Audio Contest
After much deliberation, a winner has been chosen for the Pick-a-Contest contest. The honor goes to Ruvio, who suggested the idea that inspired us for the final contest. Ruvio will get a signed copy of Brayan’s Gold for the winning suggestion.
The contest will be to record the best reading of a section from one of the Demon Cycle books (you can read from The Great Bazaar or Brayan’s Gold as well as from The Warded Man and The Desert Spear). We’re looking for a fun, and enjoyable reading. You may make various voices for the different characters, but it isn’t required.
Rules:
1. Record yourself reading from one of the books.
2. Post the recording in the comments of this post. (Instructions are below.)
3. In the comment, list what book the selection is from and the chapter.
4. Aim for the reading to be around the five minute mark. It can be shorter or longer; however, entries over 10 minutes long will automatically be disqualified.
5. You have two weeks to submit to the contest. Have the comment posted by 11:59 pm United States eastern time on March 9th to be considered.
The winner of the contest will receive a personalized deluxe edition of Brayan’s Gold, an absolutely beautiful volume. It is bound in white leather with the ward signs embossed on the cover. It also comes with a special dust jacket. This only had a print run of 750. So overall, a nice piece of loot.
Runner up prizes will be determined later.
Instructions for posting the file:
We’ve decided to use the website Sound Cloud to upload the files. However, you may use a different service if you would like, as long as it is small enough to embed in the comments.
First, go to www.soundcloud.com and click Sign Up in the middle of the page towards the right. Then, create an account.
After you do this, they will then send you a confirmation email. Once you get the email, all you have to do is click the link on the email to verify the account. The email may take a while to get to you. You can have them resend it if it hasn’t arrived after about 5 minutes.
After you have verified your account, you can then upload your file.
There are two ways to do this. One, you can save the audio file onto your computer and then upload it. Or you may record it directly onto the website. I would suggest saving the file and then uploading it. You have more control over it if you happen to record a take that you don’t like.
To upload the file, click on Upload at the top of the page at the end of the line and then select your upload method (Either record or upload the file).
After it has uploaded, you may see the file and then play it on the page. (It is a long horizontal box that has the play button on the left.) Over the play button is a button labeled as Share. Click on this. It will offer some code that allows you to embed the file onto a page. Copy the code and then paste it into the comment section. Post the comment and then you are done.
And of course, feel free to listen to everyone’s entries.
If anyone has any questions about the uploading process, feel free to email me at pa@www.petervbrett.com.
-Rebecca
Yikes. Well I won’t be entering that one. Not much of a performer. Good luck to all.
Won’t be entering that one either. Don’t have a microphone, and it’s too difficult for me to read out loud in english 🙁 Good luck to all the contestants!
Awesome contest! Definitely entering! Have had some practice with Gardens of the Moon and The Emerald Storm, looking forward to trying this. 🙂
Great contest! Looking forward to everyones entries. I´ll enter this one as well. Chosing only one 5-10 minute part out of these books is right now proving to be really hard. There´s so many scenes I loved.
Congrats Ruvio! That’s a wicked idea, ‘though I doubt my dulcet tones will be found that alluring, it’ll be too fun to miss, hah.
Jess does raise an interesting point however; does it have to be in English? I myself am an English speaker, but would you be able to judge the non-english speakers fairly as well? It’d be awesome to hear some of the foreign translations spoken.
I would not disqualify a non-english entry. I have copies of every translation to follow along with.
That said, I bet Jess’ French accent is sexier than she thinks…
lol Peat. You can’t imagine how my english is horrible! I hope you’ll be able to hear it first hand in May 😉
Can’t wait to listen all the entries 🙂
Well I’ll definitly enter this contest. My sister always says, that I have such a nice voice to read books loud 😉 And i do it really often, it’s fun^^
Again a question to non-english entrys, can I do both? One in german and maybe the same part in english. Because I think my english is not that bad, but german is a nice language 😉
I’m gonna try it in both languages like Iris – though I’m not as self-confident as her 🙂
But it’s gonna be great to listen to all the entrys^^
Iris & Eve, you can do whatever you’d like. I think it will be interesting to hear you read the same section in two languages. Excited to see the results!
My students came back in the room as I was recording some of my section, just as I spat on the floor for effect. It’s a shame I can’t read it to them, but they’re a bit above a third grade ability level.
I tried to record something, but couldn´t make it work. I can´t find the cable for my microphone, so I tried the mic on my old headset, but the distortion is unbearable. And I can´t record myself using my video camera (which I have used to record audio before), because my new computer doesn´t have a firewire plug-in.
