DIY Audio Storytelling
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An introduction to audio recording and editing, as well as how to improve the quality of what you're recording.
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DIY Audio Storytelling
- 1. DIY Media Learning Community Duncan McHugh UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems
- 2. Today’s workshops Audio equipment Tips on recording Editing with Audacity Sharing your work Writing & storytelling
- 3. Guess what!? Podcasts are cool again!
- 4. LFS 400
- 5. What do you use to record sound?
- 6. What do you use to record sound? Computer’s internal mic Smartphone Audio recorder
- 7. Tools USB mics Roland Edirol field recorders Some specialized mics CiTR and other studios
- 8. Tips on recording Editing can only do so much
- 9. Tips on recording Know the space Use the appropriate equipment Test your levels
- 10. Audio Editing Pro: Adobe Audition Dalet Pro Tools Free: Windows: Sound Recorder Mac: Garage Band
- 11. Audio Editing Open Source: Audacity
- 12. To the beginning Play Record Pause Stop To the end
- 13. Selection Tool: selects a segment of a track Envelope Tool: allows quick adjustments of volume Draw Tool: for very minute adjustments
- 14. Zoom Tool: allows you to shift your view Time Shift Tool: moves clips along the timeline Multi-Tool Mode: everything at once
- 16. Beyond Basic
- 17. Post-production Handling & archiving files Formats Plugin for mp3 Adding metadata
- 18. Everything you wanted to know… The Audacity wiki: wiki.audacityteam.org/
- 19. What is a podcast Podcast = Media + RSS Any blog will do Feed management: Feedburner Audio hosting: Soundcloud Advanced: Libsyn
- 20. Finding sounds Copyright concerns Free Music Archives Wikimedia Commons
- 21. Writing for the ear One thought per sentence Active verbs Say what you mean Telling detail Logic ‘The Mouth Edit’
- 22. What is a story? Someone doing something for a reason It has a beginning, a middle and an end
- 23. Story structure The Beginning: The Hook Anecdote Great quote Telling detail
- 24. Story structure The Beginning: The Hook The Middle Background Character development Narrative
- 25. Story structure The Beginning: The Hook The Middle The End • Forward-looking endings • Image endings • Circular endings • So-what endings • Echo endings • Surprise and discovery endings
- 26. Interviewing: Sawatsky’s Sins 1 Asking a non-question 2 Asking a double-barreled question 3 Overloading your question 4 Putting remarks into your question 5 Including trigger words 6 Including hyperbole in your question 7 Asking a close-ended question
- 27. Thanks! Duncan McHugh UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems duncan.mchugh@ubc.ca
Editor's Notes
- SNL: https://vimeo.com/125856440
- * Know the space * Consider the room size, number of participants and ambient noise * Wind is a major enemy * Use the appropriate equipment * Check equipment beforehand * Test your levels * Bring headphones * Get as close to the source as possible
- Multiple tracks Additional tools Effects; some useful, some crazy http://bit.ly/lfs400audio
- Vonnegut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ
- Cringe: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/182/cringe
- Endings by Dan Grech Ending with a quote is a tried-and-true method in newspaper writing. But in audio, ending with a quote usually doesn’t work. Here’s why: Interview clips are essential in many stories, but couching them in narrative really makes them shine. Beginning or ending with one can confuse the listener and blur the boundaries of the story. Narration provides context. In radio, there’s an added danger to ending with an actuality: It’s awkward to tack a sign-off (“I’m Dan Grech for ‘Marketplace’”) immediately after a quote. Radio reporters and other folks writing for audio face another pitfall: Endings are all too easy to, well, leave until the end. Too often, how we end stories is an afterthought, a decision made under tight deadline with little planning or forethought. My advice sounds paradoxical, but it has served me well: Think about endings from the beginning. Keep an eye out for ending potentials while doing background research and listening to tape. Make notes about contenders and develop them as you work the piece. You may not decide which path to take until you’re wrapping up the story, but you’ll have well-developed ideas to pick from. Endings are also challenging because they’re “unwritten.” Often, it’s much easier to see the beginning of a story. That could be because there’s usually only one beginning, but many possible endings. We create beginnings and endings, but endings first need to be discovered. I’ve also found it helpful to think about endings in terms of broad categories. Depending on the kind of story you’re telling, some types of endings will work better. Choosing an ending type can