Reading and Writing

When starting the production portion of your podcast or video, there are some basic techniques explored in “7 Secrets for Getting Pro-Sounding Vocals on Home Recordings”. Some techniques such as finding a dry recording space involve creating your own vocal booth with controlled sound using blankets or quilts to absorb excess sound. The article also warns to be careful of over-editing your sound in post production so that the sound still sounds convincing and natural.

The article titled “Sound Advice: Editing Audio for Video” also provides some important tips for editing a full video once it is recorded. After making sure the story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, the editing process involves making small clips to ensure the transitions are smooth. A great tip that the article points out is to lay an audio music track under the clips to make sure all of the transitions are smooth. In a video, in order to make the audio sound more professional, exporting the audio file, creating some compression, and some equalization techniques will improve the quality.

Research to Inform

I recently saw this movie and thought that the exaggerated sound effects mixed with the music elevated the themes and created a creepy tone. The juxtaposition of perfection and imperfection was communicated throughout the movie and elevated with the loud sound effects that were disturbing because of their volume and dissonance.

The Twisters trailer has great mix of music and sound effects that make it effective in presenting the intensity of the tornadoes in the movie. The driving music intensifies the wind and destructive sound effects even further.

This scene in A Quiet Place is a great example of how a simple creaking sound can feel so ominous when paired with intense music and talented actors. The simple sound of creaking creates such a scary association of the monsters in this movie because it is timed out perfectly to the music and also uses silence to build anticipation.

Create

After many takes and script adjustments, the final Wellness Matters: How the Pandemic Shaped Our Minds and Hearts podcast is linked below.

After many trials with a simple microphone and my iPhone microphone, I finally upgraded to a Blue Yeti microphone. I found that the iPhone microphone was picking up too much background sound in between dialogue and during breaks in sentences. The Blue Yeti mic was much better but I would have still liked to cut out the breaths between sentences to make the recording sound smoother and more professional. I really enjoyed adding music and editing on Adobe Audition to make the recordings sound more exciting and dynamic.

Citations:

Gaetani, F. (n.d.-a). 7 secrets for getting pro-sounding vocals on Home Recordings. Sonicbids Blog – Music Career Advice and Gigs. https://blog.sonicbids.com/7-secrets-of-getting-pro-sounding-vocals-on-home-recordings

Videomaker. (2018, April 20). Sound advice: Editing audio for video. https://www.videomaker.com/article/c4/8862-sound-advice-editing-audio-for-video/