P6 SECOND SUBMISSION

P6- Carry out post-production edits to the sound elements.

I Edited my pre-recorded radio segment in Garage Band. This is the main project screen in Garage Band. To input each piece of audio, I had to drag and drop from Finder the correct audio file onto the timeline and arrange it in the location that I want it. Each audio file had its own line that that could be controlled individually with its own levels and could be arranged in any order that I wanted it to go in. The master levels of the overall project could be controlled by a slider in the top right corner of the project.

To look at a specific audio file in more detail, I could double click on that file and I would be able to see where all the audio waves were in more detail, that made editing a lot easier as editing audio is a lot harder than editing images as the bit that we want missing cannot be seen, only heard. However, by zooming into the audio files, we can depreciate which waves are what sounds which makes the editing process easier.

To loop a clip, I used the ‘loop’ function which I was able to do by holding down the button in the top right corner of the audio clip and dragging it out to the length that I want that clip to be in. Looping is an easier method to repeat the audio than copying and pasting not all of the clip needs to be repeated, and the length is easily adjustable to fit any time frame that is required. 

To adjust the length of a clip, the ‘resizer pointer’ tool can be used to make the beginning or end of the clip change the length that it needs to be. The ‘resizer pointer’ tool can be found at the bottom left or right of the clip (depending on what part of the clip is needed to be adjusted. The ‘resizer pointer’ tool can extend the clip after it has already been cut shorter, this makes it a really useful tool as it means that mistakes are easily fixable. As well as this, the ‘resizer pointer’ is similar to the ‘loop’ tool as it can adjust the clip to any length that is required.

Another couple of tools that are useful are the ‘mute’ tool, and the ‘solo’ tool. These tools are useful as they allowed me to be able to work on one specific track individually. Being able to single out different tracks made working a lot easier as if there was a problem with one specific track I could concentrate completely on that one track without being distracted by all of the other tracks as well. Also, being able to mute a track was useful as it meant that if I didn’t want to use a track, I was able to get rid of it without permanently deleting it, which would have meant that I couldn’t change my mind or change where I used it.

To adjust the sound levels, I used ‘automation’, which is where I am able to add fades in and out, and adjust the levels for each individual track. ‘Automation’ was very useful as it meant that I could control how gently (or suddenly) each track was to come in; whether there was to be a crescendo or a decrescendo. ‘Automation’ was also useful as it is shows effectively exactly what the sound is going to. It does this visually so the editor can see clearly exactly where the sound is going to go.

‘Automation’ is for more than just controlling the volume, ‘automation’ can be used to add specific effects to the sound. For example, if the editor wants to make the track sound like it has been recorded in a cave, the editor can adjust the ‘echo’ levels of ‘automation’, this is also where the reverb of a track can be adjusted.

To add another track, there is a small plus sign in the top left hand of the project, here there are options about what type of track is to be added to the project. For my project, I added in an audio track as I was dealing solely with pre-recorded sound. This also could have meant that I would have been able to record sound straight into Garage Band if that is what I wanted to do.

In my pre-recorded radio segment, there are very few times where the wind can be heard against the microphone, that is because I adjusted the EQ of the tracks that had been affected by wind. The EQ chart is blue and found at the bottom of the project, this is a way of editing the quality of the sound, and the qualities of the track by editing the frequency of the sound waves. Unless you are a sound editing pro, using the EQ chart is mostly trial and error; playing around with it until the sound sounds as required by the editor.

When editing the individual sound assets, I would have to make a new Garage Band project for each sound that I had recorded. Once I had input the sound I would trim edges of the sound so that I would only be keeping the parts of the sound that I wanted and liked. For some of the sounds, for example the sound in the park, I needed to remove the wind as it was distorted and unpleasant to listen to, to fix this, I would edit the frequency in the EQ chart until I was able to remove most of the wind from the sound. Once I had the part of the sound that was the best, and had made sure that it was between 30 seconds to 1 minute, I would then export the edited asset and import it into my final product.

When editing some of my assets, it took more work than editing others. For example, when editing the sound in the lift, I wanted to make the lift go from floor 2 to the ground floor without it stopping, but the original recording had the lift stopping at every floor. To adjust this, I removed the section of the audio where the lift stopped at floor 1, and edited it together so that it would sound like the lift had never stopped moving. There were lots of other ways in which I needed to fix the audio with the lift, the recorded sound in the lift, for example, telling the passenger which floor that the person was on, and the direction in which the lift is traveling was too quite in comparison to the sounds of the lift moving. To fix this, I had to edit the sound of announcer out of the original audio, and then add it back in on a different track so that the volume levels could be made louder for the lift announcements, but not for the moving of the lift.

The other thing that I edited for the Lift sound was the reverb and the ambiance of the track. In order to emphasise the echo that can be heart when in a lift, for the Lift asset, I adjusted the reverb so that all the sounds would be elongated slightly to create a manufactured echo. As well as this, I adjusted the ambience so that that whirring noise from the motors of the lift moving would be emphasised and would make the asset unmistakably the sound of a lift.

In total, I edited five different sound assets that would go into my pre-recorded radio segment. The sounds of a Lift, a park, Roman Road Market, the rain, and a swing creaking. For the Roman Road Market sounds, there was a lot of different sound recordings to edit together to make the overall finished edited asset for Roman Road Market. I listened to over 5 minutes of my recordings from the market and decided what parts were the best. I decided that the best way to show the market through sound was to have the people talking and buying from the sellers. To do this, I found all the places where my microphone had picked up conversations in the market and edited those bits together to make the market sound like it was really busy, even though I had recorded the audio at a time when the market was quite. I also edited out the inappropriate language that could be heard as it would not have been ethical to have that language in one of my assets. The other part of the sound that I edited into the asset was the sound of clothes hangers being pushed around a rail to emphasise that this sound is of a market.

I did not end up using the raining asset in my final pre-recorded radio segment, but I edited it as one of my five assets. The sound on the original asset was very good and did not need my editing, but at the end was interrupted by someone starting a conversation with me whilst I was recording it. To fix this, I edited the end off of the final finished asset so that only the rain could be heard.

The edited assets were then used in the pre-recorded radio segment as a way of emphasising the locations in which the stories that were being told by the interviewees took place. For example, the edited park asset was used when Ivy Bollans and Stella Benjamin told their stories about going to the park as children. The edited assets helped make the pre-recorded radio segment sound more genuine and they helped the audience relate more to the stories as they were being told, and enjoy the product more as the finalised edited assets helped make the pre-recorded radio segment more believable, and complete.

When editing the tracks, if there where entire sections of the track that needed to be deleted, they needed to be cut shorter, to do this, the editor should right-click the track at the exact point where the track is to be split, and press ‘Split at Playhead’ (or command T). Then the part of the track that is not required should be deleted with the backspace button.

To export the final finished product, I needed to go to SHARE, and ‘Export to Disk’ where I was able to save my exported product where I wanted to. When exporting, it was important to remember to export it as an MP3 file in High Quality