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[Thornlord]

Alright Everybody, Here is a place to post all your gripes and annoyances you've encountered with audiobooks over time.

I shall start the ball rolling.

I hate when a narrator is replaced when listening to a series, it annoys the piss out of me. I've yet to find a series where the replacement was as good as the original.


One gripe per post per day folks, If you're like me you've got a ton of them, but its more fun to give everyone a chance to vent 

[DejahThoris]

There are narrators who should really change jobs. In particular, there is one lady who doesn't seem to know what a comma is, she's alway stopping midway through a sentence, and then she runs her sentences together.
Another one finishes all her sentences with an upward tilt to her voice, as if she's always asking a question.

I ask myself why this happens. There a thousands of good and great narrators, why choose someone who obviously doesn't do it properly? Is it possibie the author doesn't listen to a sample, or doesn't he have any say in the matter?

[MrMojo]

How do audiobook companies hire narrators?

Let's say that Some narrators should not be narrating.
There are some who try to voice other characters but their vocal ability is really not there and they should just stop it! Worse is when the narrator speaks in a monotone type of a voice and one without any emotions.

Another pet peeve is how audiobooks are ripped.
If you rip from a CD, why do people rip <64k? Do they not hear the poorer sound quality of the files? 64k is acceptable, 96k is better while best is ~128k. No need to rip to 256k though the sound is much clearer, though maybe not the narration especially if the narrator isn't good. The higher the bitrate rip, the bigger the file.. which leads to the next comment.

If you convert from another source, upsampling will Not make it better!
Do people realize that Audible lets people 'choose' the higher bitrate quality for many of the audiobooks available? Stick with the 64k version at least.
If you buy the 32k version then decide to convert up to 64k, it Won't work in improving the sound quality!

Why do people not want better quality rips at 64k-96k even if the file sizes are Bigger? Just be vigilant in maintaining the file storage.

[Whackbag]

How do audiobook companies hire narrators?

https://audiobookbay.lu/forum/chit-chat/audiobook-open-auditions/

Far as bitrates go i agree, re-encoding anything higher than the original source material is a futile and utter waste, you gain nothing but a larger file that sounds exactly the same if not worse.

I think a lot get posted at 32k cause they get grabbed from here:
https://audiobookbay.lu/forum/audiobook-software-apps-and-resources/32k-books-at-audiobookx/

And for whatever reason the person that runs this place either doesn't know, doesn't realize, or doesn't care that they can get the "enhance" 64k downloads from audible, if you look closer at the files they post they're blahblahblah_ep5's which are the "format 4" 32k mp3 downloads from Audible... The 64k m4b downloads from Audible end in _ep6. 

[Gweilo]

Why do people not want better quality rips at 64k-96k even if the file sizes are Bigger? Just be vigilant in maintaining the file storage.

Because file size is important. Not just storage, on the PC, but on audio players, where storage is often very limited.
Also upload and download speed/time/ goes up proportionately, and some have bandwidth caps.
The observed fact that the larger the files, the less likely a torrent is to remain seeded.
And personally, because the quality difference is marginal or undetectable when listening while walking using earbuds.
I don't listen to audiobooks on Sennheiser reference headphones in an audio isolated listening room.

The touting of 256k MP3 as an ideal is crazy, when you get transparency for speech at 160, if done correctly.
I despair of those who just select the highest CBR rate and refuse to try VBR despite it always giving higher quality for the same size/same quality in smaller size. People have actually said it must be better because it has a higher bitrate.  Not realising that Apple's AAC (the codec used for m4a/b) is by default VBR, just Apple doesn't make it obvious.

I know arguing audio bitrates is about as likely to change anyone's mind as arguing about Creationism or guns. Just understand that people who don't agree with you might have thought it through and come to a different conclusion.

[Dallis24F]

Audioooks where the narrator, although performing character voices, is forced to say "he said" "she said" over and over. If that goes on for long I quit the book.

Also books that describe everything in detail or explain things instead of actually telling a story.

[Gweilo]

Audioooks where the narrator, although performing character voices, is forced to say "he said" "she said" over and over. If that goes on for long I quit the book.

I don't think any narration will omit those, except Graphic Audio.

A decent writer uses "X said" only when it might be ambiguous who is speaking, so it usually is not too intrusive.

[Dallis24F]

A decent writer uses "X said" only when it might be ambiguous who is speaking, so it usually is not too intrusive.

And the strange thing is they don't bother me when reading, just in audiobooks.

[Gweilo]

A decent writer uses "X said" only when it might be ambiguous who is speaking, so it usually is not too intrusive.

And the strange thing is they don't bother me when reading, just in audiobooks.

I think a good narrator can make it work, saying the words without emphasis perhaps.
But they shouldn't skip anything on the page.
That does give a few odd results though, like when someone is sounding out a word or explaining how to pronounce a name.
And conversely, sometimes I have no idea how a name is spelled until I look it up in an ebook.

[vampyr.angel561]

My biggest pet peeve is when words are mispronounced. Drives me straight up the wall! I had one where the guy said "air-ith-mat-ic" instead of "a-rith-ma-tic". I also had another where the narrator said "sever" when the sentence quite  clearly indicated that the word was "severe"! Do editors not check for these kinds of things?

[Whackbag]

I can not stop laughing at this work of audio genius...lol...who herd this and thought
"Fkn Aye! Package that & let's put it up for sale" Das izz gud yes? Nope...but it is hilariously awful.

         

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[Whitewolf]

I can not stop laughing at this work of audio genius...lol...who herd this and thought
"Fkn Aye! Package that & let's put it up for sale" Das izz gud yes? Nope...but it is hilariously awful

Sounds like Melenia Trump reading to her kids...

