Week 5 (Thursday): "He Came Prepared With Handouts"

Welcome back to the Podcast Academy blog. For those who are just joining us, this blog will follow the journey of our six projects within the incubator. Each week, our class of seven will engage with industry professionals, mentors, and one another to produce their very own narrative podcasts. During Podcast Academy’s Live Pitch Event (September 26th), our participants will pitch their podcasts to a live audience and industry professionals. With that, let’s dive into our first Week 5 Session on Sound Design!

Maya, Celine, and Caroline are paying close attention to Austin's presentation.

An Intro to Sound Design

This week, the Academy met with Austin Mitchell of “The Ballad of Billy Balls,” “Crimetown,” and “Reply All” to discuss his approach to sound design. Austin offered the class a quick guide to using sounds and music to inform and enhance the audience’s audio experience. Sound design is crucial to any podcast, as it can instill tone, style, emphasis, and even pacing within an episode. Austin also gave the class some editing pointers he follows when constructing an episode. He even came prepared with handouts!

Austin and Cary discuss editing techniques and how to leverage an interviewee's natural speaking pattern.

Major Takeaways from the Exercise:

I) Music can help guide information learning by acting as a signal to underscore what was just said or what is about to be said.

II) Cross-fade ALWAYS! This helps create seamless transitions between clips.

III) Music and sound design can help capture a moment better by establishing tone, themes, and feelings.

IV) Know when to “kill” certain parts of an episode and when to listen to others for their advice. A second pair of ears is crucial in the editing process!

V) Capturing and utilizing room tone can help fill space, thereby eliminating drop outs, and help conjure a consistent soundscape throughout the episode and the series, as a whole.

The Academy discusses how best to approach sound design.

That’s all for us here at Podcast Academy! Thanks for continuing to follow our journey. Stay up to date with the blog for a glimpse into how to produce your own independent podcast. Remember to pay close attention to our blog because there may be a special prize given out during our Live Pitch Event for those of you learned with us along the way! We’re kicking it into high gear as September 26 creeps up ever so quickly. We hope to see you again here at NYU’s Podcast Academy!