Monday 28 November 2011
Malaysians, the Olympics and DIY audio - preparing, recording and editing
(Download it at: https://sites.google.com/site/mp3hostshauntey/olympic-test-mp3/Theolympictest.mp3?attredirects=0&d=1)
This idea started as something that I considered doing for the BBC Community Reporter project, but it was far too vague to actually get commissioned as a story.
So my basic idea was find out what Malaysians thought about the Olympics and where their loyalties lay. It was going along the same lines that a comedy piece I heard on Radio 4 called the "Sinha Test" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012fs6y). I chose it because it was simple. I did it on Malaysians because they were available and I knew Malaysian Chinese people well enough to get the responses I wanted, particularly when trying to get them to talk about Malaysian issues (such as Korean soaps and the Malaysian government's racial policies).
Doing the interviews was pretty difficult at first. I recorded my mother and my cousin (Christina) - both of whom produced interviews that were completely unusable. Both interviews were a bit too formal - the answers just didn't seem natural. This was largely due to fact that I was still figuring about how to ask all of these questions, whilst using the equipment - plus I kept referring to the questions I wrote down.
The questions came a lot more naturally when I focused on getting the basic answers that I wanted (what sport would they want to see, would they support Britain or their home country, why). I essentially wanted to get to understand the logic of why each person supported who they did.
- Joseline seemed to support Singapore due to her patriotism and love of underdogs.
- Audrey didn't appear to link her support to any patriotic loyalty, supporting teams that she liked (either due to ability or their looks).
- Chin Kong - seemed to ultimately hold the idea of loyalty to one's country of origin (despite his initial claim that it depended on who was an underdog)
- May Ling - seemed to support Britain outright from the beginning, so I had to try and pin down why this was and establish why she appeared to have no loyalty to the country of her birth. She reflected the simple idea of sports support being linked to one's loyalty to a nation in its purest form.
After I did the interviews I could work out what point I wanted to get out of each guest and edit out the rest. Each interview was 4-5 minutes. So I removed quite a lot from each interview (particularly Joseline, since I could sum up her view very quickly).
In order to figure how to edit it I followed a tip I read in This American Life's 'Radio, An Illustrated Guide'. After a long session recording in the field they would get an intern to (roughly) transcribe all of the recording in real time without pausing. This was really helpful, since it got me to listen to everything - plus having a rough transcript made it a lot easier to work out what I wanted to cut.
Also, I spent a large amount of time editing out all my "umms" and "ahhs" - something that I will have to try and reduce in the future (though the "umms" and "ahhs" made the interviews a lot less formal - and I think they helped to get some more natural answers from interviewees)
Malaysians, the Olympics and DIY audio - the stuff I used
So I thought I'd just go through exactly what I did when trying to put together the "Olympic test" mp3 - which you can find on my blog post from the 21st November. Hopefully this will be of interest to some of my friends, plus it might be of interest to those wondering how to get started in recording some (extremely basic) audio pieces.
Equipment
I used a microphone that is supposed to used for singing and karaoke, which was lying around the house. It was a SkyTronic Dynamic Microphone. The volume was very low when I plugged it in directly into the computer, so I plugged the microphone into Korg guitar effects pedal to boost the sound by turning up the volume and using the compressor. The sound was still rather quiet so I had to get right up close to interviewees when using the microphone (which the first interviewee - Joseline - really didn't like this. In fact, she kept pushing the microphone away from her mouth).
Software
'Free Sound Recorder' - Yes, it's free - hence why I used it. It's not half bad so long as you make sure that the audio input is pretty high - since turning up the gain creates loads of background noise (I think that I set the gain to 17%).
'Audacity' - Renowned for being frustrating to use and extremely limited. However, it's okay for a free programme. I found that a lot of basic concepts that I learnt were transferable when using Adobe Audition and Cool Edit Pro.
