The Echo Of One Hand Clappinghttp://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/en-US2010-03-10T02:18:00ZSquarespace Site Server v5.9.2 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Public Allen Poehttp://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/2010/2/15/public-allen-poe.htmlSusan2010-02-16T02:36:02Z About once a month, maybe once a week, yet another production of something by Edgar Allen Poe is released.  Sometimes it's a straight read by a name actor issued by a name publisher.  Sometimes the recording is done by a first-time-out community theater group.  Sometimes there's a little music and a few sound effects involved.  Always the performances sound slightly spooky.

Spooky, because people keep cranking out the same five or six major Poe pieces (The Tell-Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Raven to name a few) year after year after year apparently completely unaware that anybody else has ever read and recorded the things.  Spookier still, because the performances all seem to be uniformly based on a vintage Vincent Price performance you can now catch on You-tube.

And most spookiest of all -- the stories continue to sound really good.  They are concise, entertaining and still twisted in a very original nineteenth century American kind of way.  Edgar Allen Poe was a flat-out great writer.

However, I think the major reason Poe is so popular in the audiobook industry is because he's in the public domain.  Poor old Poe is dead, has apparently been that way for some time and; therefore, his works are no longer copyrighted and he can't protect himself.  One doesn't have to seek permission to use his works. 

All this freedom-free to use, to exploit, to profit seems like a win-win proposition.  Many Poe-like public domain horrors such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and Jane Eyre are just what the producer ordered-they have immediate name recognition, they are almost part of our psyches and again-the rights are free. 

So, what am I complaining about?  From the independent audiobook writer/producer vantage point the public domain is tough to compete against.  If I write, produce and try to distribute an original piece and a perspective buyer goes on-line and sees my title and then sees The Tell-Tale Heart he or she is 90 percent of the time going to buy what they've heard of.  New writers have a hard enough time battling the likes of Stephen King without fighting his Uncle Edgar, as well.
All I'm saying is that I know every audiobook listener has a limited budget and can only buy so many audiobooks in a year.  Please, think about giving a title and an author you've never heard of a shot.  Give them your hard earned $9.99.  Help the little guy.  Besides, if you search around you can probably find an audio version of Poe to download for free.   
--
Brian Price
920 Creekside Lane
Plainfield, IN  46168
317/203-5044
check out:  http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com
our newest play "Jokes In Space" is just out
]]>Creating Realismhttp://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/2010/1/14/creating-realism.htmlSusan2010-01-15T00:13:21ZRealism, that's what I want.

When I'm working on a sound design for an audio drama or audio book my major goal is always to make the background ambiences and sounds effects sound real, sound like they are naturally part of the world of the story; and I want the story to sound like it's part of the world.

So, I was standing in my backyard the other day listening to the world, and unfortunately reality isn't nearly as interesting or arty as one might hope.  Chain saws.  What is it about Midwest suburbs, winter and chain saws that are almost ubiquitous?  There's just a lot of noise out there.  Jet planes flying overhead.  Heating and air condensers moaning and rumbling.  Trash trucks wheezing.  Even late at night the constant backdrop of traffic on the Interstate three miles away can just be barely heard over the barking dogs.  All this racket kind of wrecks the ambient effect of the outdoors or at least what one would want the outdoors to sound like.

So, what is the poor sound designer to do?

Award winning Skywalker Ranch sound designer, Randy Thom, has an excellent special features discussion about creating natural sounding backgrounds on the DVD version of CASTAWAY.  He explains that his original intent for the film was to travel to a South Pacific island and record what they heard, the waves, the trees in the breeze, the loneliness.  Instead when they got to the island they realized that all they could hear was not just the din of the surf, but the deafening unrelenting roar of the waves.  No matter where they recorded on the island all they got was a giant overwhelming crush of noise. 

So, Thom goes on with a marvelous explanation of what he had to do to give ambient "personality" to the each location on the island.  He and his crew painstakingly created different sounds for each place on the island:  Roaring waves out in the surf, gentling lapping water sounds on the beach, rustling tree leaves in the interior forest.  It ended up being a brilliant soundtrack, because it was more than real, it was ultra-real. 

