Reading: The Cremation of Sam McGee
Jan. 30th, 2012 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usernamenumberAs I've mentioned here before, I've been hankering to get back into audio production without getting involved with something as life-eating as Second Shift, and I recently found such a project, which I'd now like to share.
See, my grandmother recently had a birthday and, sadly, got food poisoning during the celebration. This put her in the hospital, and while she's fine now it reminded me of two things: the first is that I'd been meaning to record readings of some of her favorite poems as a present for her "one of these days" for a while now, and the second is that when it comes to grandmothers "one of these days" can be all too close to "too late".
Have I mentioned that my grandmother is an amazing person? Though her body is so old she can barely move, she keeps her mind active by listening to audiobooks and reciting poems she's known by heart all of her life. A favorite of these is The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service. It's a wonderful yarn that I'd heard my mother and grandmother both recite many times in my life, so I decided to try my own hand at it (a reading, not a recitation). It ended up being sort of an experiment in how much of an audio theater approach you can take to a piece without actually adapting the content, and I'm pleased with the results, so here it is.
Download
It's not perfect; most notably, because I started out planning on doing a no-frills reading just for the family, the recording was done sitting in the office at home with nothing to dampen the room echo, and unfortunately it shows. But even there there's a silver lining. At some point I think I would like to re-record the vocals in a better environment and do a side-by-side comparison as an object lesson in how to set up a recording space, and just how big a difference simple things like hanging a blanket behind you can make. One might be surprised by how easily some of these problems can be fixed without spending a ton on equipment.
Anyway, bit of a digression there at the end. I hope folks enjoy the poem. :)
See, my grandmother recently had a birthday and, sadly, got food poisoning during the celebration. This put her in the hospital, and while she's fine now it reminded me of two things: the first is that I'd been meaning to record readings of some of her favorite poems as a present for her "one of these days" for a while now, and the second is that when it comes to grandmothers "one of these days" can be all too close to "too late".
Have I mentioned that my grandmother is an amazing person? Though her body is so old she can barely move, she keeps her mind active by listening to audiobooks and reciting poems she's known by heart all of her life. A favorite of these is The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service. It's a wonderful yarn that I'd heard my mother and grandmother both recite many times in my life, so I decided to try my own hand at it (a reading, not a recitation). It ended up being sort of an experiment in how much of an audio theater approach you can take to a piece without actually adapting the content, and I'm pleased with the results, so here it is.
Download
It's not perfect; most notably, because I started out planning on doing a no-frills reading just for the family, the recording was done sitting in the office at home with nothing to dampen the room echo, and unfortunately it shows. But even there there's a silver lining. At some point I think I would like to re-record the vocals in a better environment and do a side-by-side comparison as an object lesson in how to set up a recording space, and just how big a difference simple things like hanging a blanket behind you can make. One might be surprised by how easily some of these problems can be fixed without spending a ton on equipment.
Anyway, bit of a digression there at the end. I hope folks enjoy the poem. :)
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Date: 2012-01-31 01:09 pm (UTC)Thank you.
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Date: 2012-01-31 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-31 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-02-02 05:37 pm (UTC)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQeJ8sxhKuE
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Date: 2012-02-02 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-02 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-02-03 02:04 pm (UTC)