Episode 4: Approaching Recording

[Intro music]

Hello and welcome back to News Decoder’s Guide to Audio Storytelling. I’m your host, Cathal O’Luanaigh and in this episode we’re going to dive into how to tell stories through podcasts. We’ll look at some of the things you need to think about and technical elements around how to record your podcasts.

So let’s get into it.

We talked about the story formats in the section about approaches. That related mostly to written form and news stories. In this section, we’re going to focus on audio storytelling and break down some of the basic technical elements to the storytelling, recording and editing phases.

In this episode, we’ll focus on your approach to audio storytelling. In the next episode, we’ll look at the technical elements around microphones, editing software and the tools that you’ll need to edit you podcast.

It goes without saying that before you tell your story, you need to plan it. It’s up to you to figure out what type of story structure you’ll use, where to add suspense or resolve, who to speak to when and what lessons you’d like your audience to take home with them. That process will be different for every writer, journalist and storyteller.

However, when planning audio stories you need to take some basics into consideration.

When dealing with audio stories, your audience is blind. That can be tough as a huge amount of our communication is visual. Your audience can’t rely on body language, gestures, visual queues or pictures. They can’t go back and read a sentence over and over to make sense of it.

Yes, OK, they could rewind and play a section again, but that’s unlikely to happen.

All of that will affect your planning stage. It’s crucial that you understand, from the outset, that your audience needs you to paint them pictures. Rather than adding a photo to a piece, you need to add a description, set the scene, tell us what someone looks like, where they are, what they’re wearing.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you need to describe every single thing and turn your story into a series of descriptive passages with no meat to them. You can set the scene using sound effects.

A doorbell tells me I’m visiting someone at their house.

Environmental sound effects of seagulls singing takes me to the beach. The sounds of cars passing by and honking their horns tells me I’m in a town or city. Passersby speaking a local language gives me clues as to where I am.

You’ll have noticed those in Sea of Rage: Down when they’re at the port, you can hear the port sounds. Someone had to record those.

This part of audio storytelling really leaves you a blank canvas on which to paint.

The difficulty is, we’ve all been taught to paint with our hands and eyes but not many of us have been taught to do so with our ears.

So, wherever you are, stop, listen and think about the sounds you hear. These are a part of the story you’re telling and you might want to capture some of them.

If you can physically record the places that you visit, record the ambiance or the rooms you're in. Record footsteps in a giant cathedral, the hustle and bustle of a local market or the sounds of autumn leaves rustling in the breeze. Find them and record them — adding them to the background of your recordings will bring back some of the authenticity of the story.

If you can’t physically be there, you might want to use sound banks. Use royalty free sounds (meaning you can freely use them in your work) or by purchase sounds that do the job.

In most cases though, recording your own sounds and recording that environment is what you want to aim for.

In our workshops with students, this was consistently one of the most engaging and enjoyable parts of the workshop. Sure, it takes time and a little editing magic, but you’d be amazed how much it can add to your story and how much more engaged you become with your work when you’re recording the sound effects or adding to the soundtrack yourself.

[Flamenco music]

Background music might set the scene. Certain rhythms and sounds tell you where you are. The fingerpicking of a flamenco guitar, sound of feet rhythmically hitting the floor and sound of weathered vocals might place you in southern Spain [Serbian music] whilst a different type of traditional folk music could bring you straight to Serbia. Use these sounds to bring your story to life, punctuating paragraphs with background music and sound effects.

Just as in video work, the tone/colour of certain music evokes certain emotions. You can also use short jingles or sound effects to mark the beginning and end of sections of your podcast.

So why is this important in terms of planning?

Well, rather than picturing your story as written form with a start, middle and end, you want to think about it more as a puzzle with moving pieces.

Your story, the narrated parts of it, are one piece of the puzzle. They sit between music, interviews, sound effects and other aural components.

Whilst some of these sections will move and shift as you work on your piece, having an overall sketch in place works as an aural storyboard.

Right - that’s the approach sorted, but what about actually recording?

[Outro music]

Tune in to the next episode to find out more about the technical side of recording — what mics you’re going to use, the programs you might want to look at and the basic effects and plug-ins that you might want for your editing.

Thanks again for listening.

This podcast was hosted by me, Cathal O’Luanaigh, produced with News Decoder, and forms part of the WePod European Podcasting project — a collaborative, cross-border podcasting project funded by the European Commission’s Creative Europe Programme Fund.

Episode 4: Approaching Recording

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