help a lot. Let’s review a few: Forward-looking endings Endings that point to the future show where things are headed. They present one or more possible paths the characters in a story might take. So, you might describe a dilemma that a character has or a decision he or she has made and save the “what next” for the end. Here's an example: In May 2009, I created a piece about wage theft. I considered several possible endings, guided by this question: After a person’s wages are stolen, what next? How do they respond? One ending I considered focused on the lead character in my story inspiring six coworkers to file lawsuits against their employer. Another highlighted a co-op to address the problem that was formed with other women cheated out of wages. Both endings are forward looking, and both put positive twists on a negative situation. (I chose to end with the inspired lawsuits.) Future-looking endings are a great approach because they help listeners feel satisfied by putting them ahead of the news. Future-looking endings offer another great benefit: They’re a way to cultivate story ideas. One story’s ending might be another’s beginning. Image endings Image endings often work better than most. They describe a scene ― specifically, a “parting shot” ― with description and detail. These endings work best for scene-driven stories, and they usually require a lot of reporting. The idea is to focus on a single detail, something small that stands for something big, and describe it in a short but descriptive fashion. “Ramon’s story,” for example, ends with an image. “Catalina’s back in their cramped childhood condo. A framed photo of Ramon in a cap and gown hangs by her bedroom door.” It works because it suggests, without saying as much, that Catalina still loves her son despite his financial troubles. Ramon feels he has a debt to pay to her. She is proud of him regardless. Circular endings These endings loop back to where they began. They can provide a sense of closure and completeness. To craft this kind of ending, look at the point the last person is making, look at their actualities and think about how to wrap things up from there. Is there a way to echo the words? Something they’re saying that I can build off of? Circular endings work best in stories where there is a single protagonist whose story is being followed. Pieces with intermingling voices don’t lend themselves to circular endings because they rarely tell a single person’s story. So-what endings Whereas image endings present something concrete that stands for a bigger issue, “so-what” endings raise the level of abstraction, introducing themes previously untouched but symbolized by the rest of the story. In their “Broncos and Boudin: The Angola Prison Rodeo” piece, the Kitchen Sisters talk about a rodeo in Angola Prison where traditional food is served. The piece is a profile of the food, but it ends with the warden revealing that the events take place a few weeks after Katrina. Traditions are at risk of being lost, and the prison rodeo ― and the food ― represent the preservation of cultural history and identity. Echo endings With echo endings, you look at the last words in the final interview in the piece, and echo some word, phrase or idea in your ending. Ask yourself: Is there a way to echo the words? Something they’re saying that I can build off of? Echo endings sound good, but they’re kind of a gimmick. They should be reserved for when you’re on a tight deadline. Surprise and discovery endings Surprise is an incredibly powerful tool in audio. It might be tempting to apply this technique to your endings. This is something I’d caution against, except in special cases. Surprise is the lifeblood of radio, but throwing a curve ball at the end can confuse an audience. Rather than leaving them satisfied, frustration results. I recommend introducing surprise early and often, when it can be used as a hook. Twists can occur in the last third of a piece, when there’s still time for a final resolution or explanation.
- 1 This pipeline is very controversial… 2 How will you choose the route the pipeline will take and who’s going to pay for it? 3 If you make the subject of your question too big or you put in too many subjects, your question can’t be answered. 4 At best, putting remarks into your questions could distort the answer you get. At worst, it could get a cheap rise out of the other person 5 These are words that are so powerful to an interviewee that they take attention away from the rest of the question and ruin the answer. 6 If you exaggerate for effect, the interviewee will defend against the exaggeration instead of giving you a meaningful answer. 7 “Yes or no” questions only test your hypothesis, but they don’t lead to genuine discovery. Ask why or how questions and avoid yes or no answers Give interviewees time to explain themselves Don’t worry about appearing smart