A sound designer often has to build the story's reality by picking and choosing, by editing the world of sound.

However, sometimes you get lucky and you hear something perfect.  The snow had stopped falling.  The air was still.  Three vees of Canada Geese approached from the north honking away and as they came overhead it was so quiet I could hear their wings flapping. That's the sound and presence I want to hear in audio books.
 
--
Brian Price
920 Creekside Lane
Plainfield, IN  46168
317/203-5044
check out:  http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com
our newest play "Jokes In Space" is just out
]]>What Christmas Sounds Likehttp://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/2009/12/23/what-christmas-sounds-like.htmlSusan2009-12-23T18:08:06ZSound has so much to do with memory and memory has so much to do with Christmas.  We all have Christmas soundtracks in our heads, probably one from childhood and maybe a compilation greatest hits of sounds that evoke very personal memories about the holidays.

For a child I think the sounds of Christmas start with noises and voices talking downstairs when you're supposed to be asleep-the sounds of mystery.  Then the sound of Christmas becomes the sound of being allowed to stay up to watch The Grinch-the good one with Boris Karloff and Thurl Ravenscroft singing, "Šyou're a mean one, Mr. Grinch."  It's the sound of getting bored with a black and white version of the The Christmas Carol and just barely suffering through the Mr. Magoo version.

I don't think that those same old carols that play endlessly in every shopping mall are audio touchstones for kids.  Poor old Bing Crosby, et al, have just become part of the background din.  If anything I'd say more real memories are created by kids banging away on the piano practicing those songs.  That's the way you remember them or maybe how your parents really remember them.

Flash forward to being an older kid, a college kid.  Where Christmas memories are often sparked not just with the sounds of home but the sounds of trying to get home.  The sound of thumpy windshield wipers and a car heater that's blasting as hard as it can.  It's the sound of somebody's tires spinning at a flashing broken traffic light.  Trying to get home. 

The sounds of Christmas have a lot to with the sounds of transportation.  It used to be buses and trains, right?-The squeal of air brakes and the doors opening, hopping out into slush.  Buses don't go to all the places they used to and trains are what our parents took, but just hearing those sounds can be nostalgic.  Then there are airports--unintelligible announcements, babies crying and maybe one of those big floor buffers driving off down an empty glass enclosed corridor.  Not very holidayish, but they are the sounds of heading home.        

The sounds of telephones have a lot to do with Christmas.  Calling home to say you're stuck in a snow storm.  Busy signals.  Waiting for a call.  Hoping for a call.  Picking up the phone and it's Grandma and not your girlfriend.  Funny, even though we all have cell phones nowadays the sound of Christmas phones always have a Ma Bell ringer and a rotary dial.   

Yeah, Christmas soundtracks.  We've all got them.  Pipe organs playing in echoy churches.  Clocks ticking.  Snow falling in the woods.  Every sounds mean something to somebody, probably something quite specific. 

And now that I have my own family we have Mark the Moose.  A friend gave him to us although he didn't know where it came from.  We've never heard of Mark before or since.  Turns out Mark was a discontinued Avon product.  He's a stuffed animal and when you press his belly he sings a silly song.  Mark's become part of our Christmas tradition.  He goes:

    I'm Mark the Moose, I'm on the loose
    Spreading Christmas cheer,
      I wish you peace and happiness
  Throughout the coming year.

     I love to skate and decorate
    With Christmas lights aglow
     I'm Mark the Moose
      The very merriest moose you'll ever know.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Merry Christmas.
--
Brian Price
920 Creekside Lane
Plainfield, IN  46168
317/203-5044
check out:  http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com
our newest play "Jokes In Space" is just out
]]>The Sound of the First Yukhttp://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/2009/12/6/the-sound-of-the-first-yuk.htmlSusan2009-12-07T02:03:26Z I was just reading an article that says much of Alaska can get 45 minutes or less of sunlight a day in the dead of winter.  So, this article was recommending ways to stay "up" and be "positive" by avoiding depressing films and listening to soothing music.  I say all you have to do is listen to Native Alaskans and they'll chase the midnight blues away.

