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JUST FIVE MORE MINUTES is an attempt to cope with my tendency to ignore the world around me and focus on the things I have yet to achieve, ending up ignoring the things in front of me. This project is as personal as it is academic, a chance to sit with my feelings and let it out creatively and skillfully in audio production. I would be doing myself an injustice if I didn't at least try to make the most of it and see if there's anything worth getting out of my comfort zone for.
And there was... but that's a story for the midpoint blog :)
In another universe, my pre-production plan was detailed enough that all I had to do was move. Follow every direction. Cross off every bullet point. Smooth and easy.
Ironically enough, my pre-production plan needed a lot more planning. I have to be honest—I got lost in the big picture. I knew what I wanted to do, not how I was going to do them. My journey in producing my project, JUST FIVE MORE MINUTES, was anything but smooth. The hardest part was jumpstarting the production, which relied on the preparation phase, which relied on some changes in my pre-production plan.
Changes in pre-production plan
Script:
I didn't bother mentioning this in my pre-production plan (even though I should have) because I wasn't fully committed to the idea yet by that time but in my final project and script I decided to include a short passage from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. This is to (a) enhance the storytelling of the audio project by adding contrast and (b) reach the minimum requirement of 4 minutes.
I rewrote some parts of it to personalize the passage more to my liking.
Background Music:
This one I did mention in my plan but it was more of an afterthought, a backup plan in case I wanted to elevate my project. I decided to use the background music in the Bojack Horseman episode I referenced in my plan, which is "Blood in the Cut" by K.Flay. I managed to find a karaoke version of it online so I integrated it into my project because leaving the recordings raw was ineffective in evoking auditory overload.
I also added a background music to accompany the fig tree passage because it needed more dramatization and because I wanted to provide contrast from the fig tree to the monologue section.
An excerpt from the script:
Italicized for a soft, quiet delivery.
Bold for aggressive delivery.
"Blood in the Cut" by K.Flay
"Frozen Star" by Kevin MacLeod
https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html
I believe that I recorded enough tracks to suffice and that the background songs that I used are essential to the theme of the project, not just mindless additions.
Chapter I. The Preparation
★ Writing the script
Like I mentioned in my midpoint blog, I had a hard time writing the script. The very backbone of this project. This was the last thing I expected to happen. I am no stranger to writing a stream of consciousness; it's actually my comfort writing style of all time. But because I needed to put into consideration that I will be voicing the script, I had to figure out how I'm going to narrate each line and carefully plan which lines were to overlap with another. (Not to mention that this the story for my project is hitting too close to home so it was hard to find the right headspace to write).
So the script—the backbone—set up what a chaotic production process this project birthed from. You can view the script here but I am warning you in advance: even I couldn't understand half the things I wrote.
★ DAW selection
To prepare for the recording and mixing, I narrowed it down to three DAWs: Cakewalk, Reaper, and Tracktion. I wanted to have a good experience in mixing so I prioritized a nice-looking, beginner-friendly user interface. The next thing I factored in is the amount of tutorials available online for that specific DAW. Reaper was the top for these standards so I went with it. It was fairly easy to navigate and learn for someone who's intimidated by audio production.
★ Getting familiar
I followed through my plan of getting familiar and comfortable with my own voice. Most days I didn't even record. I just practiced reciting the passage from The Bell Jar over and over again and eventually I got desensitized to the part of me that cringes. Maybe I should've recorded as well, even just on my phone, but what I badly wanted to achieve was getting rid of the internal shame—and I did!
★ Recording room
I mentioned in my pre-production plan that I was to choose between recording in my own room (where my PC setup is) or in my parents' room (which has better acoustics). Because I wanted to give myself a fighting chance, I moved my entire PC setup and switched rooms with my mom for two whole days. For my DIY sound booth, I used an old tri-fold mattress and a thick blanket.
Chapter II. The Recording
For this project, I divided by tracks into two sections: voice and foley.
