Scoring Podcasts – My Tools

by michas9muzyka | Dec 18, 2017 | Podcasting, Sound

18 DECEMBER 2017

written by Mike

SCORING PODCASTS

MY TOOLS

As podcasts become more recognised, there is room for different styles and genres of audio storytelling. One of the big ones at the moment, at least when you look at the top charts, seems to be scripted dramas and narrated storytelling content.

With podcasts, you don’t have that many tools behind your belt – it’s all about the sound so, in reality, you have three elements to play.

Dialogues

Sound Effects

Music

Each is important and plays a different role; all depending on the project. For example, with a podcast like Casefile, we tend to go with just two of the elements – narration and music. Sure, from time to time we do include extra elements such as recorded interviews, police archive audio, and even reenactments.

However, most of the times the centre of the show is the narration of Anonymous Host and music underscore for the emotional connection. The goal is to create a complete audio experience with just two elements. The listener does not feel that it is either too much or not enough in the mix – balance is the key.

Today I wanted to talk about my tools I use for scoring Casefile podcast. I treat the work as I would with writing music for films therefore if you are looking at tools for creating songs, this post may not be the answer.

Before starting in podcasting, I always recorded and wrote music. I used ‘normal’ recording with microphones, as well as plugins for computer music. I’ve tested many different sequencers and solutions, but in the end, decided to limit my tools and work with a minimalistic setup.

Just like for mixing, I prefer to work with only a handful of plugins but to know them inside out, to understand how far I can push them.

Limitation often offers more freedom than we think.

For some time I used software instruments in Logic, Native Instruments Komplete with 500GB of synths and Omnisphere on top of that. Before writing and recording, I often found myself sitting in front of the screen thinking what I should use as a cue. By having so many options, I was paralysed with choice and too many possibilities – until I decided to simplify the workflow and my system.

I moved everything to ProTools and stopped using Logic altogether, I’ve deleted Native Instruments and got rid of 500GB of synths. I was left with my favourite synth of all time – Omnisphere. From there, I’ve upgraded to Omnisphere 2 and for months just used that for scoring, nothing else.

Surprisingly it gave me freedom and unleashed more creativity than I imagined. Even during script reading I immediately knew what patch I would use for a particular scene, what kind of sound.

Unfortunately, Omnisphere wasn’t enough. It’s an excellent solution for scoring however it missed a vital element of writing music – pianos.

Enter Keyscape.

When Spectrasonics released Keyscape, I watched all the videos and tutorials on it. However, it still took me a long time to purchase it. I wanted to be entirely comfortable working in just one synth – Omnisphere, before opening another one.

In the end, I got Keyscape, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. For now, these are the tools I use for scoring – Omnisphere for atmospheric sound and general cues and Keyscape for melodies, themes and building blocks for underscore.

I often start in Keyscape; I heard a long time ago that by learning the piano you learn how to play all instruments, I think that’s somewhat true.

Keyscape is often a starting point for creating cues, even if I write simple acoustic piano melody I can always use the MIDI and play it through Omnisphere crazy sounds, making the initial themes virtually unrecognisable.

Another great thing is that by using two products from Spectrasonics I have everything in one window – Omnisphere plugin window supports Keyscape libraries as well as other sounds such as Keyscape Creative.

For now, these tools are more than enough to create amazing scores and themes. The other solution that I could use would be an orchestral synth with possibilities of creating full orchestrated music that sounds as good as Keyscape pianos (I’m looking at you Spectrasonics!)

The take away from this (apart from my obvious love for Spectrasonics products) is that you don’t need much to get working and create great sounding scores. Frankly, sometimes too much choice is more limiting than having one or two solutions that you know better than anything else.

I’m not an expert in creating new patches or making sounds with Omni, but if you ask me to score something, be it a podcast, audio drama or even a film – more than likely I will be able to do it with what I got.

P.S.

I’m not affiliated with Spectrasonics and this is not paid advertising – I just love their products!

