Last week, I developed an audio pre-production plan – you can see it here, in this blog post – of what I have now produced as a podcast! 

Readings:

Before developing my podcast – Unpopular POVcast – I really needed to dig more into what makes an effective one. I read two articles, 7 Secrets for Getting Pro-Sounding Vocals on Home Recordings, and Sound Advice: Editing Audio for Video. Both of which were very helpful for me in recording my first-ever audio recording, meant for the public. 

In 7 Secrets for Getting Pro-Sounding Vocals on Home Recordings, author Gaetani gives an effective list of how-to’s for home recordings. The article is specific to music recordings, but of course, is helpful for podcast recordings as well. A few pieces of information that really stuck out to me is 2. Hack your bedroom – set up your space for good reverberation with a mix of soft and hard surfaces; and 4. Get the right mic levels – make sure you’re not peaking out.

When reading the second article, Sound Advice: Editing Audio for Video, I read just how essential audio is! A lot of us want to put video as the highest importance, however, Robertson explains just why you should focus on the audio before the video. The reason really comes down to – If you don’t have good audio, the audience won’t continue to watch the video. 

At that point there, it’s a good indicator to begin with audio editing, as it’s sort of the backbone of if the production makes sense. Audio is important, everyone!

Research:

Waze Air Dancer Commercial:

Okay, if we want to talk about awesome audio and video, all we need to do is check out this commercial for Waze from 2020. It starts out with an inflatable air dancer at a bar, talking about how he’s lost his job because he’s not needed anymore. The 1:35 minute commercial tells an entire story, and almost makes me feel bad for him and his family, even though it’s a comedy! 

The ambient audio is what really gets me. It’s perfect – there are a lot of different locations and scenes, and in each one, there’s the ideal sound effect that goes with it. Like the ripping of the paper at what looks like AA, the police car sirens, and beer glasses clinking in the bar. 

It’s a great commercial, so check it out to see what I mean. 

Adam Ruins Everything:

Adam Ruins Everything is a pretty cool show. I found a good example of this because it uses great video and audio together, and also because it has a similar vibe to what I’m putting out for the Unpopular POVcast, just without the detailed references. 

On the same theme of commercials, this clip talks about the agenda behind them. The video goes between “real-time” to video commercials – and it’s effective, not only from the video but the audio too. Notice how the sound changes between the two. The commercials that Adam and Adam look at together have subdued audio that is distinctly different for the audience to tell that the sound comes from the TV’s. 

iPad Air Review:

For the last example with both audio and video that I found to analyze – I chose this YouTube review of the iPad Air 4th generation. Lately, I’ve been researching different iPads, in preparation to buy one – specifically for Procreate – and this is a review that caught my attention. 

The introduction to the review is a montage of different video that focuses directly on iPads, along with a nice music track to pair with it; which then leads into his voice-over. The combination of montage, voice-over, and clips of him talking in real-time kept me engaged, and I couldn’t help but notice how smooth the audio and video went together. He sure knows what he’s doing!

Production:

I had a lot of fun putting this together! It was definitely challenging, though. It was the whole ordeal – finalizing the invisible script, working in Adobe Audition for the first time, and learning what levels are best, distance away from the mic, De-essing, and so on. 

Of course, I also needed to find music, ambient sound, and sound effects that match with the brand of Unpopular POVcast, which also correlated with the episode. This was a fun part of the process, and I’m pretty happy with what I found!

For recording, luckily, I invested in a USB microphone with a pop filter mask. And I really think that my audio turned out at least 10x better than it would’ve without them! 

Something that I did struggle with on the microphone, is that it’s omnidirectional, rather than directional; and I ended up picking up more noise than I’d like to. I had to figure out new ways to reduce the noise, outside of Audition before recording; which took up some time, and it was all a learning process.

But I have to tell you… I am so happy with the end result! All that prepping really proved to work out well in the end. Listen to episode one of Unpopular POVcast below! Or, you can also hear it here, on Soundcloud. 

Happy Listening!