MMS 172 - Group 3

This is a walkthrough for our horror audio drama, Ni-Lock Mo Ba Yung Pinto?, a story that follows two roommates, Maya and Chloe, as they study late at night in their dorm room when things take a dark and terrifying turn.

If you are new to audio production, this blog will explain our group's entire production process. We will walk you through how we recorded our voice actors, how we created Foley with household items, and how we used an audio editing software to mix these separate pieces into a scary experience.

Multiple Foley sounds were created throughout this project. Every member of the group has participated in creating the Foley sound effects to ensure everyone experiences the activity. To learn about how each Foley sound effect was made, please refer to the paragraphs below:

Wind Chimes. Recorded by Jessica Arboleda in her room at night instead of outdoors. It was initially recorded outside to include the wind and other ideal outdoor noises. Unfortunately, the phone mic was not capable of handling the wind (caused plosives), plus crickets and other animals were not quiet at those times; hence why recording was done indoors instead.

Book Pages Turning. Recorded by Bea Reyes, this was done in a quiet environment while flipping through a book. Razer Seiren Mini V3 is omnidirectional, so to get nice audio, the mic was positioned in a way that could capture the crispness of the pages being turned. A bit of background noise was still captured despite the quiet environment.

Ballpoint Pen Clicking. Recorded by Bea Reyes, this was done in a quiet environment while using a retractable pen. It was a bit hard to capture the clicks, as some of them came out awkward, so to give the mixers and editors more material to work with and to be able to choose which clicking sound was most suitable for the project, the pen was clicked multiple times.

Ballpoint Pen Tapping on Desk. Recorded by Bea Reyes, this was done in a quiet environment using different pens. The different pens made different sounds, so the best-sounding pen was chosen and tapped differently, giving editors and mixers a variety of options to choose from.

Distant Tricycle Passing By. Recorded by Jessica Arboleda outdoors. It required the right circumstances to match the mood of the story as well as capturing it clearly without other noises blending with it.

Bedsheet/Blanket Rustling. Recorded by Abigail Esguerra using a Boya microphone. The sound was recreated by carefully moving the bedsheet while positioning the mic close to the fabric. Several takes were made to capture the subtle texture of the rustling without introducing unwanted background noise. This process highlighted the importance of mic placement in achieving clarity for delicate sounds.

Pen Dropping On Desk. Recorded by Bea Reyes, this was done in a quiet environment using a pen. To create different sounds, the distance of the pen from the mic was changed from time to time.

Pen Being Put Away/Cleaning Up. Recorded by Bea Reyes, this was done in a quiet environment using a pencil case containing several pens. Usually, when work is done, pens are the materials that need to be organized, so to imitate this, the sound of the zipper of the pencil case being closed was used.

Book Closing. Recorded by Bea Reyes, this was done in a quiet environment using a thick book. Before deciding to use the book, multiple books were closed to hear what sounds the cleanest and crispiest. The final book was an average-length book because it had the most suitable sound.

Chair Scraping. Recorded by Lei Buenafe. A wooden chair was utilized in creating the sound. Recorded using an iPhone voice recorder.

Dogs Barking. Recorded by Jessica Arboleda late at night and outdoors. The neighbor’s dog would often bark at such hours, so this was used for the story. There was also an appropriate distance between the phone mic and the dog to successfully simulate barking from outdoors so it doesn’t sound artificial.

Light Switch. Recorded by Bea Reyes, this was done in a slightly different environment using an actual light switch. Using an iPhone 16 microphone, which is different from the previous recordings, this was slightly different, as the microphone used was unfamiliar. The light switch was clicked multiple times while also changing the phone’s distance from the light switch to get a sound similar to what the Razer Seiren Mini V3 captured and to give the audio mixers and editors a variation of clicks to choose from.

Climbing Up Bed. Recorded by Rhyah Reyes. To simulate Maya climbing into the lower bunk, I used a cabinet door and rubbed a shirt close to my wireless lavalier microphone. This combination mimicked the heavy, wooden sound of a bed frame and the movement of clothing to create a convincing auditory illusion of someone climbing into bed.

