Pumped From Using the Microphone.
Oct. 18th, 2006 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseMason doesn’t travel well.
One set of grandparents now lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, which is about a five plus hour drive for us from LaCrosse, Wisconsin, (where his other grandparents live and we overnight.) Part of the problem is that he’s three years old and he can’t yet read. (I know, what a slacker!) Anyway, Shawn had a very clever idea. How about we buy him a child MP3 player and load up some of his favorite stories?
It works like a charm.
Beatrix Potter (of Peter Rabbit fame and one of Mason’s favorites) is in the public domain, and so we were able to download nearly all of her stories.
Mason loves this. He’s fallen asleep to “Mr. Tod,” and now corrects our pronunciation of some words (the readers are often British.) Being a clever young man, however, he noticed that one Potter story "Pig Robinson" is NOT part of the LibraVox library. This caused many tears.
The solution? Get a free software that converts sound to MP3.
We started practicing on some of his other stories (some, ehm, that might still have copyright so I shan't mention them by name), and we've been having a righteous BLAST recording chapters from favorite books.
In fact, last night, I had such a poopy day (financial woes, which contributed to a poor performance teaching). But when I came home, Shawn had installed our new software and coaxed me into trying it out. I read a few chapters and suddenly I was giddy. I finally understand why people do podcasts. It’s a hoot and a half, and it’s so easy. For me, it combines the fun parts of theater without the annoying directors and audience. I mean, I know Mason will eventually become the audience, but when I’m recording I’m alone in a room, reading to myself, so I can be as silly as I want to be. Much, much fun.
In fact, I had so much fun I was thinking that I might branch out. I might record the teaser for the next Tate Hallaway book and put it up on her web site. I might record some AngeLINK stuff and have a “commentary” track. There are endless possibilities, and it’s free.
Wheee.
One set of grandparents now lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, which is about a five plus hour drive for us from LaCrosse, Wisconsin, (where his other grandparents live and we overnight.) Part of the problem is that he’s three years old and he can’t yet read. (I know, what a slacker!) Anyway, Shawn had a very clever idea. How about we buy him a child MP3 player and load up some of his favorite stories?
It works like a charm.
Beatrix Potter (of Peter Rabbit fame and one of Mason’s favorites) is in the public domain, and so we were able to download nearly all of her stories.
Mason loves this. He’s fallen asleep to “Mr. Tod,” and now corrects our pronunciation of some words (the readers are often British.) Being a clever young man, however, he noticed that one Potter story "Pig Robinson" is NOT part of the LibraVox library. This caused many tears.
The solution? Get a free software that converts sound to MP3.
We started practicing on some of his other stories (some, ehm, that might still have copyright so I shan't mention them by name), and we've been having a righteous BLAST recording chapters from favorite books.
In fact, last night, I had such a poopy day (financial woes, which contributed to a poor performance teaching). But when I came home, Shawn had installed our new software and coaxed me into trying it out. I read a few chapters and suddenly I was giddy. I finally understand why people do podcasts. It’s a hoot and a half, and it’s so easy. For me, it combines the fun parts of theater without the annoying directors and audience. I mean, I know Mason will eventually become the audience, but when I’m recording I’m alone in a room, reading to myself, so I can be as silly as I want to be. Much, much fun.
In fact, I had so much fun I was thinking that I might branch out. I might record the teaser for the next Tate Hallaway book and put it up on her web site. I might record some AngeLINK stuff and have a “commentary” track. There are endless possibilities, and it’s free.
Wheee.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 05:09 pm (UTC)Can you tell I was raised by an archivist? I feel it shows through.
For the non-archival purposes, like marketing and book-related stuff, I think it's great. I've started listening to podcasts myself while driving long distances (Chicago to Hudson for instance), and they're perfect for it. I bet your publishers would be pleased, too.
(One of my most treasured sets of mp3s is of William Gibson reading Neuromancer, and that'll be great for driving as well. Hearing how the author pronounces things, what they emphasize... it's great. I don't know what your contracts say about books-on-"tape" but that's always an idea as well.)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-19 05:44 pm (UTC)http://literalsystems.org/abooks/index.php
which is a similar site, but not as big as Librivox.
Another terrific place is:
http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/
The title is a bit misleading. Yes, all the audiobooks are free, but the free versions are at 8/kbs which is pretty unlistenable quality. But you can buy the better quality recordings for a few bucks a book. Or you can plunk down $100 for a year's subscription and you can download EVERYTHING they have, which runs to several thousand books.
Finally, don't forget good old Project Gutenburg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Go to the catalog and click on "human read books" and check it out. I've listened to a lot of the Sherlock Holmes stuff they have there and you might like the Robert Sheckley story that is there. HOw much stuff for Mason's age group isn't clear to me.
Hope you have fun with this, I sure do.
jpj