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Audio Books: What About Them?
In the modern world, people are always in a hurry. They rush to and
from work, the gym and the grocery store and rarely have time to sit
down and enjoy things. From this rush comes an idea that only a busy
person would think of: audio books. Amazing tools, wonderful toys
and great time savers; audio books are all of these things and more.
Or are they, instead, things that simply allow us to ignore the
great classics and lose ability to comprehend what we read? These
questions and answers are designed to teach about audio books,
explain what they are, why they're useful and where the future of
audio books may lead.
What is an audio book?
An audio book is nothing more than a book that has been recorded
into an audio format. This is done by a person reading the book
aloud while a recording device of some sort records their voice.
While it's true that the term "audio books" only refers to complete
books that have been recorded, books aren't the only thing that are
put into audio format. Other than books, the most common things put
in audio format are things like crib notes, speeches and lectures.
However, books are by far the most common non-music thing to be put
in audio format.
What formats are available for audio books?
The most common format for audio books are currently cassette tapes
and CD's. For quite some time cassette tapes were the main format,
but in today's world CD's make up seventy four percent of all audio
books while cassette tapes make up a mere sixteen percent. However,
with the creation of downloadable content, many audio books are
being published in MP3 format. These audio books make up about nine
percent of the market and is growing quickly. For now, CD's are the
most often purchased audio book format, which is in line with the
most commonly used playback technology.
Aren't audio books for lazy people?
Not at all. Most people who use audio books are very busy people.
They have things to do during the day, such as mothers who need to
keep the house and take care of the children or business people who
must rush from meeting to meeting and they don't always have time to
sit down to read a book. Instead, these people use audio books to
combine tasks. They listen to the book while they're driving to and
from soccer practice or to and from business meetings. In this way,
they can enjoy their favorite books and still have time during the
day to do everything they need to do.
Can adults who use audio books and physical books at the same time
learn more efficiently?
They certainly can. If you find yourself needing to memorize some
part of a book, the best way to do so is to obtain the book in audio
format and listen to it while you're reading it. Scientific studies
have been done in order to test the validity of this and in all
cases these studies have proven that people who take in information
in more than one way are able to more easily memorize it. It's the
same reason why a student should take notes while listening to a
teacher's lecture. Not only do they have the notes to study later,
but the action of writing and listening aids in memorization.
Is the editing work like what they do for music?
For the most part, yes, they are very similar. Any editor for audio
books must be just as knowledgeable in how to manipulate sound and
use sound manipulating programs as a music editor must be. The main
difference comes in the lack of musical editing. Most audio books
don't have music in them, instead being simply the readers voice as
they read the book. Because of this, a slight different skill set is
needed to work on audio book editing. An audio book editor should be
able to manipulate words and be able to string context together
should some sentences be taken out. A music editor, by contrast,
generally only needs to make sure the music sounds good.
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