Websites for advice
I'm a massive fan of This American Life - which is something I can talk about in another blog. TAL, and American Public Radio, places a large emphasis on DIY radio production. I paid US$5 for a great comic book produced by TAL, which documents the creation of one of their shows. I gave me some great ideas when I was thinking about how to edit the piece together, which I'll talk about more later.
It's also worth checking out Ira Glass' Transom article on radio production - it has some great story telling techniques in addition to some great short pieces of radio which demonstrate how to tell a story effectively. http://transom.org/?p=6978
http://howsound.org/ - How Sound is a great podcast, which gave me advice on how to produce radio packages. Often a small section of the show will be used to play a producer's piece, then the majority of the podcast would be devoted to explain how the piece was produced (e.g. how the story was found, how it was structured and why it was effective).
Equipment
I used a microphone that is supposed to used for singing and karaoke, which was lying around the house. It was a SkyTronic Dynamic Microphone. The volume was very low when I plugged it in directly into the computer, so I plugged the microphone into Korg guitar effects pedal to boost the sound by turning up the volume and using the compressor. The sound was still rather quiet so I had to get right up close to interviewees when using the microphone (which the first interviewee - Joseline - really didn't like this. In fact, she kept pushing the microphone away from her mouth).
Software
'Free Sound Recorder' - Yes, it's free - hence why I used it. It's not half bad so long as you make sure that the audio input is pretty high - since turning up the gain creates loads of background noise (I think that I set the gain to 17%).
'Audacity' - Renowned for being frustrating to use and extremely limited. However, it's okay for a free programme. I found that a lot of basic concepts that I learnt were transferable when using Adobe Audition and Cool Edit Pro.
Websites for advice
I'm a massive fan of This American Life - which is something I can talk about in another blog. TAL, and American Public Radio, places a large emphasis on DIY radio production. I paid US$5 for a great comic book produced by TAL, which documents the creation of one of their shows. I gave me some great ideas when I was thinking about how to edit the piece together, which I'll talk about more later.
It's also worth checking out Ira Glass' Transom article on radio production - it has some great story telling techniques in addition to some great short pieces of radio which demonstrate how to tell a story effectively. http://transom.org/?p=6978
http://howsound.org/ - How Sound is a great podcast, which gave me advice on how to produce radio packages. Often a small section of the show will be used to play a producer's piece, then the majority of the podcast would be devoted to explain how the piece was produced (e.g. how the story was found, how it was structured and why it was effective).
Monday 21 November 2011
The Olympics, amateur recording and trapped family friends
So here is the first and flawed step into audio recording.
This was recorded before I got my shiny new Tascam DR-07 audio recorder. I wired a karaoke mic up to a guitar fx pedal (to boost the sound) and used 'free sound recorder'. The interviews were done purely with family friends who were eating at my house. They were all Malaysian or Singaporean, so I did the story on foreigners and who they would support during the Olympics.
I thought I would do it on something fairly simple, just so I could get a basic idea about how come up with an concept, conduct interviews and do some editing.
So there's a fair amount of background noise. Both the recording and content of my voice overs leave much to be desired - but it's a start and I think there were some interesting ideas that were explored in the interviews. I might write a bit more about the piece later, but I'm just too tired to write any more at this point.
Radio Radio Radio
If any of you didn't know already, I'm currently trying to explore my abilities in radio through a 7 week long Community Reporter scheme with the BBC. It's the only thing that provides this slow autumn season with action and meaning. The whole radio thing sometimes feels like it has come out of nowhere. I've been lifted out of my cosy position as a consumer and thrown into this world of radio creation. The barrier between myself and media world has broken down. Reality is not what it use to be. The disembodied voices that spouted from the speakers have become real people. Walking humans who produce the magical radio sound with their mouths... crazy.
I guess it all started in September 2011 in the Business Class lounge of Aberdeen airport.
