filter out audio if I'm doing something like working or driving, which in this case I wasn't, but that makes them not useful to me unless I am actually doing nothing else at all at all). I don't take much in when listening to voice, and I've just realised why. When I read, I actually reread, even something new, I read each paragraph several times, or at least bits of it, it's non-linear on a small scale. I backtract to catch bits which I know I missed. It's fast so I don't generally notice it. When I'm listening, though, I can't backtrack, or not easily or smoothly, and so things get lost because the new information is coming faster than I can store it. In interactive speech that's not so bad, because a speaker will generally pause (and one-to-one I can ask for a repetition), and I also get visual cues (but the 9:30 company meeting at work I lose most of it, again because I can't see them or control the pace or ask for a 'replay'). And with music I listen to the same thing over and over again (it used to drive my mother mad) to get the details.

For some reason the last part stuck more. Possibly because by then I had got more of the 'pattern' so it needed less processing, or possibly I'd adjusted more to the format by then. That probably happens with books as well, I think.

Technical:

The break between the first part and second (where he gets carried away listening to the music, around 02:10) jars, I found. It's too abrupt and sounds almost as though it has stopped (indeed, I checked the file and almost got round to pausing it and investigating what had gone wrong). Some background noise, even low level hiss (it is supposed to be on tape) would, I think, have covered that.

At 10:25 there is a sudden quality difference (it seems to me as though some of the bass has disappeared, and sounds 'boxy'), with no in-context explanation (he didn't say that he'd changed room or something). There's a slight click at that point, I suspect that this was two takes and you had different settings.

So yes, I enjoyed it, but I'm not the target audience I'm afraid.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Thank you for listening anyway. :)

I tried letting the Sibelius run on and "turning it down" at the appropriate point, but it was still intrusive, and of course I have no music to use for the second part.

I think what happened at 10:25 was that a certain cat leapt on to the keyboard and knocked the microphone over. Starting again after I'd put everything back probably accounts for the change.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I think I might have found the music more distracting if it had run on. As it was, I actally had to go back and listen to find out where it did disappear (rather ironic, in view of the sentiments being expressed at that point). Yes, it could have used some for the second part, perhaps you should write it *g*. I think that the way you faded it was very good, it was there but then faded out once I'd recognised its presence and didn't need it any more (much the way a playwright wil often use a dialect or language at first to setup a character and then reduce it once it's been established).

I do love the voice, the suggestion of a Russian (or similar) bass, and I would love to hear your reading to the Countess sometime with the different voices. Preferably 'live', because then I could get the visual cues (which I use a lot when people are speaking normally; I don't "lip-read" but I do use it for synchronisation, which is why I get very upset when TV or video is out of sync by more than a few 10s of milliseconds, I've been known to rip video to disk and put it through a video editor to get rid of as little as 50ms error).

I would also love to hear you reading something like the Austin (which I now know, and so would expect to have less trouble following) with the character voices. (OK, so I know our Soren, but not how the Soren in the books sounds nor any of the others.) Or maybe Two Magicians.