Questions for Romance authors, audiobook producers and publishers
^(Definitions) ^((how I understand them anyway))
^(Duet narration - Female narrator does all female voices or all FMC lines and all other voices in the FPOV, Male narrator does all male voices or just all MMC lines and all other voices in the MPOV.)
^(Dual narration - Female narrator does all voices in FPOV chapters, Male narrator does all voices in MPOV chapters.)
Why are duets in romance audio books not standard? Even if it's not a full duet and just with the main characters voices staying consistent throughout. It makes a huge difference to the enjoyment and tone of the books, especially Romance audiobooks with spicier scenes. Duet narrations are a total game changer, it adds depth to the book and brings the book alive, allowing the chemistry to shine through. I have listened to many duet audio books multiple times as they are so comforting and enjoyable to listen to. When I find an author who has duet audio books I tend to purchase all their duet audio books, I have found a number of new authors thanks to them having duet audio narrations!
Andi Arndt/Elena Wolfe, Savannah Peachwood and Jacob Morgan/Zachary Webber are some of the only ones I can listen to without cringing when its dual/single narration however I still much prefer to listen to them in duet format. When I hear narrators attempting to do the opposite gender I just imagine them talking to themselves with a wig. I find male narrators are often the worst and performing female voices and can often sound offensive and cringy. Some have been so bad that I had to return the audiobook. It makes it even worse when the narrator chosen isn't the best choice for the character, for e.g. sounds too old, doesn't have the skill to bring the book alive.
Who chooses the audiobook format i.e. Duet/dual/solo narrator? Is it the publishers/authors/producers?
Who chooses the narrators? Do the authors have final say?
Can audiobooks recorded as a dual narration easily be rerecorded into a duet narration by having the male narrator rerecording the MMC lines in the FPOV and the female narrator rerecording the FMC lines in the MPOV chapters? Or does it have to be completely redone? Does this happen often?
If the quality of one of the narrators is not up to par, how much say is there to have them rerecord? There is a female narrator I have found stands out because the quality of her audio isn't as crisp as her counterparts, she also sounds robotic due to cadence/tone/performance, in one audiobook her audio sounded sped up. I had to look up if she was AI the first time I heard her it was so bad. I find her really tough to listen to but sadly she is a prolific narrator and often paired with my favorite narrators. I have always wondered why she wasn't asked to rerecord or not chosen as much. Natural sounding narration with a good performance is also so important to enjoyment of the book.
Why would an author have duet audio books earlier in a series then switch to dual narration for subsequent books? I recently discovered a new author and fell in love with the story but don't want to listen to the rest of the series as they are dual narration.