What’s it Actually Like to Record An Audio Book | Pro Talker Put to the Test

Josiah's birthday tomorrow. I don't think he needs any Legos. A pack of chicken, plus there's some reason one pack of one breast, so that's probably the best way to get rid of it because we ain't ever just gonna eat one chicken breast. Uh-oh, birthday tomorrow, birthday tomorrow! I can't wait.

Good morning.

Hey, good morning. Hey, do you have a ball on your truck?

Uh, yeah, we got it.

We're thinking you'll pull our little cargo trailer because then we don't have to put lids on these things.

Oh, okay.

We just ordered that to the printer. I'm very excited. We're recording the audio version of my book, The Rooted Life, this week. Super excited about that. You super excited about that, Rebecca? Yeah, real studio. My boys' first audiobook ever. I didn't— I wasn't convinced by her answer there. It does mean I'm gone every afternoon this whole week.

That's all right, we'll make it.

That's tough for us because we are used to being together and working together all the time. If last week was our craziest week with all the harvests, which it was, this week is a close second. To start it off, we've got to get 5 barrels of meat in a trailer for Grandma and Big Daddy to take it to the butcher. How is it? Perfect. Our little, uh, travel trailer for when we travel. Gotta come in handy. It's gonna come in handy for hauling food. This has got dirt all up in it. I hope that even works. That's It's coming off easy. What we're gonna do is put it in and then out. Okay, Gideon, you tell me if the brake lights light up. Light up? No. Did any lights come on, bro?

I wasn't watching those lights.

Maybe I can put my camera here, maybe I can put my viewfinder this way, and I can look in the camera. Are the lights working?

No.

Okay, I just spit on it, cleaned it out a little bit more. Do it again, Jonah. I would go without trailer lights. Big Daddy will not go without trailer lights. Nope. All right. Let's take the Suburban then. I'll just have to borrow Grandma's car in case I need it to go record this audiobook if they don't get back on time. I'm wondering if I should limit my talking because I'm about to be talking maximum. Talk about putting my professional talking career to the test. You remember what I said after I was loopy after tooth surgery.

You're talking a lot better.

Good.

You seem to be in much better shape.

Professional talker.

You're funny. Stop it.

That's what I do for a living, Beck. Before we attach it, let's test it. Ready?

Yeah.

Nope. Well, that means there wasn't anything wrong with Big Daddy's truck. So, but how can it be the trailer? It's brand new. I bet he didn't get it in good enough. Oh, is it working? Okay, well, there we go.

Keep going. Stop.

My fragile air conditioning that we've been having problems with, my CoolBot I need to replace, did hold up. Bye-bye, Big Daddy, Grandma. Thank you. Milking time. What's going on?

We moved the chick shot forward.

Okay.

And I was just putting a little bit of wood chips on top.

All right, poop.

Because if I am gonna lay in here, if I'm gonna be able to get the sun, I don't want to— I don't want to smell.

We're wondering if we get the UV?

Well, the vitamin D. So I'm just trying to figure out if you can—

she's going to be the crazy chicken lady. You might be a crazy chicken lady if you've sunbathed in their greenhouse.

Well, hold on a second. So there is still a short window of time currently that we can get vitamin D from the sun, and I want to continue getting vitamin D from the sun. So it's too cold to lay outside because the wind and stuff like that, but if we lower the sides and it's a greenhouse in here, so it's warmer, I could—

they left those lights through because— oh look, it just got crazy. Oh my— the big, uh, track hoe.

So anyways, I'm trying to research that. I think that it's okay. I think that we could still get vitamin D. I'm not 100% sure because plants grow in here, so they, they're getting the sun and the benefits of it. I don't know though, I'm still working on figuring that out.

I'm gonna go see what's going on. Yeah. Okay. What do you say? Hello, gentlemen! Hello! You ready for some work today with that big one? See you guys way up there on the mountain, way there, clearing along that access road today. I sent Josiah on assignment. So hopefully he's getting some good shots of their action. Mineral Monday. Project for today. We got a lot of work to do on this thing. We have some minerals that have been rubbed off— no, it's minerals that have been replaced and not labeled. And then we have some minerals boxes that have been rubbed off by the cows and have not been replaced yet. And we need to build a frame around it so that doesn't happen again. So we got a lot of work to do on this. We have about 1 hour of project time here. We're just gonna do what we can.

Let's go! I want to go home.

That's one way to take to take some pressure off things when you have a project like that. Give yourself an hour or 30 minutes or whatever you have and just do the best you can. Don't think we can finish in that time, but we're gonna work to— hey, you're shaking the camera, bro. Well, that's exactly what we're doing, but you keep interrupting me.

But we're talking.

Slow it down.

No.

All right, so let's finish this bit and then we'll go. I'll wait on you, okay? It's one of those projects that isn't like just— it won't kill them if they don't have it today. Well, they've actually been without it for a little bit. Those kinds of projects you can just chip away at it. So I'm gonna just let the action unfold. I'm gonna chill on the narration. For lunch, some leftover chili, some cornbread. Rebecca heard back from the sun doctor. What's the sun doctor's name? Is she like on Instagram or something?

Courtney Hunt on Instagram.

Okay, she says it's cool to go into the greenhouse.

She said to use it. All right, so I'm gonna do it.

So you're gonna still get the benefits? Yeah, vitamin D. There's no blockage in that plastic.

I mean, there probably is some, but it's better than nothing. It's better than not getting out in the sun when the sun is shining. It's gonna be better to be sitting in that greenhouse, you know, sunbathing.

You know, sunbathing in a greenhouse full of chickens works better with a camera.

I'm sure I'll do these. I'm sure.

Okay, you need a cot too to get up.

