The Sword and Laser discussion
Audiobook speed read
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Christopher
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Jun 20, 2018 02:39PM
I usually increase the speed of both audiobooks and podcasts, anywhere from 1.25 too 3x, depending on the situation. This did lead to an odd moment when meeting Veronica as it took me a little while to realize who she was and then why she didn’t sound the same. People really should come with speed controls, just so I can avoid moments like that.
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I love when I find an audiobook/series where the narrator adds to the story. There's a recent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-v4A... with Kevin Hearne and Luke Daniels discussing this and Kevin recognizes that Luke's performance added elements to the story that he hadn't anticipated, but appreciated and approved. I've heard similar feelings expressed from Jim Butcher about James Marsters and the Dresden Files. Not every audiobook hits this level, but jumping to the speed read would eliminate these happy discoveries for me. Wil Wheaton is another of those narrators that I would put in this class.
Jeff - I was about to ask about that. Narrators are performers and speeding the performance up alters it, losing or distorting pacing, pauses and phrasing. I'm also curious when people say "so and so's reading is bad" if they're listening at 1x or more than 1x. The latter would make such a comment potentially unfair.
Christopher wrote: "I usually increase the speed of both audiobooks and podcasts, anywhere from 1.25 too 3x, depending on the situation."Who are you monsters?
“I listen to my 33 rpm albums on 45 rpm! And I watch videos on FF! I feed my hamster amphetamine so he really spins that wheel!”
Trike wrote: "Christopher wrote: "I usually increase the speed of both audiobooks and podcasts, anywhere from 1.25 too 3x, depending on the situation."Who are you monsters?
“I listen to my 33 rpm albums on 45..."
This is nearly as bad as finding out alll your friends are axe murderers...
Mod
No-one under 30 understands that paragraph grandpa ;-)
My grandmother had 78s. It was fun playing a 45 single on her old gramaphone that had a 78 setting :-)
Then playing the 78s on the 45 setting. Kids were more easily amused in the 60s and 70s ;-)
For audiobooks and podcasts I'm usually at 1.5x, but if I'm listening to(reading?) a book again I'll do 2-2.5x. I've read LotR a few times now so I can keep up at higher speeds. lol I'm so accustomed to listening to podcasts at higher speeds I just can't listen to them at 1x. I find it distracting and Tom and Veronica almost sound drunk even if they say they're only drinking water.
Man, this really calls into question all of the "I don't like the narrator" comments on various audiobooks 'cause unless you listen and 1x, you're not hearing the narration as it was performed. I'm kinda tempted to stir the pot and start the old "Is listening really reading a book" debate from years ago :)
This might not be obvious if you haven't spent much time listening at a higher speed (or if higher speeds don't work for you), but for most of us, it just doesn't "sound" fast in our heads, similar to when we eye read at a fast pace. It's only when some other sound jars us out of that zone that we notice the speed; for example, when my husband walks into a room where I'm listening on a speaker and says something - his comment then makes the audio seem fast by comparison.I've never noticed playback speed changing my satisfaction with narrators, and I'm a huge fangirl of some of them. In fact, the ability to change speed makes some narrators better - I love Wil Wheaton but he reads slow; speeding up the audiobooks he narrates makes his performance even better.
I’m in the slow is distracting camp. If the narrator is too slow, it makes it impossible for me to pay attention. The Playster app at first did not have a speed adjust feature, and it was soo distracting. I’ve also have noticed British narrators seem to read faster, so I end up adjusting the speed depending on the narrator.
Mod
I'd like to hear that slowed down. My guess is that she either misses a lot of syllables or a lot of words will be unintelligible.
Donna wrote: "This might not be obvious if you haven't spent much time listening at a higher speed (or if higher speeds don't work for you), but for most of us, it just doesn't "sound" fast in our heads, similar..."Speeding up changes the performance, though. That's fine - it's obviously your experience - but my point is that your experience then becomes yours. If you say "I like/don't like the narrator" you're commenting on the narrator's performance at the speed you listened to it at. Someone who chooses another speed will simply have a different experience. The easy way to avoid that is "I listen at 1.5x and for me the narrator...."
I tried 1.25x speed for audiobooks because of this thread, & now I can't listen at normal speed. Thanks.
I tried it and now think half of you are clinically insane.
