Shell 4.10

Narrator: Rein

Original Chapter

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16 Responses to Shell 4.10

  1. Rafinius says:

    Why aren’t there any comments anywhere? I had been hoping for something like this for a long time but just found it. What way are you advertising this, if at all? Anyway, may have some actual comments on your work once I catch up. Won’t have much to say about the actual content of the story though as I already read all of it.

  2. Rein says:

    I’m not sure actually. I’ve actually been having great difficulty getting people to give feedback. How did you find the project? The extent of my advertising has been through posting on the Parahumans subreddit, recruiting on various other reddit boards, talking to people about it in the Parahumans IRC, and posting on a couple forums where there are large Worm communities.

    I’m really looking forward to your commentary. We’re all just volunteers so feedback is the only way we can improve.

    • solthas says:

      I’ve been listening to the audiobook at work as well. Finally caught up to Ward, so I figured it was a good time to reread Worm in a fashion. It’s too bad there isn’t an easier way to edit chapters once uploaded, for second effects passes or adding missed cuts.

      Overall it’s been great though. Thank you and the other volunteers. I have a good recording setup, but probably wouldn’t make a great reader due to my accent.

      Would I be better off listening to these on youtube, if those uploads may involve better editing passes?

      • Rein says:

        Nope, these occasionally receive updates when someone decides to re-do a chapter but due to the work involved the ones on youtube do not.

  3. Rafinius says:

    I pretty much thought “Someone somewhere must have talked about this in voice format. So I just typed in “worm parahumans podcast” hoping to see what, I don’t know webfiction podcasts or something I guess, where saying about it. Lo and behold the second thing that pops up in Google is Worm Audiobook. I had really hoped someone would do it, going so far as to musing about doing it myself if only I were any good at it. Or had a remotely passable mic…

    • Rein says:

      Nice, its good to hear my reported number of Google search hits hasn’t been completely lying. As for helping out: we’re always looking for more readers. I did the first couple chapters of Arc 2 with a $7 mic from newegg before I decided to buy the ~$70 Blue Snowball. I believe Snagger uses a gaming headset or other desktop mic, and I think nspb (who hasn’t aired yet) uses more professional equipment. Most of our Interlude readers have been using mics at the gaming-headset level, so really as long as you aren’t using a laptop’s built-in mic you’ll be fine. There are a lot of easy touch-ups you can do in editing to make an inexpensive mic sound great. I did some of them to the Arc 3 chapters when making the Arc 3 Complete video, so you can compare that with the original readings on here to hear the difference.

      • Rafinius says:

        Why wouldn’t you use the retouched version here or have a link to those complete versions somewhere if they sound better?

        • Rein says:

          Editing is all up to the individual readers, so after I found those techniques I made sure to add them to our contributor-only page and inform them of the addition. I only applied the tweaks to the youtube one because I was already loading all of his audio into one Audacity project so one use of the effects would cover the whole Arc. Also, I don’t want to get into the habit of editing other people’s work in addition to my own.

  4. Rafinius says:

    I’ve finally listened to all of them. Nice all in all, but I have some issues.
    One is that Bakuda’s voice almost got worse in the last episodes than in all those before. I missed half of the gory details of her distortion bomb.
    The other is something Snagger kept doing two or three times.
    As you read you sometimes misread and got stuck so you had to rephrase. Now mistakes happen, but that is why you record it with a computer. It should be very simple to cut the mistake out in retrospect. I know that if there is a wrong word that doesn’t get noticed till after you’re finished it is hard to redo just that word and edit it in because the flow and mood behind the voice almost never fits with the previous work. But if the mistake is immediately noticed and corrected the way you did, a simple cut is much better for the flow than leaving it in, clicking your tongue and rereading the last word before continuing. No offense.

    All in all I’m happy because I finally can get people to experience Worm who have been too lazy to read or for whom the enormous archive was a bit daunting. I already got one of my friends hooked to you. Thanks.

    • Rein says:

      Thanks for the feedback, and no offense taken; we’re all just volunteers and most don’t have any experience with voice work and editing so the only way to improve is through constructive feedback.

      I listened to 4.10 with my fiancee in the car today and my rush job with editing Bakuda’s voice in this chapter is pretty evident. I’m going to be traveling next weekend so I think I’m going to re-record her lines over the week so I can mess with them while I travel.

  5. warren peace says:

    I disagree re: Bakuda’s voice, I think it’s rather well done, and I only had trouble understanding a part of a line here or there (for example, whatever she said that got the still-silent Tattletale’s attention). Problem is, if I couldn’t understand something, I wasn’t going to understand it period, even after multiple trys. Overall though, I like the effect, sounds close to what I imagined.

    OTOH, I don’t like thr effect on Grue’s voice. I don’t have any trouble understanding him, I just feel the effect is overdoing it. Sure, we know his darkness effects the sound of his voice, but reading him straight would work better IMO.

    • Rein says:

      You are the first I’ve heard of to have either of those opinions (even including myself!), so thank you for the feedback! I’m going to redo the first couple Arcs and definitely all of Bakuda’s lines once we’re finished, and I think I have a good idea of how to do a similar set of effects that are more coherent to the listener. Also, I believe I tone down Grue’s effect a bit within the next few Arcs.

      • warren peace says:

        Yes, now that you mention it, you do tone it down to what I agree are reasonable levels later. I’m on arc 13, and I don’t remember noticing any change, the effect fits naturally and doesn’t feel so jarring. I suppose you might argue that it was GRUE who was overusing his power early on, and learns the value of subtlety as he grows! You were just demonstrating that!

  6. M. says:

    Thank you so much for doing these audiobooks. I don’t have much time to read but listen to audiobooks at work or during my drive and everyone around me has been talking so much about Worm! I came to the comment section to see if anyone else was saying anything about Bakuda’s voice or if that was just me not listening closely. I can barely understand a single thing Bakuda says. I might actually just have to read those parts myself. I’d probably prefer her voice with no edits over it. I’m fine with Grue’s voice cause I can understand it but Bakuda, I can’t understand at all. Also, it’s confirmed that that’s how you say Bakuda? I know others reading it as buh-coo-duh like barracuda.

    • Rein says:

      Thanks for the comment! I apologize tremendously for Bakuda’s voice (and yes, that is the correct Japanese pronunciation). I was trying to recreate the process of how her voice synth would have worked rather than just recreating the actual final sound. It was a tremendous learning experience for me on what works, what doesn’t, and where my priorities should be.

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