Voice:
- fig tree passage
- original monologue
Foley:
- vines stretching (green sili)
- coffeemaker
- pouring coffee into mug
- dog barking
- dog eating
If there's one thing I regret in this entire process, it's the lack of organization. I kind of got excited and just recorded and recorded tracks without a single care for naming them and tinkering with Reaper and all its glory. I guess I also just wanted to get the recording over with because I thought I could fix everything in post-production anyway—WRONG. I encountered a lot of issues in post that could have been easily resolved during recording.
★ Losing tracks
This is a me problem. I underestimated the act of naming tracks and I deeply regret it. A lot of time and energy was waster in trying to organize and look for specific tracks. In fact, I unintentionally created tons of Reaper projects in an attempt to "organize."
★ Quiet audio
I set my gain so low that it was hard to apply noise reduction because my voice and the background noise were pretty much at the same frequency. Having a quiet track made it hard to mix because there's too much limitations on what I can do with my tracks. You can see in the screenshot below how ridiculously quiet my recordings were. The waveforms are... barely visible. I even had the volumes at max so I can hear the tracks well. Even my PC volume was at max and I rarely do this because I have a pretty sensitive hearing. The funny thing is I didn't even realize until later that this was a problem I needed to resolve.
Here, I attempted to mix the tracks, unaware that I have an issue with quietness. Something that could perhaps be fixed in mastering, but we'll get into that later.
★ Microphone setup
My manner of speaking in particular resulted in a boomy audio, like I mentioned earlier. What I wanted to achieve, even though I knew it was impossible for a beginner like me, was to make it seem like I'm hearing the tracks from my own ears and not a speaker or a pair of headphones. Even perfectly distancing myself from the microphone didn't help. I'm sure sounding quiet and deep and breathy works for other audio projects, but since this isn't really a practical nor stylistic choice of mine (just purely something natural), I should've tried to speak clearer, with more diction, and with more sureness.
★ Manner of speaking
My manner of speaking in particular resulted in a boomy audio, like I mentioned earlier. What I wanted to achieve, even though I knew it was impossible for a beginner like me, was to make it seem like I'm hearing the tracks from my own ears and not a speaker or a pair of headphones. Even perfectly distancing myself from the microphone didn't help. I'm sure sounding quiet and deep and breathy works for other audio projects, but since this isn't really a practical nor stylistic choice of mine (just purely something natural), I should've tried to speak clearer, with more diction, and with more sureness.
Special Chapter. Foley
I have been wanting to record a foley of branches growing or vines stretching for a while now. This idea has always been at the back of my head, always accompanied by the fig tree passage from The Bell Jar. I never pushed through with it because I didn't have a reason to do so. Now I took the chance because when else would I record a foley? (Maybe in a future career, who knows?)
To imitate the sound of vines stretching, there were some options. The most popular ones were cabbage and leather. I did not have high hopes coming into this, but I was so excited in experimenting that it didn't even matter if I couldn't achieve what I envisioned in my head. I bought a head of cabbage, put it against my ear, and started stroking it in different directions. It was okay but nothing really revolutionary. Same thing with leather. It worked; it (somewhat) sounded like vines stretching but ultimately nothing special.
And then I found a green sili inside our ref. I did the same thing I did with cabbage and leather. I put it against my ear and started stroking it. It was perfect. The seeds inside the sili created crispy sounds. The friction from my finger and the sili was satisfyingly accurate to what I want to hear when I think of vines stretching.
fig tree foley.mp4★ vines stretching ★
This is basically how I played with the green sili. With the right amount of pressure, I dragged my thumb from the green sili's head to its tail. I even crushed it just to add more variety in the sounds.
vixen eating.mp4★ dog eating ★
I placed the mic above our dog to minimize the sounds that can get picked up from the steel dog bowl. It still ended up sounding harsh in some parts but I was able to fix that in mixing.
★ coffeemaker ★
The coffeemaker and the mic can only reach so far. I couldn't bring the mic further down even if I wanted to. The coffeemaker can't come any closer as well because it's plugged into the wall.