Electric Fan Humming. Recorded by Jessica Arboleda with her phone mic in her room in multiple takes and distances from the fan (plus varying power). There was a challenge found in getting a clean take appropriate for the story.

Crickets. Recorded by Jessica Arboleda outdoors to properly simulate the outdoor feel of the audio. Multiple 30-second takes were made at different distances from the loudest bunch of crickets in order to ensure they were captured clearly and with little to no other unnecessary noises.

Wooden Creaks. Recorded by Abbey Esguerra. The creaking sound was achieved by applying pressure to a wooden surface and recording at close range inside a room. The mic was angled to emphasize the mid-frequency squeaks while minimizing ambient noise.

Blanket Rustling. Recorded by Rhyah Reyes. This was done to make the sound of Maya waking up and moving her blanket. I put a thick blanket and a pillowcase very close to the mic and rubbed them together. I also added a quiet bed frame sound to make it feel real.

Knocking on Wood. Recorded by Abbey Esguerra. Knocking sounds were created by tapping firmly on a wooden surface of a chair, with variations in rhythm and mic distance. Close placement emphasized sharpness, while pulling back allowed for more natural resonance.

Heavy Thump. Recorded by Abbey Esguerra. The thump was produced by striking the bunk frame with controlled force. Adjustments in mic distance were necessary to avoid distortion while still capturing the impact.

Turning In Bed. Recorded by Rhyah Reyes. I needed a loud creak for the part where Maya turns her back to Chloe. Instead of using a real bed, I recorded my computer chair squeaking like old bed springs moving and tapped a pillow close to the mic.

Bones Cracking. Recorded by Bea Reyes, this was done in a quiet environment with fresh lettuce. Lettuce leaves in a bowl were thoroughly cracked to mimic the sound of knuckles cracking. This was hard, as some lettuce isn’t as crisp as other lettuce.

Struggling/Moving Under Bed. Recorded by Lei Buenafe. A wooden cabinet was used to create the bed creaking sound by opening it and making creaking noises. It was also used for the thumping sounds against the bed. Moreover, blankets and clothes were used to create sounds of struggling movement.

Heartbeat. Recorded by Bea Reyes, this was done in a quiet environment with various clothes. Clothing was stretched in front of the microphone to produce a sound similar to a heartbeat. The thickest cloth was used here to capture a heavy heartbeat sound.

Rhyah Reyes - Maya's Voice

I was the main voice actor for Maya. The script was challenging because I had to play two different versions: the narrator of the story and an in-scene Maya, a tired student trying to study and getting annoyed with her roommate, Chloe, for asking about the door. I had to change the tone and emotion of my voice so the listeners could easily tell which Maya was speaking.

For my equipment, I used my POCO F6 smartphone and a wireless lavalier microphone while recording inside my bedroom late at night between 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM. To block out extra noise, I closed my doors and windows and turned off my electric fan so the microphone would not pick up the humming sound, which meant I was sweating in my room just to get clean audio takes. My struggle during the recording was the neighborhood dogs, since every time I got into character and built up the scary mood for a scene, they would start barking non-stop.

Since I could not control this, I had to be patient and wait for them to quiet down before doing the lines over again. This experience really made me realize that finding silence in a normal house is almost impossible and dealing with the environment is a huge part of audio production.

When I finally got the clean takes during the quiet moments, I made sure to keep my mouth at a consistent distance from the microphone so my voice would not sound distorted before uploading my raw files to the group’s shared Google Drive. Because my lavalier microphone was sensitive, my voice came out much louder than Abbey's, who used a different BOYA microphone. Thankfully, our audio editor, Lei, and audio mixer, Bea, with Jessica’s audio inputs, were able to fix the volume difference in Audacity, which made our voices match.