In August I was invited to Anchorage to help produce and edit Raven's Radio Hour for Native Voices At the Autry and Native American Public Telecommunications.  Rarely have I worked with such a talented group of professional singers, storytellers and actors.  They just made me smile and it was a joy to be around these folks for eleven days.

The show deftly mixed comic spoofs with traditional tales and juxtaposed their amazingly syncopated drumming with show tunes.  The script was smart and insightful and I'm sure after hearing Romeo and Juliet performed by a stuttering Raven and a gorgeous Eagle you'll never quite hear Shakespeare in the same light again . 

My favorite skit was called, The First Yuk - the creation legend of the Yup'ik people.  I remember there was a big discussion about what the first man should sound like.  We tried goofy accents and odd deliveries and finally realized the obvious-the First Yuk should sound like a guy from Alaska-way back in Alaska.  Because the sound of Alaska sounds like no other place on Earth.

Just recite the village names of Nunapichuak, Shishmaref, D'Loi Chet, Sivuuquq and Naparymuit.  These are the places the cast hailed from and these are sounds of words and imagines that inform their performances.
 
Raven's Radio Hour has just been released on PRX by Native American Public Telecommunications and I'm sure mostly Native radio stations and maybe a few outlying community radio stations will air the show.  That's too bad.  Raven should be played in New York and L.A. right along side Prairie Home Companion and the sports news.  So contact NAPT and get a copy.  It's that good and besides how else are you going to melt the winter blues away? 

THE ECHO OF ONE HAND CLAPPING
 Notes on Audio Publishing and Production
B y Brian Price

920 Creekside Lane
Plainfield, IN  46168
317/203-5044
check out:  http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com
our newest play "Jokes In Space" is just out



]]>Who Voices History Usually Owns the Bookhttp://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/2009/11/11/who-voices-history-usually-owns-the-book.htmlSusan2009-11-12T03:40:31Z  Who Voices History Usual Owns the Book
(part of my  Let's Make Sweeping Generalizations Series)

There's an old saying that says history is written by the winners.  I think that's also true in the audiobook industry.  History is voiced by the winners.  And when I say winners, I say it with an English accent. 

The more one listens to the classics, classic histories of ancient Greece and Rome and classic retellings of the classic myths, the more you'll realize that they are all told with English accents even though the British Isles were fifteen hundred miles and a couple of written languages away from the center of the action. 
Now, some of the explanation may be obvious.  One-English accents always sound learned and knowledgeable no matter what they are talking about; and two--the BBC adapts and produces many of these stories and they apparently live in England.  However, I think there is something stronger and more prevalent going on. 

At least since the early "sun never setting on the British Empire" nineteenth century when Elgin brought his marbles back from the Parthenon to the London Museum and Shelley eulogized "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone" in Ozymandias the British have romanticized the peoples and civilizations that had fallen (historically and culturally) before them.  They gave the classic heroes, both historic and imagined, the best voices they knew-their own.

But British writers and historians didn't just assigned their favorite British voices to their favorite ancient mythological characters.  They also threw into the mix their cultural values.  This is reflected in audiobooks by Odysseus having a nice manly upper class or at least a Hugh Grant sounding voice while something like the Cyclops is always going to have a lower class grumbly voice.  Comic characters usually get Cockney accents while the first mates that are going to get eaten in the next scene usually sound Irish.  

So, I guess what I'm saying (and to use a little audio terminology) is that when we listen to books about the classics we are often hearing them through British tinged delays, echoes and audio processing.  I'm not saying that it's good or bad.  I'm just saying it. 

