Hi there! This week’s blog post is about using Audition to create audio stories. I decided to do an interview that focused on event hosting for my audio story. I did this because Collect is all about inspiring people to gather creatively in their area. Not only do I want to host events, but I want to give people resources to plan their own!
I chose an interview format because of the conversational nature of it and because I like things that are relatively straight forward when providing information. I also really appreciate list Podcasts where you are going through a list of key points or lessons. I ruled out something in the list format so I could get others involved.
I started off by drafting a couple questions centered around the idea of what makes a great event. I then asked two of my friends to meet downtown at You and Yours distillery to talk all things event planning. My friend Erica has been in the hospitality industry for over 10 years and my friend Ashley just started a design inspiration Instagram called Reed and Rye. Check out her stuff for some crazy decor inspo!
When we arrived at the venue it was relatively quiet, but that quickly changed and so we actually wound up recording the interview in my car just outside. I used one of the pro tips from the readings and recorded about a minute of ambient noise for the background before we headed out. The rest of the audio I recorded in my living room. Check out the below for the walk though of my technical process.
- I used my iPhone for all recordings
- I interviewed Ashley and Erica separately in my car and was then able to upload their tracks individually and then edit out me asking the questions.
- I then recorded a sound bite all together with both of them thanking them to get a natural organic ending to the recording sesh.
- I created a muti-track session in Audition and uploaded all these pieces included the rerecorded bits of me in my living room asking questions.
- The ambient noise fades in after my introduction to the interview and fades out at the end of the session.
- I begin the audio clip with an intro I recorded at a later date in my living room.
- Once all 5 tracks (Ashley, Erica, Me, Conclusion, Ambient noise) were uploaded I began to hack away. The goal was to act as if they were both answering the same questions at the same time. Each of their individual interviews was about 3 minutes in length so I razored a lot out.
- I added the intro at the beginning, edited the middle portion of them answering my spliced in questions, and then added in the reordered conclusion portion we recorded all together. All of this was layered over the ambient noise.
I hit the 3 minute mark exactly and it was hard to edit it down to that. I would’ve liked to add a bit of music at the beginning and end and maybe a more formal ending instead of just the laughter and then fade. I might consider editing out the parks question to gain some extra time. Give it a listen and let me know what you think, Enjoy! 🙂
Hannah Pennell Communication 
Hey Hannah! Great job on your audio edition. The recording is neat and clean without noise and the cotent is very helpful. I think the suggestion that Erica brought out is quite good. You need to make your guests feel welcomed using proper location or music and lights. In a word, the interview is successful. But there are two small things needed to be noticed. First, the voice level was brought up suddenly in somewhere near end. The second thing is there is a little space without any voice, maybe you can delete this part I think. And if you can add some background music that would be nice. Nice work again!
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Hey Hannah!
To dive right into it, your audio was nice and crisp and easy on the ears. At first, I didn’t know how i felt about the ambiance noise but as I continued to listen it ended up flowing really well with the interview. You asked a question that I felt was very random and it kind of threw me off, it was the favorite park question. To me, it slightly disrupted the flow of the interview as it didn’t really fit in with the topic. Other than that I enjoyed listening to your draft and I look forward to what else you have to create!
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Thanks to everybody for the awesome feedback. There were a lot of similarities between the critiques and my internal self-critique of the story. Firstly, I would really like to lower the volume more of the clips of me speaking. The volume doesn’t quite match the other clips and I think it’s a volume issue/clarity issue because I recorded those clips in quieter spaces. Secondly, I am going to remove the parks question. While it made great sense with the overall topic of Collect, it does not flow with the general topic of event planning which I would rather focus on more given the limited time to explore why the parks make great event spaces. Next, I would like to maybe experiment with music at the beginning and possibly end and I have given some thought to re-recording a few of the questions I asked. I will also eliminate any sound gaps of silence. Thanks for listening!
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Hannah – I love your topic! Great work with the audio story. It was so interesting to read about your editing process. The ambient sound was really well done. I was really impressed with the quality of the sound and felt like I was there! Hosting events is so difficult, and so I found the topic really informative. I thought the style you chose was great too. I enjoy a good traditional interview and know how difficult they can be. Overall, great job. My only suggestion would be to take some time out at the very end. Other than that, I thought it was effective and a good audio story. Also, I love your photo! Next time, I can supply you and your friends with wine.
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