#how to podfic

[tuktukpodfics]

Hi! I'm thinking about making a podfic of one of my favorite fics and I wanted to ask for a couple of tips because I adore your podfics and I have run into a couple problems very early on.

how do you do deeper voices? my voice is fairly high (I'm a soprano that can occasionally deep down into lower alto) and most of the voices in the fic are male. I also always sound about twelve in recordings lol

how do you make distinct voices? again, I have a lot of different voices (probably 5-7 that talk the most, with many many other reoccurring characters).

pacing of reading. I tend to speak/read very quick and in my practice recordings, it sounds like I'm talking much faster than I felt I was. any tips on that?

what recording programs are best? currently I'm using voice memos on my phone. which. is clearly not going to give me the best sound, regardless of the app I use, but I don't have many options.

I am living in a dorm right now and live in fear of my suite mates hearing me (my roommate not quite as much as she likes to dub and does a lot in our room--though she does it in mandarin so I cant understand it). not to mention background noise of doors opening and whatnot. if you have any tips on that as well, that would be great!

I love your podfic, you put so much soul into them, and I hope that I could do that too!

Hello fellow podfic-er! I’m so excited for you to make a podfic!

The nice thing about podfics is that I usually don’t have to create characters from scratch, they already exist in the TV show. If I’m struggling with a character, I just rewatch some clips of them talking and imitate it!

Deep voices: I, too, have a high, childish voice and struggle with deep, Manly Men. I guess the main tip I have is to...give up. What I mean is focus less on pitch and more on tone. If you speak too low, it’ll be less expressive and will probably hurt your throat. It can work for minor, 2D characters, but don’t do it for main characters that have a wide range of emotions (you may notice that my Mighty Oaks Fire Sage Zuko voice swings higher when he’s emotional oops). Instead, use your normal pitch, and make a character sound adult by using an authoritative tone. Another thing I do is play up the childish and feminine voices. We might not be able to make the adults sound adult, but we can make the kids sound extra kiddish by comparison.

Distinct voices: I’m a tactile learner, so for me, it’s all about the physicality. Every time I do Azula’s voice, I make a pinched face like I’m eating a lemon. When I record Ozai, I sneer. For Sokka, I jut out my chin and flail my arms. It looks silly, but no one is around to see. There’s lots of YouTube tutorials about how to make different voices by varying speed and tone and nasal quality, but I get kinda lost in the sauce with those theory lessons. The only way I can really get myself to do different voices is if I’m working off of a reference. I just watch videos of other cartoons and live actors and then copy them.

Pacing: Pacing is hard. I especially struggle with the editing and often end up cutting things wonkily. Audiobooks tend to be slow because you’re less likely to get tongue tied that way. If I have a big hunk of text that I find myself racing through, I slow myself down with physicality again. I’ll lean in on important words or mime out the actions. For example, on the line, “Zuko turns, grabs the bar at the side of the ship, and throws himself back over,” I'll turn my body on the word “turn,” grab an imaginary bar on the word “grab” and then lurch forward on the word “throw.” Adding in movement can bring variation to those big blocks of text.

What recording programs are best: I don’t know! I use Audacity because it’s free. Adobe Audition is great too, but it’s expensive. I am very lazy with the podfics. I don’t have a professional set-up. Basically, I make a comfortable nest of pillows in bed or my closet, use an iPhone VoiceMemos app to record straight into the phone mic, send the audio file to my computer, convert the audio to a WAV file, put it in Audacity, add a Noise Reduction effect, and then cut it down. Once I’m done editing it, I export the Audacity file as an mp3, upload it to archive.org and Spotify, and then embed those links into Ao3. Feel free to DM me if you have other tech questions. I am not particularly savvy, but we can Google it together? If any voice actors on Tumblr have professional advice, please chime in.

