MMS 172 - FINAL PROJECT

Walkthrough

Navigating the Waves

Two entries ago, I posted a blog entry about my pre-production plans in preparation for the final project in MMS 172. After receiving approval for my project concept, my son and I started working on the script for our original story. Like I said in my previous post, I wanted this activity to produce something that I can treasure after the course has ended. And true enough, the experience was one for the books, no pun intended.

Expectation vs. Reality

Initially, my goal was to create a short story, but while we were drafting the first few chapters, I realised that we need more time than the trimester would allow for us to complete a whole book. I also had a change of heart when it comes to the storyline. At first, I wanted the story to be a fictional, but then I thought I write letters to my son every now and then, surely there’s a few I can use so I decided to read through my old blog and pick actual letters I’ve written over the years and use them to fill in some pages. Since the final project required three minutes’ worth of audio track, I figured the first three chapters would be enough, so we focused on polishing the existing letters so it’s more cohesive and decided that we’ll keep on working on the rest until we complete the project. Due to my change of heart which made the book more authentic, I was able to finalise the first three chapters on the 25th of July. This moved our table reading and test recording to the following day, which coincidentally happened after the multitracking activity was made available. Alexandre’s participation wasn’t as much as I hoped it would be given that the first few chapters are letters written when he was still less than a year old. To give him exposure, I decided to include the foreword. Since we were going to Europe in August, I gave myself a deadline to complete all recordings by 5th of August so that I can work on the tracks during our last few days which were somewhere from 15th until 24th of August. On the 26th of August, I received feedback on the multitracking activity to improve the voice recording by speaking more clearly and making the audio more audible. Since I was already back from our vacation, we re-recorded on the 27th of August giving me enough time to do some final mixing and submit on time especially since the deadline was extended.

Studio and Recording Techniques

To prepare for the final project, I applied room acoustics in my makeshift studio by stacking books around the workstation. During the test recordings, I realised that the duvet I hung on the wall minimised the humming on the other side of the wall – where the back of the microphone will be pointing, although the dynamic microphone’s cardioid polar pattern will minimise sound absorption from the back and side of the microphone, I want to eliminate it altogether, if possible. My son’s room is also carpeted which I hope will reduces the chance of sound reflections.

To ensure the best possible recording outcome, we have scheduled our recording sessions at night so there’s less chances of interruptions and unwanted noise coming from other rooms in the house. During the test recording/table reading sessions, we tested multiple microphone placements, and discovered that standing 5 inches away from microphone with it being directly in front of me works best.

I used my Shure MV7+ dynamic cardioid microphone which comes with a pop filter to minimise as much noise as possible. I recorded using my iPad Pro 12 since it doesn’t emit fan noise when handling heavy apps, which the Motiv Mix app, my digital audio interface is. To incorporate all recordings in one, I used Adobe Audition on my iMac. To help me decided if there’s a need for effects to be applied, I used my Shure SRH840A professional studio headphones for the output since it allows me to listen to the actual sound of the recording without auto-adjusting it to sound better than it is.

Signal Flow

Inflow

Outflow

Recording and Mixing

Recording the voice track was pretty straightforward. We recorded all voice recordings in three days and recorded three versions for each part. This gave me freedom to tweak certain parts that didn’t sound audible or needs to be improved rather than re-recording again. The foleys took a day to record, but I needed a day to study tips on how to produce each foley at home. 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling well when I came back from Europe, so my voice sounded a bit husky when I re-recorded. After recording everything again, I proceeded with mixing the tracks and putting them together – which I can honestly say was a challenge for me. It took me a couple of YouTube tutorials before deciding that I was ready to give a try, which I first did while preparing for the multitracking activity. Ultimately, I think the challenge was second-guessing myself whenever I apply effects on the audio. So, I decided that for now, I will go with applying less effects and focus on producing a good quality recording, rather than aiming to achieve it post-processing.

For this activity, I worked on stacking five tracks: voice narration (which my partner did), my voice over, Alexandre’s, and two sound effects (pre-recorded tracks and recorded). I was supposed to add a background music but my partner didn’t have enough time to practice; it has been a long time since he last played, and he didn’t want to record something that’s not his best performance. Before re-recording the foreword, I listened to my multitrack submission and noticed that there were instances where my recording and Alexandre’s voiceover were not in sync. To fix this, I had Alexandre record his narration first, and I recorded while listening to his voice in the background. Doing this helped me achieve a more cohesive audio narration.

For the foley, I used a pre-recorded royalty-free audio that I downloaded online for the new-born baby cry since I don’t know any child aged 3-6 months that I can record myself, but the handwriting foley was recorded by me. I took 5 different pens and 3 kinds of paper/notebooks, along with multiple hard surfaces before I was satisfied with the outcome.

Stacking the audios were easier since I’ve had practice during the multitracking activity. I made sure that each track works cohesively with the rest of the tracks by matching the loudness of all voice and foley tracks. After listening to the raw recordings in sequence, I made sure to make each voice recording as clear and more audible as possible. I applied DeEsser to reduce sibilant sounds, and added an EQ preset of a Podcast voice to enhance the voice recording. Unlike my previous recordings, I didn’t apply DeNoise as I didn’t catch much noise in the background. Since the first letters were of happy moments, I wanted to make the voice recordings sound bright, so I added a high-pass filter to cut the lower frequencies and improved some of the middle frequencies. Once I am satisfied with the voice and foley tracks, I stacked the foleys together to make sure that their volume is just loud enough to be heard without overpowering the voice recordings.

RAW Recording

Key Takeaways

In general, stepping into field of audio production as a beginner proved to be an overwhelming, but fulfilling journey. The complexity of audio production seemed daunting at first, but the thrill of creating something with my son and producing something that I can call an original kept me motivated.

Understanding the basics of sound waves and frequencies made me realise how much goes on with producing audio outputs which made me appreciate audio better. Setting up my makeshift studio was an exciting activity, especially since I now understand that my audio quality will heavily rely on how and where I record. It was also fun playing with various recording positions before I finally got the best audio output. But above everything else, what I really enjoyed was the quality time I get to spend with my son.

Although the experience was rewarding in the end, I did encounter some challenges along the way. Apart from a few complaints I got from my son, one of my biggest concerns is second-guessing myself. As someone who didn’t know any better three months ago, I’m always doubting if the audio is good enough for other people. To help with this, I asked opinion from my partner and my sister who gave me their honest feedback which helped me produce a better output.

If I were to compare my final output with the first recoding I made, I can say that I’ve made good progress, despite my concerns. Tapping into the world of audio production opened new possibilities for me to incorporate audio in my work in the future. I’ve enjoyed the process so much that using audio has become my first choice when it comes to producing other course requirements.