Assignment 1a

Knowing where you're at

General Assessment of the Class

In my general assessment of the class, I decided to look at 20 coursemates and their works, which is more than 10 percent of the 175 students in the class. While the number might be a bit small, I thought it would be enough for me to glean the diversity of my coursemates’ skills, equipment, and knowledge. Moreover, I used a random number generator to ensure that my selection was unbiased and representative of the class.

Before diving into this assessment, I want to preface that, at first, I didn’t really have much expectation for myself (other than being able to produce an audio product), much less for my coursemates. But, after viewing the materials on the course site and looking at the work of my coursemates, I realized that I did have expectations. I just didn’t fully acknowledge them. I expected that students in this course should have decent recording and listening equipment, some knowledge of soundproofing, and a basic understanding of audio editing software. With these expectations, I made the following observations:

Equipment

The equipment used were mostly ordinary especially phones and earphones.

Environment

The environments in which they recorded were also ordinary. Bedrooms, living rooms, study rooms, and kitchens. The only measure I saw for soundproofing was closing the door and window. A few had to move to locations with better acoustic conditions because, their own area had too much noise.

Sound Quality

The sound quality was just alright. Most had minimal to no background noise. The quality ranged from clear to grainy to warm to bright.

Technique

I believe that most had proper distancing from the microphone when they recorded. Some had breaths, harsh plosives, and mouth clicks present in their clips.

Judging by these observations, I think most of us are at the beginner level of audio production. Some might need to invest in better equipment in order to progress in this course. Others might need to invest more time in learning techniques on how to improve their recordings.

There were only a few that caught my attention. There was one, who in my opinion, had almost podcast quality recordings. There was another who produced clean sounds with their resourcefulness. I'll circle back to them in the next part of this entry.

Evaluating Five Assignments

This was the clearest and crispest recording among the clips I've heard. It has an almost podcast quality to it. Granted, the microphone she used was meant for professional podcasting. I do, however, think there are improvements to be made as it's not quite refined yet. For one, I think she may need to distance herself a bit from the microphone based on the popping sounds from the plosives. Additionally, there is some distortion in some areas of the recording. It might be related to the equipment or the audio recording software

This is meant to be Bree Catibog's Audio Clip 2, but unfortunately, I could not embed the SoundCloud track. In its stead, I've linked the image on the left to her assignment page. I was amazed by the quality of her recording, considering she only used her phone and earbuds. The strumming of her guitar crisp, clear and free of background noise. Its timbre was warm, mellow, and resonant. While the earbuds might have played a major role in sound quality, I believe that her resourcefulness in using her closet as the recording environment gave her this fantastic result too.

I liked the rhythm provided by the drumming from this audio clip. The sound is sharp and percussive. It has some clarity, however, it carries a subtle muted quality. Background noise was present.

The goal of this clip was to be ASMR-like and I do think she was able to achieve it. The recording is clear and free from distortion. It sounds warm, close, and intimate like typical ASMR recordings. Although, there was some grainy background noise at the end.

This one quite surprised me. I had expected the recording of Kenth's piano to have an echoey, roomy quality like in his first audio clip. Instead, it was just dark and had a rich sustain. I was surpised by its clarity.

Self-Assessment

I would say that I’m at a beginner level in audio production just like most of the students whose work I went through. While I do have some experience with the basic concepts of audio such as sampling and bit rate, I’m not completely sure how to maximize them here. I only have the slightest idea on how to make my recording area great for acoustics. Other than that, I am still trying to grasp terms such as attack or equalization, and I still need to develop the ear to distinguish timbres such as warm from bright or rich from thin. Moreover, I don’t have any clue on editing audio beyond removing noise and trimming.

I imagine that I need to put a lot more effort to progress in this course, and just the thought of putting in the work is already making me feel overwhelmed. But, everything will be fine if I just take it one step at a time consistently.

My biggest priority in this course is getting on top of the readings. After some time browsing the course site, I noticed that participating in the discussion forums requires a thorough understanding of the readings to begin analyzing and contributing meaningfully to the discussions. The next priority is, as much as possible, participate in the discussion forums. It would be a great way to exercise my critical listening skills and learn valuable insights from my fellow coursemates. Then, I have to choose an audio production software to familiarize myself with. This would be my main software, and if I’m familiar with it, I will be able to streamline my work and finish assignments faster. And, If I have the time, I could go look for outside material such as videos and online guides to supplement my learning.

I am anxious at how my journey in audio production will unfold but I hope that I will come out with not only a passing grade but also a deeper understanding and appreciation for the craft.

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