One of the things that has always irritated me when it comes to working with audio (of any flavor) is how when you ask someone or go looking for information about a specific subject, all you seem to find are vague responses about the theory behind this or that. Never anything really concrete or substantial. It truly is annoying as hell. And so help me, if I get told one more time that "you need to find a professional to do it for you", I am going to hurt someone.
This is how I felt when I was researching the ins and outs of audio book production. It's infuriating to say the least, but as a person who has worked with audio, off and on, since the mid 90's I knew that audio books were a different type of beast from what I was used to. Audio books are a lot more intimate than the standard songs you hear on the radio. There are no drums or guitars playing behind the vocalist that cover up minor vocal fluctuations, or a less than perfect noise floor. With audio books, it's just the narrator and the listener. So any misstep in the production process can be detrimental to creating that intimate moment.
When I was finally fed up with all the vagary, I went back to what I knew. When it comes down to it, audio is audio regardless of the format or genre. I listened to a few audio books to get a sense of what others were doing acoustically, and I went for it.
This resulting very long guide is "my work flow" on how I created the audio book for "A Walk Beyond The Realm". An audio book that passed the ACX quality control checks without a hick-up.
Am I saying that "this guide is the correct way of doing things"? No.
In fact, there will probably be many people who will disagree with the way I do things, or the equipment I use, or any number of a million different points they will want to nit-pick over. But frankly, I don't care. The proof is in the pudding on this one, and I like pistachio.
So without further ado...