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Audio Restoration and Podcasting

by michas9muzyka | Dec 10, 2017 | Podcasting, Sound

10 DECEMBER 2017

written by Mike

AUDIO RESTORATION

AND PODCASTING

I want to give you a short intro to audio restoration, what I use it for and how you can use it for podcasting.

There are different kinds of audio restoration jobs – you can use it to ‘clean up’ sound for a court, forensic and police needs. You could restore sound from old movies and bring it up to today’s standards and digital formats.

When something is poorly recorded – noisy, distorted, has a lot of hiss or background noise – you can clean it all up with audio restoration plugins.

What I found is that most content creators who don’t dabble in sound, don’t really pay much attention to it. Let’s leave to the side directors and professional producers, but instead talk about amateur or up-and-coming creators.

It can be a lecture recording, a course, a YouTube video or an independent film. More than likely the issue of sound is left to the end, and only after the recording is done, the producers get the full picture – and it doesn’t sound right.

Fortunately, with today’s technology, not all is lost, and a lot of bad recordings can be salvaged and fixed-up to the decent level. Audiobooks, podcasts and radio dramas are a bit different. It’s all about sound so fortunately the quality isn’t left behind. However, especially for new producers, the beginning will be far from perfect.

It’s usually a cheap USB mic and a spare bedroom that acts as a recording studio and with that comes a range of problems.

But what can you do to fix them?

There are different processes that you can apply to the audio in post-production such as:

Noise reduction

Noise reduction will reduce the background hiss and the constant noise-induced with the pre-amp. It’s the best tool to make the recording sound more professional. However, if you apply too much of reduction, you will the recording sound dull. The hiss usually sits in the higher frequencies so when you cut it out, you will cut the presence – the air that comes with it.

Click removal

The are many different kinds of clicks that can occur during the recording, but the most frequent ones will be mouth clicks and lip smacks. Of course, you can try to manually draw them out, but having a process that gets rid of them automatically will save you a lot of time. The thing to watch out is the transients. You want to reduce the clicks but don’t want to get rid of naturally clicky letters such as ‘k’ or ‘t.’

Pop removal

Even with the pop shield, which should be mandatory during the recording, there will be low-frequency pops that will make it. To get rid of them the best way is to apply a pop removal process. A typical low-frequency cut will also get rid of sounds that suppose to be there, that add the bass to the recording, the emphasis on the voice. Pops are much harder to draw out so you will be much better off using the removal effect but be careful – set the strength too high and you will make the voice sound thin.

De-Esser

‘S’ sounding words and letters are hardest to control, especially if you are dealing with a naturally harsh sounding voice. The best solution is to test and choose a right microphone for voice but for new podcasters that is not always possible. Second best thing is to use EQ and a notch filter to get rid of these frequencies. The third thing is to use De-Esser plugin. It works as a compression, reducing the volume of the ‘s’ sounds, don’t overdo it as you will hear the effects straight away.

You can also use the automation and gain control to lower the words and letters manually, but that takes a lot of time to do.

These are the most common processes, there are a lot more advanced effects that can help to restore and clean up the audio, but start with these and move to the other ones when you are comfortable with the basics.

But where can you get them?

Unfortunately, most sequencers do not come with a range of useful audio restoration effects. The one that I know that has them is Adobe Audition. I cannot vouch for the effectiveness of the software as I don’t use it myself. However, I did hear a lot of good things about it so maybe download a trial version.

The ones I use are the top of the market products from iZotope – RX to be exact. These are costly tools but are the best to do the job and all professionals, especially in post-production work, use them.

Don’t despair though. Download the trial version and start learning, before I invested in iZotope products I used the demo versions for a long time – they come with few limitations but if you are able to work with that, only then make the decision to upgrade to the next level.

If you are still at school, you can also email guys from the iZotope and last time I checked they give 50% discount for students.

Of course, I’m sure that there are other solutions available on the market. Do a diligent research, try out trial versions wherever you can and get to work!