Silence and privacy: Background noise is a big headache for me too. I live in a noisy area with lots of planes and a squeaky elevator. I usually record now in my closet surrounded by pillows and blankets, so it’s fairly soundproof. If there’s a noise, I usually wait for the sound to stop, record the line again, then edit out the mistake in post. At the end of the day, though, sounds will slip in. It’s just a podfic; we’re doing this for fun not professionally, so it doesn’t need to be polished. I think most listeners’ attitudes is that something is better than nothing. If you’re in a school dorm, there might be music practice rooms, a radio recording booth, or empty classrooms you can use instead.

Storage: Something I didn’t realize going in was how much storage the audio clips take up. Make sure you save and delete projects as you go. One time I finished editing an Audacity project, but it wouldn’t let me save it because I ran out of storage and I had to start over.

I’m so glad you like the podfics I’ve done and that it could help inspire you to make one too! I started making podfics because I fell in love with @pixieinthesky’s fantastic Salvage podfic (it's an absolute gem). Keep the chain going!

Have fun!

[caught-on-tape-fest]

With creator sign-ups and claiming open, now is probably a good time to start rolling our some content under our #how to podfic tag.

So let's kick it off with this super helpful guide by fest mod @sillyunicorn:

Kati's Podfic Guide for Beginners

If you're on the fence on whether to sign up, we really recommend checking this guide out to see how easy it can be to create a podfic! We've already got 35 fics claimed for podficcing, which is AMAZING, and we'd love to see even more from creators of all experience levels.

We'll be continuing to share content under this tag so keep an eye out for more resources, and always feel free to send us mods an ask, a comment, or to email us at caughtontapepodfest@gmail.com if you have questions about anything.

[gilraina]

A humble plea to writers on AO3

Please, don't use the tag Read by the Author to say that you proofread your work!

Read by the Author is a subtag of Podfic. It's meant to be used for tagging audio works read by the author of the text.

If you wrote something, and then recorded yourself reading it out loud and posted that to AO3, you can tag it Read by the Author. That's what that tag is for. Please don't use it on written works to say "oh yeah, I read it before I posted it". It will make your work show up in the Podfic tag and confuse/annoy people looking specifically for audio works.

Thank you!

[rhinocio]

NOW WITH PODFIC ACCOMPANIMENT!

[fluxydrawings]

World so beautiful. isat podfic now exists :3 weird body horror story by onea my fav authors like ever aka @versegm! go check out their other stuff its good.

[dragonfruitflamb3]

SO!! after procrastinating for WAYYY to long on specifically just the drawing-

It is finished! Love, Death, and Rollerskates: Chapter 1 is now fully read and edited together!!!! It was actually much more fun than I expected, I'm just about as fast as a snail at drawing.

https://youtu.be/T-CsT4pG_jk?si=Z-446KCnJfEDWHSC

Thank you thank you THANK YOU @spadillelicious for letting me do this!! I adore the writing and am definitely going to try and do the second chapter as well

[qe-podfic]

GUESS WHO WE GOT INVOLVED???

Hint: It starts with 'Mr. Ghost' and it rhymes with 'Cat'. That's right: @mrghostrat

My personal favourite fan content creator of all time, and one of the best writers AND artists (because G-d didn't care about fairness when He was handing out talents) in the Good Omens fandom. I am going to piss myself. And if you'd like to piss with me (gosh, what a segue) then the links below should take you to- The Discord (We're looking for fan artists & voice actors atm):

The Latest Draft Recording of the Podfic: (Chapter 1 - Part 1. Fixed some audio issues. No music yet.)

The Fanfic on AO3:

[takonxmz]

A series of stories about modern exorcists, the ghosts to whom they become tied, and the various vengeances that they may or may not take.

(A modern-with-cultivation AU for MDZS, originally inspired by Beetlejuice and now gone entirely off the rails.)