Abbey Esguerra - Chloe's Voice

I did the voice-over for Chloe, and her lines required me to find the right balance between her playful side and the darker shift that happens later in the story. I wanted my delivery to sound natural, so I experimented with pacing and tone, to let the change in the mood come gradually as the story progressed. I recorded using my Boya Mini 2 wireless microphone, connected to my iPhone 16. I felt that the microphone was sensitive, which I think helped capture the audio quality I intended, but it also made the process more challenging since my environment affected the recordings. Daytime sessions were difficult due to noise from my pets and I have two dogs occasionally barking in the living room and a cat loitering in my bedroom. Our neighbors’ dogs added to the interruptions, and the cleaning business downstairs created steady noise until late afternoon. Because of this, I had to wait until early morning when the house was quieter. At night, I was fully occupied with my graveyard shift (7 PM onwards), and even then, my apartment’s proximity to the airport meant airplane sounds sometimes interrupted my takes. Additionally, despite keeping a consistent distance from the microphone, my recordings came out different from Rhyah’s because we used different equipment. When our files were placed side by side during audio editing, the mismatch was noticeable. Thanks to the careful work of our group editors and mixers, however, the audio was balanced and blended, making the final product cohesive and harmonious. This experience reminded me that voice acting is not only about how I contribute through delivering the lines, but also about how our group ensures everything comes together into one unified sound and a more polished output.

Lei Buenafe

The Editing Process

As the Audio Editor for this project, my job was to take all the separate voice recordings and sound effects the group had recorded and turn them into a single, cohesive audio drama. It was my job to figure out where each piece went, trim off the rough edges, and make sure the whole picture came together smoothly. Here’s how the process went, including the parts that didn’t go as planned.

Choosing (and Abandoning) My First Editing Software

When we first planned out our roles in this project, I intended to use Audacity since it was one of the recommended platforms. Then we found out we could earn additional points by using certain editing software. That’s why I initially used Waveform Tracktion as my main editing software. At first, it seemed like a strong choice since it had a clean interface and was recommended for beginners, so I figured it would be a good fit for someone handling the audio for the first time in a project like this.

However, once I actually got into the editing process, I ran into two problems:

Unfamiliarity with the software. Tracktion’s layout and workflow–albeit clean–didn’t come naturally to me. I found myself spending more time trying to figure out where a tool was than actually editing, which slowed everything down.
Limitations of the free version. Since I was using the free version of Tracktion, I felt restricted in what I could actually do–certain features and tools I needed for this kind of layered, effects-heavy project simply weren’t available to me.

I did consider using Tracktion just to lay out the audio and tweak the clips' loudness, then continue editing in Audacity to use other tools. However, I quickly realized that it would take much longer and require more energy to do that.

Because of this, I decided to stick to my initial plan: use Audacity. It gave me a much wider range of accessible tools (especially noise reduction, which turned out to be essential for this project, and it was a program I was at least somewhat familiar with already. I was stressed because I was thinking about the time I lost trying to use Tracktion and having to restart my editing. But I realized that it’s better to lose a little time switching than to keep using software that’s holding me back.

Working Around Delays

One of the biggest challenges I ran into was the timing. Some of our Foley recordings and voice-over lines came in later than expected, which meant I couldn’t edit everything in the neat, linear order I had planned.

To keep making progress in the meantime, I used a feature in Audacity called Generate Silence, which created a blank, silent placeholder clip of a set length. I used this to essentially map out the entire track before all the audio was even finished–laying down silent placeholders in the timeline and labeling each one with a note on what was supposed to go there (a specific line of dialogue, or a specific sound effect). This meant that once the missing files finally came in, I already knew exactly where they needed to be dropped into the timeline, instead of scrambling to figure out the pacing from scratch. Doing this made it easier for me to edit in delayed clips.

Balancing Voice Volumes

Something I noticed early on was that Rhyah’s (Maya) voice recording (recorded using a wireless microphone) came in noticeably louder than Abbey’s (Chloe), which was recorded using a Boya Microphone. This makes sense given the different recording equipment each actor used and their environment. But it meant that if I left the clips as they were, the dialogue between the two characters would sound uneven and jarring whenever the scene cut back and forth.

To fix this, I used a tool called Amplify, which lets you adjust the volume of a specific clip without affecting anything else in the project. I lowered Maya’s lines slightly and raised Chloe’s lines slightly, aiming to get both voices to a similar, comfortable listening level relative to each other.

Layering Sound Effects for a Natural Effect

The last major part of my process was layering the sound effects rather than placing them one after another in a single line. If sound effects only ever play one at a time–pen clicking, then page turning, then a tricycle, then chair scraping–it can end up sounding like a checklist of noises instead of a believable environment.