There is a lot to be addressed in my documentation above. First, there was no logical reason in the different mic setups. I used a microphone foam cover just because. I removed it just because. I didn't use the pop filter even though it was right there just because. During this time, I was just experimenting with the microphone and the sounds. I ended up not rerecording anyway because I somehow became satisfied with what I came up with. And also because of two selfish reasons: I didn't want to waste any more green sili and since I recorded past midnight, I didn't want to wake up our dog just so I can record her eating. It all worked out great and I will elaborate on that in The Mixing.
Other sound effects that I wasn't able to document: pouring coffee into a mug and dogs barking (recorded using my phone, Samsung A73).
Chapter III. The Mixing (Part 1)
★ Removing background noise (ReaFir)
Ideally, before mixing, I should have recorded my background noise. It was a good thing that I was so disorganized that I accidentally recorded minutes-long of background noise which helped me build a noise profile. At first I had a hard time making the plugin work how it was supposed to, which led to a whole breakdown because I thought all my tracks were no longer salvagable from background noise. When I added the plugin, my tracks ended up sounding extremely metallic and distorted.
I realized that I had to play the noise track first to build the noise profile then I can listen to my original track and adjust accordingly. Pull the red curve down to reduce the effect (more background noise, clearer audio). Pull it up to intensify the effect (less background noise, more distorted audio).
In my case, I wanted my audio as clear and crisp as possible so I made sure that the red curve is as close to the floor, even if that meant more background noise. I also lowered the gain quite dramatically because I wanted to reduce unnecessary noise as much as possible. I can't even hear the tracks without bumping my volume to its highest.
high noise reduction: metallic, distorted, boomy
low noise reduction: evident noise
★ Reducing "boominess" (ReaEQ)
I had to watch a bunch of tutorials to learn which settings I should adjust to reduce the "boomy" effect. I later on realized that it wasn't just my proximity to the mic that resulted in a boomy audio, it was also how I spoke. When I spoke low and kind of breathy, it significantly reduced the quality of my recordings. It also made it much harder to adjust the EQ because my voice is being registered as low frequency, so the audio ends up sounding metallic and distorted, especially with noise reduction added from ReaFir.
To make the tracks recover from the noise reduction, I also added the plugin ReaEQ. This adjusts the different frequencies of the audio. Lower frequencies like rumbles can be minimized, as well as higher frequencies like hisses. I used a Band Pass Filter (a combination of High Pass which reduces low frequencies and Low Pass which reduces high frequencies) to get the sound that I want.
★ Adjusting pitch (ReaPitch)
For the foley tracks, I tinkered with the pitch just to dramatize the sounds. It doesn't really get any deeper than that. I was basically experimenting with the pitch, adjusting the knobs to my liking. I found that lowering the pitch makes the foley sound richer and deeper. The before and after can be heard in the embedded tracks below.
Unfortunately, aside from the foley, the plugins were still not enough to save my voice tracks. In fact, the plugins were too much, yet still incompetent. The voice tracks sounded distorted, metallic, quiet, and overall NOT PLEASING to the ears.
Chapter IV. The Re-recording
So I recorded everything again. Every single one of them.
Well... except for the sound effects.
Was the first recording a waste of time? At the moment, I treated it as the actual recording session so everything was accounted for: setup, time, equipment, script—everything. I setup in my parents room (transferred my PC, even moved a desk from downstairs), attempted to treat the acoustics of the room to the best of my abilities (used an old tri-fold mattress as a DIY sound booth, added some blankets here and there), and even recorded past midnight to ensure that I have little noise as possible.
After a week of listening to my tracks and trying very hard to mix them despite having tons of obvious problems, I realized that I would be doing myself a dishonor if I just let everything be. Looking back, I now treat the first recording as a dry run session, even though it was quite a hefty one.
what I changed in the final recording session
★ Consistent Testing
To fix the too quiet audio, I turned the gain knob about 3/4 into the maximum. I wasn't able to pinpoint the exact problem why my recordings were only at a max -30 dB (when it should be between -6 dB and -18 dB according to minimal research), but I suspect it's because I wasn't speaking that loud and close to the mic. While I can control these factors, if I did I would be sacrificing the overall quality of my tracks.