I'm also saying that if the Ancient Greeks would've hung on and prevailed as the dominant culture up to the present, our histories would've been read by Anthony Quinn.
--
Brian Price
920 Creekside Lane
Plainfield, IN  46168
317/203-5044
check out:  http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com
our newest play "Jokes In Space" is just out

 

]]>The 900 Pound Tradition (Halloween Special)http://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/2009/10/27/the-900-pound-tradition-halloween-special.htmlSusan2009-10-28T00:00:11ZOctober 30, 1938.  Creatures from Mars have landed.  Grover's Mill, NJ waits for news.  And the world would never be the same.  Nor would audio entertainment.
  
In radio theater there is really only one giant representative icon, one show that everybody knows and everybody agrees-that's radio.  In its oneness it overshadows all other media traditions.  It's huge.  Television doesn't have just one defining show.  Film constantly argues about the top 100 favorites.  The Internet isn't defined by one shared experience.  However, whenever somebody asks me what I do and I tell him or her I produce audio or radio theater.  That somebody smiles and says, "Oh, the War of the Worlds.  I've heard of that."

The War of the Worlds stands alone.
Every October hundreds of radio stations across the globe re-broadcast or reenact the most successful media-savvy Halloween pranks of all time.  Seventy-one years ago Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater On the Air broadcast their "simulated" newscast of an invasion of the East Coast from Mars based on the H.G. Wells novel.  Names that were to become famous were involved-Welles of course, John Houseman produced, and Howard Koch (later to co-write Casablanca) wrote the script.

The show was performed in the deadpan news style of the day, pretended to interrupt an on-going program and took the listening public completely by surprise.  What was going on?  Radio station phone banks lit up all across the nation as listener called in with concern, anger and fear.  Was there really an invasion and later, how dare the media play with and fool an audience like that. 

In the blaring light of the 24/7 news cycle and the John Stewart Show, and like the urban myth quality of Woodstock or the Reagan Administration it's hard to truly measure who actually heard the initial 1938 broadcast and who just thinks they were around for the first War of the Worlds.  Depression-era, pre-World War II America was a very different time and place and had only had mass-broadcast media for about ten years.
War of the Worlds had it all-a good believable story, horror, suspense; however, there's a GOOD, BAD and the GREAT to War of the Worlds.  GOOD: A monument like this can never be repeated.  BAD:  People will keep trying to repeat it.  GREAT: Audio theater is an amazingly powerful, emotional, and complete way to tell a story.  It can accomplish almost anything.

 
So when War of the Worlds pops up on Halloween, listen to it again.  Let the horror and surprise soak in.  There's nothing like it.  War of the Worlds will always be the biggest monster in the room.

THE ECHO OF ONE HAND CLAPPING
 Notes on Audio Publishing and Production
By Brian Price - Great Northern Audio

]]>The Search for What Others Sayhttp://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/2009/10/9/the-search-for-what-others-say.htmlSusan2009-10-09T12:37:20Z You've heard me complain before about how little information audiobook publishers sometimes divulge about their products.  The descriptive blurbs on the packaging are the same descriptive blurbs used on Amazon's listings, which must have been copied from Audible's descriptions, which are the exact same blurbs written on the back of the packaging.  The lack of information goes full circle in its murkiness.  Sometimes you've got to wonder-do the publishers or distributors listen to any of their own books?

When I'm reviewing a title I always get curious.  I want to know what other books the author has written.  I'd like to know a little more about the narrator's acting career and what other works they've narrated.  I want to know what other people have said about the book.  The publishers seldom provide this kind of information, so I end up heading to the Internet and good old Wikipedia. 

Wikipedia sites about books and authors are often fan based.  In other words, the writers of these sites are happily sharing information about one their favorite subjects-the books they love.  So critically speaking, the sites might lean a little (or a lot) towards the positive side, but for plot and story summaries and the exact order of a 20-book fantasy series that spans a 30-year career Wikipedia is the place to go.

Trying to find out what critics think of a book is getting crazier and crazier on the Internet, because everybody's a critic and everybody has an opinion.  However, it can be entertaining.  I often find myself flipping through customer reviews of sites like Amazon, Audible or Netflix.  I'm a sucker for the five-star customer rating reviews.  