A takonxmz series of podfics of ghost stories written by @dangerouscommiesubversive

Listen on ao3 here 🔗⤵️

Jiangzai x3: A Story About Death

songxuexiao | total podfic length: 01:25:13

Interior Design

sangcheng | total podfic length: 01:58:51

Gimme Shelter

wangxian | total podfic length: 2:10:28

Writ In Blood

xiyao | total podfic length: 2:08:45

[pennybunpirate]

✨WIP wednesday✨

I might be obsessed with my current project 🫣

I've had the ceramic lighthouse for years, slightly broken and not quite my style, until this idea came to me and now I'm desk deep in air drying clay dust and sculpting tools 🙃

Still many hours of sculpting to go (the suckers on the largest tentacle took me most of a day ahah), and then painting it (which I'm looking forwards to so much omg)

Oh and it lights up 😁

Anyway this is where you can find me these days 😌

[kiwiana-writes]

VoiceTeam Podfics by Kiwiana: Round One

I'm deep in the weeds of @voiceteam this month, and i was going to wait until round one closed for submissions to post a roundup, but I reached my point cap, so: below are the podfics I recorded and posted this week!

An Amateur's Guide to Piping That Cream and Beating That Meat, written by @firenati0n. Standard podfic is 38 min 29 sec, OR you can listen to me recording a second version of this podfic while trying to make tres leches for the first time in my life, which is 45 min 24 sec and involves way more asides and random commentary.

Alex is an anonymous thirst-trapping chef on TikTok. Henry is an amateur cook who needs a recipe for Friendsgiving. Alex knows Henry's watching. Henry doesn't know it's Alex. Shenanigans ensue.

...But My Boyfriend Is, written by @clottedcreamfudge, 16 min 40 sec

"This," Henry says later, tie still undone but otherwise perfectly presentable as he scoops Alex's t-shirt up off the floor, "is ridiculous. Where did Nora even find it?" "The Internet is a beautiful and mysterious place," Alex says solemnly, taking the shirt from Henry's hands and smiling fondly at it. It delightedly proclaims, 'I'm Not Gay But My Boyfriend Is,' the word 'boyfriend' written in bold, rainbow capitals; it's an absolute masterpiece, and Alex is looking forward to seeing himself on Buzzfeed in a week's time, when he's inevitably papped wearing it.

I Hear It (When I Look At You), written by @affectionatelyrs, 37 min 45 sec

The last thing Henry expects while ordering tea is to come face to face with the man whose dirty voicemail has fueled his fantasies for weeks

kiss me like you love me, written by @getmehighonmagic, 14 min 47 sec

Kinktober 2023 +1. Kissing

You're So Attractive; How Did That Happen, written by @sparklepocalypse, 15 min 28 sec

Henry is a big man. He’s tall — taller than either of his siblings and most of his cousins. His shoulders are broad. Years on horseback have helped him develop decent muscle mass. So when Alex storms into his life like a beautiful, infuriating tornado, Henry fully expects to continue feeling big. But Alex has ways of making Henry feel small, cherished, even precious. (Or, three things about Alex that make Henry feel wonderfully small, and one thing that doesn't.)

Can’t wait to see what round two has in store! In the meantime, though, I have a mountain of reading and writing to catch up on… 😅😅😅

Permission statements are your best friend as an author, if you want people to podfic or otherwise transform your fics! If you've never created a permissions statement and you love a good template, there's a good one from @fanworkspermissionstatement here that can help: https://www.tumblr.com/fanworkspermissionstatement/721421909534851073/reblogging-for-an-update-now-with-new-faq-and

[hashtagdrivebywrites]

Hello everyone!!! I have some really exciting news!!

Imprint now has a podfic! @upstandingdelinquent has worked really hard on creating an accessible and engaging podfic for everyone to enjoy! Saying it's an experience to listen to is an understatement - I don't want to give away any spoilers, so you'll just have to check it out for yourselves!! Thank you so much for your hard work! The podfic has been added to Imprint's 'Works Related' list, and I have updated Imprint's beginning chapter notes with the links to the podfic's chapters so anyone that's interested can simply open either and listen and read at the same time.

