Libby Herbert- FMP Year 2
Podcast Set Up:
Recording Reflection:
I Felt That There Were Things That Went Well In The Recording Process But There Were Also A Lot Of Things That Went Wrong. I Felt That The Recording Process Has Probably Been The Section With The Most Challenges So Far, A Lot Of Problems Came Up That I Had To Find Solutions For Pretty Quickly.
Learning New Skills And Methods:
Although A Lot Did Go Wrong In The Recording Process, I Do Feel That I Have Learnt A Lot From This. Some Of The Things That I Have Learned Including Doing Things In Smaller Chunks And Then Saving As It Is Much Easier To Re-Record This If It Is Lost Than A Whole Podcast, How To Use A New Microphone Which Recorded Straight Onto Adobe Audition, Which Now I Have Learnt How To Use This It Will Be More Efficient If I Create Another Podcast And Knowing That I Need To Plan Some Extra Time As Things Can Go Wrong And I Will Then Need That Time To Fix This.
Gained Confidence On Podcast Creation:
I Felt That Even With All The Challenges That I Faced During The Recording Process, There Were Some Good Things About My Recordings. I Felt That My Podcast Was On A Much Bigger Scale Than It Was Last Time And Was Packed With A Lot More Information. I Also Felt That My Audio Recording Was Much Better As Although There Was Some Unwanted Noises I Felt That There Was Less Than The Last Time I Created A Podcast.
Problem With Using The Microphone:
The Recording Process Started Off With What I Thought Was Going Really Well, I Was Recording Three Takes Of Each Section So That When I Went Onto The Editing There Wasn’t As Much Need For Re-Recording As I Had Three Good Takes To Choose From. I Also Thought That I Was Starting To Get Used To The New Microphone That I Had Never Properly Used Before Only Tested. However, The First Problem Occurred Half Way Through The Recording Of Episode Two When I Realised That The Microphone Hadn’t Been Connecting Up To My Laptop And I Was Recording The Audio On The Microphone Of My Headphones Instead. This Was So Annoying As I Thought That Everything Was Going Well And I Thought That I Was Ahead Of My Schedule. This Meant That I Had To Work Out How To Connect The Microphone To My Laptop And Adobe Audition Instead Of It Automatically Connecting Up To My Headphone. I Managed To Figure This Out And Start The Process To Re-Record Everything Where I Got Up To Half Way Through Episode Two Before The Next Problem Happened.
Problem With Adobe Audition Crashing:
The Next Problem Occurred After I Had Gotten About Half Way Through Episode Two And I Was About To Save The Recording That I Had Done For The Day. This Was When Adobe Audition Crashed And It Would Not Let Me Do Anything With It As It Had Frozen. In The End I Had To Force Quit The Software And Restart My Laptop, When I Turned The Laptop Back On, I Thought Everything Was Still There But When I Listened Back To The Audio It Cut Out Half Way Through And Was Missing The Rest Of The Audio. So, This Meant That I Had To Re-Record Half Of Episode Two Again, I Made Sure That I Now Recorded A Section At A Time As It Was Less To Re-Record If It Crashed Again Which It Did Every Other Save. As The Software Kept Crashing For Every Other Section I Decided That I Was Going To Make The Amount That I Recorded Smaller, Only Doing A Couple Of Parts At Time, So It Is Even Less If I Have To Re-Record Which I Had To Keep Doing. This Did Take A Bit Longer Than Recording It In Bulk But It Did Mean That If The Software Crashed Again There Wouldn’t Be As Much To Lose. Luckily, I Managed To Fix The Issue On Abode Audition By This Point But I Still Decided To Keep The Method Of Recording The Same, Only Doing A Couple Of Parts At A Time Then Saving, Just In Case Something Like This Ever Happened Again.
Problem With Losing My Voice During Recording:
During This Process As I Was Recording So Much, I Was Starting To Lose My Voice. This Meant That I Had To Take Some Days Off To Rest It And Get On With Something Else, As My Voice Would Make An Obvious Sound Difference. I Know There Is Probably A Sound Difference Already Even Though I Have Tried My Best To Keep My Voice The Same Throughout But I Think That Once I Add On The Effects It Won’t Be Too Noticeable For The Audience.
Problem With Editing Effect:
Something Else That I Wanted To Do Was Another Interview, This Was For The First Episode Which Was About Female Directors. I Had The Person That I Wanted To Interview But Our Schedules Never Lined Up Which Meant That We Never Got To Do This. I Did Manage To Get One Interview On The Show Which I Think The Placement Works Really Well As It Is In Episode Two, Which Is The Middle Episode, So I Feel That It Isn’t Overly Out Of Place. I Thought That It Went Well For My First Interview As I Had Never Done This Before And Was Really Nervous. I Thought That It Would Be Awkward But It Turned Out Ok And Was More Like A Conversation About Films Than An Interview Which I Liked And Felt That It Would Be A Good Fit For My Podcast. I Do Feel That There Were Awkward Moments Throughout But I Thought That The Majority Of The Time It Went Well.
Final Edit- Episode One:
Step By Step:
The First Thing That I Did Was Drag In All Of The Audio, That I Had Previously Recorded, Into The File Section Of Adobe Audition. I Recorded These All In Parts And Named Them By What Section Of The Podcast They Were In So It Made It Easier To Find Each Part While Editing.
After I Had Done This, I Went To The Multitrack Button Which Was Above The Fille Section And Then Created A New Multitrack Mixdown, Which Allowed Me To Put All Of The Audio For My Podcast Together.
The Next Thing That I Did Was Starting To Add In All Of The Clips I Needed Into The Multitrack Mixdown, I Dragged In The Intro Music First But This Was Only A Place Holder At The Moment, To Get The Timing Right, As I Hadn’t Decided On What I Wanted To Use Yet.
