Recording my own podcast

After doing the due diligence of finalizing the pre-production for the first episode of the “Buying the Perfect Ring” podcast. I’m finally ready to begin recording! But before we begin, it’s important that we take the necessary steps towards making our podcast sound as professional as possible while recording at home.

7 Secrets for Getting Pro Sounding Vocals on Home Recordings

In this article, we learn all the helpful tips and tricks to record professional sounding vocals right at home! Flilippo Gaetani goes over 7 helpful secrets that will improve sound quality right away! The tips that I found most helpful in this article were to create a pop filter with a sock and wire hanger if you don’t have one available as well as the tip about recording several takes. I think it can feel easy to record the first take and think that the first take will always be the best but in many cases, I find its always good to give it a couple of tries before deciding which version to finalize on.

Editing Audio for Video
In this second article by Videomaker, the author discusses the basics of video and audio editing and the overall process. The difference between A roll (primary footage) and b-roll (supplementary footage) are specific but go hand-in-hand. The process of editing for audio first is tried and true. Without good audio, it’s difficult to tell a story and have a complete beginning, middle, and end. Once a rough draft is complete, the time for trimming commences and this is when it is imperative to fine tune each clip. It’s important to always ask yourself when trimming, what does this section bring to the overall story?

Inspiring Examples

As I progress in ICM 508 (Audio & Video Design), it’s important that I continue to do research of examples in which I can find inspiration from as we soon make the switch from an audio only project to a fully fledged video. Below are 3 examples from various types of mediums that I found did an excellent job at incorporating the use of sound with video. The two go hand in hand in building a complete story for an audience.

This clip from Shrek does an excellent job in integrating both sound effects and the music as one whole piece. Since this is a montage of Shrek getting ready, the producers of the film added sound effects like him scratching his back and turning on the shower. Although the song plays a major role in this montage, it’s more about the sound effects that are included to make the audience feel fully immersed into the swamp.

Even though this is just a “lyric” video, it’s so much more than that. The combination of animation with music is spectacular. The cuts, and thematic uses that the video showcases along with the music is showcased very well. I really appreciate all the work that the creators have done to make a simple concept as a lyric video into a beautiful piece. My favorite aspect of the video is how they are able to incorporate the lyrics into the common scenes that are shown in the movie. 

In order to feel fully immersed into a piece, having perfectly mixed sound plays a crucial role in that aspect. In this clip, it’s easy to feel like you are immersed in the library. You can hear all the details that the sound producers included into this scene. From the students chatting, to the natural echoing of the giant rooms, the producers do a great job in incorporating the music with ambient noise. My favorite scene in this video is when the main lead completes the song in front of the audience in front of him. In this scene, you can hear all of the ambient noise such as people clapping, cheering which further builds that feeling of immersion.

Recording my own Podcast

Now that all of the planning and pre-production is complete for my podcast “Finding the Perfect Ring”. The first step to the production phase is to set up my studio! For my setup, I chose to record in my coat closet, which is a place with lots of sound suppression due to the many coats within the room. The room is quite small too which is good since it didn’t have much echo and I also asked everyone (even my cats) to stay quiet while I recorded my first episode. I then opened up Audacity on my computer and set up my microphone (a Blue Yeti) as well as my homemade pop filter (clothes hanger with a sock) to avoid any harsh pff’s. Before pressing the record button, I also made sure to warm up my voice as well as read some of my notes I had printed out to get settled.

Once I recorded the raw files of my voice, my next goal was to edit everything on Audacity. I listened to the entire recording, deleting any re-dos as well as awkward pauses to ensure that the podcast had a nice flow. For this podcast, I chose to add some classy elegant intro music which I thought matched the vibe I was going for as well as added a “bling” sound effect since this episode was all about gold. After giving the entire audio a full listen, I used the Adobe Enhance Audio tool to clean up my audio a bit and it worked perfectly. After finalizing the recording, I created a quick promotional graphic on Canva and then posted the final copy on Soundcloud for the general audience to enjoy. Hopefully I get some early traction and listeners!

Conclusion

If you can, please be sure to give my podcast episode a listen. I’d really appreciate it and feel free to leave any feedback in the comments down below!

I look forward to beginning a new project next week. This one involving video, one of my personal passions of mine!