Divide your files into chapters. Make a file containing introduction, dedications, prologue etc. and make this your first file.

The files must be named [Title of book] [Number of the file].

Excample:

Title of book 001
Title of book 002

Or:

Title of book 001 Intro
Title of book 002 Dedication

Make sure files are named correctly and in correct order when you deliver an assignment.

Keep the fixed distance to the microphone, around 10-15 cm, as approved by Swann Studio. Make sure you do not move back and forth during a narration. A few centimeters back and forth will make a difference in the sound levels and will also affect the perceived engagement of your narration.

If you are sitting TOO FAR from the microphone, there will be more echo in the audio, and the presence of your voice will be impacted.

If you are sitting TOO CLOSE to the microphone, unwanted mouth noises like e.g., smacking, or amplified breathing will be heard in the audio. Also, the narration will be too loud and hence a higher risk of audio getting distorted.

The microphone is very sensitive to any sounds coming from your surroundings. It will pick up any sound generated in the room – not only your voice. Therefore be aware of tapping on the iPad, change of chair positioning, mouth clicking/smacking and sounds from air condition/ventilators/pipes/streets.

When you want to stop reading, make sure you keep a couple of seconds pause (completely silent, no breathing) before you push the stop button. This is important to avoid clicks, double breathings, sighs, or other sound disturbances.

When you continue to read on, you now have a completely quiet place to punch in. Rewind, find the correct sentence, listen to the playback, and wait for the last word (do not chop the word) then press record, now you overwrite, and you can hold the pause as you want and read according to the flow.

A retake is needed when you JUST made a mistake while narrating. If you assume that you just did a mistake; you must stop and correct this right away. A mistake could for example be a faulty word, faulty pronunciation, disturbing background noise etc.

Before making the retake always rewind, playback and locate the mistake. When you make the retake, it is important to go back to a period sign of a previous sentence. Never start a retake after a comma sign, but always re-record a full sentence.

To make a retake, rewind and listen to the last correct sentence. While still in playback mode, now press record directly after the full stop of the correct sentence.

If you discover a mistake further back in your narrated material, don’t try to overwrite the mistake in the middle of a recorded file. You need to record the corrections and save them in a new file called:

“[title of book] p. [number] correction”.

When recording the corrections, record them all and seperate them by long pauses.

If the book is proofread and corrections are needed, same method applies, this time however save the file as [Title of book] [corrections]

If you experience technical issues during a narration, or something feels different in the sound picture – please stop the narration and contact us.

Please send an e-mail to audiobook@swann-studio.com.

The e-mail should only contain a subject with the title of the book and your name. After sending the e-mail, we will send you the total play time of the book, which will be the base of your invoice.