Idea: Star Wars OT Unabridged Audio Books Project

About the time I first found this site, I started listening to Star Wars audio books.  I really enjoy audio books, and since I prefer as complete a story as possible, I always seek the unabridged version.  For the longest time, Wookieepedia stated that the OT had an unabridged version, but my quest to find it proved fruitless, and Wookieepedia was eventually changed (not by me).  Now, the PT got very high quality audio books.  Several other Star Wars stories got unabridged audio books.  But the OT did not.  I suspect that part of the reason was to remove portions that were not in line with how the movies played out, such as elements that highlighted that Vader and Anakin were originally different individuals or that the Emperor was originally a figurehead.  But I really like the OT novels and would love to see them with a high quality unabridged audio book set.

What I am proposing is a project to record our own OT unabridged audio books that could be distributed as freely as desired across the World Wide Web.  I’ve had a desire to do this for some time, but I haven’t gotten around to it, and I’m tied up with another project at the present in my limited spare time.  However, if no one gets on this, I’m sure I’ll eventually record my voice, pleasantly divine as it is 😉  I also would ultimately be able to edit it too, if no one with more time or talent wanted to do it.  But even if I end up being the one to get it that far, I wouldn’t be very good at adding special effects, if we really wanted an extra fun version.  I definitely can’t do it alone, and I probably wouldn’t be able to do any of it for a long time.  But what I’m also saying is that if someone else wanted to do it, it’s definitely a worthwhile project in my mind, and I thought I should propose it.

Just finished Star Wars again. I still really like it. Alan Dean Foster (the real author, instead of George Lucas) is a great author. I'm going to have to record this some time. I start practicing a bit recently. I don't know when I'll really get going, but I know I really want to!

I want to pat this unloved thread on its head and say, "there, there, little buddy."

Thanks for the love.  I'm not worried.  I may be the only one interested, but I still think it'd be a good thing to do.  I just don't know when :)

I don't know.  My priority is currently to the deleted scenes project.  And when I do get to around to this, it seems perhaps like too much work to get various voice actors to fill different roles.  It seems having one person read the whole book would be the most practical thing.  So I guess if you wanted to put in the hours of recording and rerecording lines with different voices for the entire book, you're welcome to do so.  But I certainly wouldn't ask anyone to do that besides myself. :)

Of course, now that you mention it, I am reminded of the suggestion someone (xhonzi) put forward of recording the entire Secret History of Star Wars where various people recorded different chapters.  Perhaps such a strategy would be more effective at recording the audio book.  The chapters are not really all that large, and the book itself is small and easy to read.  Maybe that would work.

Whatever happens, I appreciate your offer :)

A friend of mine is adding music and sound fx to the audio books of the thrawn trilogy to make it more like a radio drama.  I should see if he'll join this forum.

As for your project, it sounds neat, but is it ok legally to release home made audiobooks of those novels?

I imagine it's just as legal as owning Harmy's work or a bootleg or anything else--technically it's not, but if you've paid for the books (as I have), then you are not shortchanging anyone by creating or downloading a homemade audio version.  That's my thought, anyway.

Finally had a serious go at it.  Got the Prologue done in a single take with no editing.  Open to any thoughts or suggestions.

http://www.4shared.com/music/nZRHsQHsba/Star_Wars_Prologue.html

I would be extremely interested in this project. The prologue sounded fine to me

Thanks for the feedback. I’ve sort of been on hiatus from this site, but I’ve been thinking about this project. I’d happily record the whole thing if someone else edits it. I don’t have the skills to do a good job.

I could do the editing.

Alright. I’ll try to start recording more chapters. I’ll post them for you.

darth_ender said:

Alright. I’ll try to start recording more chapters. I’ll post them for you.

Awesome thanks. I’ll keep you updated with progress on my end as I receive stuff