This graphic novel project is part a type of new media, a pioneering effort by a handful of creators in search of a new medium for presenting art, story, voice, and music. A pool of talents was gathered for an old-fashioned romantic adventure with elements of Arabian Nights, Cinderella, and the Shangri-la myth. The story depicts a romantic adventure that spans modern-day New York City and the ancient, fictional country of Gao in China. In the midst of modern and old, fiction and non-fiction, West and East, English and Mandarin, romance and mystery, the graphic novel indeed is exotic to watch.

The work has been produced into ten video chapters. To give you a glimpse of our translation work, among what has been published: Chapter 3 has the most translation voices so far. The significant amount of Mandarin presented among English voices indeed makes the graphic novel stand out as a unique and interesting entertainment piece!

Monterey Language Services took extra time to polish the translations into Simplified Chinese to ensure not only accuracy, but an enjoyable and colloquial read for native speakers. Some of the challenges for this project were derived from cultural differences in how to translate certain phrases created specifically for the graphic novel.

For example, we have the “golden doom,” which refers to a specific event in the story. Because the event transports people similarly to the Christian idea of the rapture, our translation was “极乐升天,” which means “bliss ascension” in Chinese language.

One more example of the cultural challenge is rooted in English homonyms. The sentence: “They follow the standard of Lord Kang and swear on his eyes.” In this sentence, what does “standard” mean? If we suggested “average or normal requirement,” it actually would be incorrect! “Standard” in this instance means a battle flag—something ancient soldiers would follow on the battlefield.

Another difficulty was dealing with the ambiguity of written words. In spoken English, a person’s tone can very easily denote sincerity or sarcasm — consider the phrase “good job” being spoken sincerely and being spoken sarcastically, and their meanings become very different. While the context and illustrations in graphic novels can alleviate this confusion in text, sometimes the tone could be just missed. One such problem occurred in our initial translation of “What a stunt,” a line which our translator took be said in admiration, when in actuality, it was an insult. Through our editing/reviewing process we discovered the issue, and the translation was changed from “真是好身手” (really good) to “真有一套,” which has a similar meaning in a more sarcastic tone.

We are incredibly proud of the work we were able to provide for this project, and would like to add more viewing pleasure and excitement by sharing the above behind-the-scenes glimpses to our translation work. We wish all the success to the audience and contributors to the graphic novel. The chapters will be published in video format weekly on YouTube until the tenth and final one is uploaded.

1. Stay about 6 inches away from the microphone.

Speaking too close to your microphone or too loudly can increase the audio gain too much–you can see this when your audio capture goes up into the red. However, speaking too far away from the microphone will prevent the microphone from picking up your voice clearly. A good estimate is to stay about 6 inches away from your microphone, although your microphone might have a nice “sweet spot.” One good practice is to make sure that you use a standing microphone, and make sure that it is not touching anything that would cause any unintentional noise. So for example, if you have a microphone that touches the floor, make sure it is on a carpeted surface to prevent any loud scraping or knocking noises.

2. Try equipping a pop filter

Pop filters help to dampen the sound produced when saying words with P and T. If you do not have one, then you can try making one with the materials available to you.

3. Limit background noises.

Spinning fans, beeps, vibrations, key clacking, and the like can be picked up by the microphone. Try to turn all distracting noises off, or move to a room where these distracting noises are not.

4. Dampen the echo of your voice.

Hard surfaces around you, like tables, walls, desks, and so on, reflect the sound of your voice when you speak. You might not always be able to hear the echo normally as our brains can filter out those faint echoes, but your microphone will certainly pick it up. To avoid this, you can cover these surfaces with cloth, or hang up curtains or clothes in a pinch.

5. Post-edit

If you are not too pressed for time, taking the time to edit your sound clip can result in a completely different sounding recording. It may take some learning, but there are a wealth of programs out there that have the potential to make your recordings sound on-par with professionals. For instance, Adobe Audition has various functions that can eliminate background sound, fine tune your voice, and even eliminate certain sounds from your voice completely.

In the end, it’s understandable that many people have reservations about home recordings, but with the current state of technology, it is not impossible to deliver professional, or near-professional level work to your clients. We hope these tips will help you record to the level that you want without having to use a professional studio. Good luck recording!