Post-production for audiobooks is a specialized area that requires meticulous attention and time. Consider this your guide to audiobook editing techniques and tips.

There are services that can help you with post-production, but there's no harm in gaining an understanding by yourself.

Before You Start the Audiobook Production Process

Before you edit your audio, you have to script and record your audiobook. Then, once you have the final product, you can get to editing. For all stages of audiobook production, there's one rule to remember.

Remember the Golden Rule of Audiobook Quality Assurance?

No matter how good of an editor you have, you need good-quality audio in the first place. Whether you are narrating the audiobook yourself or getting a freelancer to do it, you need an excellent, impeccable read.

That goes for both the clarity of the speech and the quality of the sound. If you want to avoid any intrusive background noise, the audio needs to be recorded in a quiet location (ideally a studio). Use a uni-directional microphone to record the audio.

If the original audio isn't good enough, then there's nothing good audiobook editing techniques can do to change that. So it's crucial that the job is done right to start with.

Stages of Post-Production for Audiobooks

Once the recording is done and you get into post-production, your schedule will probably look something like this:

Label and save all your files.
Review each audio file and take notes.
Create an editing session with your files in your editing software.
Go through your audio and edit it.
Add any music, sound effects, or background noise.
Listen back to your audio to ensure it is of good quality.
Final edits
Export

Post-Processing Audiobooks: What You Need

So before you start the post-production for your audiobook and get into audiobook editing techniques, here's what you need:

Audio editing software
Headphones
A pen and paper
A final copy of your recording script

About Audiobook Editing Techniques

When it comes to the actual editing part of the post-production for audiobooks, there are things you'll need to do to ensure good quality audio. You shouldn't rush the actual audio editing process, as it requires time. When executed flawlessly, your audiobook will delight your intended audience.

Ensuring Audio Quality Optimization

The purpose of using the correct audiobook editing techniques is to optimize audio quality. An audiobook with poor sound quality is like a print book where nobody can see the words clearly. Your listener is reliant on your audiobook quality assurance to be able to actually enjoy listening to your book.

In order to optimize your audio quality, you'll need to understand how to use your audio editing software. Audacity is free software, while Adobe Audition is industry-standard software you can buy a subscription to. It's worth watching a tutorial for your chosen software and figuring out how to do the basics.

Another alternative is to hire a freelance audio editor to put together your audiobook or to look into an audiobook service.

Audiobook Sound Engineering Terms

While there's a whole dictionary for sound engineering that you could look into for recording music or speech or making radio programs, for now we'll focus on six terms that will come up when editing audiobook recordings.

Decibel: This is the number that indicates the sound output; it is abbreviated to "db."
Track: An audio track is the recorded sound in your software. It will look like a wavelength.
Compression: When you finish editing an audio track, you will use the compression tool to reduce (compress) the range of the audio so it is consistent.
Room Tone: Also known as ambiance. Basically, it's the sound of the room when nobody is naturally making noise. We tune out most background sounds naturally, but we notice when we are in an eerie silence. When making films and TV shows, the sound engineer will add room tone under the audio to give it a more natural sound. Audiobooks can also benefit from this technique.
Clipping: When audio levels are amplified above the maximum levels, and become distorted.
Normalizing: You do this to control the loudest part of the audio track.

A Crucial Audiobook Mastering Tip

We've already had the golden rule for the audiobook production process regarding recording good audio in the first place. If it's your first-time editing audio yourself, there's another hard rule you should know, regardless of what you edit: Keep audio levels below the gain line. The gain line can be seen at the top and bottom of the window with your audio wave. To put it in simple terms, if your audio goes past the gain line, it will clip, which means the sound is disrupted and won't register; basically, it's too loud for the playback to be able to handle. So if your audiobook contains clipping audio that goes past the gain line, the listener won't be able to hear what is being said.

A good audiobook mastering tip is to keep the audio level peaks around the -6 dB mark, with peaks and dips ranging from -3 dB to -12 dB. (Be mindful that different platforms may have requirements regarding this, so always check with them first.).

Editing Audiobook Recordings

When it comes to audiobook quality assurance, good editing is a must. The post-production for audiobooks cannot be overlooked because there will be things you need to change or, in some instances, even rerecord.

Editing audio isn't something that should be rushed. In fact, before you start editing, you should really listen through the section you are about to edit so you can get the full context of the section of the chapter. It may feel like a complicated and arduous task, but it is worth doing right because the results will be a better final product.

Post-processing for audiobooks requires a good ear for mispronunciations and things that don't sound right. There may be words that sound somewhat slurred or unnatural gaps between speaking parts. Take your time to go through these things carefully and use your judgment.

Crucially, in terms of audiobook sound engineering, you want to focus on the audio levels in each track. You will be able to make the audio louder or quieter. The key thing here is that your listener needs to be able to hear the speech clearly. Any music or sounds underneath the speech shouldn't obstruct the speech itself.

When editing audio, particularly music or sound effects, be sure to have a quick fade-in at the start of each track and a quick fade-out. You will see this as the volume line sloping up at the start and down at the end, while the rest of it is at a consistent level. These fades help your listener's ears adjust to the audio and ensure that they are comfortable with the volume.

Quick Audio Editing Tips

Here are 10 quick audio editing tips to remember for audio quality optimization:

Save your original audio files!
Save your editing session regularly.
Have a pen and paper to take notes as you edit, or better yet, use your script.
Don't try to edit everything in one day and be done; come back and listen to your work the next day because you may notice something you missed.
Listen with headphones; they are better quality than your computer speaker.
Insert an extra track for room tone.
Delete unnaturally long pauses.
Delete instances of filler like "uhm" or "eh."
When you have finished editing your audio, use the normalization and compression tools.
Get a second person to listen to your audio; a fresh pair of ears may be able to help you spot mistakes.