Story of a Pinchhitter (Podbang memories)
I will admit I was a procrastinating pinchhitter. Possibly one of the worst combinations. I was given my assignment at the beginning of November, and spent about a week figuring out what fic to pod - which wouldn't have happened if not for cathexys and general-jinjur. Thank you!
Most of November rolled by, and the fic remained unrecorded - there was always the thought somewhere in the back of my mind that there would magically be regular quiet time to record the thing. Boy was I wrong.
The last week of November found this fandomer frantically recording to meet the December 1st deadline. To all those out there who defaulted, please know I definitely understand. The time commitment, the focus.
Another thank you is to friendshipper for the super prompt reply to my fic request and the enthusiastic response. A part of podficcing that is always nerve warcking is wondering if the author will give you premission!
Some Lessons Learned (or, Things That Went Wrong)
Back up, back up, back up.
I can't stress how important that is. A power outage at one point ate two hours of my work. Then Audacity-related crashes a) eats edits and b) mangles previously recorded and/or edited files. Which means I had to re-re-record multiples times. Separating your podfic into sections would be very beneficial, rather than one hours-long file.
Take notes
Notes about recording info, I mean. Make sure you know how far away your mic is from you, any input fiddling you may have done, where you left off in the fic, etc. I record with a tiny clip-on USB mic that came with a webcam I bought a year or so back. It doesn't have any sort of stand, though, so what I ended up doing with it was clipping the excess wire directly adjacent to the mic in an unused book, and propping that up in front of me. Then used a little bit of masking tape to mark where the book's edges were, so when I went back to record the next time, it'd be in the same position.
On a sort of random tangent, I used a tissue to cover my mic. It did help block out some of the background noise/hissing, but not all. I'm sure someone with a better mic, who doesn't live near a main road that has fire trucks going by every weekend because some idiot university students (disclaimer: I'm a uni student too!) decide to set off the residence alarms would have a better chance at a couple more hours of quiet recording time. Using the 'Remove Noise' Audacity has just creates this uncomfortable, very dead silence, so it's best to do what you can while recording.
Time is fleeting
Procrastination is a demon. It's not enough just to say "Okay! Stop reading about the adorkable things Jared Padalecki does and get to work!", I do realize. But podficcing does consume time by the bucketfuls. I'm in awe of everyone who recorded so many hours for Podbang. Kudos to you all! I can't imagine how many hours you must have spent editing.
A final word of caution: Do. Not. Pod. During. Exam time. *nod* That just makes it hell while trying to cram for multiple exams and carve out the time to re-re-record things your laptop eats and edit it all.
Timing
Many people (me definitely included) often rush the reading. I do realize that sometimes it's hard to know when you are speaking fast. A thorough listen afterwards should help - be prepared to leave time for re-recording things! Apologies ahead of time if you're listening and find that I've just slurred one hell of a long sentence all together. It was late. And hot under my fleece-blanket cave.
Mistakes
Just a word on making mistakes while recording - the common stumbling, slurring, sneezing, falling off the chair. Okay, so maybe the last one isn't quite so common for everyone. Take a deep breath! Grab a long drink of water! I find that a lot of my mistakes happen when my mouth is completely dry and my tongue's glued to the roof of my mouth. Having a jug of water nearby definitely helps. Hit the pause button in Audacity to take a break and then be able to pick up right where you left off again. It saves some editing time to not have to listen to yourself reading a line fifty times over again before finally hitting the right one.
There are a few things I wish I had planned more time/done better: the editing could have used more work. I remember being sleep deprived the night of my last exam crunching out the last chunk of the fic. Some re-recording of the re-re-recording would have been nice just to iron out some of the kinks. Overall, it was a bit rusty. I'd lost their voices in my head, and was running low on time to marathon some episodes to hear them again. That may just be a hint to pod more often.
Listening to everyone's voices in podfic is the reason why I love podfic. I love hearing different accents, the different ways readers put their spin on the fic. Podbang was awesome, and as many times as I wanted to just throw my towel in, I would do Podbang all again in a heartbeat. Perhaps as a full-time participant next year 'round.