I listen to S&L (and many other podcasts) at 1.25x speed. After listening to the most recent podcast where they mentioned this thread, it reminded me that I didn't need to be listening to The Sparrow at normal speed on Audible. Thank you! Also, the S&L theme music sounds so. very. slow. to me now at normal speed. :)
True story: I subscribe to a podcast (sadly apparently defunct) by the Minnesota Compline Choir where, when it was still running, each episode was 25 minutes of primarily organ music, hymns and/or Gregorian chant. Once I was listening to a particularly chant-heavy episode and it ended much more quickly than I expected and only when I checked afterwards did I realize I'd been listening at 1.5x.
What a wretched hive of scum and villainy!
I don't want to listen at faster speeds, I just have to. There's not enough time in the day between my subscribed podcasts and all the books I want to get through. I listen on my commute. I listen at 2x and in one ear while working. When I get home, if I'm not trying to make room on my DVR, I'm trying to clear the backlog of episodes from a great podcast I just found that has archived two hundred hours of content. I listen while playing video games. If I could I'd play four things at the same time like Data in Star Trek, it still wouldn't be enough. But I always listen to Sword & Laser at normal speed, so I can really enjoy the mispronunciations and background doorbells.
Does anyone listen at slower than normal speed? My app goes to 0.5 normal.
Sean Lookielook wrote: "Does anyone listen at slower than normal speed? My app goes to 0.5 normal. ."I’ve done that for specific moments in the various music/soundtrack podcasts I listen to, or in the general science podcasts, when I want to examine a particular moment in a song. But the whole podcast? Never. Seems like that would be excruciating.
I know a few people with hearing impairments who turn the speed down so it’s a bit easier to understand
I've never really liked audiobooks. I didn't consider it "reading." Because I buy SO MANY BOOKS Amazon occasionally gives me a free audiobook. To try to get me hooked on Audible I assume. I use them of course (free book!) But I didn't like them. Of the four I've gotten, I couldn't even tell you the plot of two of them. They just left my head. Also, audiobooks just take forever. I read almost 600 words per minute. 11 hours to read a 450 page book? No!
This thread has intrigued me. If I can listen to books while folding laundry or mowing the lawn... I could ingest several more books! I've been assured that I will get better at listening with time. It's a learned skill; I just need practice.
Yesterday I checked out the an audiobook from the library. Middle grade fiction; let's start easy. I like it! You may have a convert. Only for those times I can't read of course.
I tried 1.25x... You people are insane!!! It sounded crazy!
Mod
They are ;-)
Slow down and enjoy the story.
If your on iOS then try Bookmobile. You can start at 1.0x, then go up to 1..05x then 1.10x etc. It's much easier than trying to jump right in at 1.25x :)
I use the library to get most of the books I read, and especially for audiobooks (I love overdrive!). Sometimes, I'm rushing to finish a really good book before the library takes it away from me. THAT'S the only time I will occasionally go up to 1.5x.
So......(being evil) if the device your audiobook is on can't connect to the internet (wifi or data plan) then the audiobook doesn't get the "turn off" signal and remains available. I've finished books on my "backup" kindle that way, with the wireless turned off.Edited to add: I should note that I know that for sure for kindle but have no personal experience with audiobooks.
Yeah, i know that trick for the kindle, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work for audiobooks, at least not in the overdrive app. I've put my phone on airplane mode and the book still disappears. I do think that the book won't go away if I am actively listening, but as soon as I hit pause, it goes away then too.
The solution to that is not to listen to the audiobook on the same device you downloaded it on. If you install the Overdrive program on a PC it's a simple matter of making a copy of the files outside the app. The app even has 'Transfer' and 'Burn to CD' as options.
I find that most audiobooks I need to listen to at 1.5x speed, and like the OP slowly increase, usually ending most audiobooks at 2x speed. Look, that's how fast my brain reads the print. If I go too slow I fall asleep on the interstate and almost crash into a semi truck (true story, no more Steinbeck on the road for me.)Sometimes an audiobook narrator is too fast, often if the author (untrained at audiobook reading) is the narrator, or maybe even an actor. I recently listened to a Virginia Woolf read by Nicole Kidman and couldn't speed it up.
I've only sped up a podcast one time, and it was because I couldn't stand the host's voice! Ha. I think it might help to slow some podcast voices down, like Luke Burrage on the Science Fiction Book Review Podcast. Love his idea (to quote, he "reviews every science fiction book, THAT he reads, WHEN he reads it, there's no set schedule...") but that guy can talk really fast when he gets going!
I think most people vary their speed too much in normal speaking. When a text is read, it is easier to be more even about it.
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