Instead, I made sure the sound effects that would realistically occur simultaneously were layered on overlapping tracks. For example, in the “Later That Night” scene, the crickets in the background needed to continue underneath the dialogue and the wooden creaks, rather than cutting out the moment a new sound effect started. Where the script called for something like bed creaking while shifting in bed, those two sounds needed to overlap naturally rather than play in sequence. That said, layering wasn’t a matter of piling on every sound possible–I still had to judge, scene by scene, which sounds made sense to overlap and which ones needed their own space to be heard clearly, especially moments meant to land with silence around them (like three deliberate knocks, which needed a beat of dead air before and after to keep their impact).

The End

By the end of my portion of the process, the track has all voice lines cleaned of background noise, balanced in volume against each other, and sound effects layered scene-by-scene to build atmosphere–ready to be passed along for final mixing and mastering.

Bea Reyes

After receiving the first mix of the file from Lei Buenafe, I trimmed and edited each audio file to my preference (as the modules said, mixing can sometimes be subjective). To enumerate what I did during the first edit, I lowered Maya’s volume (played by Rhyah Reyes) and applied a low-pass filter. I checked each foley effect and edited them accordingly–some I just trimmed, and some I put a noise gate on to remove the noise. After this edit, the file was sent to our group chat for feedback.

After receiving feedback, the audio was passed to Jessica Arboleda, who made major changes to address the members’ concerns and issues with the initial file. After finishing editing the audio, Jessica Arboleda sent the file to our group chat to gather feedback. I listened to the audio a few times and made some comments, which I then implemented in our Audacity file.

Jessica Arboleda

I began contributing to the mixing process after we gathered feedback (via Google Forms: see here) from all members on how to improve the initial edit (this functioned as our midpoint check-in). In the feedback, most of us noted that the whole thing sounded disconnected. This was partly my fault as director of the project for not giving the group a clear vision of how I wanted the whole thing to sound like; so, due to differences in how we interpreted the story, we ended up recording our parts differently, making the whole thing sound incohesive—which was basically the biggest challenge we anticipated in pre-production but we focused too much on the differences between equipment rather than what was actually in our heads.

From what I interpreted, majority of us suggested that fixes should be done in editing (post-production) rather than through recordings (production)—given the usable condition of the recordings, remaining time, remote setup, and coordination requirements, we judged post-production to be the more practical first intervention because: (1) a lot of retakes would’ve taken more time (retakes are not as easy as it sounds since multiple members differ in equipment and circumstances), and because (2) based on the feedback, individually, the recordings were still usable; while together, they did not blend well. Because of that, I decided to allocate the rest of the time we had to post-production (making the whole thing sound cohesive to the best of my ability) before going back to production (actually picking out the parts we have to redo). To be clear, we didn’t refuse to rerecord. We just chose not to record indiscriminately.

I don’t have a linear documentation of the improvements I made from start to finish, but I did have general ideas on what the group wanted. I listed them. This is basically the summary of everything I attempted (further paragraphs provide more detail). :

Clean each recording (remove/ reduce noise)
Balance each recording (volume)
Make recordings more cohesive (room feel)
Build the environment (through ambience, SFX, and Foley)
Create a horror atmosphere (music or ambience)

Some suggested improvements were omitted from this list to focus on the critical aspects most likely to be evaluated.

Cleaning Each Recording

This was my top priority since I noticed extra noise still present in some parts of the audio drama. For example, noises that shouldn’t be there for the sake of the foley (like room humming underneath the page turning when the foley shouldn’t only be focused on pages turning), voice-recording mannerisms (like the sound of lips parting before speaking or in between words), and other similar concerns. I removed some of the noise to keep listeners immersed and to provide a cleaner version of each recording that is easier to manipulate.

See examples here:
[Note: Best listened to with earphones. Audio on the left = before. Audio on the right = after]

I had 3 approaches to this as far as I could remember:

Noise Reduction

The most intuitive one I implemented. I would select portions of a specific audio clip where the noise I wanted to omit was present even beneath the important focus of the recording (voice or foley). For example, with the book pages turning, I profiled the noise using Audacity (which appears after clicking on Noise Reduction in Effects), then applied noise reduction to the entire clip where the noise was present. I mostly applied this to the recording for Chloe and the foley. The recording for Maya didn’t need this much, since it seems to have already done the job through the mic itself, thanks to the careful considerations Rhyah made when recording her part.

