What are the industry standards for recording/editing podcasts and/or audio books? Do people use PT and edit it the same way they would a song? For a podcast, this kind of makes sense, but for something like an audio book that is hundreds of pages long, it seems like it would be an awful way to work.
Are there any tools that make it less sucky, or are people still using brute force to edit audio books?
I can imagine that editing an entire audio book worth of audio would be torture!
Yeah, me too. Thatâs why Iâm wondering if itâs actually done using PT or if there is a specific DAW or app that makes recording audio books less terrible.
I havenât noticed a great deal of editing in podcasts, they seem to fly by the seat of their pants and leave them as is, though the better sounding (or slicker produced) ones may well have been edited a bit. They probably also have their routines down and do some pre-production for episodes in order to minimize post-production necessities.
Editing would mostly be removing bad spots or gaffes, and merging sections together after editing. Any DAW can do that. They may do some compression and gating (or expander) after the fact to improve the dialog clarity and projection. Those with backing or theme music may either cue it up during performance (if they have a radio DJ type setup) or add it in post-production.
Audio books are a beat-down, thereâs no way around it. For each hour of âfinished audioâ youâll probably spend 3-5 hours editing. So if youâre getting paid by the finished hour (PFH, per-finished-hour) be sure to account for this. There may be variations to whatâs involved depending on genre and quality standards. Fiction vs Non-Fiction, etc. Also, if youâre working with a big publishing house the standards would usually be much more rigid than with an individual author. If someone else is going to do the âfinal masterâ, like a big publishing house, you want your levels really under control - max Peaks -3dB (if that, maybe -6dB) and RMS in the -18 to -23dB range.
The skills of the narrator are a huge factor (plosives, sibilance, mouth noise, errors). Also managing âretakesâ or âpickupsâ without stopping recording; have a system of hand-claps or clicker noise that cause spikes in the waveform to clue you in to those places during editing.
You can also do something called âPunch-and-Rollâ which is similar to how studio music recording used to be done. You do stop recording briefly to regroup, set the cursor to your âpickupâ location, and then proceed recording over the error that was committed. You can use Pre-Roll, if desired. There are upsides to that in terms of time spent editing later, and loss of focus, plus proofing (critical listening to final product) time. However, like with music performance, it can disrupt the creative flow and vibe if not handled correctly. And youâll still likely have to go back and crossfade those areas and/or clean them up (until you get really good at it).
Pro Tools can do that pretty well, but Reaper can be set up for it too. Adobe Audition is probably used extensively in some arenas.
This is "slightly relatedâŚ"
When wanting to see a couple of more videos on âleaky gutâ I came across several 50-minute ones that were so slow you want to bang your head against the wallâŚ
Then I came across this one, which has excellent paceâŚ
Just because it can do it, doesnât mean itâs a good tool for doing it. I can edit audio by cutting and taping reels of tape. Doesnât mean I wouldnât rather work as a janitor cleaning toilets. The only reason we had to do that in the past is because there werenât better options available.
It seems kind of ridiculous to me that we would be using the music editing style of editing for something like audio books that are 10 hours long. If that is the actual standard, all it says to me is that nobody has put any thought into it.
Cleavage click bate, Sven. Is this book for your kids? I feel like if you used a marker for each chapter in reaper it would be less suicide inducing.
Hadnât noticed the cleavage until you mentioned it, thanks.
I guess I was too transfixed by the content (of the informationâŚ)
S
Well, itâs kind of like recording musicians and artists ⌠get a great performance and the work wonât be as challenging or drudgery. Except in long form spoken-word Iâd say âconsistencyâ is the key. Consistency and holding the listenerâs intention. So thereâs is not much dazzle or âhookâ (except the writerâs intended literary hooks), just keep a flow thatâs listenable and interesting. So Iâd say itâs mostly âwork flowâ in terms of the narration and the recording.
So if your performer (the narrator, or yourself as narrator) can work with the material until the performance is near flawless, the editing is reduced and so are the headaches. Eliminate goofs and dead space before they happen, essentially. That involves preparation, experience, practice, and diligence. A narrator should almost always read through the material at least once, perhaps several times, so that notes can be made for researching pronunciations (eliminates retakes later), character voices can be fleshed out, and the storyline is well understood so that you donât find out in Chapter 15 that âCharlene said in her typical Cockney accentâ when the narration to date has been in a Welsh accent. 
And then, the performance still needs to sound âfreshâ after all that research which is where âactingâ comes in. 
Punch-and-Roll takes some practice, but can save time. Not everyone likes it, and I mentioned the proâs and cons. The only short cut I know is those computer voice-to-text programs (i.e. Siri), and those still sound pretty horrible for those with discriminating tastes.
Yes, chapters should be marked and sometimes exported as separate files. That would be in the specs.
There was content??? 
Whatâs the matter Stan? Were you too busy checking out her specs?
I dunno Bozilla Cheese, maybe this can be your next piece of software, you can program one that does what you want it to do. For a name contest I suggest Bookmarker T-800.
Yes. Theyâre real and theyâre spectacular. 
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From what Iâve been able to gather, amateur podcasts are just recorded âas isâ. People sitting in their bedrooms / living rooms recording around a single microphone, with minimum editing and EQâing done. Obviously youâre listening to the podcast for the content rather than the quality of the production. But the better produced podcasts (Serial) are obviously recorded in state of the art studios and have a ton of editing done on them.
For my own YouTube channel, I record the voice in my studio (obviously) and have a standard EQ I apply to my voice. But Iâm still shocked at how different my voice can sound from one video to the next!
This is how we record our podcast.