#audio production

[soundrooms]

ian pooley · akai cosmos

who is the person in the picture under the left speaker?

[gideonmedia]

It Might Not Be That Important

As an OLD, I get sorta annoyed when people are all, "Hot take..." and then they say something that a lot of people already agree with, it's just not super popular. But, I think I might have a Take this maybe sorta Hot.

I feel like the audio quality of Audio Dramas is just not that important.

Before you jump all over me, I'm a studio musician, producer and director and have been since we started with Studers and 2" tape back in the late '80s. And I'm gonna talk about mics and equipment and stuff later.

But when I think of the shows that are either somewhat or VERY beloved, I have to admit that they aren't necessarily obsessed with audio design. I'm thinking about three of my favorite shows. And this is NOT throwing shade to them, all three of them are really well produced.

The Bright Sessions (@brightsessions) is simply an amazing show, and it is so beloved that everyone who worked on it has gone on to write/produce/act in *other* incredible shows. But Lauren recorded the thing in her room! She did all the production on it. Do we love it because there are super-hero special effects? Absolutely not, we love it because of the characters. And that comes almost entirely from the writing and acting.

One of my favorite shows comes from Nightvale Presents (@nightvaleofficial), their show Within The Wires. Listening to the first season of this show changed what I thought was possible in Audio Drama. But the sound design, while different for each season, is largely static. Nobody spent six months panning left-to-right to simulate the movement of a person in conversation - the whole show literally sounds like it's on a cassette. Because it is.

And most recently, Modes Of Thought In Anterran Literature (@wolfatthedoor). They have dozens of shows they're working on and I got the chance to hang out (virtually) with Alex, who writes the show and plays the professor, and they produce it the same way we used to do Indie Theater here in New York. He writes it and then records it at a lecturn in one of their offices. Boom, that's it. I think he edits together two total performances.

The part of this that I'm sure nobody would disagree with is that the writing, acting and directing are *more* important. But I would go so far as to say, complaining about imperfect audio production is the only barrier to entry for people who are really good at the important things, but don't know anything about audio production. People should just make the show and don't sweat the design. If you've got the characters in the show following a tight fascinating plot, that's really all you need.

[gova01]

There's a good reason why my art style looks like it does and it's because it's the easiest for me to see all the details.

[melomaniac-mo]

ok so i’m supposed to be going back to school by the end of August to finish getting my bachelors degree in audio production/audio engineering and i am lowkey SO nervous.

there was the ONE class that i just could not pass (audio workstations) and that’s the first class i’ll be going back into.

does anyone have any tips or advice on how i could improve this year and be more successful? i don’t remember the curriculum of the class so i don’t have like specifics lmao.

thanks yall <3

[tincanaudio]

Vertical Editing - A Tiny Essay Zine!

Behold! My first entry into the 2024 Fiction Podcast Zine Festival organised by @boombox-fuckboy. It's a tiny essay about the way I edit audio and why I think it leads to more immersive stories.

This was scribbled together really quickly just to see if I could do it.

Page scans with subtitles under the cut

[VERTICAL AUDIO EDITING - a tiny essay by AMBER DEVEREUX]

[Hi! My name is Amber...and I can't draw. BUT! What I can do is EDIT AUDIO. I often get asked how to make IMMERSIVE SOUND DESIGN in audio drama. Where dialogue and sound design blend together. THE ZESTY SECRET IS VERTICAL EDITING]

[See, the typical editing pipeline for audio is usually horizontal, like this: (a sketch of an audio project file with 3 tracks: 'Vocals' 'SFX' and 'Music' next to each track name is a long rectangle with a label for which kind of edit is which 'Dialogue Edit' for Vocals, 'Sound Edit' for SFX, 'Music Edit' for Music)

Each part is edited separately then put together at the end. Which means all the elements sit on top of each other. It's clean, yes, but is it IMMMERRRSIIVE? BEHOLD! VERTICAL EDITING!

(the same sketch of an audio project, except the rectangles have been chopped up into smaller pieces, some bits of the Vocals overlap with the SFX, some bits of the music overlap both Vocals and SFX. There are also vertical lines through the middle and end of the picture, denoting scenes)

Dialogue, SFX (and sometimes music) are all editing together at the same time. So all the elements interact with each other from the start: The dialogue becomes sound design!

The sound design becomes dialogue!]

[Of course, this approach isn't perfect:

if you're working in a big team, it's not always possible

edits take longer, with more notes per edit

it's also just a lot more work and creative responsibility (which, sometimes, is the last thing you want)

BUT it also allows you THE MOST HUMBLE AUDIO EDITOR To have more of a voice in the sound design, and it allows you most of all, to be AN ARTIST]

[THANKS FOR READING! This zine was made for the 2024 Fiction Podcast Zine Festival.

(A drawing of the Tin Can Audio logo. A square with 3 lines on the inside. On each line there is a rectangle styled to look like a fader on an audio mixing desk. In each rectangle there is a letter, spelling TCA)

TINCANAUDIO.CO.UK]

I had a lot of fun putting this together! I've definitely caught the bug and hopefully I'll make a couple more before the month is out.

[natealexanderthegreat]

*, my first EP, is releasing on all platforms (except Spotify) 1/23/26. Or you can check it out now at the SoundCloud link below.

*

Updated and Final versions of the tracks I put out over the course of 2025

[shawnsoundzlike]

🎧 PRODUCERS AND AUDIO ENGINEERS, listen up!!! Quick tip that might just be change your workflow in 2026.

[someoneslightlygay]

People recording audio, STEP AWAY FROM THE MICROPHONE. You do NOT need to have it an inch from your mouth and I don’t need to hear every bubble popping under your tongue, I just want to hear what you’re saying not have a meltdown because you insist on making everything some kind of ASMR