Initial Recording
I used the Voice Recorder app on my iPhone to record the audio and then tried to move the files to Audacity on my laptop. However, I soon realized that there’s exra step to get Audacity to open .m4a files. Here’s a tip I found useful for that step.
Quick Tip: How do I get voice memos from iPhone into Audacity?
You need to install the FFMPEG Library for Audacity in order to open .m4a files. To do this, open Audacity and under the “edit” tab, select “preferences”. Go to the “Libraries” column and you’ll see the mp3 export library and the FFMPEG import/export library. Click on “Download” under the “FFMPEG” bar. Once it’s done downloading, select the “Locate” button. Find the downloaded “avformat-55.dll” and select “ok”. (Click here to find more details.)
I chose to create a mini audiobook as a family project (special thanks to my second-grade kid and my husband for demonstrating excellent reading skills and performance, along with my 2-year-old for providing the most natural and realistic background noise!) We decided to record the first chapter of my kid’s favourite books, June B. Jones. So, here’s my initial recording.
Edited File
I’ve edited the first few seconds of the initial recording and removed the occasional “umm” sound. I also cut out a few overlapping sound and unexpected interruptions. I used Audacity for editing and realized that the interface was quite outdated and not very intuitive.
Noise Reduction Applied
Using the Noise Reduction feature in Audacity, I removed the white noise throughout the audio and deleted some of the “hiss” sounds. However, the overlapping noise recorded with the main speaker’s voice couldn’t be removed, which ended up serving as a background sound effect, like a children’s crowd.
Background Music Added (Final Edition)
Now, the starting and closing music have been included to provide a smooth transition into the main part of the audio. To engage our audience more effectively with the story, some sound effects were added. For example, when Paulie Allen Puffer talks about the monsters under the bed, scary music and a heartbeat sound are added to represent Junie B. Jone’s emotional state. As the story goes on, these sound effects grow stronger to reflect the change in her emotions. Also, some background sound effects were added to help the audience follow the story’s changing scenes and context, such as children’s crowd noise at the beginning and a camera shutter sound at the end.
Transcript Added
As a final step, I uploaded the edited file to my YouTube channel and edited auto-generated caption.
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