When I Had Done This, I Went To The Audio For The First Part Of My Podcast Which Was The Intro And Listened To Them So That I Could Choose The Best Take.
Once I Had Chosen The Audio That I Wanted To Use, I Then Dragged And Dropped The Audio File Into The Multitrack Mixdown Placing It Next To The Intro Music.
Then I Went Through The Audio And Cut Out Any Gaps Of Silence Or Any Other Noises Like Breaths. I Then Joined The Clips Back Together And Would Listen Back Over To Them To See If Anything Else Needed To Be Cut Or Added Back In.
I Repeated The Previous Three Steps Which Were Choosing The Best Take, Dragging The Audio In And Cutting Anything Out Of The Audio For The Rest Of The Clips That I Have For My Podcast. At This Point I Also Used The Placement Intro Music To Help With The Timings For Transition Music And Scene Clips As I Have Not Decided What To Use Yet.
After I Had Done This, I Then Started Working On Adding The Effects To The Podcast. The First Thing That I Did Was Merge The Clips Together As Each Section Is All Cut Up So It Will Be A Lot Easier To Add Effects To If Each Section Is Together. To Do This I Went To The Selector Tool, Which Was The “I” Near The Top Of The Software, And Selected The Part Of The Podcast That I Wanted For Example The Intro. Then I Right Clicked On The Audio Which It Should Then Come Up With Almost A List Of Options Where I Selected Merge Clips.
Once I Had Done This To Each Section Of The Podcast, I Then Moved Onto Making The Clips Have The Same Audio Level. I Used The Selector Tool Again And Selected The Entire Podcast Then I Right Clicked On The Audio Which Brought Up Almost A List Of Options Where I Selected Match Clip Loudness. This Will Then Come Up With A Menu Where I Clicked Ok And It Made Sure All Of The Audio Was Around The Same Level.
When This Was Done The Audio Was Around The Same Level But I Wanted To Add To This To Make Sure Everything Was A Bit More Accurate. To Do This I Clicked On The Audio Clip That I Wanted To Use And Went To The Effects Rack, Here I Selected Amplitude And Compression Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Selected Dynamics.
This Then Brought Up The Setting Panel For The Effect, The First Thing That I Did Was Select The Tick On The Compressor Then I Went To The Ratio And Turned This Up To Three. When I Had Done This, I Listened To The Audio While Turning The Threshold Up I Wanted It To Get The Little Light At The Top Glowing At -12 Db. The Audio Was Now Compressed But It Did Bring Down The Volume So This Meant That I Needed To Turn Up The Makeup Until The Volume Levels Sat Around -12 To -13 Db.
After I Had Done This For Each Of The Clips It Was Time To Add In The Next Effect, This Was To Help With Removing Background Noise. I Selected The Audio Clip That I Wanted To Use And Went Back To The Effects Rack Where I Went To Noise Reduction/Restoration Which Then Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Selected Denoise.
This Brought Up The Settings Panel For The Effect, Depending On How Much Background Noise I Wanted To Remove I Could Move The Slider Up And Down. The Only Problem With This Was The Higher The Slider Was The Quality Of The Audio Would Worsen. I Decided On Setting This To About 20 As I Felt That This Removed Most Of My Background Noise And I Also Turned The Grain To 1 As I Thought It Sounded A Bit Better.
When I Had Done This For All Of The Clips, I Moved Onto Fading The Clips In And Out So That I Could Make Sure That I Had A Smooth Transition Between Clips And It Didn’t Sound Really Blocky.
It Was Then Time To Add In The Real Intro Music As I Had Decided On What I Wanted To Use And Found Something That Really Fit The Feeling Of My Podcast. This Was Quite Simple To Replace As I Already Had The Timings Set Out So I Just Had To Cut The Audio To The Right Length And Then Put It Where The Old Audio Had Been.
At This Point I Had Also Decided On What Scene Clips I Wanted To Use, So I Added This In Too. This Did Take A Bit More Moving Around As I Had A Maximum Of 20 Second Clips Which Was A Bit Longer Than The Intro Music, So I Wanted To Make Sure Everything Fitted Well.
Then Again, I Selected All Of The Clips Of The Podcast With The Selector Tool, Which Is The “I” Near The Top Of The Software, Then I Right Clicked On The Audio And Selected Match Clip Loudness So I Was Able To Get All Of The New Clips To Have Around The Same Audio Level As The Other Clips.
After I Had Done This, I Brought Up The Dynamics For Each Of The Audio Clips Just To Make Sure Everything Was Still Lining Up And Was Sitting At Around -12 Db To -13 Db. If It Wasn’t At This Level, I Would Play Around With The Dynamic Settings Until It Sat At Around This.
Once I Had This For All Of The Clips, I Then Started Working On The Final Effects That I Wanted To Add My Podcast. The First Thing That I Did Was Remove The Room Echo, I Did This By Clicking On A Singular Clip Then I Went To The Effects Rack Where I Selected Noise Reduction/Restoration Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Selected DeReverb.
This Then Came Up With The Settings For The Effect, There Was A Slider Depending On What Percentage Of The Room Echo That I Wanted To Remove. The Only Problem With This Effect Is The Higher The Percentage, The Quality Of Audio Will Worsen. I Chose Around 40% As I Felt That This Took Out The Room Echo But Kept The Quality Of The Audio.
When I Had Added This Effect To All Of My Clips, I Then Moved Onto Effects For The Entirety Of My Podcast. To Do This I Went To The Mix Track At The Bottom Of The Multitrack Mixdown And Then I Went To The Effects Rack Where I Clicked On The Track Effects Button, I Then Selected Special Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Selected Mastering.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For The Effect, I Decided To Change The Pre-Set To Subtle Clarity As This Works The Best For Podcast Audio Then I Went And Turned The Reverb Off As I Didn’t Need It.
After I Had Done This, I Moved Onto The Next Effect This Was An Effect That Would Allow Me To Set My Podcast To The Audio Level That I Would Need It To Be For Certain Podcast Listening Platforms. To Do This I Went To The Effects Rack On The Mix Track And Selected Special Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Selected Loudness Meter.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For The Effect, I Decided That For My Podcast I Was Going To Set It To The Audio Level That I Would Need For Apple Podcasts. So, I Clicked On The Settings Button Where It Told Me The Amount Of Lufs Apple Podcasts Was Set At, This Was -16 Lufs.
I Then Clicked Back On The Levels Button, Where I Then Listened Back To The Entire Podcast, This Was To Tell Me What Level It Currently Sat At So I Could Change It To The Apple Podcasts Level. The Integrated Number Needed To Be Close -16 Lufs But Mine Was At -18,7 Lufs So I Needed To Try And Bring This Closer To -16 Lufs.
To Do This I Went Back To The Effects Rack And Selected Amplitude And Compression Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Then Selected Amplify. I Actually Did Part Of This Step Wrong As I Was Supposed To Put This Effect In Between The Mastering And The Loudness Meter But I Put It At The End Instead.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For The Effect Where I Set The Amplify To A Point Of A Decimal So I Could Try And Get Closer To -16 Lufs. I Experimented With Changing The Number A Lot Re-Running The Loudness Meter Each Time But No Matter What I Did The Levels Just Wouldn’t Go Where I Wanted Them To Be. The Closest That I Managed To Get Was -17.6 Lufs, I Don’t Know If This Was Because I Put The Effect In The Wrong Place As I Didn’t Notice This Until Looking Back At The Screenshots.
As This Effect Didn’t Work Out, I Decided To Try A Different Way To Get My Podcast At The Same Audio Level As Apple Podcast Which Was -16 Lufs. I Started Doing This By Creating A New Multitrack, I Went To The Multitrack Section At The Top Of The Software And Selected Multitrack To New File Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Selected Entire Session.
Once I Had Done This, I Went Back Up To The Top Of The Software And This Time Selected Window Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Ticked Match Loudness.
After I Had Done This A Section Came Up Where The Effects Rack Would Usually Be, When This Came Up, I Dragged And Dropped The New Audio File Into The Match Loudness File Box. Then I Pressed The Run Button So I Could See What The Audio Level Was At The Moment
When I Had Done This And Knew What Audio Level It Was Running At, I Then Dragged Up The Pull Up Tab At The Bottom Of The Effect. This Had A Section For Target Loudness So I Went To This And Put In -16 Lufs Then I Pressed The Run Button Again Which Set My Podcast At The Audio Level Of -16 Lufs Which Is The Audio Level For Apple Podcasts.
Lastly, I Needed To Export My Podcast, I Did This In A Different Way Than I Usually Would. I Created A New Multitrack Mixdown And Dragged The New Audio Into This, Then I Went To File At The Top Of The Software Where I Then Selected Multitrack Mixdown And Then I Selected Entire Session. This Then Brought Up A Section Where You Could Change Aspects Like Where I Wanted The Audio To Be Saved And What Format I Wanted The Audio To Be.
Final Podcast:
Reflection:
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Overall, I Felt That The Final Edit For The First Episode Of My Podcast Went Quite Well, I Have Definitely Improved On Creating A Podcast Since The Last Time I Had Done This. Although There Were Some Problems Throughout The Editing Process, I Felt That The Majority Of The Editing Went Really Well. The Main Problem That I Faced When I Was Editing Was One Of The Effects That I Wanted To Use, Which Was Where It Would Tell Me What Lufs My Podcast Needed To Be For A Specific Podcast Listening Platforms And Then Tell Me What Lufs My Podcast Was At That Moment, Didn’t Work Out How I Wanted It To. This Was Quite Annoying As I Wanted This To Work Out Because When I Learned This Effect During Action Research, I Knew That It Would Be A Really Helpful Effect And Wanted To Use It In My Podcast. During The Editing Process I Did Miss Out A Step To Create This Effect As I Was Supposed To Put The Amplify Between The Mastering And The Loudness Meter. So, I Don’t Know If This Was Why It Didn’t Work Out But I Have Decided I Will Try This Out Again On The Second Episode Of My Podcast And See If It Works If I Add In This Step. Although This Specific Effect Didn’t Work Out, I Did Find A Way To Fix This Problem By Using A Different Effect That Creates The Same Outcome. I Learnt This In The Same Tutorial As The Previous Effect And It Worked A Lot Better Giving Me The Outcome That I Wanted. Although The Majority Of The First Episode Of My Podcast Went Well, I Feel That There Were Some Things That I Could Have Done Better At. An Example Of This Is During My Podcast There Are Certain Moments Where You Can Hear The Microphone Or A Loud Sound In The Background. I Found That No Matter What Effects I Used The Sound Would Still Be There, I Would Have Preferred For This To Be Gone Completely But The Effects That I Added Did Dull The Sound A Little Bit. Another Example Of This Is That During My Podcast I Found That My Voice Was Changing A Bit, After Adding On The Effects It Sounded A Lot Better But You Could Still Sometimes Hear The Change. I Don’t Know If This Was A Problem With The Way I Recorded My Audio As During The Recording Process I Did Start To Lose My Voice So It Could Have Been The Audios Were From Different Days. Something That I Think Went Well In The Final Edit For Episode One Of My Podcast Was How I Have Learnt A Lot More Effects That Were Actually Successful Compared To The Last Time I Created A Podcast. For My Last Podcast I Only Learned One Effect And I Couldn’t Manage To Get It To Work So I Have Definitely Done A Lot Better. I Also Feel That I Have Gotten A Bit Better With Editing In General Because I Had A Much Clearer Idea Of What I Needed To Do And How I Needed To Do It. An Example Of This Is With Cutting The Podcast I Was Able To Cut The Audio A Lot Finer So There Was Not As Many Gaps Of Silence Or Other Noises In The Audio. In The End I Felt That The First Episode Of My Podcast Went Really Well And Although There Were A Few Changes That I Would Have Liked To Make, I Feel That I Have Come A Long Way And Learned A Lot More Skills Compared To The Last Podcast That I Had Created.
Final Edit- Episode Two:
Step By Step:
The First Thing That I Did Was Drag In All Of The Audio That I Had Previously Recorded Into The Files Section Of Adobe Audition. I Recorded These All In Different Parts And They Were Named Depending On What Section Of The Podcast They Were In, So That It Would Make It A Lot Easier For Me To Find When I Went Onto The Editing.
Once I Had Done This, I Went To The Multitrack Button, Above The Files Section Of The Software, And Created A New Multitrack Mixdown. This Allowed Me To Add All Of The Audio Clips I Needed For My Podcast Together.
After I Had Created A Multitrack Mixdown, I Started Adding In All The Audio Clips That I Needed For My Podcast. The First Clip That I Dragged In Was The Intro Music, This Is Currently A Place Holder To Get The Timings Of The Podcast Right As I Have Not Yet Decided What Intro Music That I Want To Use.
When I Had Done This, I Went To The Audio For The First Part Of My Podcast, Which Was The Intro, And Chose The Best Take Out Of The Three Takes That I Had Recorded.
After I Had Chosen The Audio That I Wanted To Use I Dragged And Dropped The Audio File Into The Multitrack Mixdown And Placed It Next To The Intro Music.
Once I Had Dragged The Audio Into The Multitrack Mixdown, I Then Went To The Razor Tool Which Is Near The Top Of The Software And Started Cutting Out Parts Of My Podcast Where There Were Gaps Of Silence Or Any Unwanted Noises. When I Had Done This, I Then Joined The Clips Back Together And Listened Back To The Audio To See If Anything Else Needed To Be Removed Or Added Back Onto The Audio.
I Repeated The Previous Three Steps Which Were Choosing The Best Take, Dragging The Chosen Audio In And Cutting Anything Out Of The Audio For The Rest Of The Audio Clips That I Had For My Podcast. I Also Used The Place Holder Intro Music For Transitions And Scene Clips So That I Could Get The Timings Right Even Though I Haven’t Decided On What I Wanted To Use Yet.
When I Had Done This, I Then Moved Onto Merging The Clips Together As At The Moment They Are All Cut Up And It Will Be A Lot More Efficient To Add The Effects To The Merged Audio Rather Than Adding It To Each Clip Individually. To Do This I Used The Selector Tool, Which Is The “I”, Near The Top Of The Software And Then Selected The Section That I Wanted To Merge Then I Right Clicked On The Audio Where I Chose Merge Clips.
After I Had Merged All The Clips Together, I Started Adding The Effects To The Podcast. The First Thing That I Did Was Match Clip Loudness, This Allows All Of The Clips To Have Around The Same Audio Levels. To Do This I Went Back To The Selector Tool, Which Is The “I”, Near The Top Of The Software And Selected The Entire Podcast. Then I Right Clicked On The Audio And Selected Match Clip Loudness Which Came Up With A Menu Where I Clicked Ok And It Matched All Of The Clips To Around The Same Audio Level.
Once This Was Done, I Decided To Add To This Effect To Make It A Bit More Accurate. The First Thing That I Did Was Select The Audio Clip That I Wanted To Use And Then I Went To The Effects Rack Where I Selected Amplitude And Compression Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose Dynamics.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For The Effect, Where I Started By Clicking The Compression Tick. After I Had Done This, I Turned The Ratio Up To 3 And Then I Listened Back To The Audio Turning Up The Threshold Until The Flashing Lights Near The Top Of The Settings Lit Up At -12 Db. Doing This Brought Down The Audio Levels So I Started Turning Up The Makeup Until The Audio Levels Were Sitting Between -12 Db To -13 Db.
When I Had Added This Effect To All Of My Audio Clips, I Then Moved Onto The Next Effect Which Was Removing Any Background Noise. To Do This I Selected The Audio Clip That I Wanted To Use And Then Went Back To The Effects Rack Where This Time I Selected Noise Reduction/Restoration Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Selected DeNoise.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For The Effect, There Was A Slider That I Could Move Up And Down Depending On How Much Background Noise That I Wanted To Remove. The Only Problem With This Effect Is The Higher The Slider Is The More The Audio Quality Will Worsen. I Decided To Turn This Up To About 20 As This Removed The Background Noise But I Didn’t Lose The Quality Of The Audio, I Also Turned The Grain To 1 As I Thought That This Sounded Better.
After I Had Done This For All Of The Clips, I Then Moved Onto Fading The Clips In And Out So That I Could Make Sure That I Had Smooth Transitions And That The Audio Didn’t Sound Too Choppy
Once I Had Done This, I Then Added In The Real Intro Music And The Scene Clips. This Was Relatively Simple As I Had Left Space For It, So I Just Needed To Replace It. However, The Scene Clips Were A Little Harder As They Were About 20 Seconds Long So I Had To Move Things Around A Bit, I Forget To Take Screenshots Of This Process. When This Was All Done, I Went To The Selection Tool, Which Is The ”I”, Near The Top Of The Software And Selected The Entire Podcast. I Then Right Clicked On This And Selected Match Clip Loudness So I Could Make Sure That The New Clips Were Roughly The Same Audio Levels As The Old Clips.
Then I Went Back To The Dynamics Effect So That I Could Make Sure That Everything Was Still Lining Up At -12 Db To -13 Db. If It Wasn’t At This Level I Would Mess Around With The Settings Of The Effect Until All Of The Clips Were Around The Same Audio Level.
When I Had Done This, I Then Moved On To Adding The Final Effects To My Podcast. The First Thing That I Added Was An Effect That Removed Room Echo, To Do This I Chose The Clip That I Wanted To Use And Then Went To The Effects Rack. Here I Selected Noise Reduction/ Restoration Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose DeReverb.
This Then Came Up With The Settings For The Effect, There Was A Slider That Allowed Me To Decide What Percentage Of The Room Echo That I Wanted To Be Removed. The Only Problem With This Effect Is The Higher The Percentage The More The Audio Quality Will Worsen. I Decided To Choose Around 40% As I Felt That This Removed The Room Echo Without Removing Too Much Of The Audio Quality.
After I Had Added This Effect To All Of The Clips, I Went Onto Adding The Effects To The Entire Podcast. To Do This I Went To The Mix Track Which Is At The Bottom Of The Multitrack Mixdown And Then Went To The Effects Rack Where I Chose Track Effects. Then I Selected Special Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose Mastering.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For The Effect, I Decided That I Was Going To Use A Particular Pre-Set Which Was Subtle Clarity As This Works The Best With Podcast When I Had Selected This, I Then Removed The Reverb From The Effect.
Once I Had Done This I Then Moved Onto The Next Effect, This Was An Effect That Allowed Me To See What Audio Levels That I Needed For A Specific Podcast Listening Platform And What My Audio Levels Were Currently At. To Do This I Went To The Effects Rack For The Mix Track And Selected Special Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose Loudness Meter.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For The Effect Where I Went To The Pre-Sets Where I Decided That For My Podcast, I Wanted To Set It To The Audio Levels That I Would Need For Apple Podcasts. Once I Had Done This, I Went To The Settings Button So That I Could See Exactly What Audio Levels I Would Need My Audio To Be For Apple Podcasts, This Was -16 Lufs.
When I Had Done This, I Went Back To The Levels Section Where I Then Listened Back To The Entire Podcast So That I Could Run Through The Current Audio Levels. This Allowed Me See What The Audio Levels Currently Sat At So I Could Change It To The Level Needed For Apple Podcasts. The Integrated Number Needed To Be As Close As Possible To -16 Lufs But Mine Currently Sat At -19.2 Lufs So I Had To Try And Bring This Closer To -16 Lufs.
To Do This I Went To The Effects Rack And Started By Moving The Loudness Meter Down The Effects Rack By One. Then I Went To Amplitude And Compression Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose Amplify, I Made Sure That This Effect Was Between Mastering And Loudness Meter.
This Then Brought Up The Settings Panel For The Effect Where I Set The Amplify To A Point Of A Decimal So I Could Try And Get The Audio Levels To -16 Lufs. I Played Around With The Number Of This And Kept Re-Running The Loudness Meter Each Time I Did This, But No Matter What I Did I Just Wasn’t Able To Get It Much Lower. Even Though I Completed All The Steps To This Effect And Did It Right This Time I Wasn’t Able To Get It Closer.
As This Effect Didn’t Work Out, I Decided To Try A Different Way To Get My Audio To The Same Level As Apple Podcasts. The First Thing That I Did To Do This Was Going To The Multitrack Section At The Top Of The Software And Selected Multitrack Session To New File Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Selected Entire Session.
Once I Had Done This, I Then Went Back To The Top Of The Software Where I Selected Window Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Ticked Match Loudness.
After I Had Done This, A Panel Popped Up For This Where The Effects Rack Would Usually Be. I Then Dragged And Dropped The New File I Had Created Into The Match Loudness File Box, Then I Clicked On The Run Button So I Could See What The Audio Level Of My Podcast Was At That Moment.
When I Had Done This And Knew What The Audio Level Was At That Moment, I Pulled Up The Tab At The Bottom Of The Panel. This Had A Section Where I Could Put In Target Loudness, I Put In -16 Lufs, Which Is The Audio Level That Apple Podcasts Is, And Then Pressed The Run Button Again So That My Audio Would Be Set At This Audio Level.
The Last Thing That I Did Was Export My Podcast, I Did This In A Different Way Than I Usually Would As I Just Found That It Was A Lot Easier. I Created A New Multitrack Where I Dragged And Dropped My Changed Audio Into It, Then I Went To The File Section At The Top Of The Software And Selected Export Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose Entire Session. Before The Audio Was Exported A Menu Came Up Where I Could Choose Aspects Like What Format I Wanted The Audio To Be And Where I Wanted The Audio To Be Saved.
Final Podcast:
Reflection:
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Overall, I Felt That The Final Edit For The Second Episode Of My Podcast Went Quite Well. Again, I Felt That I Have Definitely Improved My Skills Since The Last Time I Created A Podcast. However, There Were Some Problems During The Editing Stage, The Main Problem Being With A Specific Effect Not Working How I Wanted It To. This Was The Effect That Allowed Me To See What Audio Level I Needed For Different Podcast Listening Platforms And Then Showed Me What My Current Audio Level Was At. In The Last Episode I Was Having Trouble With This Effect As Well But I Thought That This Was Because I Had Missed A Step. When I Tried The Effect Again With All Of The Steps, I Still Couldn’t Get It To Work, Even When I Fiddled With The Effect, I Wasn’t Able To Get Anywhere. This Again Led To Me Using The Other Effect Which Would Give Me The Same Outcome And It Worked A Lot Better, I Had Learnt This Effect In The Same Tutorial That I Had Learned The Previous Effect. I Would Have Liked For This Effect To Work As When I Learnt This Effect In Action Research, I Thought That It Would Be Really Helpful And I Did Everything Right This Time So I Don’t Understand Why It Didn’t Work Out. Although I Felt That My Podcast Went Overly Well, There Were Still A Few Things That I Would Have Liked To Change Like For Example During The Audio There Was Sometimes Noises From The Microphone. I Wasn’t Able To Remove These Sounds Fully Despite Putting The Effects, That I Had Learned In My Action Research, On But I Did Manage To Reduce The Noise A Bit However, It Would Have Been Better If It Had Not Been There At All. Another Example Is How I Would Have Liked My Voice To Sound The Same Throughout As There Was Sometimes Moments When It Would Change. I Don’t Know If This Is Noticeable To The Audience Or Something That Is Just Noticeable To Me As I Have Listened Back Over To It So Many Times. I Feel That It Didn’t Help That By The Recording Of The Second Episode I Was Starting To Lose My Voice So It Might Have Sounded Different. Even Though There Were A Few Things That I Would Like To Have Changed I Think That The Majority Of My Podcast Went Well And That I Have Definitely Improved On My Skills. I Found That I Have Learned A Lot Of New Effects During My Action Research This Time Around Including Things Like Removing The Background Noise And Levelling Out Audio. These Effects Have Also Been Successful When I Went To Add Them Onto My Podcast Which Is Already A Big Improvement From The Last Podcast I Made As I Only Had One Effect That Didn’t Work Out When I Created The Final Podcast. Something Else That I Have Managed To Add To My Podcast That I Have Never Done Before Was An Interview, I Was A Bit Worried About Doing This As It Was My First Time But It Worked Out Really Well And Benefitted My Podcast. I Also Felt A Lot More Confident With My Editing As Although I Had Learned New Effects, I Had A Better Knowledge On The Basics Of The Software, Which I Was Still A Bit Unsure Of Last Time. This Meant That It Was A Lot More Efficient When Editing As I Knew How To Do Specific Aspects And Where To Find Them. In The End Although There Were Some Things That I Would Like To Have Changed, I Am Pleased With How Far I Have Come And Feel That The Good Parts Of My Podcast Outweigh The Things That I Wanted To Change.
Final Edit- Episode Three:
Step By Step:
The First Thing That I Did Was Drag In All Of The Audio That I Had Previously Recorded Into The File Section Of Adobe Audition. When I Was Recording, I Made Sure To Name Each Of The Audio Files Depending On The Section They Were In So That It Would Be A Lot Easier To Find When I Went Onto Editing.
When I Had Done This, I Then Went To The Multitrack Button Which Was Just Above The File Section And Created A New Multitrack Mixdown. This Allowed Me To Put All Of The Audio Clips That I Needed For My Podcast Together.
After I Had Done This, I Started Adding In The Audio Clips That I Needed For My Podcast. The First Clip That I Dragged And Dropped In Was The Intro Music, This Is Currently Only A Place Holder So That I Can Figure Out The Layout And The Timings Of My Podcast As I Had Not Yet Decided On What I Wanted To Use.
The Next Thing That I Did Was Going Back To The Files Section And Finding The Audio For The First Part Of My Podcast, In This Case It Was The Intro, Then I Listened To All Three Of The Audio Files And Chose The Best Take.
Once I Had Chosen The Best Take For The Intro, I Then Dragged And Dropped The Audio File Into The Multitrack Mixdown, Placing It Next To The Intro Music.
When I Had Dragged In The Piece Of Audio That I Wanted To Use Into The Multitrack Mixdown, I Then Went To The Razor Tool Near The Top Of The Software And Started Removing Any Gaps Of Silence Or Unwanted Noises From The Audio. I Then Put Everything Back Together Where I Would Then Listen Back To The Audio To See If Anything Else Needed To Be Cut Or If Anything Needed To Be Added Back On.
I Then Repeated The Previous Three Steps Which Were Choosing The Best Take, Dragging The Audio Into The Multitrack Mixdown And Cutting Any Audio That Is Needed For The Rest Of The Audio Clips That I Needed For My Podcast. I Also Used The Placement Intro Music For The Transition Music And The Scene Clips As I Had Not Yet Decided On These Either And Needed To Have An Idea On Timings For The Podcast.
Once I Had Done This It Was Time To Start Adding The Effects To The Podcast, The First Thing That I Did Was Merge All Of The Clips In A Specific Section Together, As At The Moment They Were All Cut Up And It Would Be A Lot More Efficient To Add The Effects To Each Section Rather Than Every Piece Of Cut Audio. To Do This I Went To The Selector Tool Which Is The “I” Near The Top Of The Software And Selected The Section That I Wanted To Merge, I Then Right Clicked On This And Selected Merge Clips.
After I Had Done This For All Of My Clips, I Added An Effect Which Allowed All Of The Clips To Have Around The Same Audio Level. To Do This I Went Back To The Selector Tool, The “I” Near The Top Of The Software, And This Time Selected The Whole Podcast. I Then Right Clicked On The Audio And Selected Match Clip Loudness, This Then Came Up With A Menu Where I Clicked Ok And It Matched All Of The Clips To Around The Same Audio Level
Then I Decided To Add To This Effect So That I Could Make It A Bit More Accurate. To Do This I Selected The Audio Clip That I Wanted To Use And Brought Up The Effect Rack. When This Had Been Brought Up, I Went To Amplitude And Compression Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Selected Dynamics.