Noise Gate

I applied this sparingly over recordings where the desired sound would only play louder than the extra noise. I sometimes combined this with noise reduction, especially when the extra noise was too stubborn and hard to profile out. It prevented the audio from sounding unnatural by preserving some of the natural reverberations in the active parts. I did this for most of Chloe's dialog since it started to sound harsh whenever I did intense noise reduction. You can notice it in the above example. Chloe's voice sounds less natural when I applied noise reduction on it. It's barely noticeable, but other clips required heavier noise reduction and decreased the natural quality to Chloe's voice when I applied it.

Silence Audio Selection

Found on the top bar in Audacity, this was used as an alternative to the noise gate, and I found it was quicker without affecting the natural quality of the sound (by strategically placing it where there is silence). I found it a lot better for making sure the different recordings transitioned into each other better without it being audible that they’re separate. I think it helps keep a listener immersed by preventing them from hearing differences in room tone or voice recording.

Balancing Each Recording’s Volume

The majority of us noticed this as one of the biggest contributors to the incohesiveness of the initial recordings. There was evident volume differences between clips and within clips. See the example below:

Notice that Chloe's voice gradually rises in volume with each line said? "Wag mong kakalimutan..." sounds louder by having more ambient noise present with the addition of the mic also sounding closer to the source. I tried fixing that here:

A lot of clips in our project had such irregularities.

I had multiple approaches to fixing this:

Amplify

I only did this for parts that seemed easy to isolate. I'd select a clip or part of the clip that seemed louder than the rest and lowered the decibel to be the same as the others. It was like a more manual version of normalization and compression.

Compression

I applied this one for some sudden spikes in volume, like with the foley or even some plosives in the voice recordings (plosives become distracting but they are, admittedly, harder to remove than it sounds).

Envelope tool

One recorded clip gradually decreased in volume when it was my turn to edit. It was audible enough to be distracting. Applying a Fade In effect or an Amplify effect was too much of a hassle. I had to fix it by negating the gradual decrease in volume using the envelope tool, which was less destructive than merely applying an Amplify effect or the like.

Playback meter

I observed this as I switched between clips. I watched how loud each clip was relative to each other in order to keep the volume the same between them.

Making the Recordings More Cohesive

Even after noise reduction and evening out the volume levels, if you adjust the recordings for decibels, it’s hard to ignore the differences in mic quality. From the modules, we’ve been taught that this can be due to the equipment used. Some microphones are just better at picking up specific frequencies and attenuating others, so to make the different mics sound more similar in quality, I focused on their frequency responses. The following were the effects I used in fixing (there was an attempt) the different mic coloration:

Filter Curve EQ

This was honestly my first approach to the recordings, since I wanted to test correcting frequency imbalances by ear (as discussed in Unit I). I found that this particular effect affected how boxy or harsh a recording sounded. I applied this to Rhyah’s Maya voice recording (past Maya) the most, since it was noticeably different from Abbey's Chloe recordings. Rhyah's mic had more bass to it as well as harshness. I tried to make it as close to the mic quality for Chloe as possible by taming harsh frequencies without making it sound boxy.

High-pass filter and low-pass filter

Used sparingly to make the mic sound close in quality to Chloe's mic. This was also because Bea already applied one.

Bass and Treble

I applied this to Rhyah's recording of past Maya in addition to the Filter Curve EQ it already had to reduce the boominess and make it convincing that she was speaking from the other side of a room. I just thought that bass frequencies aren’t supposed to be that audible through air.

dearVR micro plugin

This was important in making the recordings less muddy. Even though I used it to simulate a virtual environment, some 3D panning was done to avoid muddiness and to mask some aspects of mic coloration.

Building the environment and (attempt at) creating a horror atmosphere

To make it sound convincing that the story is set in the specific setting we specified, and in the genre we picked, I had to be creative with the ambience and other sounds.