I'm gonna sit— I'm gonna— yeah, I will have to get it.

You don't want a towel there, they might eat you.

No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm definitely getting up.

Jacob, our trainer, has given us some warm-ups to do. She can't be here till 11:15. We've got a hard stop at 12, so we're gonna go ahead and do the warm-ups. Bye-bye, guys.

Bye!

Bye! Half a day of work away. Bye-bye. It's like a big trip, isn't it? Because we're used to each other, aren't we? We don't like to be away from each other. Bye, Becky! Oh, like that. Blow you a kiss. Grandma and Big Daddy are back. We don't have time to do much with that trailer right now though, so we're just gonna drop it off. My guess is y'all have never been to an audiobook recording. Well, me either, so let's go together. When I tell people I'm gonna go record my audiobook, they're getting— they get confused. They're like, oh, for Joel or what? No, this is like the book, the book I wrote, The Rooted Life. It's coming out in February. It's available for pre-order order now, which we're gonna get you first 3 chapters of audio also, along with the PDF and video instructional for all the pre-order folks. I'll have info for that down in the description. But no, this is my book, The Rooted Life. Like, this is the audiobook version, like the, like the, that you can get on Audible. That it's gonna be my voice, not somebody else's voice. My voice. That's why I'm nervous I'm gonna lose my voice. So I should probably be quiet and just drive there. Just got the printout. I printed the black and white version because why do I need the color photos? I guess I'm just reading straight up out of the book. I guess that's how it works. I kind of wonder, am I gonna have to stick to the script 100%? I'm kind of like that, but kind of like to maybe vary a little bit. I heard David Goggins, from his book, uh, You Can't Hurt Me— I've heard that his audiobook is just, you know, he does that. So the audiobook is like a completely different experience beyond just the audio. I don't know, we'll see how it goes. I mean, the audio experience is enough difference, I think, to make it special.

Matt, hello!

How's it going? Howdy! What's the name of this place?

Aero Sound Studios.

All right, cool. Fletcher of all Slices.

A Fletcher is the person that puts the feather at the end of a bow. I'm testing the—

look at this—

the zoom. So it's making a ring.

Is this where we're going?

Yeah, this is your booth.

Cool.

I apologize for the dim— we can turn more lights on.

And, uh, wow, look at this!

Here's our control room.

So you'll be sitting in here?

Yeah. And then if you check it out out here, uh, it goes right out. We're right in the middle of downtown. We literally have the town hall.

Wow, I know, town hall right there. I'm glad to keep it local.

Totally.

Who else is recording here today? Just me?

Uh, just you today.

Studio B.

Studio B, and it's built up for bigger setups.

This is where the bands come. Yeah.

So we can have like, you know, smaller sessions in Building A. Yeah, have a little vocal booth, some drums, you know, overdubs, and then in here have a, you know, big open space.

Nice. Okay, cool. My room.

Yeah, we'll have Kerry, the director, okay, on the laptop. All right, he's gonna be in your headphones.

Okay. All right.

Then I'll be in the next room over in the control room. I'll be in your headphones, and then you'll be here. And then just to keep noise down, we put the script on an iPad.

Oh, sweet.

So if you, you know, they kind of prefer to not do the printout.

Yeah, yeah, I rushed and did that. Didn't even need it.

But if you did the printout, you know, I might trade you because I didn't print out, and I might could use one for some note-taking.

Hey, Carrie. Yes, I can hear you. Chapter 1 done. That's different. A little slower going than I thought. A lot of retakes, mostly because I jumble words. It's weird because I wrote it, and I wrote it a long time ago. I get comfortable and I get going too fast and I misread it, what I wrote. And, uh, that doesn't always work. It doesn't always make sense of what's coming next. So, uh, we're just taking a quick break here. We've only got 1 hour left. We've spent— chapter 1 took 3 hours. I think we'll get in the groove and speed up because we only have 1 more hour of recording today. Let's hope so. Chapter 2: Starting Smart. Justin! She yelled so loud I could hear her voice over the loud clatter of my string trimmer, and I froze. After being married for 5 years to my high school sweetheart, I knew by her tone and volume I was in deep doo-doo. How's my voice? I'm gonna try to talk quiet. Chapter 2 done. I hope this turns into a timeless classic. Y'all help me, y'all help me. Let's get on the New York Times bestseller list. That only happens when you guys go and get it. And we're on pace, like over 4,000 people have already ordered this thing. It's not out for 3 months, but if you want some of these goodies early, order now and we'll get you those pre-order bonuses. I got a link for you down in the description with all the instructions, or you can go to therootedlife.com. Now let's get home to the chiddlers and the mom.

My papa!

Hey, how was it, my man, my woman? It was good. Chapter 1 and 2 down, 8 more to go. Told them I was a farmer, I was used to hard work, and that was— this was almost like time off.

Oh, okay.

Hi, everybody! Teddy's excited to see me. Gideon's excited. Get it, Evan! You remember me? You excited? Oh, time out, time out. Okay, okay, we're getting it.

2 chapters today, 3 chapters, that's it.

Yeah, and we have to do chapter 1 again. That's their practice, they always do chapter 1 again because you get good. Oh, and I can see that happening. Chapter 2 took a lot less time.

Are you gonna finish it?

It's so good.

Now wait a minute, did Did they make you like stop and say things again and stuff like that?

Yeah, I caught myself really most of the time. Make a mistake, this can be so good.

Are you gonna be on Audible?

Yes. Good Lord's wheel in the crink don't rise, I'll be on Audible. But it's so good, it's not like I'm reading monotone or anything. There's inflection and it's good, and it's, it's going to be neat. It's going to be a good companion to the book.