During our Making Media class this week, we were introduced to several techniques of audio recording, one of which via the Zoom H4N Recorder. Audacity - a free audio editing software - was also made familiar to us. Indeed, these two lessons would form the foundation for our podcast production process.

Along with showing the basic functions and buttons on the Zoom recorder, Prof. Felix also taught us some key aspects of sound recording, the most prominent of which being the difference between hard sound-reflecting surfaces and soft sound absorbent surfaces (or ‘dead spaces’). This not only prepared me for the podcast production process that would follow, but also made me aware of the technical knowledge that goes into a seemingly simple task like recording audio. As always, ‘being a professional means paying particular attention to the details’ - as Prof. Felix said. 

With respect to Audacity, the software came packaged in a UI that looked more antiquated than my first-generation Honda Wave Alpha motorbike. Nevertheless, it was excellent at doing what it’s made for - sound editing. The simple interface allowed for a relatively gentle learning curve, while the wide range of functions went beyond what I needed for this podcast. Learning Audacity was, in fact, extremely fun, and every time I figured out a new effect or short cut was thoroughly satisfying. 

During this week, I also sat down to work with my team, which now also includes Nu, to decide on a topic for our podcast. Given our consensus on making a light-hearted yet informative podcast and my interest in travel and tourism, we decided to create a podcast on ‘sustainable tourism’ after rounds of discussion. Getting to this agreement was not easy, however, as each of our heads were filled with different ideas and preferences. Thankfully, after everyone had their chance to pitch their plans for the podcast, we managed to narrow our pool of topics down and eventually chose 'travel and tourism' as the main topic for both assignment 1 and 2. And thus, the Xplore podcast was born.

Amazingly, we were also agile enough to produce a draft script of our podcast this week and got down to recording in a meeting room on Thursday. 

Seeing all the hard work put into this first draft, I sure hope our podcast will be well-received on Week 4 - the feedback week.