1. Evaluation 4
For our main task, my group and I used a variety of different technologies that would
help in recording. This consisted of learning all of the different ways that all of the
different pieces of hardware and software could be used for each purpose.
The main piece of kit that was used was the recording studio that was used to piece
the whole set together and was originally used in the Prelim task. The way in which I
was able to edit the main clip was using adobe audition. This program was used
because it is a professional piece of sound editing software that offers all the tools
needed to make the radio news show. I learnt many different techniques whilst
using this software such as using the edit view to first edit the track as opposed to
multitrack view as It is more suitable. I used this because the sounds needed to be
normalised and small parts of the clip could be cut out and saved as a single audio
file.
The microphone in the studio wasn’t used because we didn’t have a purpose for it. It
could only be used in the studio which isn’t suitable for the news me and my group
were producing. So instead, we used one of these rifle microphones which are a
small and portable condenser microphone that utilises phantom power and is
connected to this Dictaphone using an XLR to Jack cable. Now what that means is the
microphone isn’t self powered and needs a power source to run and uses this
connector to the more commonly found jack used for headphones. This was
essential because the originally quality of recording using the built in Dictaphone
microphone is very poor and would not be suitable for radio shows.
Recording is good if it works and to ensure that it most definitely was, I used a pair of
these standard studio headphones which allowed the feedback of the audio being
recorded. This was done to ensure that all of the sound levels on the initial recording
were correct and audible and that the quality was of a high standard. Without doing
this the recording may have been distorted too quiet or at worst, not even have had
recorded and that is why headphones are important. Whilst using these I learnt how
important they were because the level of recording needed to be adjusted a few
times depending on how it turned out initially.
I used flipcams a few times to record some video. These are high quality video
cameras with a small flip out USB connector on top and are small and compact. I
used these because of these reasons. High quality video is preferred and the flip USB
connecter allowed an easy transfer to ease the data transfer.
This is a squirrel. Well, more officially known as a wind jammer, it does just that. It is
used to prevent wind from distorting the audio and interrupting any intentional
sound in the clip. None of the recording I did was done outside and so it wasn’t
needed however the smaller sponge windscreen was used in all recordings. This was
used because they are useful in preventing pops and hisses in vocals. These can’t be
intentionally prevented by the people and so I used these to give the highest
possible quality of recording.