This Then Brought Up The Settings Panel For This Effect, The First Thing That I Did Was Tick The Compressor. When I Had Done This, I Went To The Ratio And Turned This Up To 3. I Then Went To The Threshold Where I Would Listen Back To The Clip And I Would Keep Turning This Up Depending On The Little Lights At The Top Of The Setting, When The Light Flashed At -12 Db I Would Stop. This Brought The Audio Level Down So I Went To The Makeup Where I Kept Turning This Up Until The Audio Level Sat At Around 12 Db To 13 Db.
Once I Had Finished Adding This Effect To All Of My Audio Clips, I Then Moved Onto The Next Effect Which Was Removing Any Background Noise. To Do This I Selected The Audio Clip That I Wanted To Use And Then Brought Up The Effects Rack. When I Had Done This, I Selected Noise Reduction/Restoration Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose DeNoise.
This Then Came Up With The Settings Panel For This Effect, There Was A Slider That I Could Move Up And Down Depending On The Percentage Of Background Noise I Wanted To Remove. The Only Problem With This Effect Is The Higher The Percentage The More The Quality Of The Audio Will Worsen. I Decided To Turn This Up To About 20% As This Removed Most Of The Background Noise Without Losing Any Of The Quality Of The Audio, I Also Turned The Grain Up To 1 As I Felt That It Sounded Better.
When I Had Added This Effect To All Of The Audio Clips, I Then Moved Onto Fading The Clips In And Out, This Was So That I Could Make Sure That I Had Smooth Transitions And The Audio Didn’t Sound Too Choppy.
After I Had Done This For The Entire Podcast, I Decided To Add In The Actual Intro Music And The Sound Clips. This Was Quite A Simple Process As I Had Already Left Space For This So All I Really Had To Do Was Replace It. The Sound Clips Were A Little Harder To Add As They Were About 20 Seconds Maximum So I Did Have Move The Clips Around A Little Bit, I Did Forget To Take Screenshots Of This Process. When This Was All Done, I Went To The Selector Tool, Which Is The “I” Near The Top Of The Software And Selected The Entire Podcast. I Then Right Clicked On The Audio And Again Selected Match Clip Loudness, This Was To Make Sure The New Clips Were Around The Same Audio Levels As The Old Clips.
Then I Went Back To The Dynamics Effect So That I Was Able To Make Sure That Everything Was Still Lining Up At Around -12 Db To -13 Db. If This Wasn’t At This Level, I Would Mess Around With The Settings Until All Of The Clips Were Around The Same Audio Level.
Once I Had Done This It Was Then Time To Move Onto Adding The Final Effects, I Started With An Effect That Removed Room Echo. To Do This I Selected The Clip That I Wanted To Use And Went To The Effects Rack. I Then Selected Noise Reduction/Restoration Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose DeReverb.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For This Effect, There Was A Slider That I Could Move Up And Down Depending On What Percentage Of Room Echo I Wanted To Remove. The Only Problem With This Effect Is That The Higher The Percentage The More The Quality Of The Audio Will Worsen. I Chose Around 40% As I Felt That This Removed Most Of The Room Echo But Still Left A Good Quality Of Audio.
When I Had Added This Effect To All Of My Clips, I Started Adding On The Effects For The Entire Podcast. To Do This I Went To The Mix Track At The Bottom Of The Multitrack Mixdown And Went To The Effects Rack Where This Time I Chose Track Effects. I Then Selected Special Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose Mastering.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For This Effect, There Were Different Pre-Sets That I Could Choose From, I Decided To Choose Subtle Clarity As This Works The Best For Podcast But I Removed The Reverb From The Effect.
After I Had Done This, I Moved Onto The Next Effect Which Allowed Me To See What Audio Levels That I Needed For Certain Podcast Listening Platforms And What My Audio Levels Were Already At. To Do This I Went To The Mix Track At The Bottom Of The Multitrack Mixdown And Went To The Effects Rack Where Again I Chose Track Effects. I Then Selected Specials Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose Loudness Meter.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For This Effect, There Were Different Pre-Sets That I Could Choose From Depending On What Audio Levels I Wanted My Podcast To Be, I Decided That I Was Going To Use Apple Podcasts. I Then Clicked On The Settings Button Which Brought Up All The Information That I Needed To Know About Apple Podcasts And Showed Me The Audio Level That My Podcast Needed To Be, This Was -16 Lufs.
Once I Had Done This, I Then Went Back To The Levels Section Where I Then Listened To My Podcast So That I Could Run It Through To See What The Current Audio Levels Were. This Was So I Could See What The Levels Were At Currently So I Could Change Them To The Audio Levels Needed For Apple Podcasts. The Integrated Number Needs To Be As Close To -16 Lufs As Possible But At The Moment Mine Is Currently Sat At -18.4 Lufs So I Need To Get This Closer To -16 Lufs.
To Do This I Went To The Effects Rack And Started By Moving The Loudness Meter Down By One. I Then Went To Amplitude And Compression Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose Amplify. I Made Sure That This Effect Was In Between Mastering And Loudness Meter.
This Then Brought Up The Settings For This Effect, I Set The Amplify To A Point Of A Decimal So I Could Try And Get The Audio Levels To -16 Lufs. I Played Around With This Number, Re-Running The Loudness Meter Each Time So That I Could Get The Audio Levels Closer But Not Matter What I Did I Wasn’t Able To Get It Much Lower. I Did This Effect Right And Followed All Of The Steps But I Still Wasn’t Able To Make It Work.
