CRASH SYMPHONY goes Through a Camel’s Eye
Sydney-based Crash Symphony Productions has made a major foray into the audiobook recording market. We’ve recorded the recent release of a narrated version of Through a Camel’s Eye by award winning author, Dorothy Johnston.
Audiobook Recording of Through a Camel’s Eye
Through a Camel’s Eye is the first in Dorothy’s new ‘sea-change mystery’ crime fiction series. It is based in the small seaside town of Queenscliff on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula. The story starts with the theft of a young camel from its trainer’s paddock and the discovery in nearby sand dunes of a murdered woman’s coat.
Queenscliff is such a quiet coastal town. Local police constable Chris Blackie and his rookie recruit from Melbourne, Anthea Merritt, are hardly used to detective work. Their tenacity, local knowledge and deft handling of the town’s many eccentric characters is essential to discovering the link between these two unsettling events. Read on about the author below!
About the Author
A local herself, Dorothy Johnston describes Through a Camel’s Eye as a ‘gentle murder mystery’. Noteworthy, there are no ‘shoot ‘em ups’ or car chases in this crime fiction. Johnston relies on deeply descriptive sense of place and the lives and thoughts of the variety of people who inhabit it. As the back cover of the book says, ’Through a Camel’s Eye’ deftly juxtaposes the idyllic surroundings of a coastal Victorian town with the gravity of murder.’
We were luck to have met Dorothy at a meet & greet. It was held by the her wonderful publisher, Jennifer Mcdonald. She described to us how she formulated the story, ‘Through a Camel’s Eye’. As it turns out, there is an Island close to where Dorothy lived in Queenscliff that was used by the government to train spies and military personnel. She recalls seeing the activity from a distance and there being an eeriness about the Island. Some of the character’s personalities were based off people that she came to know whilst living in the area. It is understandable now how she brought such clarity to the story and managed to paint the landscape with such beautiful literary skill.
Dorothy Johnston never considered having an audiobook version of ‘Through a Camel’s Eye’ . It was suggested by her publisher and eventual narrator of the work, Jennifer McDonald of For Pity Sake Publishing. Dorothy loved the idea. Discover more about how we produce audiobooks below!
Recording the Audiobook in the Studio
Jen (as we have come to know her) did a wonderful job narrating the audiobook in the recording studio. Reading an entire audiobook is a very challenging task. Jen took on the job with relentless enthusiasm and stamina.
As a result, the process of recording an audiobook is something that we have been honing at Crash Symphony Productions. We look at everything from mic placement and compression to editing cues and labelling. All these details and methods have a positive impact on the quality and speed at which we can produce an audiobook.
Audiobooks and the famous Clicker
One thing that Jen has gotten very good at is using the ‘clicker’. This is basically a dog clicker. It helps us locate errors in the narration visually after the book has been recorded. This is how it works: When Jen makes a mistake she simply presses on the clicker. A sharp, loud transient noise is created. This leaves a very obvious spike in the audio which we can see on the waveforms. Then Jen reads the line again. Take two. When our editors begin to edit the audiobook they can see these sharp clicks. They serve as visual markers for where all the narration errors have occurred. But what about that padded room?
Lost Time in a Padded Room
Jen is used to being in our sound booth, too. We’ve done a few audiobooks with her and she’s very comfortable in the sound booth despite its silence and enclosing feeling. The sound booth brings a unique sound to the audio. It cleans up all the external noises that would usually intrude in on the signal. Being able to listen to an audiobook without hearing noises intrude in on the audio is a separating factor between amateur recordings and high-end professional productions. It’s only a very small booth but it does a great job at isolating what is being recorded from the outside world. Time vanishes quickly when you’re working away in our isolation sound booth recording an audiobook. Keen on learning more?
It must be said, we also use iPads to record audiobooks because there are no page-turning noises associated with iPads. The words can be resized to the narrators preference and the brightness of the screen adjusted accordingly.
Jen is a great believer in readers having access to the written word in whatever format is most suitable for them – print, ebook and audiobook. In 2017 she’s teamed up with Crash Symphony Productions to fulfil her mission to getting every one For Pity Sake’s current works into an audiobook format.
In conclusion, please check out the first chapter of the Through a Camel’s Eye audiobook for free here. You can also purchase an .MP3 CD or download of the full audiobook from For Pity Sake’s online store.
Happy listening.
