Podficcer Check-In #2

[eosrose]

Only two more months before posting begins! Time to check-in and let us all know how you're doing. What's your latest progress? Need help with anything?

Are you approximately 60% finished with your podfic? Submit a request for cover art by Friday, August 18: https://goo.gl/forms/SRnQsgZTxqNX7HsI3

Comments

[jadesfire]

I had to go back and look at Check In #1 to try and remember what I'd said!

1) We're on the Road to Nowhere (let's find out where it goes) 100% recorded, 95% edited. I still intend to offer this as individual tracks AND one giant one, with and without music. But the music part is proving harder than I thought - it's something I've always wanted to experiment with, as I've never added music before, but I'm now discovering why! I'll get there, I just need a bit of time to concentrate on it.

2) Try again to get it right. I hope to have this recorded by the time we get to the next check in, but I guarantee it won't be edited. I can find the time to record at the moment but am lacking the concentration span for editing. I'm torn as to whether it's better to just get it all down, then edit, or do a chapter and edit it right away. I'll see what happens!

3) It starts with an earthquake. There's going to be an awesome animation project of this at some point, but I still want to record it as podfic, I think. Again, it's interlinked stories, so hopefully I can do it in batches.

As so often happens, it's the editing that's kicking my butt at the moment.

I've got a very clear idea of what I want for covers for all of these, so I don't think I'm going to request anything at the moment, and will give it a go myself. If I get stuck, I'll reach out to some fandom friends :)

If anyone has tips on adding music to podfic, I'm all ears! Results so far have been...unsatisfactory...

[itsadrizzit]

I have a lot of practice at adding music. Can you tell me more about what specifically you're struggling with? Happy to help if I can.

[jadesfire]

That's very kind of you, thanks.

My first problem is just a judgement call of how much of the intro music to use - I probably need to work that one out myself, and probably be braver! My instinct was 'just a few seconds' but having tried it, it just didn't work. Do you find longer intros/outros to be better?

But from a technical point of view, I want to layer my voice over the music, and slowly fade the music out. I don't have much practice using anything beyond noise reduction in audacity, so tips for what other commands might be handy (they're not always labelled very obviously!) would be much appreciated!

[itsadrizzit]

I used to (and still sometimes do, if the song is exactly right) use full songs at the beginning, but I've gone away from that recently and moved to using one verse or a chorus or a bridge or really just the part of the song that is most relevant to the fic. (I should note that I've only ever worked with music that has lyrics so this process may make less sense with something purely instrumental.) I try to keep it to 30 seconds to a minute (maybe 2) of music to start, just so people don't necessarily have to sit through it if it's not their thing (but you're doing a no music version so I'm a bit *shrug* if people complain about the song when they have the choice to not listen to it.) I will often then use just a tiny (30 sec) clip between chapters/sections. I also often put the full song at the end b/c it's fairly easy for people to just skip it then if they don't want it.

As for music under reading, I've done this for several Welcome To Night Vale podfics I've done. I edit in Audacity, so I only know the process there, but basically you'll want to add the audio on a separate track. From there I recommend deamplifying it to well below the audio level of you're vocal track. Then you can fine tune with something called the envelope tool. Let me know if you want more on that. It's a bit complicated for text, but I can make/share a doc with screengrabs and/or a video. If you're editing in something other than Audacity I may be of less help.

The only other thing I would say is that I definitely encourage you to be brave and not worry about too much/not enough and just do what feels right for you for the piece, and also listen to the music/spoken words transitions on several devices with and without headphones to make sure you the music isn't drowning out the words but also that the music is still audible. I have several sets if headphones that will equalise such that the audio always sounds twice as loud as the text so I deamplify/reduce the gain on the music track but then I listen on speakers and I can just about hear the audio.

Hopefully that's helpful? Also happy to talk offline and/or send visuals, just lmk.

[jadesfire]

Okay, wow, that's brilliant, thank you! I think my music thing is complicated by the fact that the music is the Star Wars theme - it's a fusion fic - so I'm trying to work out how much of that to go with before I put my voice over it. I thought just the opening bars, but that sounded daft, so I'm going to take your advice and see how 30 seconds or sounds. As you say, people can choose non-music if they want, so I think I'm worrying too much about bothering them :)

I'll look up the envelope tool, thanks. I'm pretty good at finding guides and following instructions, once I know what I'm looking for. It's just that in Audacity, there are so many tools, and so few of them have obvious names, that I sometimes struggle to know where to start.

That's hugely helpful, thank you! I'm feeling much braver about plunging into this :D

[analise010]

Itsadrizzit gave you some EXCELLENT advice, so I won't repeat her words. However, if you wanted to listen to a podfic that is short, but incorporates a TON of music, I made a collaboration called 'Broadcrastination', where Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark are rival radio hosts.

[analise010]

I'm torn as to whether it's better to just get it all down, then edit, or do a chapter and edit it right away. I'll see what happens!

OH, WOW. I can say that I'm super linear and NEED to record everything before I start editing. Otherwise, I get confused as to where I am with each section. However, what I would suggest to you go with how you feel. If you have the time and energy to record? DO IT. If you're sick of recording? EDIT AWAY! Trying to force one when you're not feeling it is a challenge.

[jadesfire]

You're absolutely right about forcing it. The problem is that I *always* feel like recording, and *rarely* feel like editing - editing is always something I want to have done, rather than want to do!

The things I'm recording are broken into very clear sections - one is a chaptered story, the other is a collection of shorts - so I'm going to have to split them anyway. The trick then is remembering which files I've edited and which I haven't!

I think I need to just suck it up and do the editing as I go. I tend to use my iPad for the first pass, so it's not like I don't have it with me most of the time anyway :)