Lesson video

Hi, everybody.

It's Mrs. Dodds here, and welcome to this lesson.

Thank you again for joining me.

Let's find out what we're going to be learning about today.

So the outcomes of the lesson today are to record the voice parts of a podcast based on a plan.

Let's have a look at some of the keywords we are going to using today.

We're going to learn the word today by, first of all, I will say it and then I'm going to ask you to say it.

So let's have a look.

Quality.

You try.

Brilliant.

This is a measure of how suitable something is for a task.

We will be looking at that throughout this podcast.

Let's move on and find out what we're going to be doing first.

So part one of the lesson today is to record and check your vocals.

Let's have a little look.

Creating a podcast requires lots of different skills and techniques.

Recording a voice track.

Editing, trimming, and aligning the tracks.

And finally, saving the podcast.

To get your podcast exactly right, you might need to try it a few times.

This is totally normal.

Computers allow you to record, edit, and delete and try again until you get the quality just right.

Some children were thinking about how computers help when recording podcasts.

Alex has asked, "How does using a computer help when recording a podcast?" Aisha has asked, "How does using a computer help us share our work with others?" I want you to pause the video now, and I want you to think about those questions and share your thoughts with a partner.

Pause the video now.

Great, you're back.

I hope you've had time to think about that.

Sam has been thinking carefully about what she has learned so far.

"Computers help us record our voices clearly.

If we make a mistake, we can pause, restart, or fix it.

We can also add music and sound effects to make our work sound great.

Once it's ready, we can save or share it online." Time for a check for understanding.

I'm going to ask you a question now and then there's some possible answers, and you are going to decide which answer you think is correct.

How do digital devices help us with our podcast after we've created it? Is it A, they let us find saved work quickly, share it with others, and go back and edit it later; B, they lock our devices so no one can ever change it; C, they turn the podcast into a book that can be read; or D, they delete the podcast once it's finished? I want you to pause the video now so that you've got time to share your thoughts with somebody else and explain your answer.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic, you are back.

Let's have a look at the answer.

It is A, they let us find saved work quickly, share it with others, and go back and edit it later.

Let's move on.

So it's time to record your voice track using the plan that you have made.

So here is a plan of Lucas and Aisha's podcast where they've got the introduction and it identifies who's going to say which part, and they're going to think about the sound effects and music they want to include.

So Lucas has said, "Hello, my name is Lucas." Aisha has said, "My name is Aisha, and welcome to our podcast all about the planets and the solar system." Lucas has said, "Today we're going to tell you some interesting facts that you probably didn't know about the planets." Aisha has replied, "In this podcast, we are going to tell you about the order of the planets and the facts about the solar system." Now they're going to use some uplifting music with the volume going down as soon as Lucas begins to speak.

So it's time to think back to what you have learned about how to get the best voice recording.

Sam has said, "Too much background noise makes it hard to hear the important parts." Sofia has said, "Instead of stopping and starting my recording lots of times, I just paused it and then talked again." Alex has said, "I need to make sure I don't talk too quickly." So now it's time for a check for understanding.

I'm going to ask you another question and I'm going to read out the possible answers, and I want you to stop the video and decide what you think should be the answer.

So what should you do if you make a mistake while recording your voice track? Should you A, panic and start over; B, keep talking quickly to hide it; C, pause, then keep going and fix it later; or D, stop the whole recording? Pause the video now and give yourself time to think about the answer and explain why you think that is the answer.

Pause the video now.

Great, you're back.

Let's have a look and see if you were correct.

Let's reveal the answer.

It is C, pause, then keep going and fix it later.

That's part of the editing process.

Let's move on and find out what's next.

Here's a reminder of how to record your voice track.

We've got the play button.

We've got the record button.

We've got the delete.

This is the shortcut to delete that track quickly.

If you're working with a partner, you might want to record their part using a separate audio.

This will give you time to swap over.

So, record your first audio and press stop.

So this is speaker one speaking.

And then we're going to press stop.

And then you're going to record your second audio, continuing on the same track for speaker two.

We're going to watch this short video now to find out how to do this.

Let's take a look.

So in this video, I'm going to show you ways that you can record the voice track when two people are speaking.

I'm going to pretend to be Lucas and I'm going to start recording and then I'm going to stop and I'm going to be Aisha and I'm going to record that second part.

So let's have a look.

Hello, it's Lucas here.

Welcome to our podcast all about the planets and the solar system.

So now it's my turn to record Aisha's part.

Let's have a look.

Hi, my name's Aisha.

We're going to tell you some interesting facts all about the planets and the solar system, facts that you probably never knew.

Listen up.

So if I go back to the beginning of this track now and we'll listen through.

Hello, it's Lucas here.

Welcome to our podcast all about the planets and the solar system.

Hi, my name's Aisha.

We're going to tell you some interesting facts all about the planets and the solar system, facts that you probably never knew.

Listen up.

