While many audiobook producers will drop sound effects into the mix for a children’s book, we’ve found that very few take the care with the mix that we do at Pro Audio Voices. Typically a sound effect, such as a dog bark, jumps out at you as an effect. We, however, want each sound to support the story, so that it just makes the story more real in the moment. This means taking the time and care to make certain:
Let’s dive deeper into the second item in that list above. Where a sound is placed is an art in itself.
For example, let’s use the sentence: “The frog jumped over his head, and landed in the water.” Imagine we’ve decided we want a “boing” sound for the jump and a splash when the frog hits the water.
If the boing is placed under the word “jumped,” it could muddy the word “jump” and will have less impact than if you place it at the comma after “head.” Likewise with the splash: if placed under the word water, we lose the impact of the better timing of having it after the word “water.” It’s like comedic timing. Timing is everything, both with jokes – and with sound effects. The other thing to note in this sentence is that we’d want the narrator to vocally suggest the “jump” that is then, in part, setting up the sound when it comes.
As you can see, we think about these things and have a deep understanding of production and theatricality that we apply to your children’s audiobook.
We’ll work with you in our preparation process to select and place music and sound effects to enhance the enjoyability of your book and keep your listeners happily engaged.