After each and every line, I kept observing Reaper to check if the recordings sounded alright. Below is the before and after of my recordings. There is an evident difference in volume, although the "after" is still fairly low because my mic just couldn't pick up as much noise as I want. This is the best I could do and it is a step further than my last one. I was able to fix this problem in mixing anyway so it's all good.
★ Microphone setup
Instead of the microphone stand, I used a boom arm and just covered the space in the back with the thick blanket. This time, I also tested different angles and distances from the microphone instead of just recording and praying for the best. I found that tilting the microphone slightly to the right makes the audio less boomy and that standing up while recording makes my voice clearer.
★ Acoustic Treatment
In the first recording, my sound booth was pressed against the wall while I was in the middle of the room so the mic picked up a lot of echoes and reflections. To fix this, I sandwiched myself in between the wall and the desk where I placed my DIY sound booth. I added some blankets and pillows behind me just in case. I just added a bunch of soft items around the area. Even placed a yoga mat on the floor even though I wasn't sure if that did anything significant to my recordings.
Acoustic treatment:
★blankets galore!
★ tri-fold mattress as diy sound booth
★ emotional support plushie
Equipments used:
★ Maono Condenser Microphone
★ Fantech Sonata MH90 Headphones
★ Pop filter
★ Boom arm
★ Phone stand to read script
Chapter V. The Mixing (Part 2)
Before starting with the mixing, I normalized my tracks to reach a peak of -6 dB. Like I mentioned before, my new recordings were still relatively quiet. I had to adjust the loudness first to make my mixing process a little smoother.
For the mixing, I learned from my mistakes and recorded 30 seconds of "silence" so I can apply the noise reduction easily. The ReaFir was therefore easy to create a preset of. For the ReaEQ, I just used a preset that I already created for the first set of recordings because they still worked for my official recordings—I just adjusted the gain a little bit.
Since I was able to "clean" my tracks by removing background noise and distortion created by noise reduction, I progressed to my favorite part: creative storytelling.
The screenshot above is the last part of my project, where I overlapped the most tracks because it's supposed to represent the peak of auditory overload. The tracks are set in different volumes for added dimension and to emphasize certain audio clips. Some tracks (17th and 18th) are panned right and left respectively to add more immersion and amplify the effect of auditory overload.
Chapter VI. The Mastering
For mastering, I didn't really do much of anything. I reduced frequencies below 30 Hz using a high-pass filter. For compression, ReaComp, I just found a setting online that, if I'm being honest, didn't really do anything significant to my project but I still added it in case my untrained ears are betraying me. I also added ReaLimit and set the ceiling to -1 dB to prevent clipping.
Though there was a significant improvement in terms of loudness, I still wish I had a better understanding of it.
JUST FIVE MORE MINUTES
An audio production project reimagining what goes on inside the head of someone in a constant state of overwhelm, frozen in time and in bed.
Epilogue
The main takeaway I got from this project is the the importance of embracing failure.
What truly matters, in the grand scheme of things, is learning—as corny as that sounds. I did enjoy the process of creating JUST FIVE MORE MINUTES because I at least got to experience a glitter of audio production, even if everything that I did was for beginners only. I learned how to adjust several settings in my DAW, I learned how to setup my DIY studio to control my recordings and make mixing smoother and easier. I learned that I should be mindful of how I speak, how far I am from the mic, how I position myself.
From the very beginning, I knew that I wasn't going to get the result that I want. I knew that I wasn't going to be fully satisfied with my final output—a curse of mine that I've learned to embrace and cope with. But at least trying to finish the course with an output and an experience that I can be proud is enough for me to call this production a success.
until next time...
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