Maeve Catherine

It’s always fun to restart exploring old hobbies and this week I unlocked the door to my audio editing skills.

As someone who does not have access to my own equipment and soundproof studio, I looked into making a room in my home be the best sounding solution. Filippo Gaetani at Sonicbids provided seven tips and tricks for creating a professional sound which helped me produce a podcast episode with my sister this week.

Professional Sound

1. Be in a quiet environment that you are comfortable talking in
2. Mattress’, blankets, and pillows all absorb sound which make living rooms and bedrooms great places to record.
   • Avoid large and empty rooms
     • Reflection and echoed sound will affect the quality
3. Position your microphone and have a pop filter.
   • Have the mic diaphragm facing your lips, and you should try to experiment with close and mid distance mic’ing to ensure you find the best fit for your piece.
   • Pop filters control any “P” or “T” sounds that come off strong/hard.
4. Watch the sound bar to ensure the vocals are staying green and light yellow to avoid peaking and distortion.
5. Be relaxed while recording, it should be fun!
   • Take breaks from recording if you are getting frustrated. Audience members can pick up on emotions.
6. Don’t be dependent with editing software for audio recordings.
   • Focus your attention on the performance rather than pitch.
7. Experiment with some of the high-quality plugins.
   • Play around with these effects and see how they influence the vibe of the song and the production.

After recording audio with these tips and tricks you have the opportunity to make edits. While it is easier to make edits to audio that does not have a visual aspect it is important to understand a couple of editing terms and skills.

A-Roll: Primary footage and audio. Videomaker article explains, “A-roll is critical since if it isn’t on the tape, it won’t end up on the finished product”.

B-Roll: Filler footage and audio. This content is not always used in the final project but instead where it is needed most so getting good audio should still be prioritized.

Editing audio should be a creator’s first step when approaching any video project. The most productive way to check for areas of poor transitions and uneven audio volume is by closing your eyes and listen to the audio. Visuals can be fixed afterwards with B-Roll and fade to black transitions.

Don’t rush through the editing process.

Inspiring Creativity

Below are three youtube videos that have creator(s) who do a great job of talking to an audience, using different sounds and visuals to their advantage.

We Talked So Take a Listen

As I stated in my last blog my sister and I collaborated on creating a podcast episode about the drama’s series, Dawson’s Creek. I put my audio recording and editing skills to the test. My sister and I recorded for 37 minutes and through the editing process I brought that together into a ten minute podcast episode. The change in comfortability level from the beginning to end of the recording was obvious to me as the speaker and editor but less than halfway through recording we were talking as if we weren’t being recorded. I did my best to edit out the filler words and pauses that my sister and I had. I am proud of the product I produced and would be open to producing a second episode.

Take a listen below: