“Bled Castle, Slovenia” by Dimitry Anikin, licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal.
Chapter 5 of “Frankenstein” by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley found in Project Gutenberg-tm. Read by Breanna Butler. Please see Credits for sound clips used.
I loved reading horror stories when I was growing up. Some of my favorites included gothic literature like Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein. When I was a teacher, I played audiobooks while the students read along (multiple modalities), and they especially liked the ones with sound effects or music in them. It would create a more immersive environment. I could not always afford to buy the nice audiobooks for my classes, so I was sometimes limited to what I could find in the library or on YouTube. Taking my love of horror and using my classroom experience as inspriation, I thought it would be fun to create a podcast that read horror stories from the works available in Project Gutenberg-tm. Since the scene is set during a storm, I added the light rain and thunder sound. Then, I faded from the light rain to the music; I felt music adequately terrifying.
Credits:
“Bled Castle, Slovenia” by Dimitry Anikin from Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal.
Stock sound “Thunder01.mp3” and “Rain02.mp3” by Cyberlink’s AudioDirector.
“Frankenstein FX (120 BPM)” by Xinematix is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Chapter 5 of “Frankenstein” by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley from Project Gutenberg-tm is read by Breanna Butler and is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal.
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Hi Breanna,
You did a nice job of creating an ominous mood for your reading of Frankenstein. The sound of rain provides an eerie backdrop for the gothic literature you suggested, and you did a good job of reading in an expressive voice to place emphasis on the emotional details of the excerpt. I listened through your recording a few times and couldn’t figure out what was creating the sound effect towards the end. Looking at your credits and checking out “Frankenstein FX,” I realized you had simply selected a creepy sound to set the mood for your audiobook.
Audiobooks are in increasingly high demand these days. While I was reluctant to them at first, being a bit of a purist by preferring physical books, I’ve come around on experiencing nonfiction this way. For your podcast, which focuses on fiction, I think you’re making the right call to add sound effects and develop an ambiance for the reading. To take it even further, you could potentially use multiple voices or voice actors for different characters and the narrator, building to more of an audio drama than a typical audio book.
The quality of the vocal recording could be better, and while choice of microphone may be part of the issue, there are also tools you can use in audio editing software to boost the clarity. Perhaps try messing around with the EQ and seeing what happens if you boost the high or mid range.
In any case, your audio composition is well put together!
Hi Breanna!!!!
Thank you for taking us on this gothic literature journey. As a big fan of horror, especially horror films, this will be my first time experiencing a horror-related genre in e-book format. I felt the pacing of your narration perfectly matched the ambiance of the story. However, there were a few instances where I had to rewind to catch what you were saying right before the “Frankenstein FX” sound was added. You did an excellent job changing the tone of the story when describing the creature in the audio. That part stood out the most to me. My only recommendations are to possibly record in a more distinct area for better voice clarity and to adjust the audio settings. I’m not sure if it’s a mic issue, but you might want to experiment with the equalizer to ensure there is no muffled feedback, as you seemed to aim for a stable, paced reading. Additionally, I would suggest making the rain sounds clearer, as they almost sounded like static on my end. Overall, your work was great!
Hi Breanna! I love the concept for this podcast! I am huge horror fan. The sound effect of rain added to the overall eery tone of the audio. I thought the breathing sound effect was a great touch as well, it really brought the narrative to life. Your delivery was perfect for capturing the spooky tone of the text, however next time I would record somewhere quiet and use sound equipment to aid in better audio clarity. The sound felt a bit muffled at times. The rain sounds could have been a bit clearer as well, I thought it was crickets or general spooky audio prior to reading the other comments. I think the image you created pairs nicely with the audio. Overall, great job!