It was during my brief foray as a Singaporean Civil Servant. As a marketing 'executive' with Contact Singapore, I'd just spent a gruelling three days an oil exhibition in a job that I had become convinced was as dead-end as it was stressful - as confusing as it was absurd. As someone who managed to fail in his 6-month attempt to acclimatise to Singapore - I returned to London town and worked for an organisation that attempted to draw the citizens of Great Britain to the land that I had just left. But I digress....
Whilst eating a sandwich, drinking a complimentary glass of tonic water and pondering how to leave this job with the minimum amount of guilt and embarrassment - I received a call from a lovely lady from the Big British Castle. It was an offer for an internship with Radio 4. I took it.
I guess it all started in September 2011 in the Business Class lounge of Aberdeen airport.
It was during my brief foray as a Singaporean Civil Servant. As a marketing 'executive' with Contact Singapore, I'd just spent a gruelling three days an oil exhibition in a job that I had become convinced was as dead-end as it was stressful - as confusing as it was absurd. As someone who managed to fail in his 6-month attempt to acclimatise to Singapore - I returned to London town and worked for an organisation that attempted to draw the citizens of Great Britain to the land that I had just left. But I digress....
Whilst eating a sandwich, drinking a complimentary glass of tonic water and pondering how to leave this job with the minimum amount of guilt and embarrassment - I received a call from a lovely lady from the Big British Castle. It was an offer for an internship with Radio 4. I took it.
Wednesday 9 November 2011
The Joy of Charity Shops
Despite being a long time music fanatic I've never had a record shop near where I live. No Virgin Megastore, no HMV, the closest thing I have a record shop is the Sainsbury's.
So that's why the charity shop has a special place in my childhood (a childhood that is very much ongoing). Raiding the charity shops has allowed me to be exposed to some great music and I probably have about 300 to 400 Cassettes/LPs/EPs/CDs that I've obtained from my rummages. I even volunteered at a charity shop about 5 minutes from my house - it was a Notting Hill Trust shop (a charity that helps provide housing for the homeless). My only payment is getting 90% on all the stuff I bought (20p an album, bargain! I still have quite a few of these albums).
I've been seeing a lot of backlash to a soon-to-be-published review of the British High Street undertaken by Mary Portas. What some people may not know is that all charity shops receive get 80% relief on the business rates tax (http://www.charityretail.org.uk/howcharityshopswork.html). So Ms Portas is claiming that these charity shops are clogging up the streets and taking up space that should be used by commercial shops. She thinks that there should be a cap on the number of charity shops that are granted this relief.
So there have been a number of articles, such as this brief blog by the Red Cross:
http://blogs.redcross.org.uk/fundraising-and-events/2011/11/why-charity-shops-are-good-for-the-high-street/
I have some agreement with David Mitchell's article on Mary Portas. Whilst there is a slight revulsion at this is attack on these bastions of British fuddy-duddy-ness, it is always refresh to see attacks on sacred cows when they are grounded in reasoned arguments. Plus, as David Mitchell notes, it's good to see government commissioned reports turning up with a concrete suggestion. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/30/david-mitchell-mary-portas-cameron
I am not sure about Mary Portas' suggestions. What I do know is that charity shops have been expanding my mind with great music (and books that I never quite get around to finishing) for years. The joy of looking through the charity shop CD rack is something I treasure. Looking through the array of names and trying to work out if you've heard of these artists before - something that's a real joy for a music geek such as moi. What you get out of a rummage corresponds directly with your musical knowledge. The cost of the albums allows you to be more risky in your musical tastes (I'm currently listening to DJ Shadow's 'Endtroducing' - something that I've always heard was a landmark turntablism/hip-hop/electronica album - something worth paying a pound for).
I like to think that this has made musical taste slightly more eclectic than most of my friends. When I play some of my favourite albums I fondly recall them as treasured finds and I remember my initial reactions: The Smiths by The Smiths (boring 80s pop - overrated), After the Gold Rush by Neil Young (strange whining girl-like voice - what's the fuss about?), Throwing Muses by Throwing Muses (really strange, crazy, erratic and unlistenable). Plus, I certainly would never had amassed my collection of cassettes, which really do feel like relics from another time and probably merit a blog piece themselves.
