Pod Aware Day 1! How We Podfic
There are so many ways to create podfic and so many ways to listen. We might engage with podfic curled up in bed, in our closet, while commuting or at the gym, in our bathroom with makeshift soundproofing. To find out more information on podfic and how we podfic, check out Pod Aware on DW, LJ or Tumblr.
I've been so crazy busy between school and running
pod_aware that I haven't properly had time to make things for it, so I'm going to use this as an excuse to make a post I've been meaning to for a long time now. I know I've talked about my home made recording studio a lot, but now I'm going to do a proper post.
I actually live right down the street from the Ottawa airport, which is convenient when I get lost in the city (just follow the airport signs!) but is not so great when you're a podficcer. I also live in a row home with really thin walls that you can hear my neighbours sneeze through.
I recorded a number of podfics sitting in my living room, pausing to allow planes to go by or one of my roommates to make a run for the kitchen or stopping altogether while cursing my neighbour and his loud music. I had kind of wistfully talked about having a real recording studio, and kronos999, being the awesome friend and roommate that she is, started researching it.
While the house is big enough for the 3 of us that live here, there's not really any extra space. And any cubbies we could have built the room was against the noisy neighbour wall, or required losing prime real estate in the house (kitchen space, the area where the laundry machines are, etc.). Finally we settled on a space in the basement underneath the front entrance. It was underground, so I wouldn't hear the planes and, while on the noisy neighbour side, was not in a part of the house he was likely to be noisy by.
It also had the benefit of having 2 walls already made, and supports in place for the other ones, since we were going to have to build the other walls ourselves.
While we were cleaning out the corner, we noticed there was a board nailed to the ground. When we pulled it up, we noticed a disturbingly body-sized hole underneath. o_O The hole goes through the foundation and there's dirt on the bottom, some people have suggested maybe there was a subpump there in the past? But we decided to use it to put a little time capsule about ourselves and the house in it. Plus a zombie survival kit. Just in case. :P
Next we installed the floor.
Then we started building the walls.
The we added a door. I had to buy a solid wood door, because we had to cut it down to fit (since it's under the entrance way, the ceiling is rather low, it's only like 5'5" in there, I can't wear shoes and stand up straight), but that's ok, it's better for the sound quality.
Originally, I had just a layer of cork foam, as a sound dampener, to cover the walls. It didn't quite work as I hoped (more foam than cork, most likely) and was still kind of echoey, so I've since added a cut up foam mattress to the walls.
So yeah, that's my recording studio. Not really as glamorous as it sounds, but it works well for me and it definitely gives me better sound quality.
I've been so crazy busy between school and running
pod_aware that I haven't properly had time to make things for it, so I'm going to use this as an excuse to make a post I've been meaning to for a long time now. I know I've talked about my home made recording studio a lot, but now I'm going to do a proper post.
I actually live right down the street from the Ottawa airport, which is convenient when I get lost in the city (just follow the airport signs!) but is not so great when you're a podficcer. I also live in a row home with really thin walls that you can hear my neighbours sneeze through.
I recorded a number of podfics sitting in my living room, pausing to allow planes to go by or one of my roommates to make a run for the kitchen or stopping altogether while cursing my neighbour and his loud music. I had kind of wistfully talked about having a real recording studio, and kronos999, being the awesome friend and roommate that she is, started researching it.
While the house is big enough for the 3 of us that live here, there's not really any extra space. And any cubbies we could have built the room was against the noisy neighbour wall, or required losing prime real estate in the house (kitchen space, the area where the laundry machines are, etc.). Finally we settled on a space in the basement underneath the front entrance. It was underground, so I wouldn't hear the planes and, while on the noisy neighbour side, was not in a part of the house he was likely to be noisy by.
It also had the benefit of having 2 walls already made, and supports in place for the other ones, since we were going to have to build the other walls ourselves.
While we were cleaning out the corner, we noticed there was a board nailed to the ground. When we pulled it up, we noticed a disturbingly body-sized hole underneath. o_O The hole goes through the foundation and there's dirt on the bottom, some people have suggested maybe there was a subpump there in the past? But we decided to use it to put a little time capsule about ourselves and the house in it. Plus a zombie survival kit. Just in case. :P
Next we installed the floor.
Then we started building the walls.
The we added a door. I had to buy a solid wood door, because we had to cut it down to fit (since it's under the entrance way, the ceiling is rather low, it's only like 5'5" in there, I can't wear shoes and stand up straight), but that's ok, it's better for the sound quality.
Originally, I had just a layer of cork foam, as a sound dampener, to cover the walls. It didn't quite work as I hoped (more foam than cork, most likely) and was still kind of echoey, so I've since added a cut up foam mattress to the walls.
So yeah, that's my recording studio. Not really as glamorous as it sounds, but it works well for me and it definitely gives me better sound quality.