This is a new project I’m working on with my local rural library. The idea is pretty straight forward: We ask library patrons to share a bit of their life story with us. We record for 1 to 2 hours and then do a bit of minimal editing to remove long pauses. We write up a summary then post as a podcast and burn a CD for sharing the old fashioned way: check-out from the library.
Over the years I’ve had a couple of short-lived podcasts. Never anything that lasted for very long. Every so often I get the itch to start another but I’ve never been clear in what I’d want to say. I have interests I like to share but I often feel satisfied with my on-again-off-again, though somewhat steady, blogging. Even that is done as much for me as anyone. I don’t have, or care to grow, an audience. I just occasionally like to write and if someone finds it and enjoys it or finds it helpful then that’s a bonus. And, thinking about podcasts, well, there are many thousands available covering a vast array of topics. As much as anything I think my interest was in editing and the technical process, I particularly wanted to have a go at using Ferrite on the iPad. Which brings me back to this current project.
It occurred to me several months ago that what might be an interesting and useful project would be the dusting off of an old and not so original idea: the gathering of other people’s stories, particularly the elders in our community. I’ve done this in the past, creating mini-documentary videos of my grandparents made for the family to enjoy and have.
This new project would be different as it would be audio only and it would be interviews with strangers. But still, each would be an abbreviated documentary of that person’s life in this area. While the podcast and YouTube ecosystems are full of young people’s voices (which is great of course), I think older folks are often left behind.
When I mentioned the idea to the head of our local-regional library system she was very supportive. We’d previously talked about possible projects that the library could host and this fit in very well.
After a few months of prepping a few things we finally started the sign-up of interviewees. Last week we had our first recording session and it went very well. Our recording set-up was very simple. A current gen iPad and a Shure MV5 microphone. I recorded using the Voice Memos app then shared via AirDrop to my iPad Pro for editing in Ferrite.
I spent the evening editing with Ferrite and it was a very smooth process. I learned a good bit about editing with the app and the end product is pretty great I think. It took a little longer than I expected but I’ve no doubt the next go will run more smoothly and quickly. There are steps in the process, namely removing gaps in speaking, that I did manually at first. I was aware that their was an easier way but I wanted to practice a bit with manipulating the clips manually. After a bit of that I moved onto the easier method.
Ferrite has two built in actions that are very fast. When a clip is selected just tap “Strip Silence”. There are a couple possible adjustments for that action. The result is that one large clip with gaps is cut up into many clips and the silence removed between speaking. It works very great.
This is followed by “Tighten” which is performed while the audio is all still selected from the previous action. It removes all of the new gaps that were created when the clip was cut-up, essentially it pushes them all together again. I started with a recording of about an hour and 18 minutes. By the time I was finished I was down to 55 minutes. The trick of course is removing the unnecessary bits but producing something that sounds unedited. Ferrite made that fairly easy and the final result has a very natural sound. I put together a folksy sounding 17 second intro/outro clip in GarageBand and then imported it into the Ferrite project.
Then I gave it a final listen through to type a summary/show notes with timestamps. As I wrote the show notes I made a few last edits to the audio. Finally, as a last step I added my meta data and artwork, all in Ferrite and again, very easy. Exported and uploaded to the server. The final result: Voices of the Ozarks – Phyllis Fencl.
All in all a very enjoyable first recording and editing session. I’m looking forward to hearing and sharing more of these stories.
This entry was posted in iPad Journal on January 29, 2019 by .