Damn. Learning learning. I locked myself in a hot black box this afternoon and read a story. By the end I was puddled in sweat. I’ve just played it back and the gain was set too high, plus my mic positioning was too direct. You can hear the inside of my mouth. The delivery’s okay I guess but it sounds like I’m covered in slime and constantly oozing. Which sort of works for the story, but I’m doing this as part of an anthology of stories for an author I care very much about. I don’t want to turn in something that isn’t worthy not just of myself but of him and our relationship, which now stretches over decades and was formative. I’m annoyed with myself for not testing the position before I committed to reading the whole story. Overconfidence and self imposed time pressure. Plus a noisy mouth as I haven’t hydrated enough and I like milky coffee.
I’ve now gone online and apparently I was a decent distance from the mic – further than a fist but that’s what caused me to set the gain too high. I was going right into it though, popping to the side with my p and b plosives as I’ve been taught. But too direct to the mic. I wanted to make it sound intimate. It sounds like I’m licking you and telling you a story at the same time which sure is intimate, but might get a bit old over 40 minutes of slushy clicky wordy goodness.
I’ll try again tomorrow at a 45 degree angle and slightly above me. Also I have the gain cranked up to max. I have a feeling it can be much much lower so I’ll risk one tomorrow that is too quiet. Once I’ve sorted this tech stuff out the audio will be another thing I can bring to the table. But… like with a decent self tape environment, it’s an ongoing and involved process getting the environment working to serve the work as well as possible.
I’m sitting in The Freemasons Arms in Hampstead with headphones in, but I’ve just dropped the idea of editing this particular version to send to the sound engineer. I also really struggled to read it on my little phone screen so was more hesitant than I would normally be, reading on the word rather than a few words ahead… I’ll find a way to send it to my iPad tonight. Bigger screen innit.
So now… the next few hours are for finalising my stories for the Halloween Walk. First night tonight! I’ll still be refining the stories on my last night doubtless. Sometimes I try new stuff and it lands and I develop it, sometimes I try new stuff and it falls flat and I rethink. I’m gonna teach them all a rude sea shanty tonight I think. And instead of editing this slushy audio from today, I think I’ll sit here and dream up silly tales for the bits where I need to fill more time so they can run from place to place. And then record the fucking thing again tomorrow. Too much? Nah.
