Would There Ever Be a Possibility...?

[Nogrod]

I got Matthew's clip on Boromir.

You act well but the recording is pretty terrible...

I'd give you (all) two pieces of advice.

1. Don't record your voice too loud so that the voice breaks down. Adjust the input in a way that the recording levels stay in the middle or little above it. Whatever the recording device it normally goes red when the input volume is too high. If the voice breaks down already in the recording session there's no way to mend it afterwards. One shouldn't record on too low levels either as then all the background noises come to the fore: so try to find the levels just below the "red zone" as it gives the optimal quality of sound.

2. Get away from your computer, as far as is possible - or at least build some kind of a sound-wall between the microphone and the central unit of your PC. It's no problem if you record from far away of the PC and there's some empty track before your recording starts (if you have to move yourselves to the place where you will make the recording after pushing the rec-button) as that can be always cut away. When you record by your computer the humming of the cooler-system of your PC will come through to the recording and it sounds really nasty indeed - like you'd be talking on the deck of an old-fashioned steam-boat . My friend who's a professional told me there's no solution for that as the pitch of the noise the computer has is low enough to be on the same wavelengths as the speech so cutting those will also cut out important lower tones from the voice.


I'll send a few clips to anyone who sends me their e-mail addresses. There will be two versions of Matthew as Boromir: one where I have tried to downplay the background humming as well as I could and one where I have tried to make his tone as Boromirish I could (which ended up sounding Boromir being on board of a steam-riverboat as heightening the lower frequencies to make the tone more forceful and low ends up also heightening the background humming of the computer...). Then there is one where I play Gimli and it has been done near the computer (and you can hear the humming) and on the other I play Bilbo a few meters away from the PC (and you can't hear the humming any more).

Btw. Those parts I've made myself you should not judge by the acting merits as they are basically just read-throughs with a lots of mistakes as my main focus was on finding the fitting tone to my speech as those characters - both acting-wise and mixing-wise. And I'm in no way trying to steal those characters to myself. I just tried them.


Speaking of audiosoftware once more. You Nerwen should especially listen to this - and why not the others who have not heard it yet (use headphones if you can). For I just remembered that I do have a Myspace account where there is my version of the Song of Boromir (a Finnish composition to the local theatrical version of the book which I have arranged myself and turned back to the original lyrics; it's all done in my room eg. I played all the instruments and made the vocals there). From it you can hear what I can do with my sofware; the possibilities and the limits as well - basically the interesting stuff from this point of view is in the end of the song as it's one that grows little by little. But I think we should aim for that kind of sound-quality (and it's an mp3 and not an audio file!).

Just keep on sending me your emails and audio clips! We'll overcome the technical obstacles!

[Nogrod]

Crashlanding!

I tried to send a few samples to Matthew via gmail and after trying to send it long and hard the program said that sending of it failed because it went over the 20 MB limit... and only those short clips I tried to send took 29 MB (Matthew's originals took about 3MB...) So let's take a different approach then.

I sent it to both Matthew and Gwath as mp3's. I had problems in sending things to Myspace as well and it's getting late. That's a stupid site indeed. I managed to send my song there when I joined the site (just to do that) a long time ago but now it seems practically impossible to add anything to my account there if it's not a video or a pic...

So anyhow I'm afraid we need to go on compressing the files - at least those I will send you as they include lots of mixing stuff and thence are heavier to load.

Let's first try with everyone sending me basic audiofiles if they're of reasonable size. I will send mp3's back to your mail after I have meddled with them.

We might also try sending them to Nerwen to see whether her software would bring better results.

PS. Anyone wishing to hear those first trials just send me your email address by a PM (this first trial is something like 2½ MB as an mp3 file).

[McCaber]

If we are still talking about setting a musical background, I have several guitars and some software which should be up to the task.

From my (somewhat limited) experience, acoustic guitar and keyboard can work very well together.

[Gwathagor]

Nogrod, I thought you were terrific as both Gimli and Bilbo. Thanks for sending those.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Gwathagor

Nogrod, I thought you were terrific as both Gimli and Bilbo.

Thanks. Although, as I said somewhere before, they were only kind of sound-checks. And my Gimli has a bit too low voice indeed. I mean how will we make the Balrog or the Ringwraiths if already a dwarf is speaking that low?

* Although some general discussion about the scope of this effort should be done as well eg. how much do we want to do this? It's possible to make a chapter or two even if it's task indeed but what's the reasonable limit? The whole book? I read it as a bedtimestory to Lommy and Greenie when they were young and it took something like 9 months reading about an hour or at least half every night. So what's the first goal? A whole chapter? Which one? *


I can promise to make those low-baddies if no-one else comes forwards with a lower voice (in my choir I'm a tenor!!!). I can drink a bottle of whiskey the night before and record the tracks first thing in the morning - or when I have a really sore throat...

[Nogrod]

I'm going to sleep and stop this flood-posting right away.

But how is it?

If we're planning on background music should we then also think about some sound-effects? Some sound-effects are easy to make at home but others may require some creativity and effort.

I've tried a few, like a sword-battle going on around and steps moving from left to right and they seem to work - at least in a way. Others might be experimented. I would indeed be interested in experimenting with them as that is something I have always loved: the soundscapes. But it will be a task.

And making music for even a chapter of narration is not a small feat either.

[MatthewM]

Nogrod- thank you for being involved with this! You definitely are a great asset. As far as the scope of things- should we try a chapter first to see how it all goes? Or a certain Book (Book I, Book II, etc.)? I would like to do a part from Book II but we'll see how it goes.