[Namiko’s Note: This post was a long-time work in progress,
as Xum would jot down new learnings from his podcast recording and editing experience as
he would discover them. He planned to refine and publish this post once he
had at least 25 items. Since he didn’t get that far, we are running the post as
is, in case other podcasters of any level of experience may benefit.]
- Airplanes, and lawnmowers, are the bane of a podcaster’s existence.
- In regards to audio thresholds on Audacity, zero-point-seven to negative zero-point-seven is the “sweet spot.”
- The Adjustable Fade feature of Audacity is the audio editor’s best friend -- usually a “fade up” setting starting at 80 percent and ending at 100 is perfect for keeping louder syllables in a delivery within the “sweet spot” (see #2).
- In many cases where I do multiple takes, the best reading tends to be the first part of one take stitched to the rest of another.
- Related to #4: Why nearly asphyxiate by trying to read an extremely long sentence, when you can read it in reasonable-length parts and stitch them together in Audacity?
- Related to #5: When recording a long sentence in pieces to stitch together in editing, it is best to have at least a three-word overlap across the area of the stitch so you have more options to find the most natural point of transition.
- Related to #5: The best sounds for stitching together partial sentences are P’s, T’s, and hard C’s or K’s. (Related to #6: try to choose words with these sounds in your “overlap space.”)
- It is best to not delete the breaths, unless the character isn’t supposed to breathe, like a computer voice or a zombie or an imperfect duplicate.
- Related to #8: Downplaying the breaths with the Adjustable Fade function (“fade up” setting, starting at 40 percent and ending at 40 percent) sounds more natural than a harsh replacement of silence.
- Most natural pauses in a sentence can use an extra one-fifth of a second of silence. In this case, it would be good to silence any breaths taken during that pause (Related to #8: There is always an exception to every rule; and filling unnatural silence is what the room tone is for).
- When dealing with louder deliveries, it is better to reduce the gain on the microphone during recording than to adjust the gain in Audacity during editing…
- …Just remember to set the gain back when recording at usual levels.
- Related to #11: A permanent marker can help you remember the gain settings that work best for the deliveries you make the most often (my Yeti has a blue mark for Professor Xum and Terra Man, and a green mark for LANOS, Grundy, and Bizarro). In regards to the microphone’s resale value, you have essentially added the “Half-blood Prince textbook” benefit…
- One’s singing voice seems to significantly improve when singing in a funny voice (it actually doesn’t… only seems to….)
- It is actually easier to zoom into a wave form to clean up a noticeable “pop” or “click” sound than to re-record that one line and strip it in (especially since I tend to repeat the same pops and clicks when I repeat the same lines)…
- When creating a voice for characters, comfort is just as important as coolness of effect. Episode 3 of Done-in-One Wonders forced me to rethink how to vocalize Solomon Grundy…
- Some effective character voices can be achieved by just talking in a normal or slightly off-normal voice, but in a different style of speech, and then adjust the sound pitch in Audacity (usually between -10 percent and +10 percent; otherwise the pitched voice will sound unnatural – unless that is what you want).
- If you have kids that show an interest, take the time to show them how to use Audacity and let them create their own sound projects. It fosters parental bonding, and you never know when you may need them to edit a podcast for you…
