Because Sometimes Only Hearing is Believing
I believe good sound FX are always in season and for those interested I’ll be sharing some on my site, while I work through projects as an audiobook narrator.
Many times my FX are drawn from a marvelous website called Freesound.org. I cut, slice and alter them using effects found in the Audacity tool (also free to download and use). Sometimes I create the sound myself, using my voice or things to hand.
Featured Sound: Stone Statues
In Harbingers of Hope, the adventurers are in a strange, glass-walled dungeon of sorts known as the Hopeward. In a bisected chamber stand two ten-foot tall marble statues of armored warriors, one white and one black. And just as you would expect, when the glass-doors open to admit them, the statues move to attack. Here’s the sound:
How It Sounded
I built most of the sound from two FX on Freesound:
- “Ertfelda” created hidden wall opening (#243699)
- “Jamesrodavidson” created dinosaur footsteps (#192365)
I added some Distortion and lowered the pitch a step.
How It Looks
Here’s a quick attempt at him (the black one, natch), from another wonderful site where you can design and print out your own figurines, called Hero Forge:
So now you know what a pile of carved marble sounds like when it’s coming to make you a part of the cavern floor. Harbingers of Hope will be out in audiobook format this fall.
Another fabulous sound effect! It’s one of the things I really love about you narrating my novels. They just pop out and bring us halfway to fully dramatized readings. (You give lots of drama, but you’re still a one man show!) I really don’t understand why the big publishing companies aren’t doing this. It adds so much to a book!
Thanks so much Gil, that means a lot and especially because you were a big part of my support system when I was just starting out. As for FX in the narration, I will say it’s VERY time-consuming: I’m averaging only about a half-hour of finished audio a day on my current project.
Also some listeners- maybe one in five, or maybe only one in ten- really don’t seem to like having FX. Distracting is the negative comment I see most often. I try to signal that this product is different right at the start of the book whenever I can, by using something like breeze or rain.
I think the new sound is awesome, Will. Personally, I love sound effects in audiobooks. As long as they don’t drown out the narration they totally enhance the experience IMO. And you do a great job balancing the effects. Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much Chris. That’s the job, maybe the art of it I think- the tale is always about the author’s words first.