les mis podfic week 2018

My contribution to the @lesmispodficweek : @mysunfreckle‘s incredibly sweet story Montparnasse, and a Montague.

[Podfic of Je me souviendrai, by eirenical]

Feuilly woke to the smell of blood, the bitter tang of it cloying at the back of his throat. Feuilly woke to darkness so deep that his eyes could not penetrate it. His friends were dead. The dawn they’d hoped for had not come. The blood and darkness were not a surprise…

The surprise was in that he had woken at all.

My contribution for @lesmispodficweek! This was my first ever attempt at a podfic, and it was quite an adventure.

I love to read out loud. I always have, but I’ve been extremely self-conscious about it at the same time. Instead of letting the week pass me by, pining and wondering about what could have been, I embraced my long-lost, not-so-secret dreams of becoming an audiobook narrator. It helped to have some measure of accountability, knowing that I had openly signed up to participate, meaning I couldn’t banish the recording to the depths of my iPod, never to see the light of day again (like that time I recorded the entirety of The Secret Garden for my now ex-girlfriend, and never let anyone else hear it).

Some challenges I encountered along the way:

Courfeyrac’s name is impossible for me to pronounce consistently. I feel like I’m always choking on it.

French pronunciation, in general, makes me want to hide under a rock. My diction teacher tried, he really did, but I was always better at Latin and Italian.

Trying to maintain three distinct voices (Narrator, Courfeyrac, Feuilly) was really difficult.

My microphone is not the best, and there were limits to how much editing I could do to improve the quality. Also, if you listen carefully, you can hear a motorcycle passing my apartment that I couldn’t quite edit out of the background.

Was it hard? Yes. Was it time consuming? Also yes. Would I record another podfic? FUCK YES.

Without further ado, my Les Mis Podfic Week 2018 ( @lesmispodficweek ) contribution:

[Podfic] After the Storm by kingess ( @kingesstropolis )

Author Summary: Courfeyrac has always been afraid–no, terrified of thunderstorms. Normally, he seeks comfort from his best friend, Enjolras, but on the night of the worst storm of the year, Enjolras isn’t there.

Fandom: Les Miserables

Pairing(s): Combeferre/Courfeyrac, Enjolras/Grantaire

Original Fiction: by kingess on AO3

Podfic Reader: TheLordOfLaMancha

Runs: 43:07

Streaming: on the Internet Archive

Download Link: .mp3 via MediaFire

Courfeyrac leaves messages on Marius’ voicemail.

Ahhh, I really feel I didn’t do this wonderful fic justice, I’ve never done a podfic before. Here it is anyway. I highly recommend the original work by @decayingliberty; also, take a look at this cool movie poster thing made by @mariuspondmercy (whom tumblr will not let me mention for some reason).

As my second reading for @lesmispodficweek I absolutely had to record @fishandchipsandvinegar‘s Mornings Are For Feelings. 

I did the podfic for the main fic, in which the gang finds out R hosts a PBS painting show à la Bob Ross and he and Enjolras finally get together, so of course I was also going to do the Enjolras POV one-shot that goes with it!

I recorded @just-french-me-up‘s darling Jehanparnasse coffee date for @lesmispodficweek! And nearly forgot to upload it     Hope you enjoy it!

For @lesmispodficweek I recorded @adorablecrab‘s wonderful fic To Oblivious Idiots!

I’ve never recorded a podfic before but it was a fun experience! I hope I did the fic justice because it’s truly a great one!

I made a bunch of tutorials for @lesmispodficweek​ and I wanted to gather them all in one place so if people wanted to reblog them, they could just reblog this instead.

INTRODUCTION - So You Want To Record a Podfic

Setting up your space to record

Buying a microphone

Downloading Audacity

Picking a fanfiction

BASIC:

(You’ll get the hang of it R, sweetie, don’t worry)

1: Recording 101

How to use set up and use Audacity for podfic

Set up, Recording, Saving

Example Video (same as Podfic 101)

2: Podfic 101

Noise Plates (for editing later)

Recording an Intro

What to do when you make a mistake

Recording an Outro.

Example Video

INTERMEDIATE:

(It’s okay Marius, editing can fix that!)

3: Editing 101

Noise removal

Editing

Pagebreaks

Polishing

Example Video

ADVANCED:

4: Multitracking 101

Setting Up

Royalty Free Music

Adding Sound

Leveling

Example Video

And that’s all of them! I hope you’ve learned something new! You got this.

If you’re using this to make a podfic for Les Mis Podfic Week, please feel free to tag me in it! I want to see and listen to all the amazing podfics you guys make. They’re going to be incredible and I’m super excited.

You’re also welcome to message me if you need help! <3

Hi! My name’s Amanda, or @fishandchipsandvinegar on tumblr, or TheLordOfLaMancha on Archive of Our Own. (I have too many names).

And in response to @lesmispodficweek, I wanted to make some tutorials on how to edit and record using a freeware program called Audacity. (sorry they’re so close to podfic week!! D: )

If you don’t have Audacity installed on your computer, check out this post, which will explain everything you need to do before we get started (as well as how to install Audacity).

Before you actually set out to record your podfic, I suggest recording some short practice stuff so you get used to how this all works.

This is Section One: Recording 101. It will have three parts:

1. Set Up 2. Recording 3. Saving

It’s going to be a really bare bones, basic sort of user guide with just the parts you need to record podfic.

Click the read more to begin.