[Imc-radio] FSRN tech notes 10-14 -- improving sound quality of stories.

[Sascha Meinrath]

FYI:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 16:05:11 -0700
From: FSRN tech team <fsrn-tech at wbai.org>
To: fsrn-tech at wbai.org
Subject: FSRN tech notes 10-14

Dear FSRN reporters,

The tech team has written up some suggestions and advice on the technical
aspects of your stories based on problem we often come across.

1)Spacing
Many storiescome inlikethiswithout enoughspacesbetweenwords.

Many stories come in like this, without any spaces between words.  This can make
stories difficult to understand and sometimes sound unnatural (because the
reporter apparently never breaths).

If you find that you have to replace a space or put two pieces of audio
together, include a natural length (~0.25 of a second) of room tone.  (Room tone
is “silence” but has the same noise in the background noise as the audio around
it.  You get it by recording “silence” after or before you record the sound you
want.)  Do not add complete silence, as this sounds unnatural, as well, any
noise in the background would disappear and then re-appear, which will make the
edit more noticeable.

To avoid cutting a breath in half, or pasting two breathes together, I always
cut in at the same point in the pause (usually the beginning, just after the
word ends):

Like|    this,|     I would|      	cut|  	 where|    	these|   	marks are,
rather than,
Like |   this,     |I would not 	cut |	where  |  	these  | 	marks are.

I personally like the breaths and mouth smacking that may occur while someone is
naturally speaking.  But I rarely find this, and instead, search around the
audio file small segment of audio that is only room tone.  I then paste this
room tone into the story, where is sounds as though breathes have been removed.
 THEREFORE, always include at least .5 second of room tone, in your pieces
(ideally, one for each room tone you have recorded in)


2)If you have a technical problem please tell us right away.  We are happy to
try to help you solve the problem.  Even if it is a problem we can’t help with
we need to know so we can make a back up plan.

3)Please start uploading your final script when you upload your audio.  You can
upload it exactly the same way you upload your story but choose the text file
instead of the audio to upload.  (Please save your script as a .txt file or a
.rtf {rich text format} so we won’t have a problem opening it.)  This way the
tech team will have your script in an easy to read and print format.  Make sure
you mark any voice overs on it, and if the story is too long please mark places
we can cut.

4)Just a reminder that when you encode to an MP3 you should always encode in
MONO not stereo.  If you encode in stereo the sound quality will be worse.  When
given a choice if how many kbps to encode at chose something between 64 and 128,
higher with a faster internet connection.  64kbps is fine if you have a dial up
but if you have a faster connection you can let your files be larger and
somewhat better sounding.  But make sure it is in MONO.

5)On a more frivolous note, we are redesigning our website and are thinking of
having a page with photos of reporters and staff.  If you have a digital photo
of yourself you can upload it with your name in the title if you want it included.

Thanks,
The FSRN tech team

-- 
The Free Speech Radio News Tech Team

For technical guidelines please visit www.fsrn.org/guidelines.html
For emergency tech help with an FSRN story you can call 510-848-6767 x261 or x268

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On the Web at http://www.wbai.org.