As This Effect Didn’t Work Out, I Decided To Try Another Way To Get The Audio Levels To The Same As Apple Podcasts. The First Thing That I Did To Do This Was Go Up To The Multitrack Section At The Top Of The Software Where I Selected Mixdown Session To New File Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Selected Entire Session.
After I Had Done This, I Went Back Up To The Top Of The Software And This Time Selected Window Which Came Up With A Drop-Down Menu Where I Ticked Match Loudness.
This Then Brought Up A Panel Where The Effects Rack Would Normally Be, Here I Dragged And Dropped The New File Into The Match Loudness File Box And Then Pressed The Run Button So I Could See What The Audio Levels Of My Podcast Were Currently At.
When I Had Done This And Knew What My Audio Levels Were At That Moment, I Then Dragged Up The Tab At The Bottom Of The Panel. This Had A Section Where I Could Put In A Target Loudness So I Put In -16 Lufs Which Is The Audio Level That I Need For Apple Podcasts. I Then Pressed The Run Button Again So That It Was Able To Set My Audio To -16 Lufs.
The Last Thing That I Did Was Export My Podcast, I Did This In A Way That I Wouldn’t Usually Do As I Just Found It Was A Lot Easier. I Created A New Multitrack Mixdown And Dragged The Changed File Into It, Then I Went To The File Section At The Top Of The Software. Here I Selected Export Which Brought Up A Drop-Down Menu Where I Chose Multitrack Mixdown Then Entire Session. Before The Audio Was Exported A Menu Came Up Which Had Different Aspects To Choose From Like Where I Wanted The Audio To Be Saved And What Format I Wanted The Audio To Be.
Final Podcast:
Reflection:
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Overall, I Felt That The Final Edit For The Third Episode Of My Podcast Went Quite Well. Again, I Definitely Felt That I Have Improved My Skills Since The Last Time I Created A Podcast. However, There Were Some Challenges During The Editing Stage, The Main Problem Being With An Effect Not Working How I Wanted It To. This Was The Effect Where I Could See What Audio Levels, I Needed For Specific Podcast Listening Platforms And Then See What Audio Level The Audio Was Currently At So I Could Change It. I Had Struggled With This Effect In Both Of The Previous Episodes And I Just Wasn’t Able To Get It To Work No Matter What I Did. In The First Episode, I Forgot One Of The Steps For The Effect So I Thought That This Was Why It Didn’t Work But In The Second Episode I Did Everything Right And It Still Didn’t Work. I Wanted To Try This One More Time As I Didn’t Want To Give Up Yet, I Was Hoping That I Would Be Able To Get It To Work But The Same Thing Happened And It Would Just Not Do What I Wanted It To Do. This Meant That I Had To Use Another Effect Which Had The Same Outcome, I Had Used This Effect In The Previous Episodes Of My Podcast And Had Learned It In The Same Tutorial As The Other Effect. This Definitely Worked A Lot Better And Has Been Really Helpful As The Effect That I Originally Wanted To Use Didn’t Work Out So I Was Still Able To Create The Effect In A Different Way. I Would Have Liked For This Effect To Work As When I Was Learning About It In Action Research, I Thought That It Would Be Very Useful For The Podcast So It Was Annoying That It Didn’t Work Even Though I Did Everything Right. Even Though I Felt That My Podcast Went Overly Well, There Were Still A Few Things That I Would Like To Have Changed. An Example Of This Is How Sometimes The Sounds From The Microphone Could Be Heard In The Audio And I Wasn’t Able To Completely Remove It. Even When Putting The Different Effects That I Had Learned On Top It Still Could Be Heard, I Would Have Liked For This To Be Not There At All But At Least The Effects Reduced The Sound A Bit So It Was Less Noticeable. Another Example Of This Is How Sometimes My Voice Can Be Heard Changing. When I Had Added All The Effects That I Had Learned To Help This, It Did Make It A Bit Better But It Could Still Be Heard In The Audio. I Don’t Know If This Is Actually Noticeable To The Audience As It Does Happen Very Rarely Or If It Is Just Noticeable To Me As I Have Listened Back Over This A Lot. I Feel That It Didn’t Help That During The Recording Process I Was Starting To Lose My Voice, So Some Days My Voice Was Better Than Others Which Could Be A Reason To The Change In Consistency. Although There Were A Few Things That I Would Like To Have Changed, I Felt That The Majority Of The Podcast Went Well. I Found That For This Podcast I Have Learnt A Lot More Effects Which Have Successfully Worked, These Include Removing Background Noises And Levelling Out Audio. I Felt That These Have Definitely Benefitted My Podcast, As The Last Time I Created A Podcast I Only Learnt One Effect In Action Research Which Didn’t Even Work When I Did The Final Edit. Something Else That I Felt I Have Definitely Gotten Better At Is The Editing Although I Have Learnt A Lot Of New Effects That I Hadn’t Used Before I Felt That I Had A Greater Understanding On Basic Editing And Adobe Audition As A Whole. I Felt A Lot More Confident With What I Was Doing, For Example I Was Able To Be More Detailed When Cutting The Audio Which Allowed The Whole Podcast To Flow Better As There Were No Gaps Of Silence Or Unwanted Sounds. I Also Had A Good Idea Where Everything Was And How To Do Things, Except The New Effects, Which As They Were New, I Sometimes Had To Check Back To See If I Was Doing It Right. In The End Even Though There Were Some Things That I Would Have Liked To Change, I Feel That The Positives Of The Podcast Outweighs The Negatives. I Feel That I Have Definitely Improved My Skills On Creating A Podcast And Have Come A Long Way.