Unit 5 - Collecting my foley sounds using the Zoom Mic and using a mixing desk to record my lines

Dear diary,

DAY 1

Today is the day that I had started the process of collecting my foley sounds using the Zoom microphone. The sounds that I was looking to record were ambience sounds, sounds of people walking and interacting with each other and mostly importantly the sounds of police sirens, to accompany the voiceover of the news reporter, who will be reporting about the death of Norman Jones, Loretta's husband.

↑

The equipment I will be using

The location I am collecting my sounds at :

A map of Southside Shopping Centre - Located near King George's park

The area that I chose to record and collect my foley's were near Southside shopping centre. I chose this area in particular, mainly because its an area that is very busy transportation wise and people wise. There is many times where I go to Southside and the area is full of cars and people walking by into the shopping centre and out of it, so I thought that this area would be perfect to collect my ambience sounds. One thing about this area as well, is that a lot of police cars and ambulances pass by. I know it might be difficult to get some sounds of sirens, as it something that happens out of the blew but I am hoping today I can get all my sounds. I believe that I can definitely get sounds of people and ambience but if not of sirens, then ill try another day to record those sounds.

Since Im also near Southside if I failed to get enough ambience sounds, another alternative could be me recording in King George's park, which is another area that is well populated by a lot people, people who are either walking their dogs, taking a stroll or chilling in the park.

I also thought that it would be good to record inside of the cafeteria, as the sounds there are very loud and just having the sounds of people interacting could be good, especially for the part in my script were Loretta is talking about the good old days, the sounds of people (interacting) could be used as if those were the people talking when Loretta was getting ready to perform her big number - performance

The Process of Collecting my foley's

Collecting my foley's was easy yet difficult. I had got the majority of sounds needed to structure my podcast, but the main sound that I needed was the sounds of the sirens. I knew trying to capture that type of sound would be hard because you need to be in the right place at the right time. What frustrated me the most was that there was loads of ambulances, but they didn't have their sirens playing, there was overall two ambulances that drove in my direction. I guess I am going to have to chose another day where I record more foley's and try my best to be in the right area at the right time.

The material I got without the sirens was actually good, I got sounds of cars driving past, buses, stop signs and sounds of people talking and walking. These types of sounds could be all merged together with the siren to play the narrative of when the police found Norman Jones dead, the scene where the news reporter is speaking. When recording in the cafeteria I also got good foley's of people talking, due to the fact that the cafeteria was full of lot people, all you could hear was a sea of voices which would be very nice to use when Loretta is describing the good old days.

Here is the sounds I had recorded

One thing I noticed when hearing some of my recordings is that there is some moments, where you can hear weird sounds, and I realized that this occurred because the microphone is so harsh and precise at hearing that you can hear some noises of the microphone hitting against my clothes. In order to prevent this next time ill be sure to hold the zoom mic more up-right rather than down, preventing it from being moved against my clothing.

When the other day comes and I get the chance to record more foley's ill make sure to record in the same areas but instead of staying for 20 minutes ill stay a bit longer, It would be good to record in the same places because my audio needs improving, especially since in some all you can hear throughout is the microphone hitting my clothing.

Monday 30th January, 2016

DAY 2

On the 2nd day, recording my foley's were a lot easier than the 1st day. I was allowed to get more sounds of people interacting for Loretta's part in the podcast and I also got sounds of sirens and the sounds of someone flipping magazine - (is going to be used when councillor explains the media is talking to her)

- For the interacting sounds I used the same place I went to before which was the cafeteria, but this time I went at 10:40 where it was break and the cafeteria was very packed due to people leaving for their lunch break.

- For the sounds of the magazine flipping, I went to the library and picked up any ordinary magazine and used that for my prop, then I just used the zoom mic and started to flip it.

Below is the audio of the more foley's I had got

On this day I also got the chance to record the news reporter dialog!

(Picture of Sherene in the private room, reading her lines)

When recording I went into a private room and was allowed to use a microphone and a mixing desk to record her audio with...

On the mixing desk all that was needed for me to do is to press record and plug my headphones into the headphones jack. I had to make sure that my headphones were placed in the jack just to ensure that I could hear Sherene's voice and that all the audio was running smoothly. After the recording process I then had to place the audio on a USB.

The microphone used to record Serene's dialog and a picture of Serene rehearsing her lines ↓

Experience with the mixing desk

Using the mixing desk was very easy and I got used to the functions quite quickly. The mixing desk was not difficult to use at all. After being taught on how to use it once, I never felt the need to ask for help, simply because everything was pretty simple and very self explanatory. All the buttons on the mixing desk had bold names and it was very clear understanding what all the buttons were capable of doing.

All that was needed for me to do was to follow these instructions

: Hold down the pause and play button to record

Press the pause button to finish the recording

And then Click the USB button to import the footage onto the computer.

When I finished recording Sherene's voice and played it back, the audio was very crisp and clear and that left me quite happy with her audio recording, intact more than happy, satisfied, as that is how I wanted her to sound informative and clear.

The next step after this is to......

- Record my dialog as Loretta Jones

Using the mixing desk and private room again

- Record Carol doing the Councillor's dialog in the private room as well.

- Gather all my foley's together in one big folder

- Start Creating my own beats using garage band! - for the mini jingle at the start of my podcast.

January 20th, 2017 - Checking of my check list

- Record my dialog as Loretta Jones

Using the mixing desk and private room again ✓

- Record Carol doing the Councillor's dialog in the private room as well. ✓

- Gather all my foley's together in one big folder✓

- Start Creating my own beats using garage band! - for the mini jingle at the start of my podcast.✓

The process of Recording My dialog as Loretta and Carol's dialog as the councillor

Today is the day that I got the opportunity to not only record my dialog but to record Carol's dialog as the councillor of my radio play. The process when it came to recording my dialog took a long period of time, as they were times where I often stuttered my lines and mixed up my words. I had some problems with other classmates too who were in the opposite room next to mine. All I could hear was so much noise and at times it was a huge distraction, I even went into the next room to ask them if they could stay quiet, they agreed then continued to do so, which just made the process of recording my audio difficult and tiresome. I recorded my lines and recorded it on the mixing desk and below is the audio which includes all the recordings I made (In the 2nd audio try is where you hear the most sounds of chairs moving from next door)

Out of the two audios I had decided to pick the second one to chose in my work, merely because in the second audio I sounded more like an elderly woman. I feel like in the 1st audio recording I sounded very young and child-like and I also felt that I did not put that much effort in that recording, simply because it was my first ever recording it was like another rehearsal for me..

When it came to recording Carol's voice they weren't any difficulties. Carol did her role so good and I am so happy that I chose her to be the councillor in my radio play. Her voice was clear and crisp and she put her all into the recording, she added lines that made the councillor sound very intrigued and worried without me telling her to do so. At first she did read some of my lines by accident, but other than that she was perfect when I was recording her. Her recording was so good that we got it done in one recording.

Below is a video recording of Carol's recording which includes all the mistakes she had made which will be cut off when I do my final edit of my radio play.

All the recording process has been done! the next stage after this is to start editing my radio play using the software Premier Pro and Audition.