Most products often start out with a five star gushy review-the person loved the book so much because it changed their life when they were 15 years old. Not much help there.  I find that the really interesting, really worthwhile books often have reviews that cut across the boards--a slew of 5-star reviews, a few 4 and 3-star reviews and then a couple deadly one-star reviews that I always find illuminating.  The one-star reviews aren't going to take a boring book lying down; they almost died trying to suffer through the whole thing and they're going to tell you why.  The one star reviews show that the book had enough guts to not be for everybody.

What I know for sure is that when the customer reviewers can't agree on a book, there must be something worthwhile to talk about.

THE ECHO OF ONE HAND CLAPPING
 Notes on Audio Publishing and Production
By Brian Price - Great Northern Audio

 

]]>In Sickness and Health There's Audiobookshttp://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/2009/9/13/in-sickness-and-health-theres-audiobooks.htmlSusan2009-09-13T13:42:07Z Hi folks.  Sorry about being out of the loop for so long.  But here's the explanation.  A month ago I returned home from Alaska having worked as producer/editor for two weeks with six amazingly talented Native Alaskans on Raven's Radio Hour, a project of Native Voices At the Autry out of LA-this is one of the absolute coolest gigs I've even been a part of. 

So, I arrived back in sticky, gawmpy end-of-the-summer, rag-weedy Indiana and came down with one of the worst cases of the flu I've had.  I'm talking about hardly knowing who I was for the past three weeks.  Rib cage crushing coughs, sneezes, no sleep, a come and go temperature, blocked sinuses.  It doesn't seem fair.

And what saved my sanity through this episode?  You guessed it.  Good old books-on-tape.  All I could do for the past three weeks was lay on my back either watching or listening to something, anything.  I couldn't concentrate enough to read.  I tried daytime television-it made my brain hurt, heck my whole body hurt-after a couple mornings of TV the flu felt worse than ever.  I tuned into the radio, which was full of news and talk-too loud, too much shouting.

But, ah, audiobooks.  I plugged in my iPod (actually it's my daughter's back up iPod and I had explicit instructions not to mess things up) to my wife's little speaker bay and listened to everything I'm supposed to have reviewed by October.  I listened to a novel, to a couple wonderful plays, a biography and a history.  I even went back and listened to a couple old favorites.  It was just a thing. 

One thing I've always felt very strongly about is that if one is going to review an audiobook one should try to listen to every word.  You own that to the author and the narrator.  You've actually got to concentrate when you're critically listening.  Of course, with laying on one's back with the flu there might be the ever so slightest tendency to nod off now and then.  I'm not saying this happened, but for some reason I have no idea how Alexander the Great got from the Egyptian Pyramids to the Khyber Pass.  I promise I go back and listen to that part.

It's good be back among the living.      


THE ECHO OF ONE HAND CLAPPING
 Notes on Audio Publishing and Production
By Brian Price - Great Northern Audio

 

]]>The Independentshttp://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/2009/8/10/the-independents.htmlSusan2009-08-10T14:00:00ZAudio theatre or radio theater as it used to be called continues to remain an art form that falls "between the cracks" -- it's not quite a part of books-on-tape publishing, nor radio broadcasting, or the recording industry. It's just a lot of fun to listen to.

I keep waiting for my beloved audio theater's big break, when an original full-cast, full-sound effects and music with all the bells and whistles production goes flying up the best sellers list, and the consumers ask librarians and bookstores -- "Where can we get more of that stuff?"

The big break doesn't seem to be happening, but independent audio theater producers are starting to get some notice. In this year's Audies "Excellence In Production" category 4 or 5 out of the 19 finalists were from small producers not affiliated with or distributed by major publishers. The winners of the Mark Time Science Fiction and Ogle Horror/Fantasy Audio awards this year were both independent producers.

