Blog Post #3: I Almost Had a Mental Breakdown Trying to Make Record Scratch Noises ෆ

Introduction

  In this blog post, I will build upon my audio story project by brainstorming experts I can interview, finding sample royalty-free music to use, and even creating my own Foley sound effect!

POS Project

  As a quick refresher, my audio story topic was, “Why do you think rap music is one of the most popular genres of music today?” Two weeks ago, I recorded three people’s responses to this question, edited them together, and posted it on SoundCloud.

      The resulting audio story can be found below.

Experts on... Rap?

      To better understand why the popularity of rap today, I would need to interview people who are experts in music. Unfortunately, I’m not friends with any famous rappers, so they weren’t an option for me. I could also interview people who work in the music industry, such as somebody who works at a record label or company. Other people that I could consider experts on rap or music would include music majors, or, even better, music professors here on campus.

Background Music

  For my background music, I wanted something that had a rap-style beat but still very chill and would not distract the listener from what was being said. I would start this music at 0:23.

Transition Music

  My main goal for transition music was to find something that still had hip-hop/rap elements to it, but didn’t distract or lose the listener in the midst of the transition. I was very surprised yet intrigued when I found this beat because it reminded me of lo-fi style music while also having “rap” beat feel to it, which are two very different genres of music. I would start this music at 0:10 because that is when the drum kits start.



Intro Music

  For my intro music, I wanted to immediately start off with a solid beat that sounds a lot like what would be behind a rap track. This would immediately give the listener a glimpse of what I would be talking about in the rest of the audio story. I would start the audio story by starting at 0:10 of this track.



Outro Music

  I wanted my outro music to keep a similar style beat as my intro music, but be less intense than the intro so the listener knows that the audio story is reaching its end. A good way to do this would be to start the music at 1:32 and have it fade out at the end of the audio story.



Foley Sound Effect

  Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to films, videos, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. I created my own Foley sound effect of a record scratch by recording myself aggressively running a dry erase marker against a whiteboard, which didn't quite give me the sound I wanted. I immediately entered panic mode because I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to make it sound like the real thing.
      After what felt like hours of thinking, I had the idea to use FL Studios’ “Fruity Scratcher” tool to edit the audio into sounding actually somewhat like a record scratch. This sound effect relates to my audio story because the vinyl records play music, and the record scratch would essentially "stop" the music.

Blog Post #2: Where I'm Forced to Go out and Talk to Strangers ෆ

Introduction

  For this assignment, I asked random people on the street (cue social anxiety) a question I wanted to know the answer to. I recorded the responses and my voice-over, adjusted and edited the clips in Adobe Audition, and posted the final product to Soundcloud.

Developing The Podcast

      The question I chose to ask was, “Why do you think rap music is one of the most popular genres of music today?”

  I took to the street (well, if you count Slane as the street) to start my hunt for potential interviewees. I recorded 4 responses from people who didn’t seem like they'd be annoyed if I bothered their precious lunch hour. After getting my interview clips, I recorded my voice-over where I introduced myself and the question.

  After dragging all of the clips into the multitrack, I realized I only had enough time to capture 3 of the 4 interview clips into my 30 second podcast. What a bummer. I tackled each clip one at a time; first, I deleted the parts of the interviews where I asked them the question, since it took up a lot of precious time. Then I used the razor tool to cut out the many stutters, pauses, and unneeded audio. (Russel, 1:41-2:13) This way, I could get to the most important part of each response without heavily exceeding the 30 second timeframe. I listened to the clips each time I made a cut, making sure it was not noticeable that there were portions cut out and that the audio flowed as well as it possibly could.

      After finally editing each audio clip to my satisfaction, I noticed that my third interviewee was particularly quiet compared to myself and the two others. I used the dial knob on the side of the track to adjust only her volume (Jago, para. 2) so she was audible and at about the same dB as the rest of us.

The Super Cool Final Product

  I exported the final product as a .wav file and uploaded it to Soundcloud.

https://soundcloud.com/leunarie/animegirls 



  Overall, this project was super fun and interesting! I’ve dabbled in FL Studio before, so I knew a bit about using multitrack sessions and editing/cutting clips already. Adobe Audition is a little different than FL, but once I put my hands on the software, it was simple and easy to figure things out.