The Full Story
About Punch Audiobook Recording Studios
Punch Audio started audiobook production in 2012 with the encouragement of the late William Dufris, of Mind’s Eye Productions in Portland, Maine. They were one of the original audiobook production companies, along with audiobook producers like Skyboat and Deyan Audio.
About Us
Punch Audio quickly ascended to service the audiobook production industry from project to product, and our productivity helped meet that demand.
Founder Alex Hyde-White got his start as an audiobook narrator in 2011. He won the ACX and Audible New Narrator of the Year Award in 2011. The contest was part of the That’s Voiceover conference, presented by New York veteran voice talents Joan Baker and Rudy Gaskins.
Among the notable audiobook titles produced by Punch Audio include Hemingway In Love, written by Hemingway’s long-time associate and friend, the late A.E. Hotchner. In the audiobook production, the same Joan Baker performs the part of chanteuse Josephine Baker, who took Paris (and the young Hemingway) by storm.
Other notable work includes This Scorched Earth, Climate Chaos and Forsaken: Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four. Powerful from Patty McCord about the early days of Netflix, is a best-selling audiobook production from Punch Audio
Alex Hyde-White’s acting motion picture credits include Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts. He was in Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio. Twenty years prior he played Young Henry Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Both of those films are from director Steven Spielberg.
Hyde-White has extensive experience working as an actor in major studio feature film productions, and he parlayed his talents as an actor into audiobook narration. He also runs his own audiobook production company working as a book narrator and audiobook producer with his own recording studio in Los Angeles, New York and Florida.
Known for deft audiobook narrator casting, he frequently produces audiobooks read by authors and other book narrators as well. Punch Audio makes first-class audiobooks for independent authors the world over. If you are an author, a writer of non-fiction, memoir, biography, a novelist, or have a business read, Punch Audio can put a voice to your work.
Audiobook Recording Studio Los Angeles
The best produced audiobooks happen when the author approves the book narrator casting choices or narrates the book themself. In either case, the client always acts as the final reviewer of the audiobook content.
Most independent authors really enjoy the process, even though they may not know much about Audiobook production, let them learn the audiobook post- production.
Audiobook post-production is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. It is when your audiobook production takes on the qualities that will make it sound great.
Our audiobook recording engineers are top-notch. We use the optimal amount of compression, equalization, and limiting. We employ the best audiobook narrators and pair them with experienced audio recording engineers. We record them in a high-quality recording studio with a proper sound booth and mixing bay.
Our World Class Audiobook Recording Studio
Our audiobook recording studio is located in Santa Monica, a seaside community in Los Angeles County. We utilize state-of-the-art audio recording equipment.
Our mic of choice is the Brauner Phanthera Cardioid Condenser microphone. It is known for its natural tube-like sound, and its ability to capture vocal recordings with liveliness, and intensity.
Our Mic preamp of choice is the Manley VoxBox, which combines these features:
-
Legendary Manley Mono preamp
-
ELOP record as a lower ratio compressor
-
Mid-EQ blown out as a full range peak-dip-peak EQ
-
DeEsser with a second ELOP limiter at the end
Our Audio Interface of choice is the Universal Audio Apollo Twin X Quad. This audio interface allows for easy overdubbing and mixing with elite class A/D and D/A compression. It also has Unison-enabled preamps, and QUAD core UAD plugin processing.
Audiobook Recording Production Process
Audiobook narrators are recording in a sound booth with a flat-screen monitor controlled by the audio engineer.
The process is similar to that of a teleprompter, with the audio engineer using a cursor to indicate the start point. If the audiobook narrator makes a mistake, the audio recording engineer will stop the tape. The engineer will then scroll back on the monitor to indicate where the narrator should restart, and resumes recording.
This is called the punch and roll process. Since the audiobook narrator has the liberty to restart their narration at any point, the audiobook recording process is significantly streamlined. The benefit is that the process allows for the making of audio books in the least amount of production time.