AO Communications
Communication strategy for today's digital landscape.
Com 561- Audio story- 1st draft
Here is the SoundCloud link to my interview mix down on Ocean conservation.
Please let me know if can not hear file in its entirety, it is six minutes.
http://soundcloud.com/hawaiigirl808/ocean-interviews-mixdown1/s-4Hkwx
AO Communications 
Alena,
Great job on your audio story! I really like how you use the ocean sound as an intro and outro. It lets your know what you are talking about. I also think that your voiceover was very good. You had a very smooth and effortless delivery in your narration. I also feel that your content is compelling and interesting. You gathered a lot of information so you have a lot to work with too.
First, I think that the clip is a little too long. I looked at the requirements for this assignment and it say that the audio story should be 1 to 3 minutes. I also feel that there is some extra audio that could be taken out. I would suggest going through and deciding what parts of the interview have the most impact. Some of the other information and identifying info may not be necessary.
I also see that you set your story in a kind of interview format. I think it might be good to cut out some of the question asking (especially ones like “what is your name and education?”). I can tell that you already cut out some of that, but I think it might work better is your voiceover was less of a Q&A, and more of a narration. Maybe, instead of asking the interviewees why something is important, just state that it is important, and let the interviewee explain why. This might give you a little room to add more message and urgency to the story in your own voice. It would also seem more like a story and less like an interview. You don’t have to do it this way, maybe just something to experiment with a little.
Your interview audio (especially the first one) had a little bit of popping and crackling in it. It sounds like it might be over modulated (the audio being to loud). It would be good to try to clean that up a little if you haven’t already tried. Here’s some links that might help:
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/audio-tools-adobe-audition/
Like I said before, I really like the ocean sound at the beginning; it sets the mood and gives us an idea of what you are going to talk about. Another thing I think you could try is some music. Because of the topic of your audio story, I feel like some music that adds some urgency might be good. Like maybe a somewhat sad piano song, or something like that. That might help to set a kind of sad tone that makes what you are talking about seem more urgent. If you went that route, it might work well if you kept the audio under the whole thing. You could also maybe use some Hawaiian music, or maybe something soothing and zen sounding, like yoga music. That might work better just at the intro and outro though, since it might not fit the tone of your content.
Anyways, great job! I can’t wait to see the final product!
Jeff
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You have a great voice for tracking, lets hear some more of it. I like the wave sounds off the top and at the end of your story. You have some editing to do to meet the three-minute max time requirement.
Find the main topic or focus of your story and pick out the most compelling sound from your interviews and build your story around that. Maybe you summing up what these people are saying would save you some time. Instead of letting your interviews run on maybe break them up with some track. I am usually a fan of letting the subject tell the story but their audio is from a telephone call and the sound is a little distracting.
I like how you let these people introduce themselves, that’s always a great way to introduce people into a story.
Your sound levels and production value are good. Maybe remove a few audio pops here and there. You have some great content to work with. I can’t wait to hear the final product.
Nice work!
Sean
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Thank you both for your comments, I will keep them in mind when editing the final project. I still need to cut out three minutes and work on the cohesiveness. I like the idea of adding a music bed but don’t want to take anything away from the interview’s message. The recording quality is not the best as I had to record it over the phone with a digital recorder but I will work on cleaning up the audio as much as possible as well.
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Hi Alena,
Great topic! Super important. I love the intros with the waves. It’s perfect. I echo the sentiments of both Jeff and Sean, you have a fantastic voice for this kind of thing. Very clear, confident and even.
I must say, I do not envy your next task of cutting three minutes out. You definitely have some great content. I would say that the one thing missing from this piece is urgency. Experts can say and do say it all the time, but what we need is a flat out challenge and connection with why we need to protect the oceans. What more can we do? I think the most difficult part of your piece to listen to were the interviews. Very technical and quick. I think that you could help your listener out by bringing out the main points with a voice over. That way your interviews can be used to expand on your points instead of used to draw out your points (which I think it the hardest to gather as the listener).
Great job! and Good luck!
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