Gabby Sparro ENGL 339 Blog

        After recording both my lines on Saturday and my friend's line on Sunday afternoon, I was planning to edit Sunday evening. However, I had one too many assignments to get done before Monday. On Monday, I did not have much to show for my episode either. I only was able to go searching for audio files that I wanted to incorporate as background music or as sound effects. Before going to bed, I did, however, make a plan for myself. Tuesday morning, I would wake up, make myself some breakfast and just edit. Do nothing else but edit until it is time for class. I did not expect to finish but I still wanted to have enough to show for our per review session. My goal was to have at least five minutes.      About 30 minutes before class started, I had 13 out of 15 minutes completely edited. I was completely shocked. This went by a lot more smoothly than my first audio essay went. I feel like that has to do with a better understanding of how Audacity w...

           Writing and producing an audio drama has been an interesting experience. Despite knowing exactly what kind of story I wanted to tell, it was still hard figuring out the specific details. In my head, I had a handful of lines that I wanted to be in my audio drama but not what happens before or after those lines. The best way I found to solve this is to write out those lines and try to imagine what would make the most sense in a casual conversation.      As I was nearing the end of my script of the first episode. I was not so sure of my introduction. I felt like I needed something more at the beginning. Originally, I had just only two characters for this story. Cassandra, our killer radio host, and the police chief she is going to interview in the second episode. After going over ideas on what I could add to the beginning, I decided to add two more characters, Terrance and Gale. I said before that I wanted the episodes of Cassandra to...

      Interesting title? I hope so, I like it much better than my first one. It tells the story of a famous radio host who is secretly a serial killer. Now you must be wondering how I came up with this idea. Unless you are Dr. Gerding and have heard me tell this story twice already. Well, here is it a third time! One of my favorite series is Hazbin Hotel. It follows the princess of Hell Charlie trying to rehabilitate sinners so that they can get into Heaven. One of the people helping her is a demon Overlord by the name of Alastor. Alastor was once a radio host on earth who was secretly a cannibal before he died and became an Overlord in Hell.      Even at the beginning of the semester, I knew that this was going to be the story of my podcast. I tend to go with the first good idea that comes to mind because I can't let it go. I have the whole story in mind, beginning to end. My only worry is that I might have a hard time getting what is in my head on a recor...

    Three down, one more to go. That is a terrifying thought, but now is it is time to do a retrospective of Unit 3.      The second I was told this was going to make an audio essay, I immediately decided I was going to play fast and loose with the term "essay". Essays, at least my definition of them, are very serious and formal. I wanted my audio essay to be playful and fun. One of the first things I look into was if there was a way I could edit my voice to sound like an old-timey radio host. Luckily I found a youtube video with step-by-step instructions on how to. With this, I added a much longer introduction that is more of a comedy bit rather than a traditional essay introduction. I also cut out a few parts of my essay for timing and it felt too similar to parts of the essay that came before it.      First off, I know this is obvious, but I must say it: EDITING IS VERY HARD. The long hours of going through just a few minutes of audio. It felt ...

      You know that old TV trope of a character confidently sitting down to do a big project, so sure of themselves and two seconds later, the scene cuts to the character looking distressed surrounded by pies of crumpled paper? That was me with recording and editing.      I scheduled a 45 minute time period for my first recording session. I was not sure how long it would take to record. I figured I had more than enough time. I was there for two hours. I learned two things about myself that night. The first is I run out of breath way too easily and the second is that is when I read out loud, I take very long and awkward pauses. I kept reminding myself of the very first lesson about not hating the sound of my voice. It was very odd, hearing my voice in the headphones attached. It was louder than usual because of that. Still, I focused on my script and kept my voice level like the people in the other podcast we have listened to.      Afterward, ...

          Silence is an interesting concept in podcasts. The whole point of podcasts is that you hear it. You can't see the podcast host/performer so they have to convey their emotions and character through the sound. So how can a podcast use silence then? When first thinking about silence, I could not put how it was used in words. Then I saw this quote by  Heidi McKee:   “silence traces noise and noise traces silence in such an interleaving that there cannot, really, ever be a separation, hence the importance of discussions of silence in any discussions of sound”. It is like night and day, chocolate chip cookies and milk; you cannot have one without the other. This article as a whole illustrates that silence has no set use for it. Sure, you can use it the most common way, to create tension, but you can also use it to make jokes or transition into another scene. Both of these uses of sound are used in the podcast The Two Princes. In episode 4, Rup...