abhijaykulkarni.com

In my college experience so far, I have never worked on an assignment so exciting and influential as the Final Podcast project. Before this project, I mostly worked on simple videos and PowerPoint presentations throughout my education, rarely doing unique projects like this. After creating my final podcast, I learned three fundamental things. First, I realized that I could still record my podcast in one try even if I make a few mistakes since I can edit the Audacity software in a way that satisfies me. Another lesson I learned after working on this project was speaking in a style that doesn’t add background noise through specific hand techniques. Another observation I made was that I always need a script to follow for creating podcasts, presentations, or youtube videos. As someone easily distracted by external noises, not having a script causes anxiety and confusion. Luckily, I made a script for this podcast, which was beneficial to use since it made my dialogue delivery smooth and organized. Altogether, these three actions have made the podcast an enjoyable project to work on.

One Recording

In similar recording projects in the past, I used to rerecord myself countless times until I thought I delivered flawlessly; however, I never could. Even after rehearsing about 40 times, I always made a few mistakes, like mispronouncing a few words or taking unnecessarily long pauses. This project was no exception. I rehearsed myself reading off the script about 30 times and still had unnecessary delays and mispronunciations in my recordings. The project felt long and unrewarding until I realized I should just record myself reading the script, regardless of whether it was perfect. After doing a final recording, I started making some edits on Audacity by cutting parts that I mispronounced or took long pauses. In 30 minutes, I was done editing my recording, and it sounded terrific. My delivery was smooth and precise, allowing myself and the audience to easily follow what I was saying. I realized this technique was much better and easier to use since it felt like I was progressing in the right direction. After using the old method of rerecording several times and not moving forward in older projects, I learned that the best way to do podcasts is by recording once and editing whatever seemed off after that.

External Noise

One of the main aspects of my podcast was how I was talking. I wanted to ensure that I sounded loud and straightforward so my audience could easily follow and enjoy my podcasts. After watching a recording, I discovered that I could hear the breaths I took between the lines while reading the script. In addition, I also could listen to external feedback every time I said a word with the letter p. I was confused about why this was happening for a while until I considered what my professors told me about saying words with p and their effect on the recording. They noted that words with p often create external noises from the spit that comes from our mouths. They recommended that I place my hand at the side of my mouth to avoid this issue so that the recording doesn’t take an unnecessary noise. Fortunately, this worked for me, as my voice sounded clearer from placing my right hand to the side of my mouth. After seeing the effectiveness, I put my hand to the side of my mouth for another 5-10 recordings.

Script

The most important lesson I learned from doing this project is that there needs to be some script or outline when creating a podcast, video, or presentation online. For this project, I made a large script highlighting exactly what I would say, and It worked out well. After occasional mispronunciations and grammar mistakes, I kept revising my script to make the flow of my dialogue easier and more precise. Instead of making some bullet points in my script, I decided to write down every word and phrase I was going to say since I easily get distracted and can’t think of something simultaneously. Not having a script makes me flustered and confused about what to say next, whether it is a recording or presentation, and this particular project would not have been easy without one.

Conclusion

Overall, I found this project memorable for years to come, as I loved making my podcast and learning so many important ideas from it.