Audio Editing & Podcasting for Information & Heritage ProfessionalsHosted by your host, Robyn FormanJanuary 20, 2019January 27, 2019February 09, 2019

1. Personal Introductions

2. Different forms of Podcasts (genre, format, style) & examples

3. Online resources on stylistic, technical, & other aspects of Podcasting

4. Basics of Recording & Editing Audio quality with Audacity

5. Group workshopping and demonstration of other Audacity tools !

Agenda

Personal Introductions

Robyn Forman over here● UX student, 4th yr, part-time● Background in philosophy,● Interests in communities,

personal identity, R e M i X i n G

Personal Introductions

● What do you study?● What are your interests in

Podcasts or Podcasting?● Familiar with Audacity, or other

audio software?

Podcast

● Episodic audio - tells a story of some kind through conversation or dialectic

● Offers an opinion, argument, or interesting reflection on some topic

● Listeners can subscribe or downloadSoundcloud https://soundcloud.com/for/podcasting Anchor https://anchor.fm/

Genres Formats

● Commentary○ News/politics/journalism○ Review - films, games, music

● Non-fiction ○ Academic dialectic○ Personal reflections

● Fiction

● Solo (commentary, advice, storytelling)● One-on-one interview● Panel (discussion with guests)

Style● Music themes● Ambient/background sounds● Breaking & signposting

Podcast Listening

● Learn/think about interesting ideas in relation to society ● Gain insight on skills or trends in their profession● Catch up on news/social issues from trusted/familiar source

Podcast Listening

● Listening passively/outside a conversation can be relaxing/have social affect - feeling connected to others who share similar views or experiences

● Listening to a personal story can be insightful and also produce feeling of connection with others (and even greater connection with yourself)

Podcast Examples

Personal StoriesHow to Be a Girl

http://www.howtobeagirlpodcast.com/

Other Transgender Podcasts

https://player.fm/podcasts/Transgender

Professional skills, trends, communityUX Research TO

https://radiopublic.com/the-uxr-podcast-Wa3nAX

Archivists Alley

http://archivistsalley.com/

Piece of Work

https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/pieceofwork/

episodes

Interesting ideas on life/society

Philosophy bites

https://philosophybites.com

Open Questions (Philosophy)

https://soundcloud.com/user-480390211

This American Life

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/listen

Why start a Podcast?You have an iDea ● An interesting approach to a

topic/practice you engage in - studies, work, ordinary life & like to talk about it ! (ideally with a friend also engaged in this)

Transom https://transom.org/tag/podcast-basics/Eric – “Transom has about everything you could ever need for technical & storytelling tips”

“Transom channels new work, voices, and ideas into public media through the Internet and workshops. Our goal is to be useful and inspiring. Transom is a performance space, an open editorial session, an audition stage, a library, and a hangout. Our purpose is to pass the baton of mission and good practice in public media through tools, philosophy, and technique.”

Resources

This American Life – Make Radio https://www.thisamericanlife.org/about/make-radioOut on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio (book 240pgs) by Jessica Abel & Ira Glass“Definitive how-to guide for anyone who wants to make narrative journalism – i.e, true stories with scenes and plot and characters like we do on our show [This American Life].” Radio: An Illustrated Guide (comic) by Jessica Abel & Ira Glasshttp://williamwolff.org/docs/glass-radio-comic.pdf

Resources

How to Record and Edit Using Audacityhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl-WDjWrTtk&vl=en

Yeti Mic & Audacity tips from Youtuber/game reviewer Hazelnuttygameshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIBTbRWuNG4

Anchor https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz4iu0UWqSnoAMYZztpxgqA

Resources

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet. It was launched in 2009. http://freemusicarchive.org/curator/Video/

Resources

AnchorUsed by UX Research TO

Anchor

AnchorM u s i c themes

AnchorS o u n d themes

Start building your PodcastPlan/structure a topic/conversation

Use a plan appropriate to your Format, i.e. solo, interview, panel

E.g., Semi-scripted is often easiest for comfortable natural conversation flow, and also maintains some structure which will be helpful in the editing process

Start building your PodcastThink about how to make the discussion your own

Musical Theme & Ambient (Musical) Flow..

Plan/structure a topic/conversation

Start building your Podcast

Gather your tools & familiarize yourself with them by testing out & looking into online resources (like the ones we look at earlier!)

Start building your Podcast

Audio Recording/Editing Software ❏ Anchor - App/platform❏ Audacity - Open Source Audio Editor

Start building your Podcast

Microphone(s)❏ Yeti USB Mic (Inforum)❏ Digital Voice Recorder (Inforum & Media

Commons)❏ Dynamic Mic

Audacity

AudacityRecording Audio in Audacity

1. Plug in your recording device, open Audacity. Beside the Microphone icon in the left-most top corner (Audio Host) select MME so that Audacity collects audio from your plugged in Mic (rather than your computer’s mic)

2. To check that Audacity is getting sound from your mic, click ‘Start Monitoring’ beside the Microphone icon near the top.

3. When you’re ready to start recording, hit the red Record button.

AudacityRecording Audio in Audacity

4. Once you are recording, leave 5-10 seconds of silence before you start talking. This is important so that you can remove background noise from your track when you return to it for editing.

5. Click the Stop button when you want to stop recording

6. Save what you recorded! File>Save Project>Save Project As. Note that this will save your recording in the form of this Audacity file, not as an MP3 or other audio file. You’ll want to save as an audio file once you are done editing anyway.

AudacityImproving audio quality of a recorded voice track

1. Open your Saved Project (recorded audio track in Audacity), or Import an audio file you recorded using a different device (e.g. handheld voice recorder)

2. Normalize volume (using Compressor)● Highlight track, click ‘Effect’ in the toolbar, select ‘Compressor’, click Apply

○ This will average the peaks and valleys of the waveform of your track

3. Remove background noise● Highlight 3 seconds or so of silence at the beginning of your track (or anywhere

in your track that there is silence)● Click ‘Effect’, select ‘Noise Reduction’, click ‘Get Noise Profile’● Highlight the whole track, click ‘Effect’, select ‘Noise Reduction’, click Okay

WorkShopPossible Topics for Interviewing:

● Your experiences at the iSchool ?

● Items in a library collection or archive ?

● Community of interest/practice ?