[queenofspain]

 

finishes all her sentences with an upward tilt to her voice, as if she's always asking a question

That's Susan Duerden. She needs to be stopped.
 

[Horstman]

We should petition at change.org :p

[queenofspain]

 
 
If you can't pronounce German words, don't try narrating Stormtroopers: A New History of Hitler's Brownshirts. I'm looking at you, Roger Clark. Turns out, there are a lot of German words in that book. Who knew?
 
This is a common problem, and another facet of the contempt with which publishers treat both material and audience.
 
 

[vagalumes]

Have to agree, when narrators change midseries...
Cassandra Clare keeps changing narrators on basically every book, very hard to get sucked into the story when characters all of a sudden for example change accents??? (won't ever forget this, one narrator invented a lisp for one of the characters? WHY? when there is 0 indication of this in the text...)

And also, when authors make up words and narrators don't check with the authors how the words are supposed to be pronounced. Very obvious one is spells in the Harry Potter books for example, or the pronunciation of Voldemort.
There are a few young adult fantasy books where pronunciation of certain words change over time as the series progresses... Why couldn't they verify or have a pronunciation guide at the start of the series.

Oh, and when male narrators do this weird unnaturally high pitched kind of voice for female characters. I really struggle with Stephen Fry's Hermione voice.

[Gweilo]

Oh, and when male narrators do this weird unnaturally high pitched kind of voice for female characters. I really struggle with Stephen Fry's Hermione voice.

Maybe my male prejudice, but I find it much worse when a woman tries to speak in a deeper voice for male  characters.
This one was pretty bad: https://audiobookbay.lu/audio-books/fledgling-octavia-e-butler/
OK when she was just narrating or doing the female protagonist, but the males were grating. Didn't help the story was very tedious, one of the few audiobooks I have abandoned unfinished.
 

[vagalumes]

Oh, and when male narrators do this weird unnaturally high pitched kind of voice for female characters. I really struggle with Stephen Fry's Hermione voice.

Maybe my male prejudice, but I find it much worse when a woman tries to speak in a deeper voice for male  characters.
This one was pretty bad: https://audiobookbay.lu/audio-books/fledgling-octavia-e-butler/
OK when she was just narrating or doing the female protagonist, but the males were grating. Didn't help the story was very tedious, one of the few audiobooks I have abandoned unfinished.
 

I had one of those female narrators the other day too, was very hard to sit through. But I know I am biased to a female voice/protagonist so I put up with it more but I have DNF'ED books in both cases.

Also Americans narrating in a british accent or a Brit doing an American accent but just butchering it - Another one of Cassandra Clare's book had the narrator sometimes dropping the accent in the wrong places...

I started keeping track of narrators I like and dislike and unless I'm very excited by the story/adore the author, I will skip books with narrators I disliked if I'm only mildly intrigued.

[illodiini]

I wish they would do the Fire and Ice books anew. Roy Dotrice made most of his characters sound like demented dwarfs.

[Gweilo]

I wish they would do the Fire and Ice books anew. Roy Dotrice made most of his characters sound like demented dwarfs.

Try this: https://tokybook.com/a-song-of-ice-and-fire-series-1/
Certainly a different interpretation.

[illodiini]

I wish they would do the Fire and Ice books anew. Roy Dotrice made most of his characters sound like demented dwarfs.

Try this: https://tokybook.com/a-song-of-ice-and-fire-series-1/
Certainly a different interpretation.

Well, not bad, but male voices are a bit amateurish, to put it nicely...

[Gweilo]

Well, not bad, but male voices are a bit amateurish, to put it nicely...

Pretty sure they are all amateur.
It's free and I doubt authorised  by the publishers.

[asukazx13]

I can not stop laughing at this work of audio genius...lol...who herd this and thought
"Fkn Aye! Package that & let's put it up for sale" Das izz gud yes? Nope...but it is hilariously awful

Sounds like Melenia Trump reading to her kids...

I almost pissed myself laughing.
Okay, I love narrators with accents or those that can do a decent one.
I think the issue is more about ability than the accent.
One can have an accent but if they do not enunciate, then what we heard is the result.
If those with the ambiguous, preferred Midwestern accent can enunciate, then they're pretty much worthless in the world of speech, imo.

[asukazx13]

Oh, and when male narrators do this weird unnaturally high pitched kind of voice for female characters. I really struggle with Stephen Fry's Hermione voice.

Maybe my male prejudice, but I find it much worse when a woman tries to speak in a deeper voice for male  characters.
This one was pretty bad: https://audiobookbay.lu/audio-books/fledgling-octavia-e-butler/
OK when she was just narrating or doing the female protagonist, but the males were grating. Didn't help the story was very tedious, one of the few audiobooks I have abandoned unfinished.
 

I understand what you're both saying. There's few narrators that have the range to do both male and female voices. I'd actually prefer if publisher's spent a little extra time and money, having an appropriate male and female narrate in tandem.

[iberian-lynx]

 
If you can't pronounce German words, don't try narrating Stormtroopers: A New History of Hitler's Brownshirts. I'm looking at you, Roger Clark. Turns out, there are a lot of German words in that book. Who knew?
 
This is a common problem, and another facet of the contempt with which publishers treat both material and audience.
 
 

I have to agree with you. It’s particularly faulty in the romance genre. Although, for me, sometimes problems related to language already start with the writers. They try to pass a character as French, German, Russian... and decide to use phrases and sentences in those languages. But without any knowledge whatsoever, so we get literal translations that mean nothing, wrong syntax, word gender mixed up. It is as if the writer used Google translation without even trying. So, if they didn’t try, why should the narrators...