Send me your audiobook files for editing and mastering so that you can concentrate on your performance!

My audio background is primarily in the motion picture and art realm, often with a focus on vocal work. My work has been presented in major institutions such as the Whitney Museum in NYC and Paris' Centre Pompidou, as well as PBS' Nova series. In 2008, one of my soundtracks (Water and Power) was selected for preservation by the US Library of Congress' National Film Registry. Recently, I've been helping a friend, a SAG actor, with her production of audiobooks and thought I'd post my availability here on my website.

My pricing is Per Finished Hour (PFH) and I have 3 pricing plans:

Basic Plan = $35/PFH

Cleanup:
Short description: You pre-edit and proof your files for timing, rhythm, and correct content. I clean them up, replacing breaths and pauses with clean room tone.

Detailed description: You provide me with edited files. That is, files in which you've already removed the mistakes and restarts, and trimmed the pauses to the lengths you feel are appropriate. This assumes files are of finished length (except head and tail room tone). I will replace the pauses and breaths with clean room tone, address plosives (p-pops), sibilance (ess sounds), and general mouth noises, as well as apply basic EQ and compression (and noise reduction, if necessary). Breaths and pauses will be replaced with matching length of room tone.

OR

Mastering:
Short description: You do all the editing, proofing, and clean up of your files. I master them, bringing them into ACX compliance, ready for upload.

Detailed description: You provide me with edited files. That is, files in which you've removed the mistakes and restarts, breaths and mouth noises, trimmed the pauses to the lengths you feel are appropriate, and placed room tone where necessary. This assumes files are of finished length (including head and tail room tone). I will balance the overall levels to ACX RMS, peak, and noise floor standards, address plosives and sibilance, as well as apply basic EQ and compression (and noise reduction, if necessary).

Standard Plan = $65/PFH

Includes both options of the Basic plan (both "Cleanup" and "Mastering").

Premium Plan = $100/PFH

Short description: You give me your raw recorded files. I do all of the editing. I clean them up and master them, bringing them into ACX compliance, ready for upload.

Detailed description: Includes both options of the Basic plan (both "Cleanup" and "Mastering").

PLUS

Manual mistake removal/editing.
Head and tail room tone for each file as per ACX requirements (or the requirements for the platform you're uploading to).

EXAMPLES

Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3

If you have material you thought was finished but has been rejected by your platform for technical reasons, I can remaster your work to make it compliant with your platform's specs.

What I need from you:

Calculating the total cost of the job is as simple as tallying the running time for each submitted file, adding them up to find the total running time, and multiplying that total by the plan rate.

(Run time for all files) X (Plan Rate) = Total Price

For shorter works, works of under an hour, the total should be rounded up to the next 1/4 hour before multiplying by the plan price.

Given well recorded narration, the above formula should hold true. Pricing is "Per FINISHED Hour," so the total price might come out to be less than the estimate if there is a lot of edit material to take out. That will shorten your files, resulting in less run time.

Less well recorded audio can eat up time and necessitate pricing adjustments. Simple things, like an overall tonal adjustment, can be overlooked. Things that require constant manual adjustment, however, add time to the process and can result in overages. These are things like too many plosives (p-pops) and/or sibilance (ess sounds) that need constant manual processing. Excessive amounts of such problems can require pricing tweaks. (Most plosive and sibilance issues are minor and are handled by filtering. What I'm cautioning against here are extreme examples.) Other examples might be environmental, such as barking dogs, door slams, and generally excessive background noise. I find that most experienced narrators are well aware of these issues and manage to avoid them, though.

Generally, the most labor-intensive part of the audiobook post process is the editing out of starts and stops for mistakes, causing a repetition of lines. While much of the general audiobook process can be automated with a variety of techniques, editorial is, by necessity, very much a manual operation. Most narrators carry on well after a mistake, however, excessive restarts that require large amounts of manual editing can cause a reevaluation of the editing pricing. An example might be a file submitted that is an hour long but, once edited, is only 10 minutes.

If you're in a rush, please be advised: once I hand you the finished files, your platform might take anywhere between 10 to 30 days to confirm. Don't leave it till last minute!

I guarantee my work to meet ACX standards. If ACX raises any compliance issues (they never have), please reach out and I'll be happy to fix them at no extra charge.

PLEASE PROVIDE A SAMPLE OF YOUR AUDIO BEFORE ORDERING