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Hello and welcome to day 17 of Flash Briefing February. Today we're going to be speaking all about your sound levels, the formats and the different soundproofing that you might want to use to keep out some noise. And, you know, make sure that your sound recording sound as good as I possibly can. When you're recording, you don't even putting all that effort into the content of it and everything else, just to come out with a recording that's got a whole load of background sound in there. So my name is Cooper. I'm a Flash Briefing creator myself, I create the social days Flash Briefing, and this is Peter Stewart, who actually creates more than one Flash Briefing.

Absolutely. I've got three daily Flash Briefings, and no social life. I reckon I've done about 2000 various Flash Briefings and podcasts over the course of the last several years and also I've been involved heavily in in radio presentation and production for a big British Broadcasting Company, and also have written a lot about it and done some Muslim lectures and so on around the world, too. So today we're talking a little bit more depth about, about audio, and the kind of audio that you need, and also about soundproofing and sound treatments. But first of all, kind of stands to reason doesn't it to the very best quality audio that you can put in to your Flash Briefing, or your podcast or any other kind of audio that you're producing is going to mean that it's better being heard on a speaker. Now some of the Amazon Echo devices are quite small, some of the speakers aren't terribly good. So it kind of stands to reason that good quality in means that kind of good quality out even if you're not using one of those really big speakers with a more robust sound systems on them. So how do you do that? Well, Suze was talking yesterday about the consistent volume and So on minus six to minus nine on the decibel reader, and you will be fine minus nine and you'll be fine. So somewhere around that mark. And also, it's really important to have a consistent volume as well, because of course, people will be listening to your Flash Briefing alongside other people's Flash Briefings. And you don't want your Flash Briefing to be up here,
and really kind of a certain volume that people will turn up the volume four, and then the next Flash Briefing introduced by Alexa. That's gonna be really annoying. I said, that's going to be really annoying, isn't it? If people kind of have to keep going up and down on their volume every time and if they're going to have to do that, then frankly, they're probably going to disengage with your skill mentally and also disregarded and get rid of it and not have it as part of their particular playlist. Also, it means if you're not meeting the volume and quality criteria, the guys over at Amazon genocide, hold on not playing the game, not producing quality, quality audio, we're going to send them a note or we're just going to cancel it. So they no longer have a Flash Briefing, you don't want obviously that to happen. So record at a consistent Volume One that you would have had certified and passed by Amazon when you first put in your your pilot Flash Briefing, which will come to a little bit later on in the course. And also make sure that your bitrates a good quality high quality as well. 256 kilobytes per second I'll be one of the drop downs when you save your audio or whatever it is that you're using, whether it be audacity or whether it be Hindenburg or any other recording device that you have, and also save it as an mp3 as well. Now as far as sound proofing goes, there is a difference between soundproofing and sound treatment. Now, we’ll hear from Suze about sound treatment in a few moments time, but soundproofing is the rather more expensive and rather more professional way of making sure that no extraneous noises come in. Now you're probably going to be recording in your back bedroom to coin the phrase, yeah, your home office somewhere like that. So as I say, soon as we'll talk about sound treatment for that kind of situation in a few moments time, if you want soundproofing, that's going to be rather more expensive, that's going to be rather more of a professional studio setup. This is things like under-floor treatment, where you've actually got acoustic treatments built into the wall. It may even be a raised or a floating studio or something like that. It's going to stop outside noise coming in, it's going to stop people hearing on your microphone. Things like aeroplanes going overhead or the rumble of lorries. going past in the street outside is also going to stop things like a song From emergency vehicles is going to stop. If you live in a block of flats or you live next door to somebody, we've got a shared or a party Ward, it's going to stop you hearing the baby crying from next door, and that kind of thing. Now, as I say, that's really expensive, you're going to probably have to bring in external acoustics specialists to do that kind of work for you. You're probably going to have to have a room within a room, maybe and locked doors and all sorts of things like that. It's going to be expensive. Is it necessary for a Flash Briefing? It isn't necessary for a Flash Briefing, or a podcast or for 99% of the work you do. If you're going to be doing some high production work for voiceovers or narration, which perhaps is going to be broadcast or you've got somebody who's you know, a high profile brand which is asking for your work. There may be you may have to consider hiring a specialist studio To do that, but for most of the work, you won't have to do that, as long as you've got a good microphone, as long as you are recording at a high bitrate, and as long as you've got some pretty decent sound treatment, in your home studio, your home office, or your back bedroom, so that's the soundproofing is the high value, high expense, super professional kind of stuff. The sound treatment is rather more accessible, rather more affordable, and it's something you can do with a couple of clicks on Amazon and looking around your room to see what you can do to help deaden the sound to stop the echoes to stop the sound bouncing off the walls. You may occasionally have to stop broadcasting. If that police car goes past. If you get the rumble of the rebel lorry driving past and if you're on the flight path to Heathrow, you probably do have a bit of a problem, but you can do your best Your burst is what Suze is going to be talking about right now take it away.

That's right, it really doesn't have to cost you an absolute fortune. Certainly I started out recording using a single rail clothes rail, and bought from Argos for about 12 to 15 pound with the dubay over the top of it, clicked to a picture out in my room, and that was my soundproofing. I know people that record into a wardrobe using the clothes as soundproofing and cutting out outside noise as well. Now beyond that other things you can think about is to make sure that you are in a room that has got lots of nice soft furnishings, so a carpeted room rather than a hardwood floor, you know, somewhere that's got curtains, we're not looking for anywhere that's near a window, or a kind of very flat on unfinished wall or anything like that. That's going to allow the sound to echo and bounce back and, and give us all kinds of acoustic problems with our audio. Other things That you can purchase that are relatively cheap that you can then use to deaden the sound of things like acoustic foam, you can pick that up over on eBay, and also acoustic cannons. Now these are really heavy, thick cannons. And in fact, they're amazing for cutting out the sound. It's incredible how once you're stood behind them, that kind of silent squeal that you get from stepping one side of them to the other, so they really are worth investing in. And the other thing I would say about acoustic cannons is that because they are so heavy, you do need some fairly heavy duty fixings to make sure that they're not going to fall out of the ceiling. Basically, make sure you've got something above you this is something that someone actually recommended to me when I was trying to create a soundproof area in my home and make sure that you're not somewhere that's got a really high ceiling because again, the sound is going to disappear up and off and bounce around. So if you can, and perhaps you might need to put in a full ceiling, and I've done that quite well. relatively cheaply actually with stuff from the DIY store. And so I've got a kind of plastic corrugated piece that's been got acoustic foam stuck to the bottom of it, very homemade, does the job beautifully. And so it's all these kinds of things you need and go out there as Peter says, and kind of design your own amazing professionally soundproof studio sound treatment, thinking about the things you've got around them, making sure you've got cushions, carpets, all that kind of thing, and even trying it into the wardrobe. See what kind of a sound you get. And that will be plenty good enough at for recording your Flash Briefing. So there you have it, sound levels format, soundproofing sound treatment will be back tomorrow Peter what we'd be talking about then.

So tomorrow, we are going to be talking a bit more about your presentation skills. So we've talked about the kind of the technical stuff about microphones about recording about the tech had mentioned things like kilobytes per second. We've mentioned things like mp3 minus nines and decibel, the techie stuff, but as well as the content, something which you can do and you can learn is your presentation. But tips for that as we continue with the Flash Briefing February. The skill set the mindset and the marketing to build a better briefing with both back tomorrow.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai