Multimedia JournalismMultimedia JournalismAudio Recording and Editing

Simple Tools for Post Production

Sec. C1 – March 2, 2009

Topics we’ll cover today

• Your audio/stills ideas• News U’s tips on getting quality audio:– Why sound matters– Planning– Editing and Production

• How to edit using Audacity• Assignment for next time (Due 2 weeks from now)

Getting quality audio• Why Sound Matters: It is vital to broadcast (obviously) and online

journalism. It is often a strong/the strongest element in a video or multimedia piece. (Remember: Web video isn’t good for subtlety.)– Sound brings life to a story in many ways:

» Interviews: They capture the voice and tone of interviewees and—as in the Virginia Tech story we discussed in week 1—can be the/a centerpiece to a story.

» Ambient/atmospheric sounds: Sounds that occur naturally at a location. They capture the mood or “feel” of that area: e.g., a babbling brook evokes calm.

» Natural sound: The sound that exists in the “real world” when we’re taping action sequences. (e.g. traffic, crowd noises, hammering/construction, etc.)

» Voiceover: Weaves the story together through descriptive narration (example: I conducted once that obviously wasn’t originally meant for broadcast—I originally did it to get audio for this NOVA piece and therefore didn’t structure the side-questions questions the way I normally would. Through narration, my colleague managed to take my audio and make a coherent podcast out of it.)

Getting quality audio• Why Sound Matters (Continued)

– Remember what we discussed during Week 1: If your audio is good, it will add to video and slideshows; if it’s bad, it will take away. Audiences forgive bad video before they’ll forgive bad audio.

• One exception: Very old/historic recordings necessary to your piece. Listen to examples from NOVA’s ”Forgotten Genius.”

• Use subtitles with the audio if you have no other options or (rarely) to reinforce an important point.

• Avoid using background music for straight news pieces. Web compression will already take away from your sound, and music will make it worse.

Getting quality audio• Why Sound Matters (continued)

It can make good narratives great: – As with good print stories, audio stories can use the reporters’

descriptions to set the scene. But a good audio story also makes use of other sounds. As we’ve discussed, other sounds (besides voice) can evoke emotion and create a sense of place.

– Examples of stories told better with ambient and natural sound:» NPR: First International Body Music Festival» Palm Beach Post: Walking with Angels» NPR: Old-School Keyboard Makes Comeback of Sorts

Getting quality audio

Getting quality audio

Getting quality audio

Getting quality audio

Getting quality audio

Getting quality audio

Getting quality audio

Editing with Audacity• Audacity

– Audacity is a streamlined Mac & PC audio tool available free of charge for anyone to use. It lacks a lot of bells and whistles necessary for advanced audio editing and production, but will suit your needs for this class.

• In-class Tutorial/Assignment:– http://news-geek.com/jo540/audacity/

• For additional help with Audacity, check out the following sites:– Audacity Help & Documentation– Audacity Wiki– For troubleshooting, tutorials, tips, and tricks

• NOTE: You should now have your own memory (preferably an external firewire drive) on which you'll be saving any material you create for class. If you haven't gotten one already, refer to the lecture from 2 weeks ago where I discussed some recommendations.

Assignments for Next Time• Use an audio recorder and a digital camera to get sound and pictures for your approved

audio/stills story. The edited audio for the piece is due in two weeks.– Piece should be 2-5 minutes long. You should have 8-15 photos per minute of audio.– If you don’t have your own audio recorder, you can rent either the Tascam DR-1 or

the Samson ZOOM H2 from the TV Room upstairs.– Keep in mind that we don’t have a recorder for every student. If you can rent a

recorder in pairs (while still doing your own individual work), do.– Both devices should come with manuals, but if they don’t you can read the manuals

online:» http://www.avisoft.com/DR-1.pdf » http://www.samsontech.com/products/relatedDocs/H2_user_manual.pdf

– NOTE: Most digital recorders record to a memory stick like the one in your digital camera that can be removed and placed into your card reader. Be careful if accessing files this way.

• Edit your story in Audacity (be sure to save all original files in case changes need to be made). Save everything to your own drive.

• Embed audio interview to blog for grading AND Bring your mix and photos to class: We will create audio/stills pieces in class using SoundSlides. (If you prefer to use FinalCut or other video software to do this instead and you know what you’re doing, that’s fine.)