Putting it All Together

Podcast Companion: Behind the Scenes at My Recording Desk

Oct 17, 2023

“A Pound of Flesh” was indeed a frightening true story, part of which did happen to me. Two neighborhood children were running up and down in the hall during the later afternoon. But by 8pm on a school night, my husband poked his head out to tell them to stop. One of their mothers came by to complain, saying she didn’t appreciate her child being scolded. An argument started at our front door.

I overheard it from my bedroom and came out to quell the debate. It was the first time we’d met. During the exchange, she claimed my children kept her up at night and that it agitated her dog. It wasn’t true, but I told her I’d love for her to inform me if my children acted up. Go ahead, lady. She told me to fuck off and went back to her apartment.

In the midst of the yelling, my daughter got angry and spouted her own exclamations. My son, got upset and began to cry. He didn’t like being blamed for something he didn’t do. Our family was very ruffled by the exchange, but it was over.

Now I needed to calm the kids down because they had to go to school in the morning. I joked with them that the neighbor was actually Dolores from Encanto. She could hear us so we’d better keep quiet. It must be really hard hearing even our farts in the middle of the night. We cuddled and laughed. Poor Dolores. I tucked them in and over the next weeks, we joked about the neighbor, whose name we still don’t know, putting the event behind us. I later found out from another neighbor that Dolores directed her dog to pee near our front door. My stomach knotted.

A painful thought seized me: What if she had a gun? She was about 5’2” and my husband, over a foot taller. A bullet path could hit him in a spot where he wouldn’t recover. It made my whole body stiffen to think of my children watching their father die. Fatal encounters like that happened. I couldn’t shake the paranoia and fear, so I wrote.

The best way I imagined telling this type of story was in audio. Structuring it like a news broadcast also allowed me to add layers to the work and experiment. It was difficult to finish writing it in the first place, but when sinus congestion and a potential head cold threatened to stifle progress on audio recording, the pressure was on. My husband helped set up my recording equipment and showed me how to transfer audio tracks from Voice Memos to GarageBand.

I worked through my avoidance, finished writing the script, then got down to the recording.

1.

Any edits on longer-form fiction gets done on paper. This was especially important since there would be a few speakers. After editing, then correcting text in Scrivener, I printed a copy again to mark it up for audio tracks.

Highlighting really helped me keep everything together. ID: Story on printed paper with markers on top.

This project was daunting from the beginning because I knew I’d have to do a multi-track recording, otherwise, the personality of one character or the other would be lost. I could leave dead space for the other character in a conversation, then splice out the silence and arrange the audio clips. I also planned to record the script in three parts so I didn’t have the pressure to do even one character on a single audio clip. Voice memos were labeled with titles like: Clip 2 (Track 3).

One benefit of the multi-track was the capability to add music and sound effects, something I hadn’t done in the previous podcast season. But I would either have to source it or compose it myself.

2.

With any recording, I need my redlined notes, tea, water, my pens, and the script. I record a couple seconds of test audio to get my voices straight and adopt a consistent position in front of the mic so the sound level is the same each time.

Recording preparations which include tea prep and mouth contortions.

I’m no voice actor, but I do a little shimmy on my mic. One thing I’ve found is a lip-smacking sound always ends up on the track when I start a sentence. I decided to try sucking air in through my open mouth to dry it a bit, then begin speaking. Success.

3.

Track three, the interviewer, was done first. Her lines had an even cadence and formed a good structure to start. I left plenty of dead space for the more naturally-speaking guest, then recorded track two, the show’s host, to maintain a more stoic voice performance. Track four was last. By then, everything else was in place and I could be more relaxed with the lines.

GarageBand — ID: Audio track interface with multiple audio clips of different lengths.

My first runs went great with most clips getting done in one take. Some Sudafed cleared up nasal congestion so I recorded all voice tracks in about an hour and half.

4.

Editing was the most lengthy part of the process. I record in Voice Memos since it’s just a more comfortable interface for me, then I uploaded the tracks into GarageBand. Cut, shift, delete, split, shift, shift… that took a few hours. It’s not difficult, just tedious.

5.

After all the voice clips were in place, I found free sound effects and uploaded them. I turned down the gain so the effects laid in the background. I split a clip and progressively lowered the gain to simulate a fade effect near the beginning of the recording. Perhaps there was an easier way, but I didn’t know one.

I also wanted to compose my own music. While I am a classical fan (shoutout to Vivaldi and Debussy), I have no formal instrument training. My proximity to my musician friend Liz doesn’t count. I had an idea of what might sound good, so I picked a minor pentatonic scale on the strings (she approved) and came up with something.

ID: Audio interface showing the notes of a musical piece.

6.

I called it a night then came back the next day to go over the full audio. I composed one more musical snippet for the end of the episode then hit save for a final time. I was done. I took a moment to stare at the dozens of arranged clips that would be in your inbox the next day. Only one thing left to do…

Click Schedule. Exhale.

This was a great exercise in taking something from idea to production. Thanks for joining to see behind the scenes of what I hope to build upon. It’s probably the most involved project I’ve done for The FLARE, but felt incredibly satisfying.