So that would be our two tracks running side by side, audio one, and then audio 1.

2.

Fantastic, you're back.

I hope that was helpful and I hope that made sense to you.

So now it's time for task A.

It's now time to begin recording the voice track of your podcast.

Use your planning sheet to help you.

Next, you're going to consider the features in the success criteria, which I'm going to put on the next slide, and how well have you achieved them.

So Sam has asked, "Which of the success criteria have you used to get the best-quality recording?" So take that worksheet now, make sure you have a copy of your plan, and make sure that you've got a copy of that success criteria so that you can check off what you've achieved after you've listened back to your recording.

Pause the video now and take time to go away and record your voice track.

See you in a moment.

Excellent, you're back.

Let's have a look and see how well you did.

It's now time to review and reflect on the recording of your audio track and check the quality.

Your answer might look like this.

So here's my criteria.

I've got to look at my voice, steady pace, friendly tone of voice, microphone interference, pauses when needed, interruptions.

And I've rated this.

So, my clear voice, pretty happy with that.

Steady pace, maybe rushed a little bit in certain parts.

Definitely had a friendly tone of voice.

Microphone interference, there was some.

Pauses were there when needed.

And there were some interruptions.

So now it's time to move on.

Let's look at the second part of our lesson.

The second part of our lesson looks at how we review and improve recordings.

Let's take a look.

So now you've had time to review your voice recording, you probably have some ideas about how to improve the quality.

An audio engineer would make note of the times where there are things to fix.

So you can see I've just put in that box there where the timestamp is along the top of your track.

This gives you an idea of where to look to identify where the changes are that you need to make.

They would look at the waveform to spot places to edit.

So look carefully at the pattern.

It might be where something goes quiet or it might be where there's a loud noise.

It's really important to look at the waveform and look at how it looks on the track.

So let's look at how to fix and improve your voice recording.

So we've looked at our criteria and we've identified and rated where we think there should be improvements.

So pretty happy with the clear voice, friendly tone, and pauses when needed.

But a steady pace, maybe could slow down a little bit, and definitely microphone interference and interruptions.

So there might be a section of your audio that needs removing and replacing.

To do this, you'll need to select the section you want to remove and delete it.

So you might have noticed some microphone interference and experienced interruptions while you were recording.

Let's look at how to select the section you want to remove and delete it.

This will improve the quality of your work.

We're going to watch this short video now that's going to show us how to select and improve certain parts of our track to make improvements.

Let's take a look.

So this video is here to support you in editing and improving the quality of your podcast.

As you are starting to record, you are likely to make mistakes or somebody might interrupt you when you're speaking or you might simply forget what you wanted to say.

So what we need to do is have a look at the skills needed to edit these issues out and improve the quality of your work.

So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to start a podcast.

I'm going to pretend that I'm Lucas.

I'm going to read out his plan and just get started and then I'm going to put mistakes into it so that you can see them and I will show you how to edit them out.

Hello, my name is.

My name is Lucas, and I am going to tell you.

And welcome to our podcast all about the planets and the solar system.

(desk thuds) So as you can see, I have popped in a couple of errors within this podcast just at the beginning and throughout just so that I can show you how I would edit these out.

Now I can use my zoom bar just to get a better view of my waveform just so I can have a look at where those mistakes are likely to be.

But the best way is to go back to the beginning and listen back through your work and just double check to see where they are.

Hello, my name is.

My name is Lucas.

Now I can see there are two sections here around three and around five where I am repeating myself, so I'm just going to click to kind of have a look at where I think it is.

My name is.

My name is.

So I can see these two sections here are the same, so I'm going to hold my mouse down, delete the section that I think, press Delete on my keyboard, and I'm going to re-listen to it just to make sure I'm happy.

Hello, my name is Lucas, and I'm going to tell you.

And welcome to our podcast all about the planets and the solar system.

So I've got a whole section here that I feel shouldn't be there.

I've also got a very big, extended, long gap in my waveform here where nothing's happening.

This is where you can see that there's just a thin line.

So I'm going to take this whole section out.

I'm going to press Delete.

Going to go back to the beginning and listen to it again.

Hello, my name is Lucas, and welcome to our podcast all about the planets and the solar system.

Now I can see a huge change in my waveform at the bottom here at the very end.

So what I'm going to do is just click here and listen to what I can hear.

(desk thuds) So that's obviously an interruption of something that I definitely don't need.

I can see the waveform is very, very thin here, so I know that nobody is speaking here, so I can delete that whole section.

The only other improvement I would make is, I can see that there is a very long introduction.

You do want a little pause before you start speaking, but I would recommend that you just delete off a section there.

Now let's review it.

Hello, my name is Lucas, and welcome to our podcast all about the planets and the solar system.

Now much happier with that.

If you find that when you are recording and you are editing and improving your work that you need your zoom function on to make your waveform a little bit bigger, that's absolutely fine.