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Before You Quit Your Job

by michas9muzyka | Dec 3, 2017 | Business, Freelancing

02 DECEMBER 2017

written by Mike

BEFORE YOU

QUIT YOUR JOB

There are countless articles online on how to go freelance or how to start a business – I know because I read a lot of them.

However, one thing that sometimes gets forgotten is, what to do before you quit your job, before you take the step, before you make that crucial decision that has a potential to change your life.

I’m a strong believer in planning. On the one hand, I understand that it’s rare that things will go according to the plan, but writing down goals and strategies help with initial anxiety, and when the chaos creeps in – you can refer to the notes.

I won’t be talking about jobs, freelancing or how much you can make as a business, but rather what steps I took before I did quit my last full-time position, and what you can do to prepare yourself, for when things go wrong.

It’s safe to say to many people fantasise about quitting their jobs, being their boss, having the freedom to do whatever they want. However, as attractive as it sounds, it’s not that simple. More than often, instead of creating a business, people create a job for themselves but without the benefits of working for someone else.

Michael Gerber describes this paradox in ‘E-myth‘. Of course, it doesn’t mean you can’t be a freelancer. I did write about it before – in my opinion, the best way is to combine the two. Learn skills that can make you money but also have another stream of income from other businesses.

For everyone, the journey will be different, so I will outline the steps I took before I handed my notice.

First, it was a decision to leave. There were many different reasons for that, however at that time, over 2.5 years ago, I was 100% certain I wanted to leave my current employer.

That was in April.

Even though I knew the end was coming, what I didn’t do was quit my job on the next day. I’ve done that before, but it was when I knew I could find another position next day.

This time I didn’t have that luxury, so I decided to leave at the end of December same year. Yes, December.

I gave myself eight months to figure out the next steps. At that time I didn’t know what to do; find another job, move to a different industry, change careers, start freelancing, open a business. Next months were full of research, experiments, going to trade events and conferences. I went through the motions, being both excited and depressed for the most time.

Finally, I went back to the drawing board and started from scratch. I asked myself.

What are you good at?

What can make you money straight away?

What do you want to do in 5,10,15 years from now?

I got rid of a short-term planning anxiety and started to focus on long term goals. In the end, the decision was to freelance from home, do simple jobs online such as editing audio and videos as I work on other projects in spare time.

Good.

What’s next?

Finances were the next issue to tackle. I had some savings, but I planned for the worst – what if I can’t bring in any money for the next six months?

Plus I needed to upgrade my system if I wanted to work from home.

I calculated an absolute minimum I needed to survive – rent and food and ‘startup’ cash. It meant no parties, no holidays, no extra spending for an unknown time. Having all the numbers written on paper, I got a loan from the bank.

The loan was an addition to my saving but helped to ease the anxiety and fear in the beginning. It helped, especially that for the first four months I didn’t make any cash and was burning through the savings fast. I handed my notice, and on 1st of January, I was officially self-employed and adamant to make it work. Two years later – I’m still here.

My word of advice is to plan and prepare for the worst. People tend to optimise for best-case scenarios, especially when things are going well. If you are 100% sure you want to leave a paid job and start a business on your own – have a plan A, plan B, plan C and worst case scenario rescue. It’s all so you can sleep well at night, knowing that you prepared. Even if things go ok, there will be days when you will question your decision.

Days when you ask yourself if you are good enough, if you can make it, if you are just wasting time. Enough money in your bank, skills that you know can make you money straight away and friends/partners that keep pushing you are invaluable – don’t dismiss it.

The first year after leaving my job, my net income was slashed to 1/3 of what I was making before – that opens your eyes and can make you depressed, and that was a year of hustling, freelancing and frugality

Two years after and I would never go back to a full-time job (unless there is some unexpected turn of events) – even six months can make a drastic difference in your life.

It takes time, discipline, hard work and drive.

Is it all worth it in the end?

That’s up to you.

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