HOW TO GIVE A BETTER SPEECH THAN OBAMA and change your world - (Recording the audio book) by Darren Kelly, Kellcomm, Blog - Day 9

Hi,

Please let me explain what it was like to record the audio version of the book. I will briefly describe the preparation and the execution of the project. This was the most enjoyable part of the process for me.

I adhered to three strict rules.

• Plenty of sleep the night before the recording
• No dairy products to avoid mucus build-up in the throat
• Plenty of blueberry tea on standby

I arrived at the studio at 11am so I could start recording at 12pm. I met my producer Cain to run through the order of the book. His job was to make sure all the sound levels were correct. He also read a copy of the book while I recorded it to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The studio is exactly like a studio you see when Take That or Michael Buble record their music.

I recorded my piece in a room that was separate from the control room that Cain sat in, and we communicated via a talk back system. The recording took three hours. This included breaks and pauses to listen back to the audio. The final edit of the book was one hour and 44 minutes long.

When I finished the recording, I left the book alone for a week so that when I heard it again, it was with a fresh set of ears. If I listened to it immediately after the recording, I knew I would have been too close to it to hear it as a listener would hear it. Then I had the task of choosing the music for the intro and outro for the book. This was not an easy task. I listened to around 700 pieces of 30 seconds music to find the one that set the mood for the book. For this book, I wanted a piece of music that had some bounce and presence but wasn’t too loud or overbearing.

When the book was finalised, I left it alone for another week, and then I listened to it on my iPod, on the CD player in my car and on my stereo at home.

A day after my final listen to the book, I finally called my publisher and said the words that feel strange to every author. I told him "It's done."

Tomorrow, I will take you inside the mind of Obama’s speech writer Jon Favreau.

Take care,
Darren

PS: 'HOW TO GIVE A BETTER SPEECH THAN OBAMA and change your world' - will be available on iTunes and Amazon in December.


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