You might even want to extend the screen further down just so that you can have a good look at where you are.

The longer your waveform, you will have to use the scroll bar just to move along in between the parts of your audio.

Brilliant, you're back.

Remember, you can go back to any of these videos at any time just to go through how to do that again if you are unsure.

Let's move on.

You may need to align two recordings.

This might be a track of you speaking and then a separate track of your partner speaking.

Let's look at how we select the tracks and align them.

So we've got speaker one and speaker two, but we don't want them speaking at the same time.

We want speaker one to speak first and then speaker two to speak after.

Let's watch this short video here to find out how to align the tracks so that we've got the speakers following on from one another.

Let's take a look now.

In this video, I'm going to show you if you have track one, which is your audio, and that might be the first person speaking, you might decide to add in a second track.

So I'm going to add in another stereo track, which gives me this second track below here.

This is where we've learned to align our tracks.

So what I'm going to do is just mute this one here, it goes grey rather than blue, just to give me that idea that I am not going to hear this when I'm recording.

I'm going to bring this back to the beginning.

This time I'm going to pretend that I'm not Lucas, I'm Alicia, and I'm adding to this podcast.

Hi, my name is Alicia.

In this podcast, we're going to tell you about the order of the planets and facts about our solar system.

Now when I replay this.

Hi, my name is Alicia.

In this podcast.

You can see that the two tracks are going to possibly work, when I unmute this one, they are going to play at the same time.

(crosstalk) So this is where we would need to align our tracks.

So I'm going to move this one just along here so that it runs on from the next one.

You'll find audio one and audio two flow on nicely.

Let's listen back to them.

Hello, my name is Lucas, and welcome to our podcast all about the planets and the solar system.

Hi, my name is Alicia.

In this podcast, we are going to tell you about the order of the planets and facts about our solar system.

Remember, if you need to work on either of these audios, whether it be person one speaking or person two, you've got these mute buttons here, which will, when you click onto them, will make the waveform go grey so that you know that it's muted.

As soon as I click on it, it will turn back to that blue colour.

So hopefully this video has supported you in aligning two audios so that you've got them running on smoothly one into the next.

Brilliant, you're back.

I hope that made sense and I hope that showed you how to align two tracks when you've got multiple people speaking.

Let's move on.

So it's time for a check for understanding now.

I'm going to read out a statement and I want you to decide if you think it's true or if you think it's false.

If you want two parts of a podcast to sound like one smooth story, you should line them up so the second one starts right after the first one ends.

Is this true or false? I'm going to give you time to read that again and I'm also going to give you time to talk about your answer before I reveal it.

Stop the video now so you can have time to talk about your thoughts.

Excellent, you're back.

I'm going to read that statement again and then you are going to see, is it true or false? If you want two parts of a podcast to sound like one smooth story, you should line them up so the second one starts right after the first one ends.

Is it true or false? Let's find out.

It is true.

This helps a podcast sound like it flows nicely without gaps or overlaps.

Let's move on.

When you are making your podcast, you might not finish it all at once.

That's fine.

So it's really important to save your project so you don't lose your work and then you can come back to it later.

So I've shown you a picture here of where I've popped up to File with my mouse.

I've gone to Save Project and then I've moved across to Save Project As.

It's really important when you're saving your work that you remember to think about a suitable title for your work.

It might include your names.

It might include the topic of what your podcast is about.

So let's look at an example of this.

Planets and the Solar System by Lucas.

When you save your work, you will be saving it as an Audacity file.

So if you need to go back to your work, go back into Audacity software and you'll find your work.

So it's time for task B.

After editing your work, think about the improvements you have made.

Have you improved the quality of your work? So on our worksheet, we're going to look at these questions.

One, explain how you've improved the audio recording.

Refer to your success criteria.

So it's really important to think carefully about what it is you've done to improve the quality of your work.

Question two, what have you named your project when saving your work? This is really important so that when you go back, if you forget, you know exactly what you've called it and what you are looking for on the computer.

It might look similar to this, so this is a possible answer.

So question one, explain how you have improved your audio recording.

Refer to your success criteria.

At the beginning of my recording, the microphone was too close to my mouth.

I stopped speaking and then started speaking again.

I should delete the section I do not need.

The microphone picked up somebody else speaking at 1.

33 seconds, so I had to edit it out.

Question two, what have you named your project when saving your work? Planets and the Solar System by Lucas.

So now we're going to look at a summary of today's lesson, "Creating a podcast." Remember, it is easy to make mistakes when you are recording your audio.

That's totally normal.

Remember, the best audio engineers improve the quality of their work by going back and editing their project.

Making mistakes helps you learn how to improve the steps of the process of making a podcast.

Thank you for joining me in today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed recording your voice track.

Remember, if you are in a busy school, there will be times where you will have people in the background of your work.

This is where editing your work is really important.

Remember, stop and pause and go back to that work and change it as you need to.

I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson.

Goodbye for now.