In two taps of my finger I could go to YouTube, and find a news or interview clip of the person. What about names of cultural figures less famous than Lady Gaga? I recently narrated Fool’s Paradise, a chronicle of South Beach and its culture of excess, and had to deal with the occasional paragraph that was essentially a guest list for a fancy party: architects, bankers, rappers, athletes, models. That’s especially useful for preserving the nuances of foreign pronunciations that I’ve cadged from a native speaker.Īnother great pronunciation resource is an app called Howjsay: I type in a word and hear it regally enunciated by what sounds like the ghost of Sir Laurence Olivier. I can finger-write or type the pronunciation in the script’s margin or even embed a little sound file there for later reference. When I encounter an unfamiliar name or term, by holding my finger on it for a moment I can go straight to the corresponding Wikipedia article or a choice of online dictionaries. And I can map my way through the contours of the text, using my finger to insert multicolored underlines, highlights, marginal notes, and customizable rubber stamps. Now I can work almost anywhere - including in bed, while my wife is sleeping, without turning on the light. In the old days, once I’d downloaded a script, I had to run to Staples, pay to print out 300 pages, then lug that brick of loose sheets around on planes and trains, to Starbucks or my backyard or the (windy) beach, or wherever else I wanted to sit and prep. Now - especially as an independent narrator-producer - I can barely imagine working without it. In the course of using it to produce several audiobooks, I’ve discovered a number of advantages, some of them quite unexpected. But, as things have turned out, the iPad has become an indispensable tool of my trade. “I need it for narrating” was a convincing-enough justification. The truth is, the iPad looked like such a supercool toy that I really just wanted an excuse to buy one. If you have ideas or opinions about this, please post a comment or let us know on Facebook or Twitter. Below, actor Dean Sluyter explains how the iPad can be a narrator’s best friend. It’s easier than ever to set up a home studio, and new devices continue to inform the way actors and producers get audiobooks made on ACX. As many of our professional narrators know, technology has created a new paradigm for audiobook production.

Audio books for ipad