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Brian Stansell posted an update 3 years, 3 months ago
For anyone wanting to try the “Audio Cinema” challenge:
@daeus-lamb
@josiah
@hope-ann
@karthmin
@this-is-not-an-alien
@erynne
@skylarynn
@rose-colored-fancy
@bclarke
@writergirl101I can point you to some free…[Yes, I said FREE]…resources that I use, if you are interested.
I use “Voice Record Pro” on my Apple i-Phone. It is free in the “App Store”. Makes great recordings that can be sync’d and uploaded as an MP3 file to your Google Docs folder, or to your One Drive if you use that. I think it may be offered on an Android phone too, but you’d have to check.
I then go to the recorded result file and “Edit” it using FREE audio editing software called “Audacity”.
Here’s a link to their website, if interested. Audacity Free Open Source Cross-platform Software
Here is a link to the Audacity How-To Manual if you just want to check it out first. (See if it is something you might want to try out.)
I always start with just recording the Reading first–Get that cleaned up (i.e. removing long pauses, background noises, coughs, etc.)–Then Amplify the audio where it is too soft or quiet so that the vocal comes through clearly.
Next, I label the areas where I might want to add a background sound-effect. Just highlight a section of the vocal audio and do a Ctrl-B and label what effect I want behind the vocal track.
Then I record the second layer audio of blank noise so that I can paste audio clips along it and line them up with the labels below the first row audio track–the labels are the visual cues for where these need to come in.If I want a third row of ambient white noise, say forest sounds, I can add that in below the vocal and effects layers. You can view the sound mixer and adjust the audio levels of each audio row, so one does not drown out the other. (Hint: My vocal track is always the loudest.)
And lastly, you can add in a dramatic musical score behind all of these, creating a full cinematic effect.
I personally love the work of “Argsound Background Music” on YouTube. A brilliant musician with some very powerful works that are (no copyright, no royalty) productions as long as users follow the terms of use and do not try to monetize the result. He does have a Patreon account for like thirty per year, if you want to donate.
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Oh I’ve looked at Audacity before! Thank you for telling me how to get those and how to edit well, I can’t wait to try it! (Although it may still take a bit with the getting a laptop and drivers’ ed XD). But now I have a good place to start and free is never bad :P! Thanks! <3
I just put in the following search string in YTube “Best Voice Recorder Apps For Android That Are Simple to Use”. The video has several options offer, but I would check to make sure the Apps listed are free to use.
On the video, this one looks promising: “Hi-Q mp3 voice recorder”
I use “Voice Record Pro” on my i-Phone to record the initial voice track, but it may also have an Android equivalent in the Google Apps Store. I like that particular one because it can send the resulting file to either my One Drive or to my Google Docs location, so I am not using up my phone’s internal storage memory. (Provided I clean out my recorded file history on the App, which is fairly easy to do.)
Audacity is what I use on my PC computer to edit the resulting MP3 audio files. You can do simple clean-ups or more complex and layers editing, just whatever you feel inclined to explore.
I do not think it is available on any of the Apps stores, since it is an Open Sourced file and with more complex features for sound editing than can be used on a mobile device.
Here is the official site if you want to download it: “www.audacityteam.org”
Also check out their page: “www.audacityteam.org/download/online-safety-when-downloading/”
These days, one cannot be too careful.
Don’t let Goggle or any other search engine send you to any where else, if you decide you want to download it. Audacity works on both Windows, Linux and Apple/Mac PCs.
For instance, if you want to put a music track below the voice track, you need to be able to see both of the audio streams, and adjust the volume of the background music, so it doesn’t obscure the vocals. For this you need a large enough screen to see the length of the sound waves and amplify only those areas needed.
All that said, you really don’t need to go overly complicated on this exercise. This is not a competition to see who has savage audio editing skills. This is about being able to hear your own creative ideas from a different perspective than just imagining it in your own head. You will find there is a way of “seeing” with your ears, certain nuances of your own work that may not be apparent each by being able to step back from it objectively and add your other senses this way.
Above all else, have fun with this. Enjoy performing it. Imagine the characters and how they might sound. You know your characters best of all, and it is time we, your friends, got to hear from them. 😉