The hard part for independent producers, just like small book publishers or Indie record labels, has always been to try to get their work out in front of an audience, to be given a chance. Once upon a time (not so long ago) a radio station program manager had to agree to put one's work on the air, or a record label had to press and release a CD. Money, often lots of it, had to change hands. It was complicated and very hard to get heard.

Suddenly (in the last four or five years) the playing (and listening) field has been leveled. Now, there's podcasting. Dozens and dozens of independent producers are writing, directing, and acting in their own stories. They are free of the constraints of large budgets, traditional distribution problems and time (they aren't worried about how long or how many podcasts they produce -- it's refreshing). Podcasters just put their work up on the web and listening subscribers download what they want to hear. It's like the Wild West.

Most independent audio theater podcasters are small operations. A core group of college friends or fantasy fans or community theater enthusiasts get together and put up a show. Some get a little more serious and start producing elaborate series, putting up more shows and using voices of friends and fans recorded remotely from around the world.

I've always had a soft spot for first novels. I try to pick one up now and then to hear what a brand new voice has to say. Sometimes they're good and sometimes, not so good, but every now and then I run into a real gem.

I feel the same way about independent audio theater. There are a lot of stories out there waiting to be told and most of the stories aren't going to be published by the big boys. Still, the writers and producers tell their tales. I like that. It seems very American to me. So, I recommend you google around the Internet and find a few audio theater podcasts to listen to. You might find a really good story or two and you very well might be listening to the future of how stories will be told.

THE ECHO OF ONE HAND CLAPPING
 Notes on Audio Publishing and Production
By Brian Price - Great Northern Audio

]]>One Giant Edit for Manhttp://www.audiobookdj.com/the-echo-of-one-hand-clapping/2009/7/19/one-giant-edit-for-man.htmlSusan2009-07-19T19:41:56ZApparently long ago (probably around December 1969) someone at the National Air and Space Administration "accidentally" erased, or more likely just simply recorded over, the original NASA video tapes and audio recordings of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Recording over and reusing videotape time after time was a common practice back then -- just like recording over security camera footage is still fairly common practice today. Besides, that old videotape was expensive, spooled on big two-inch wide metal reels, and took up a lot of storage space. You had to use them over and over.

But don't worry. In the short article I read about the little glitch, NASA assured the public that there were a number of "quality" copies of the original out there; AND, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing NASA was going to digitally enhance the historic footage.

This got me to thinking -- when I've been asked to teach an introduction to audio or history of radio class one of my favorite examples to use to is play "ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MAN, ONE SMALL STEP FOR MANKIND" for the class and see if anybody notices that I made a slight edit in Neil Armstrong's quote. It takes about 10 seconds to cut and paste GIANT LEAP with SMALL STEP; there's plenty of space between the words, and lots of background hiss in the recording to cover up the sound of an edit. Ninety percent of the time nobody notices on the first listen.

I do a lot of digital editing nowadays -- from editing a live performance recording for broadcast to choosing audio examples for a review to assembling the hundreds of edits for a book-on-tape project. Each edit can affect the pace, clarity and sometimes even the meaning of a piece. Hopefully (and this is important) these edits are being made (as Maxwell Smart used to say) for good and not evil.

But, what about history? History is always being edited. It's just too long and has too many slow places. NASA's presentation of the Moon Landing basically was early reality TV -- hundreds of hours of tape were recorded and broadcast, but the media and the public can only digest just so many sound bytes and quotes.

Neil Armstrong's gave us a perfect sound byte for the perfect occasion -- one of the more positive shared memories in history. We know where we were and nothing bad happened -- remarkable. The quote was honest, thoughtful, amazingly well delivered and struck a nerve. Now the original recording is gone and the quote itself can be digitized, turned upside down and enhanced, and still we know it. We know exactly what it was supposed to sound like. That's a pretty good memory.


Happy Anniversary Neil, Buzz and Michael.

 

THE ECHO OF ONE HAND CLAPPING
 Notes on Audio Publishing and Production
By Brian Price - Great Northern Audio

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