To the mods, you guys are amazing. I cringe to think of how stressed it must have gotten by the end, plus my inability to follow deadlines! Thanks for creating this wonderful opportunity for everyone to share.
ETA: Yes, I am late to the party.
Most of November rolled by, and the fic remained unrecorded - there was always the thought somewhere in the back of my mind that there would magically be regular quiet time to record the thing. Boy was I wrong.
The last week of November found this fandomer frantically recording to meet the December 1st deadline. To all those out there who defaulted, please know I definitely understand. The time commitment, the focus.
Another thank you is to friendshipper for the super prompt reply to my fic request and the enthusiastic response. A part of podficcing that is always nerve warcking is wondering if the author will give you premission!
Some Lessons Learned (or, Things That Went Wrong)
Back up, back up, back up.
I can't stress how important that is. A power outage at one point ate two hours of my work. Then Audacity-related crashes a) eats edits and b) mangles previously recorded and/or edited files. Which means I had to re-re-record multiples times. Separating your podfic into sections would be very beneficial, rather than one hours-long file.
Take notes
Notes about recording info, I mean. Make sure you know how far away your mic is from you, any input fiddling you may have done, where you left off in the fic, etc. I record with a tiny clip-on USB mic that came with a webcam I bought a year or so back. It doesn't have any sort of stand, though, so what I ended up doing with it was clipping the excess wire directly adjacent to the mic in an unused book, and propping that up in front of me. Then used a little bit of masking tape to mark where the book's edges were, so when I went back to record the next time, it'd be in the same position.
On a sort of random tangent, I used a tissue to cover my mic. It did help block out some of the background noise/hissing, but not all. I'm sure someone with a better mic, who doesn't live near a main road that has fire trucks going by every weekend because some idiot university students (disclaimer: I'm a uni student too!) decide to set off the residence alarms would have a better chance at a couple more hours of quiet recording time. Using the 'Remove Noise' Audacity has just creates this uncomfortable, very dead silence, so it's best to do what you can while recording.
Time is fleeting
Procrastination is a demon. It's not enough just to say "Okay! Stop reading about the adorkable things Jared Padalecki does and get to work!", I do realize. But podficcing does consume time by the bucketfuls. I'm in awe of everyone who recorded so many hours for Podbang. Kudos to you all! I can't imagine how many hours you must have spent editing.
A final word of caution: Do. Not. Pod. During. Exam time. *nod* That just makes it hell while trying to cram for multiple exams and carve out the time to re-re-record things your laptop eats and edit it all.
Timing
Many people (me definitely included) often rush the reading. I do realize that sometimes it's hard to know when you are speaking fast. A thorough listen afterwards should help - be prepared to leave time for re-recording things! Apologies ahead of time if you're listening and find that I've just slurred one hell of a long sentence all together. It was late. And hot under my fleece-blanket cave.
Mistakes
Just a word on making mistakes while recording - the common stumbling, slurring, sneezing, falling off the chair. Okay, so maybe the last one isn't quite so common for everyone. Take a deep breath! Grab a long drink of water! I find that a lot of my mistakes happen when my mouth is completely dry and my tongue's glued to the roof of my mouth. Having a jug of water nearby definitely helps. Hit the pause button in Audacity to take a break and then be able to pick up right where you left off again. It saves some editing time to not have to listen to yourself reading a line fifty times over again before finally hitting the right one.
There are a few things I wish I had planned more time/done better: the editing could have used more work. I remember being sleep deprived the night of my last exam crunching out the last chunk of the fic. Some re-recording of the re-re-recording would have been nice just to iron out some of the kinks. Overall, it was a bit rusty. I'd lost their voices in my head, and was running low on time to marathon some episodes to hear them again. That may just be a hint to pod more often.
Listening to everyone's voices in podfic is the reason why I love podfic. I love hearing different accents, the different ways readers put their spin on the fic. Podbang was awesome, and as many times as I wanted to just throw my towel in, I would do Podbang all again in a heartbeat. Perhaps as a full-time participant next year 'round.
To the mods, you guys are amazing. I cringe to think of how stressed it must have gotten by the end, plus my inability to follow deadlines! Thanks for creating this wonderful opportunity for everyone to share.
ETA: Yes, I am late to the party.