My recording process..

Hello again! I want to share a bit about my working process today with this blog. I’ve been working on a fiction novel the past week which I finished yesterday. I quite enjoyed it. Even though I specialize in health and wellness..I still get some offers of fiction and if the book seems enjoyable and good then I take it. This last one was a suspense mystery.

So my process.. After I read the script and get a feel for the tone of the book or as in this case, the characters, the plot and their character arcs, I send some final questions and suggestions to the writer regarding what they want from the different characters like tone, pace etc or whether they want me to use my own intuition. My current author said he trusted me to use my own ideas and after sending him one chapter to confirm he was happy with the tone, pace and main character..I started recording.

I usually start around midday after dropping my oldest toddler off at kindergarten, going to the gym and having brunch. I record in my little professional home studio downstairs ..recording around 20 minutes at a time after which I need to take a 10 minute break to rest my voice and recover my stamina. If I don’t do this then my voice changes and loses the smoothness, which is my brand really haha! People don’t realize how much physical endurance it takes to record. You need to control your breathing, sit with a straight spine and breath from your belly. You also need to sit absolutely still to avoid making extra swishing sounds of movement or bumps or moving the mic chord etc. Then you need to consider pace, tone, emotion and try to channel what the author is trying to communicate. Also how they would say it in a natural and authentic way instead of ‘reading’..because the two are actually very different. You need to ignore the grammar or as we like to phrase it ‘ set the writer free from the confines of grammar’. Haha you actually burn so many calories recording it’s incredible. I also switch off the air con or fan to cut any extra sounds out and strip down my clothes to the bare minimum to avoid overheating in this Thai weather. After taking a break, another important thing to know is to carry on with the same tone and emotion that I ended with to continue with the flow. 

After recording about an hour of Finished Product, which takes about 2 hours in total but in real-time including resting breaks around 3-4 hours…I send it to my Editor who masters and edits the audio for me. I used to do this myself but due to it taking too long and my time to record mor books being lost, I found it took a lot of pressure off outsourcing the work. Her name is Louis and she’s is a local Thai woman that also lives on our island. She speaks fluent English and is extremely capable in many things and has 3 jobs just like myself. Editing and mastering sound being one of them. Another is being the owner of a bed and breakfast close to the beach called ‘the Hut’ which is well known and loved on the island. 

If you feel I’m somebody you can work with please feel free to contact me via the contact form below.

On a different note, I’m super excited because tomorrow morning I’ll be hosting my weekly little conscious dance event at my house. This entails a few of us dancing absolutely sober for an hour or two, no watching the others dance or alcohol allowed. No steps, no judgements..only moving your body the way you want and getting your sweat on!! Usually this means jumping around like a monkey for me haha! I usually include a meditation at the end and we eat some fruit together which everybody brings. Anyway thanks for reading. Time for a dip in the sea….Till next time!