Through out the entire audio paper, I have several creative approaches towards different aspects of it. Here are the approaches.
Recording
I have used the Neuman TLM102 as the microphone for recording my voice. It is a big diaphragm condenser microphone that provides excellent presence of the voice in the overall mix. I have also put a pop filter in front of the mic to avoid and reduce turbulent air blasts from the mouth strike the mic diaphragm (Huber, D.M. et al., 2017, p.163)
When I was recording my voice, I deliberately placed the microphone very close to my mouth which generates the proximity effect where the low frequencies are exaggerated. This helps to make the sound more intimate, or more impressive (Wykes, 2021).
Content
Since the theme of the audio paper is about the sound “ah”, it would be great to introduce different kinds of ah. It would be even better if these ahs are related to each other so that the flow will be smoother and enhance the listening experience. To do this, I first drafted out all kinds of “ah” I could think of. After that, I sorted them into different groups as shown in the script of the audio paper (e.g. Life of Ah, Effects of Ah, etc.). Then, I brainstormed a scene/story where I can link the ahs from the same group together.
For example, from 0231 to 0323, I was talking about the emotions of Ah (i.e. the annoyed ah, the relaxed ah, the angry ah), I connected these ahs by mentioning that there’s always something in our life that bothers us. Sometimes when we overcome it, we are relieved, but if not, it is just pain and anger.
I found the audio paper gave me tension as I was listening due to the deep and firm voice after editing.Therefore, I tried to ease the stress by putting some sarcastic or humourous content into it. This adds liveness to the podcast and makes it ‘talkier’ and less crafted, which brings the listener’s attention and create a relaxed and chill environment. The first example is when I said “A…are you disappointed?” at 0030, and the second example is at 0509 where I panned my voice to the right and ask question. The panning make the voice sound like coming from the side and meant to catch the audience off guard in order to create a small surprise.
Sounds
Music
Here are the music I have used in the audio paper. I recognised that I had used quite a lot of classical music when I finished the whole audio paper.
Hall of the Mountain King (0230 – 0253)
This is a well known orchestral piece where the piece begins in quiet and soft then ends in rushed and loud. The quiet part is played when I was talking about the annoyed ah, and the loud part is played when it was about the angry ah. I chose this song as it slowly builds up the tension, which is the same as the process from getting slighly annoyed to fully rage.
Die Walküre by Wagner
This song begins with strings playing tremelo that creates dissonance. It fits into the horror music category.
Magic Flute – Queen of the Night by Mozart
There are other better choices for presenting a soprano singer singer high pitch ah but this is the first song that comes into my mind when I think of examples of ah in music. This is not related to the content but this song is very difficult due to fast and shifting notes at high pitch.
Dig by Mudvaynne (0436 – 0441)
Halo 3 theme (0442 – 0452)
This is actually the theme song of a game rather than a church chant. I found this very suitable for example.
Big enough by Kirin J Callinan (0452 – 0503)
Silence
There are some short silences across the audio paper. This adds suspense and emphasises intensity, which holds the tension of the listeners and makes them curious about what’s next. I intentionally make these silent spaces to seperate the topics, and provide a short break for the audience.
Background ambience
I use some background ambience/noise to fill up the silence. I found the audio paper boring when there is only my voice and to avoid this, I think adding some low level noises is a good way to make the audience focus to the audio.
It is worth mentioning that the ambience in 0355 to 0426 is a recording of a Kendo training session long time ago when I was still in Australia. In Kendo we call this action of shouting as Kiai and we scream throughout the entire 2 hours session every time.
Singing voices
The notes of singing voices looping at the beginning and the end are specially designed. The notes are C, G, D, A then B, G, D, A. The first four notes had the same intervals which is Perfect 5th, and if the notes keep going up (i.e. C-G-D-A-E-B-F#…), the note will return to C eventually as the motion is on the circle of 5ths, and I want to apply this idea to the sound “Ah” that this sound is everywhere. The 5ths is also the harmonic resonance of the fundamental note, and I try to mimic the idea to the “Ah” sound that it also creates the harmonic resonance especially we are humming low. A good example for this would be throat singing/Overtone.
The notes C, G, D sounds very close to C, E, G, D which is the C+9 chord, while B, G, D, A is the G/B+9 chord. If we neglected the 9th, it is just IV (C Major) chord and I (G Major) chord looping around. The IV to I progression forms a plagal cadence that resolves the tension from the I – IV, which is a usual chord progression.
During the part where I was talking about warming up before the practice in choir, the pitch goes up. This is done to imitate the fact that we keep singing higher and higher notes during the warm up in choir.
Use of text-to-speech
The voices from 0626 to 0636 are all AI text to speech. I want to feature other voices in the audio paper to avoid a single tone of voice which is me for the entire time so that it won’t be that boring. Unfortunately I cannot find anyone to record their voices for me and I am just too shy to ask someone doing this. However, in order to make it sound more natural, I have extended the ambience longer so that the voices can blend into them instead of silence.
Mixing
Apple Music uses a reference level of -16 LUFS for music. Although the audio paper is not music, I try to maintain the level around it. The loudness level is around -14 to -16 LUFS.
Reference
Huber, D.M. et al. (2017) Modern Recording Techniques. New York: Focal Press.
Wykes, A. (2021) What is the proximity effect, and why does it occur?, SoundGuys. Available at: https://www.soundguys.com/proximity-effect-explained-51333/ (Accessed: 02 December 2023).