Talking Book

Over the past few weeks, I've been recording The Iron Bodkin for the Talking Book Collection of the Idaho Commission for Libraries.  The TBC is a program where books about Idaho or by Idaho authors are recorded, in audio form, for use by anyone with sight impairments or physical limitations that might hinder their ability to read books in print form.  It's been a really neat experience.  I'd never been in a recording studio before, so today I snapped some photos. 

This is the recording studio.  There are two identical studios in this room and they can be used at the same time.

This is the sound technician's side.  Everything there (these days) is done digitally, which allows them to stop and start with ease.  That's nice for when the reader makes a mistake or coughs or if her stomach growls because she forgot to eat breakfast. 

This is the reader's booth.  It's totally sound-proof and has it's own super quiet ventilation system.  That's so the readers don't die of heat stroke or run out of oxygen because that would really suck.

See how thick the door is?  It keeps out all outside noise, but I have to be really careful about inside noise, like turning the pages, shifting in my chair or accidentally kicking the table.  If anything like that happens, we have to go back and re-record whatever I was reading at the time.

And this is what it looks like inside the booth.  There's the microphone with a circle of screen over it, which cuts down on S's and harsh consanant sounds, like Ppp and Ttt.  The headphones are connected to the sound tech so they can stop you if you've made a mistake.  The headphones also play your voice back to you as you read, so you can hear yourself.  The paper on the (towel-covered) table lists the standard announcements to be made at the beging and end of each segment. 

This is the wall of projects currently underway for the Talking Book Project.  Readers come in to record once or twice a week for an hour or two.  After the recording is made, it's reviewed by...well, reviewers.  They listen and read along with the book, making sure it's been recorded exactly as it's written.  They also make notes of parts that have stray sounds or are unintelligible.  Those areas are marked for correction, which the reader will come back to re-record at a later date. 

There's my box on the left.  We're about fifteen pages from the end of The Iron Bodkin.  After that, the reveiwer will finish up and we'll start working on corrections.  The process takes several months, typically.  Most of the people who create these recordings (the readers, the technicians and the reviewers) are volunteers.  They donate their time so the 40,000 people in Idaho who don't have the ability to read print books will still have access to literature.  I think that's pretty awesome.