Editing and Production Process

I have now completed all of the editing and production of the three projects, a process which was more time-consuming than I initially thought:

As described in my previous post, the dialogue for the radio play was recorded in one of the Music Technology recording studios onto a digital audio recorder.  Initially, we decided to record the audio from this recorder into a single wav file using SoundForge, which would include all outboard effects such as the filtration used in the telephone conversation.  However, a problem arose with the recorder and this was not possible.  Instead, the hard drive was connected to a computer directly and the relevant source wav files were copied.  This meant that all outboard effects were lost, but the sound from each microphone was stored in a separate file, which made it easier to alter such things as panning.

Once the files were copied, I imported them into SoundForge.  Before I could proceed any further I needed to convert them from 24 bit mono into 16 bit stereo, a process which can be automated and which only took a few minutes.  After this, I adjusted the panning on each file so that one was slightly over to the left and the other was slightly over to the right.  I then used the mix paste feature within SoundForge to combine the two files together.

As I mentioned in my last post, there was a relatively high level of hesitation and stuttering, even in the best takes, probably because Lysette was unfamiliar with the script due to being cast at short notice.  As a result, before I could apply any effects, it was necessary to undertake a significant amount of fine editing, which included the removal of long pauses, deletion of page turns and consolidation of broken or stuttered phrases, as well as combining the two takes where one was better than the other.  This was perhaps the most time-consuming exercise as it involved working with audio as short as a few milliseconds from time to time.  It was also important to remember to edit around breaths (or remove them entirely) and ensure a minimal amount of difference in the ambient noise since dramatic differences would become very obvious once edited.  The go to time and selection features were particularly useful here, as was the loop facility - it was possible to loop a short amount of audio once selected for deletion, for example, so that it is easier to tell whether the start of a word is included.

In previous posts I documented the editing process for Aaron's monologue, which was recorded separately.  Before I could proceed with further production of the play, I needed to select suitable background music.  After much deliberation, I decided to use a piece of royalty-free music which I acquired from the Internet.  I edited this to the appropriate length and pasted Aaron's monologue over the top using the mix paste feature, being careful to ensure that the volume of the music was not too high.

I then added a reverb effect to the second scene, where Mark is drinking in a kitchen and Mary is telling him about Aaron's new invention; added a sound effect of a drink being poured to the start of that scene; faded out the ends of scenes in order to conform to typical radio convention; and applied filtration to Mary's voice in the phone conversation at the end of the play.  I also converted that conversation into mono so that it would sound more realistic, inserted sound effects of a telephone ringing, a telephone being answered and a telephone being replaced, and inserted Aaron's monologue in the appropriate place.  All of the sound effects were taken from a library of free effects on the college network.

After this, I needed to select a suitable piece of music for the start of the play.  Again, I resorted to royalty-free music, but this was located on the college's computer network rather than on the Internet.

Finally, in order to complete the production of the play itself, I imported Paul Green's introduction into SoundForge, edited out extraneous verbiage captured in the recording, mixed it over the top of the music and appended it to the beginning of the play.

Once the editing and production of the play was complete, I needed to produce the accompanying radio advert.  Thankfully, as documented in a separate post, Paul Green had already recorded most of the voiceover, so this process was relatively straightforward.

As far as the voiceover was concerned, I simply imported the file into SoundForge, edited it and normalised it.  I also inserted extracts from the play itself at this point, including that from Aaron's monologue, which was taken from the saved edit before music was added to simplify the production process.

Once this was done, I selected the sound effect of a timer from the college's collection of free effects and mixed it in at the appropriate place, mixing the music in after the effect was complete and ensuring that volumes and lengths were appropriate.

Finally, I needed to insert the extract from the advert aired 'Six months ago'.  To do this, I simply recorded the relevant voiceover section, mixed in suitable music from the royalty-free library referenced earlier and inserted it at the appropriate place.

The final strand to my project was the creation of a promotional web page, which would form part of the station's website.  This was actually more complicated that it at first appears as, in actuality, I needed to produce a design for the entire site into which the one page could fit.  My existing knowledge of HTML and CSS was extremely beneficial as I was able to draw on designs which I have already used.

The text of the web page was derived from the script for the advert and I imported a photograph of myself at the suggestion of Paul Green.