Ambience

Cricket sounds. To create minutes' worth of cricket sounds, I used one of my recordings and cut out parts that introduced sounds other than crickets. I only left in parts that had only crickets and looped it (with the Repeat effect) as long as I saw necessary.

Bass. I generated a bass tone frequency around 30Hz to use as audio to signify dread, use in the intro, or as filler (so complete silence is more noticeable when it cuts out). I also used a triangle wave instead of a sine wave. I applied volume adjustments where I saw fit, as well as a fade-in effect.

Fan sounds. This was initially supposed to be from my recordings, but there was too much irregularity and noise that easily muddied the present audio (voice-acted lines and other stuff). I had to generate pink noise (which I found more convincing as fan noise than white or brown noise), a sine tone at 50Hz to 85Hz (I don’t remember the specific frequency but it was around that range), put a tremolo effect on both (set at a specific frequency to mimic the speed of the fan blades), then applied a low-pass filter on it; I mixed them all together and named that mix as “electric fan.” I have no clue if it’s significantly audible, but I also applied an adjustable fade effect to simulate a fan gradually speeding up after turning on.

Room noise. This was just brown noise I applied to simulate the airy sound of a room. But, in hindsight, I think it would’ve been better if I used an actual recording, as it would have placed the sounds in a more realistic setting.

Deafening tone. This was specifically requested by Bea to be added before Maya’s narration starts. I could see what she was looking for. I attempted to achieve what they meant by synthesizing it through a generated sine tone in Audacity (it was around 6000Hz to 10000Hz, which I believe are the frequencies in the higher range: treble or octave frequencies, I guess). After that, I applied a fade-in effect and manipulated the volume with an envelope tool to create an abrupt loudness cut-off at the end.

Wind chimes were recorded in my room. I cut out most of it and used only the part I saw as a fitting intro sound effect and repeated it. I only added reverb to it (the Vocal I and Ambiance presets), and adjusted the amount of Bass and Treble heard to make the intro sound less plain.

Original:

Edited:

The heartbeat was made out of Bea’s recording with their mic. I duplicated one thump, changed the pitch of the duplicate, arranged both thumps to play in quick succession, and looped the pair using the repeat effect. In addition, I also adjusted the frequencies. I don’t recall which one I used, whether LPF or the Filter Curve EQ, but I attempted to lower the volume of the higher frequencies so the audio would focus more on the bass frequencies, which is what heartbeats sound like. I also made minor adjustments to the bass and treble volumes (in decibels) to carefully emphasize the beat sound behind sound-absorbing human flesh. After all that, I mixed them together (clicked the mix button).

SFX

For the 3 deliberate knocks, Duvet and pillow friction, Dog barking, and Wooden creak, there wasn’t much editing done to it except cleaning it up (noise reduction).

For the stuff that portrayed Maya putting away her belongings, like putting a pen away, Book closing, Scribbling, Book pages turning, ballpoint pen clicking, Light switch, and Chair scraping, there were noticeable spikes in volume and ambient noise, as well as harshness and boxiness across different mics. For those SFX, I adjusted some frequencies using Filter Curve EQ and the Bass and Treble effects. I also applied compression to some (for the spikes, like I said), as well as noise reduction and the silence audio selection tool. I admit I might have done a bad job for this bunch, especially with the chair scraping. It was hard to adjust the frequencies with it in a way that simulated how it would’ve sounded coming from Maya’s corner in the dorm room. From my perspective, the chair scraping still sounds a little too boxy compared to the others.

Ticking, Bones cracking, and Under-bed noises (Under-bed scratching and Under-bed thumping) were a little harder for me to produce to sound like it was really happening in the setting of the story.

With the ticking, I initially tried the built-in metronome and thought it was enough. But upon considering Prof. Al’s suggestion to use a better one, I decided to change it. It's probably cringey to the experienced ear to hear preset or built-in sounds in a mix. I also get how unprofessional it does sound (almost obviously amateurish). So I ended up reusing other, already-recorded foley that was closest and easiest to design into a ticking sound, which was the ballpoint pen clicking recorded by Bea. It sounded close enough to resemble the ticking I hear in a wristwatch when I put my ear against it. I used that clicking sound, isolated it, cut it off abruptly at the end so it sounded more mechanical, duplicated it, changed the pitch, spaced them 1 second apart, looped it, then mixed it.