I would have loved to enter this one.
Snellopy, that is awesome. Were they all spitting for the rest of the day?
Sorry for the technical difficulties, Erzberger. Would have loved to hear it. I hope you get your mic working at some point.
Sam Reading the Warded Man from Jessica Strider on Vimeo.
Sam Reading the Warded Man from Jessica Strider on Vimeo.
Sam, the cat in the video, was a good sport for the most part, but got distracted a few time, hence the choppiness of the video. This passage is from page 32 to 34. I’d intended to finish the recitation, but Sam decided he’d done enough.
Wow, SoundCloud doesn’t like playing with Linux! Had to *shudder* go to a Windows machine to upload my clip. Right from the beginning, Page 1, Scene 1, Book 1: “The Warded Man”.
Brett-sample by Kaz Augustin
Brett-sample by Kaz Augustin
Hope this formats okay. And thanks for the novel comp! 🙂
Good job, Kaz! Having tried this myself I´m really impressed at how clear you are able to pronounce each word.
I also liked the cat video 🙂 Sam seems to know the story by heart. He hardly even looks at the book. 🙂
At this rate, I’m never going to get to enter! I left my recording at work on Friday, when I was going to stitch it together over the weekend. So I made a new one, from The Painted Man (since I’d also managed to leave The Desert Spear at work too). Our connection at home can be dicey, so I couldn’t upload it. So I put it on a USB to bring to school, and left it at home. So I start trying to stitch together the one at work, and I realise that the recording quality is really dodgy 🙁 Oh well, there’s still a few days to get my stuff together. At least one good thing came out of it, my assistant was intrigued by the cover of The Desert Spear, and wants to read it and The Painted Man.
My kids weren’t spitting everywhere, they’re used to me teaching from a position of incompetence… setting a bad example, and showing what not to do. 😉
Nicely done Kaz and Sam! How many takes did it take you to do it? I realise now I stopped too many times for my first attempt, which is going to make stitching it together annoying. My second go, I stopped about a dozen times, sometimes having to do a retake as I got tongue tied or stumbled.
Sam did a few dummy takes, with the idea of video taping him and adding the voice over later. But he was doing so well, I decided to do the voice over with the video. Guess Sam memorized his lines during the practice runs, so he didn’t have to look at the book for the real thing (he really did look at the book more during those silent takes, and stayed still longer too). My video editing skills aren’t that great and it took a few tries before I finally managed to piece the three video clips together. I’d considered doing more, but…
Wow Kaz, yours sounds like a professional ebook!!! Great voice.
I’ve been really looking forward to entering this, but had no time on my hands [especially after losing 24hours to The Wise Man’s Fear]. I’ll be manically busy tomorrow as well so I figure why not just enter for the craic.
It’s far from perfect, but I actually quite enjoyed it anyway – One of my favourite parts of the book.
I chose the final scene of Chapter 14, The Desert Spear. I’ve always loved how it reminds me just how terrifying the Demons of Peat’s world are, and how evil men can be.
Night in the Outhouse by Elicius
[or if that doesn’t work: http://snd.sc/fv3i0h%5D
The quelling of Renna’s rebellion, and the means by which it is done, scare the pants off me.
PS. While the whole is pretty poor aduio, I edited one section particularly poorly, but had to leave it in ’cause it was so blatant it made me laugh – sorry!
Now that that is out of the way – Gotta love Sam’s reading skills! And I stand in awe of your reading Kaz; Jessica is not wrong when she says it sounds professional! Just….wow!
Hell this sounds pretty easy, but it really isn’t!
All my respect to KAZ and Jessica who did a damn good job!
Wish mine turned out like yours 😀
Well here the my english Version – If I have tomorrow free time to spent I’ll also try the german.
DTS by Eve_
http://soundcloud.com/eve-14/dts
I went in and embedded all the video and audio into the comments thread, but it seems glitchy. Are they working for everyone? Each entry also has the direct link to the a/v file if the embedded player does not work right.
whoa Kaz, you sound like a pro!
OK my entry is from chapter 21 of the Painted Man, Only a Chin.
I had a great time making the roaring sounds. It was probably a good thing my wife was out shopping when I made the recording 😀
I wouldn’t recommend listening to it through headphones like I just did to check it had uploaded correctly, I jumped out of my seat, they are a bit loud.
Arlen V’s the Sand Demon by Snellopy
http://soundcloud.com/snellopy/arlen-vs-the-sand-demon
Been listening to these and having an amazing, surreal experience. It’s particularly amazing when I get to hear the real voices of people who regularly post on the blog. So much win.
