The Importance Of Sound Editing

The reason why you need to edit sound within media recordings is to remove the audio sections that are unnecessary, this would allow the piece to be shortened as this could have a more positive affect to the listener as they wouldn’t have to listen to an overly long recording as they would not be as interested in the recording. The reason that the recording needs to be cleaned up is that the recording may have some background interruptions such as sounds e.g. doors opening/closing and air-conditioning units. These would have negative effects on the overall outcome of the recording as they would be distracting to the listener.

An example of factual content being edited is the news as they would have some audio in an uncontrolled environment as there would be pedestrians and vehicles in the background and this would be distracting for the audience to hear what the reporter I saying. The studio is a controllable environment as they can make sure that there are no unnecessary noise disturbing the recording. In the studio they would still have to clean up the audio as there might be a sight echo to the recording depending on the area where the studio location as there could be noise coming from outside.

An example of fictional content audio being edited is movies as during filming there might be some scenes that the audio can’t be used as due to disruptions with; the wind, vehicles and other loud noises. If the sound was to be used, then the audience would not be able to hear what the characters are saying during that scene with this the audio would have to be re-recorded in a studio to have the controlled environment as to have only the necessary sound required for this scene as to use this audio for the movie an example of this is ‘x-men wolverine’ as in one of the scenes Hugh Jackman had to re-record a fight scene so you can hear the sounds that his character is making.

There are some similarities between editing of factual content and fictional content, this is because of the reasons why they are edited this way as they both are edited with consideration of keeping the audience interested in what is shown. The differences between them are the factual edits are trying to keep the spoken word and the original the same.

 

The editing equipment can be used on PC or Mac; they are both industry standard so freelance designers can choose the platform they would like to use. PC is more affordable for a new freelance designer to use in the beginning PC’s also have a higher spec than Mac’s. Mac’s are more money to buy but they more common in audio editing practice.

Some of the types of sound editing equipment are digital, one is Adobe Audition CC which is better for sound editing if you have a more reliable budget. Audition has two functions a single-track editor and a mixer for multi-track which is useful if you have foley sounds that would be included in the final product. It has feature called adaptive noise reduction this helps remove unwanted sound such as pops and clicks that may be in the background of the recorded audio. Another editing software that is free is Audacity, this software has a similar ability to audition, but it has a basic interface which makes it seem less intriguing compared to its competitors.

 

When you are editing the recorded audio, you should have headphones as this way you can have a similar experience to the audience as they most likely be wearing headphones when listening. If you don’t wear them when editing then you might think the piece is finished but the audio might not be clear with headphones or only work fully through one side.