Poetry in Space

No, I'm sorry to disappoint you, this isn't a parody of Pigs in Space (though I'm loving the reverb )effect on the opening title!

The result of last week's question about whether to add reverb to the screen reader rendition of my poems was unanimously voted yes, the auditorium ambience was better than the no ambience version. Thanks all who expressed an opinion :)

Back Down to Earth

Enough of being an Urban Spaceman, my feet have been on the ground and yesterday I started recording the poems that I'm doing from memory for the audiobook. It startled me to realise how many minor edits I've made in performance compared to the published text! The number of times I recorded a poem and then realised I'd missed out a line in the recorded version and had to go back and re-record wasn't even funny! On the plus side it was a useful refresher run-through of my set for the next time I read it.

I was worried for a while because, in order to get the computer to record itself reading the poems I had to change the software settings ... and when I needed to change them back to record me reading the volume had reduced to a whisper! I spent two days digging in websites looking for a solution, only to come to the conclusion that it is the fault of Microsoft and the driver software they have for my type of microphone.

Then, more by good luck than good judgement, I stumbled across the setting in Audacity, the software I use to record anything, and volume was restored, yay! :)

Size Matters

What surprised me initially was that the auditorium ambience I used with the screen reader poems was a lot less echoey than when I recorded the ones I read myself. That's pretty obvious now I come to think of it — the screen reader lives in an essentially two dimensional world, whereas when I record me reading them I am in a space of something like 12ft by 12ft so there is built-in ambience before I apply any additional effects. The volume was a commensurate level as the screen reader recordings and it turned out that by applying a living room ambience resulted in a pretty similar level of ambience in the resulting audio.

The one thing I want to do is reduce the plosive p and b sounds. I may be able to do that with the tracks I've already recorded but I may need to invest in a pop filter for my microphone and then re-record any tracks necessary ... I used to have a pop filter but I've a nagging feeling I said my dad could throw it out because I never use it!

#RoomAmbience #Poetry #Recording #NittyGritty