Jessica, you are awesome as ever. Your cat is a lot more patient than mine. The only thing Jinx has ever done with one of my books is attack it, biting and scratching like she wanted it to die.
Kaz, that is amazing. You have a tremendous reading voice. I’ve bought pro audiobooks that weren’t half as good.
Elicius, a terrifying rendition of a truly terrifying scene. It is just as hard to listen to as it was to write. I take comfort that Renna is stronger for it, because there’s a big storm coming.
Eve, that is fantastic! I know you were worried, but your English is very clear, and your accent is adorable. I’m looking forward to hearing the German version, if you get to it.
Snellopy, dude, you are like friggin’ Mel Blanc with the voices and demon sounds. What’s up with the pirate voice for Jardir, though. “Avast, ye scurvy khaffit! Arrr!”
I am gonna give this a shot tomorrow- I bet its harder than it looks, but it sounds like a lot of fun! Everyone who has posted so far has done such a great job! I’ve picked a couple of scenes, we’ll see how it goes haha.
And here we go! The beginning of Brayans Gold from the german book “Der große Basar”:
Brayans Gold by Kumkwat
Brayans Gold by Kumkwat
Sorry, for the muffled sound sometimes, my mic isn’t that great. Anyway, I originally wanted to do both german and english, but unfortunatly, I forgot all of the books at my parents house. They live like six hours from here and I don’t have a drivers licence. 🙁 Only had “der große basar”. Sorry for that. Hope you enjoy anyway 😀
Finally, my entry! 🙂 I apologize for the sound quality – I buggered up the first recording when I tried to remove the noise so I decided to leave it in – I hope you guys can hear clearly. 🙂 It’s an awesome comp! Feels kickass to be reading some of Peat’s work; now I’ve read, his, Steve Erikson’s and Michael Sullivan’s. 😀
The Desert Spear Prologue by DaveBrendon
The Desert Spear Prologue by DaveBrendon
Yeah, somehow I managed to record a german version – though it’s not the same section, for my german books are right now at a friends house, who is enjoying a two-weeks-student exchange with russia…
So I just recorded the beginning of everytink, for every story begings with the start 😀
Hope you all enjoy 🙂
The painted Man by Eve_
The painted Man by Eve_
http://snd.sc/fE2oaM
Hello everybody!
Firstly, sorry for my English very bad, but I use a translator, I speak mostly German in addition to French, not much English: s.
I put my late participation, I have just returned from a ski vacation:). The sound quality is not great, and the voice not very high because my sisters sleeping beside ^ ^ ‘. Superb recording and Jessica: o. In short, my participation not terrible, but the main thing is to participate.
Chapter 33 – pages 608-610 – The Desert’s Spear – French Version
Audio Recording on Tuesday night – La Lance du Désert by Kissifrott
http://soundcloud.com/kissifrott/audio-recording-on-tuesday
Are my calculations right in thinking that the UK has exactly 12 hours to enter before deadline? I may have a go – maybe 🙂
That is exactly right. 🙂
Hi there,
I think everybody did a great job. I love the roaring sounds of the demon that Snellopy made, I really was afraid when the first roars began. :S
So here is my version, I’m very sorry to say that I could only read it out in german because I haven’t got a copy of the Painted Man in english.
My extract is from ‘Das Lied der Dunkelheit’ page 32 to 35, when Arlen talks to Ragen while they’re going to Rusco.
I’ve got also a question or it’s more like a request. Could you, Mr. Brett, tell us how the characters names are pronounciated correctly? That would be great I really feel bad when I’m saying the names in a wrong way.
Thanks a lot.
Das Lied der Dunkelheit Seite 32 bis 35 by Beccs
Oh and I also forgot to ask if there is going to be a book with all the wards and meanings of it?
Thanks for a response
I agree with the poster above- I would love to know how to pronounce some of the more difficult names, some of the Krasian language that is used, etc. I think Pete should make a recording of him speaking these names for us haha.
Hello! I read from the very end of The Desert Spear, from the last chapter, titled A Promise Kept. Literally like the last 3 pages.
I was torn between this scene and the scene when Leesha and Jardir “seal-the-deal.”
Apromisekept by Jesilynn
Apromisekept by Jesilynn
I went over all the pronunciations with my US audiobook people. (Don’t trust the UK version. They pronounce half the stuff wrong.)
Anyway, it took hours. I’ve no desire to go through that again, but if people want to ask for specific ones, I’m happy to do a short list. I’ll ask Rebecca to set up a blog or something on the Forum where people can ask.
This was a late entry, but I am going to accept it anyway: