Capstone Research / Progress (1st week of April)

I have set this week and next week aside just for editing purposes. At the end of last week, I re-recorded my audio to make it sound more like how a normal person would speak, instead of like an English paper. In doing so, I feel that I have finally created quality recordings that are capable of used in a podcast. Many of the edits that I did were to make myself sound less "robotic" and a little less scholarly (which some people may see as being "snobby").

In addition, I am attempting to follow the suggestions from Jonathan Kern's book Sound Reporting as closely as possible. One thing that is helping me conform to audio broadcast standards from Sound Reporting is a section that explains not using "confusing identifications" and "unidentified actualities" (109). In order to avoid confusion with my sound bytes, I have clear identifications set just before the sections that I plan on adding the sound bytes to, and I never mention another name right after a sound byte from someone else. In a way, an identification for everything may seem a little formal, but it is necessary for avoiding confusion.

At the same time, I have been encouraged to be a little more experimental with some of my sound bytes. I am thinking about doing so, but, in a way, I am also trying to weigh that suggestion against my research and my opinion on whether or not an average listener would understand what was going on the first time. The last thing that I want to do is suddenly create something that could be potentially confusing, especially since I have already followed so much advice on not making a confusing audio broadcast. However, during the editing process, I do plan on experimenting some just to see if I can make the suggestion work.

One other thing that I completed last week and early this week was the creation of sound effects. I now have a definite theme song for the podcast and some sound effects to help stimulate the minds of the viewers. Hopefully, the sound effects work to attract the attention of the audience and strengthen the stories. From this point on, I just have to focus on the proper usage and placement of sound.