(It's locked to Ao3 users, so make sure you're signed in before clicking <3)

[hp-fanfic-archive]

Shout out to everyone who has ever made a podfic. They’ve been my best friend lately! Been doing a lot of fence repair and revegetation planting at work and they’ve been so nice to listen to <3

[lovely-v]

i really wish I was into the idea of podfic at all because I actually love the way my voice sounds over recordings but the idea of reading my fanfic aloud sounds kinda like the tenth circle of Dante Hell

[larkral]

Oh, hello. Wednesday, huh? Thanks for the tag @artsyunderstudy !!

SO this week I have been doing MANY THINGS including many fannish things. Including things in several fandoms. Me earlier this year: I truly cannot handle having more than one thing on the go. Me now: Yes, maybe I do have six active writing projects in three different fandoms as well as four podfics on the go. WHAT OF IT!?

I've finished recording all of my podfics, and I'm editing them now and... well, it's hard. One is edited, one is 1/8th edited, and the other two are freefloating audio. But, uh, yeah, here's some audio. Because. I... well, you'll get it.

Yes, I titled this file TENDER because I just, it's... yeah. I'm not totally sure whether I'm allowed to say who/what I'm podficcing... (@caught-on-tape-fest can you advise?) But, anyway, probably someone will get it based on that snippet.

Below the cut: snippets of writing and tags!

Here, also, is a little, silly segment of my OMGCP fic, the Holsom Timeloop, featuring an OC who, let me just say, I gave excellent breasts, and zero flaws. I will accept no critiques:

He bumps into someone as he turns, attempts to keep anyone from falling with one hand in the steadying region of what should be a shoulder but turns out to be a truly exceptional handful of cleavage.  "Shit, I'm so sorry," he says, taking a half-step back and looking at the woman he just groped.  There's a lovely flush on her olive cheeks, and her hair is a cloud of beautiful, wild curls.  Marjorie. She's in his o-chem class and she's cute. She's been cute all semester. And smart. And funny. Though her typical cozy-sweater-and-jeans look in class does not betray how truly magnificent her tits are. They're propped up by some kind of bra magic in defiance of gravity, and barely contained by the blue-green fabric of her shirt.  She laughs. "You're forgiven. Though by the transitive property, you definitely owe me a drink."

I also wrote another couple hundred words on my @carryon-reverse-bang beach fic, of which these are some:

The moon is rising and the tide is coming in. "D'you know," he says. "Even if there were no moon, we'd still have tides?" I hum. I look over at him. His silhouette is blurred by the rays of the setting sun, lighting him up from behind like an unearthly being.

Tagging @stitchyqueer @thewholelemon @confused-bi-queer @raenestee @facewithoutheart @cutestkilla @hushed-chorus @sillyunicorn @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @basiltonbutliketheherb @ileadacharmedlife @asocialpessimist @bookish-bogwitch @aristocratic-otter @captain-aralias @petedavidsonscock @yeonjunenby @carryonvisinata @takenabackbytuesdays @martsonmars @nausikaaa @nightimedreamersghost  @chen-chen-chen-again-chen  @ionlydrinkhotwater @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @shrekgogurt @forabeatofadrum   @palimpsessed @fatalfangirl @blackberrysummerblog @valeffelees @imagineacoolusername @orange-peony @j-nipper-95 @whogaveyoupermission @wellbelesbian @rimeswithpurple

[fluxydrawings]

Yippee! Wahoo! sad martyn and cleo podfic :D! fic itself by the Lovely @riacte <3 i dont think ill ever get over double life man,,,

[dragonfruitflamb3]

https://youtu.be/6mgdLBdRIQc?si=VCVPNCpHxwAnOMKS

ChhhhAPTER! 3!!!!!

We're getting closer and closer to all the juicy bits hehehehe

Love Death and Rollerskates written by @spadillelicious, reading by me!