audio drama two
If you thought my audio recording efforts have been derailed because I haven’t posted as much lately about it then you are only half right.
Unlike the quiet and contemplative act of just writing words on a keyboard, it turns out that creating multimedia is a much more active task.
First, you need to come up with the idea, make some notes, probably even write a few short bits of scripted material—particularly if you are someone like me whose verbal patter pace is far outpaced by his typing speed.
Second, you need to find a quiet time and place to record. I have tried my basement, but I end up fighting off everything from shy guy syndrome with my family in the house and background noise from the random things like the furnace and the dishwasher. I tried going outside but you tune out the noise of the city traffic right up until you realize that cars, birds, and wind do not a good recording studio companion make.
Third, you need to edit that audio. Some folks who do this probably are at the point where they get super-clean takes and can just upload and go. Rather, I find myself recording and then needing to go back to trim out everything from gaps to flubs to throat clearing. The term clean take hasn’t yet entered into my short list of vocabulary I use on the regular.
Finally, you need to post and share it. I have found and fine-tuned a couple options for this, but it still requires things like cover art, episode descriptions or summaries, and processing time. And at the end of it, you still need to promote it all, crossing your fingers that the first time you listen to it yourself you don’t find some minor (or forbid! major) error that requires you to pull it down, re-edit or replace the file.
Podcasting is darn near a full time job.