Bones cracking was hard to make out of the vegetable noises Bea created. Actually, it was already enough, but the ambient noise beneath it was still noticeable. I had to apply noise reduction, which kind of ruined the “naturalness” of the sounds, leading me to adjust the frequencies again. I duplicated the whole thing too and made one with a lower pitch so it could make the hard cracking sound (I tried). I layered that lower-pitched one under the normal-pitched one, then cut some portions out of both, so the cracking switched back and forth between the two. I kept the two separated in the Audacity file so that if I had to make adjustments, it would be easy.

Lastly, for the under-bed noises, which were supposed to be Chloe making her presence known to Maya, bass and Treble were tweaked, along with amplification and a bit of LPF. The under-bed scratching (or panic? scrambling?) I adjusted so it sounded more muffled than the thumping. The thumping also had the same adjustments as the scratching, only I made its sharpness more prominent by adjusting Bass and Treble.

Music

I only added a bit. Some in the intro and some for the voice’s reveal. Both were pre-recorded. I only used short clips from both and then applied Paulstretch as I saw fit.

After finalizing everything, I exported the whole audacity file as a WAV file. I opened it in a new Audacity file then attempted to attenuate the peaks I saw using compression. After compression, I amplified the whole thing by 4dB since it sounded quieter in other devices like my phone. No reverb was applied since it was what was preferred by Bea.

Looking back at the production of Ni-Lock Mo Ba Yung Pinto?, our group experienced a steep learning curve, since creating a horror audio drama remotely meant we had to rely entirely on creative problem-solving to make our separate recordings sound like one cohesive story.

Strengths in Our Decisions

We succeeded in using household items creatively instead of relying heavily on generic stock sounds for Foley. For instance, instead of using Audacity's basic metronome, we pitched down a pen click to create a realistic ticking clock. We also used fresh lettuce for cracking bones and a cabinet door for heavy bed creaking, which made our audio feel more authentic.
Layering Over Sequencing. Instead of playing sound effects one by one, our editor made the smart decision to layer them on overlapping tracks. Playing continuous cricket noises and fan hums underneath the sudden thumps and dialogue created a believable room atmosphere.
When our editor realized Waveform Tracktion was too limiting, she switched to Audacity. This was a strong decision as it gave us access to the necessary Noise Reduction and Amplify tools we needed to balance our audio.
During the final polish, Jessica added a small amount of music at the intro and near the end. We deliberately kept it minimal so it wouldn't muddy the mix or overpower our recorded dialogue and Foley.
We noticed that the stereo effect on Maya's voice caused a doubling sound when played out loud on regular speakers. To fix this, we reduced the stereo effect on her voice so the audio sounds clear on headphones or speakers.

Weaknesses in Our Process

Inconsistent Recording Environments. Since we all recorded in different locations, we constantly battled unpredictable background noise, such as dogs barking, pets, and airplanes. This resulted in raw files with very different room tones and mic qualities.
Lack of a Clear Initial Vision. As our leader noted, our initial recordings sounded disconnected as we did not establish a unified vision of the room's acoustics before recording. We focused too much on our equipment differences rather than on how the sounds would actually blend.
Stubborn Audio Quality. Despite our best efforts at equalization and filtering, a few Foley elements, such as the chair scraping, still sounded slightly boxy compared to the rest of the mix.

Justifying Our Post-Production Strategy

When our midpoint review revealed that our individual audio files sounded disconnected, we had a major decision whether to re-record our parts or fix the audio in post-production.

We decided to focus our remaining time on post-production rather than re-recording. We justified this decision as the raw recordings were usable individually but just didn't blend well on the first few attempts. Also, organizing massive re-takes with our conflicting schedules, different microphones, and unpredictable household noises would have taken too much time and might not have fixed the issue.

Instead, we dedicated our efforts to Audacity, using tools such as the Filter Curve EQ, Amplify, Noise Reduction, and the dearVR micro plugin to mask microphone differences and stitch our mismatched audio into a terrifying space.

This project taught us that while great audio production requires careful planning in terms of the environment, it also demands extreme patience and creativity to solve problems during the editing phase.

Report abuse