A reading of "Coyote and the Boulder", by me

I thought I might get into the breeding business,
— bad voice recognition!—
the reading business, to try to improve my voice. Tonight I made a recording of LadyMoondancer's "Coyote and the Boulder", which is chapter 4 of "Gobbling and Other Traditional Pursuits".

If you've got any tips on how I could do a better reading, please leave a comment (here or there).

Comments

[equestrian.sen]

Your voice acting could use some work. I'll use 8:53 to 9:09 as an example. In the first sentence ("I see you have a sense of humor"), listen to the way you stretch every alternating syllable. It's very strange for normal conversation. In the second sentence ("Yes, I see how it is"), you emphasized "I" when you should have emphasized "see". If you're going for angry or dejected, making the "see" a lot sharper would make sense. Raising the "I" makes it sound like "You can fool everyone else, but not me," but raising the "see" makes it sound more accusatory and more like "You can't fool me." For the next sentence ("You want everyone to laugh at poor Coyote"), you emphasized the "everyone" when it would sound more accusatory emphasizing the "want". Next sentence ("Well, they aren't going to find me here when they get back"), you have a pause after "aren't". If you're going for "Coyote speaks before he thinks", that pause should be longer. Otherwise it shouldn't be there. Also, contrast "They aren't going to find me here when they get back," with "They aren't going to find me here when they get back," with the bolded part vocalized a little higher and maybe just a little faster than the non-bolded part.

The narration was fantastic.

[Vidatu]

Reading seems pretty good, but a little stilted. I'd assume that this just needs practice - I noticed an improvement even just between the start and end. The dialogue was weaker than the narration; this is where I noticed most improvement as you settled in, but in the first few minutes there were points where it really didn't flow smoothly. You have a great voice for this type of thing; your tone is great, just the rhythm that needs improvement.

Editing needs significant work (breathing, lip smacking, mouse/keyboard noise) , but I'd guess you're after mostly reading criticisms instead of overall performance issues.

[RBDash47]

I've thought about trying my hand -- or voice, as it were -- at this. Because I don't have enough pony in my life, obviously.

[jaco122]

You sound a lot like Morgan Freeman!

[Listic]

I've decided to get into reading business, too. My #1 problem is "How do I stop worrying?". When I'm reading for the audience, I worry a lot. I've read my Russian translation of The Conversion Bureau: Ten Minutes by BronyOfSteel at Muffin Club last Sunday with audio/video background (I decided music video+instrumental cover of Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits would be a good fit). It was broadcast via Public Radio of the Herd, too. That was my first experience of this kind, and it was quite stressful: I was stilted and hurrying, though I tried not to; when I listened to my own record I decided that amputating my vocal apparatus and replacing it with Stephen Hawking-style 1980's speech synthesizer would be an improvement. Still, I think I needed to go through this, bit I wonder what could I improve?

So far, the only advice I got was "Practice more. That's how everyone does it."