The great thing about surveying charity shops is that you get an idea of the regular donors. Some shops are regularly stacked with "for promotion only" CDs - this is where you'll get loads of new stuff on a pretty regular basis. You sometimes get a wealth of cds from about 10 years ago and you can hazard a guess at why the CDs are being given up - probably a young person clearing out their old crap and moving out of the area. Sometimes you get loads of real great stuff for a period time - when this happens I always wonder whether a music fanatic has recently died, with his (avid collectors of things generally tend to be male) family boxing the stuff up and dumping it at a Charity Shop with no real knowledge of the loot's worth.
So that's why the charity shop has a special place in my childhood (a childhood that is very much ongoing). Raiding the charity shops has allowed me to be exposed to some great music and I probably have about 300 to 400 Cassettes/LPs/EPs/CDs that I've obtained from my rummages. I even volunteered at a charity shop about 5 minutes from my house - it was a Notting Hill Trust shop (a charity that helps provide housing for the homeless). My only payment is getting 90% on all the stuff I bought (20p an album, bargain! I still have quite a few of these albums).
I've been seeing a lot of backlash to a soon-to-be-published review of the British High Street undertaken by Mary Portas. What some people may not know is that all charity shops receive get 80% relief on the business rates tax (http://www.charityretail.org.uk/howcharityshopswork.html). So Ms Portas is claiming that these charity shops are clogging up the streets and taking up space that should be used by commercial shops. She thinks that there should be a cap on the number of charity shops that are granted this relief.
So there have been a number of articles, such as this brief blog by the Red Cross:
http://blogs.redcross.org.uk/fundraising-and-events/2011/11/why-charity-shops-are-good-for-the-high-street/
I have some agreement with David Mitchell's article on Mary Portas. Whilst there is a slight revulsion at this is attack on these bastions of British fuddy-duddy-ness, it is always refresh to see attacks on sacred cows when they are grounded in reasoned arguments. Plus, as David Mitchell notes, it's good to see government commissioned reports turning up with a concrete suggestion. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/30/david-mitchell-mary-portas-cameron
I am not sure about Mary Portas' suggestions. What I do know is that charity shops have been expanding my mind with great music (and books that I never quite get around to finishing) for years. The joy of looking through the charity shop CD rack is something I treasure. Looking through the array of names and trying to work out if you've heard of these artists before - something that's a real joy for a music geek such as moi. What you get out of a rummage corresponds directly with your musical knowledge. The cost of the albums allows you to be more risky in your musical tastes (I'm currently listening to DJ Shadow's 'Endtroducing' - something that I've always heard was a landmark turntablism/hip-hop/electronica album - something worth paying a pound for).
I like to think that this has made musical taste slightly more eclectic than most of my friends. When I play some of my favourite albums I fondly recall them as treasured finds and I remember my initial reactions: The Smiths by The Smiths (boring 80s pop - overrated), After the Gold Rush by Neil Young (strange whining girl-like voice - what's the fuss about?), Throwing Muses by Throwing Muses (really strange, crazy, erratic and unlistenable). Plus, I certainly would never had amassed my collection of cassettes, which really do feel like relics from another time and probably merit a blog piece themselves.
The great thing about surveying charity shops is that you get an idea of the regular donors. Some shops are regularly stacked with "for promotion only" CDs - this is where you'll get loads of new stuff on a pretty regular basis. You sometimes get a wealth of cds from about 10 years ago and you can hazard a guess at why the CDs are being given up - probably a young person clearing out their old crap and moving out of the area. Sometimes you get loads of real great stuff for a period time - when this happens I always wonder whether a music fanatic has recently died, with his (avid collectors of things generally tend to be male) family boxing the stuff up and dumping it at a Charity Shop with no real knowledge of the loot's worth.
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