Last week I created a draft of an audio project in Adobe Audition. I spent this week revising that project into what, I think, is a much stronger piece.
In my drafting phase, I knew that I needed to tell why I want to start a doula program within Birthing As Nature Intended. I decided to tell my own story about my journey to become a birth and postpartum doula, and my mom who died just before I did my birth training, and how that influenced me.
The raw audio I had after recording myself was over eight minutes. I ended up taking pieces from the beginning, middle and end. I used the razor tool in Audition to cut the parts apart that I wanted. Then I used the move tool to piece them together in the order I wanted them in. I had a bit of cleanup to do to get rid of superfluous words, like ums, ands, and likes. In my final draft, I used the razor tool to delete a section about “not doing the work for the accolades,” which feels better, and improved the time. I also deleted a very loud tongue “pop.” I wasn’t sure I would be able to get it, but I feel like I made it pretty seamless.
Once I had all these elements ready, I created a new Audition file and then imported all the audio files. I went through the process I outlined above for the interview. Then I cut the intro song with the razor tool, and placed it where I wanted it within the interview. I created fade-ins and fade-outs for each section.
For the second song I wanted it to be more of a “soundtrack” for the second half of the interview. To create that, I did a fade-in, then lowered the volume level during the speaking. Once the speaking was over, I raised the volume back up and did a fade-out to the end. The end result of my draft was 2:57.
My classmates and professor all gave me great feedback to improve. Everyone was in agreement that my speaking parts were far too quiet. To rectify this, I set my computer speakers to a mid-range, so that I would get a good level. I also needed to adjust my intro music; it was too long.
My professor suggested that I begin with one of the ideas that I presented at the end that is really thought provoking, so I recorded a new piece of audio to be an intro. I started it right with the intro music (“On Axis” by PC-ONE*) to make it pop. I also used this song for an interlude. I loved the line about turning away from the love loss. It felt perfect for talking about my mom’s death, and having it fade in and out gives a sense of disruption, much like death does.
Another suggestion I received was to educate listeners on what doulas do. I didn’t want to come right out and say, “Doulas do XYZ,” since people who are looking to certify will already know what doulas do. So instead, I recorded a new piece of audio where I talk about what I do as a doula, and why I do it, in a way that makes sense within the story that’s already there. By adding this section, I was also able to add another song, “Golden Ocean” by Nicolai Heidlas,* that I found and loved, but wasn’t able to make work in my first draft. At the word “transition,” in my piece, I transition into this song, and I like the effect of the fast fade-in, and then lowered volume to serve as a soundtrack.
I wanted something happy to end on—that would show I am making something positive out of the negative. That’s when I talk about Birthing As Nature Intended. I found the song “Sweet Promise” by Nicolai Heidlas.* I also use this as a soundtrack at the end. After the final word, I bumped the volume up to really make it fun. I love this song!
I also really wanted to contrast these two “happier” sections, and that’s why I chose to have the music feel so different than the beginning.
With all of the changes I made, I am happy to say that I actually made my final project shorter than my draft! I am a fan of brevity (you’d never know it by my long blog posts, but it’s true!) So a final time of 2:43 is fantastic to me! I hope you enjoy it too.
*All songs used were available under Creative Commons License.
Tyana Kelley 