Let’s Take A Listen

The Closer and Farther We Hear

We are seeing a surge in audio-based platforms but these developments can be found everywhere, even from the games that we play. For those of you who have played Phasmophobia or Among Us, the feature called Proximity Chat is not uncommon for you. For those who don’t, it is a simple feature that allows you to listen based on the distance you are with the speaker. Let’s say I’m on the second floor in the game, then you will proceed to hear my voice from far away. Phasmophobia even filters the sound based on the location. If the location is an empty classroom, then there will be echo in a wide room.

The game feels much more immersive and let’s the players perceive distances in a more realistic way. There are a lot of apps that do take this into account too, such as Gather.io. This goes to show that sound really changes things, from what you hear to where you hear it.

Stand out in the Podcast Feed

Your podcast feed can get busy and it can be hard for subscribers to notice when you have new episodes released without reading the titles or description. Want a simple but effective method to make your new episodes stand out?

One of the most effective ways to stand out is by creating a unique artwork for each new episode you publish. Try making an artwork design that reflects what your episode is about. If designing something like that is too difficult for you, you can make the latest episode artwork a different color from the last. At least your subscribers will see it’s different and new. Just the slight change can make a difference and help your podcast standout!

Hype Things Up With Contextual Music

Ever play a video game and make cool combos and suddenly the music gets more hype? That’s called Contextual Music. Which means the music in the game changes depending on how you’re doing.

Now this can apply in podcasting too. Many use music for their intro, or play in the background with their favorite songs. But if you want to make your story more immersive, try to put in songs or parts of the song that can match the context of the story, at that specific time. You can use it to build up the intensity, or even describe how a person is feeling.

Music is not just for filling silences, it has great uses to liven up your podcasts too! So next time you’re looking for songs to put in your podcast, try not to look for your favorites for once. That’s a struggle for me too at the beginning, 😁

Edit in the Silence

So you’ve put all your audio in place… then you realize you need to go back and add something, like a clip or some music But now there’s no more space… 

If you’re like me, you realize audition doesn’t have ripple edit like premiere does.... The solution?

Add silence! This is a much more efficient way of shifting your files. 

Instead of selecting all clips and then dragging them individually, just pick a gap, then add the amount of time you need!

The storytelling “brain-flow”

One of the biggest tasks we have at In-depth Creative is articulating long and complicated research into engaging stories --not merely reporting issues. And coming up with promising pitches can be really hard at times! 

But I learned that all the great stories start with a random question (instead of deliberate thinking), and do something about it! When thinking about how my thought process went, I think this “brain-flow” from The Pudding gives a nice summary. To add on, in order to even come up with a question to begin with, what we like to do is whenever you see an issue, think: what would the opposite side say about this and why? This has helped us a lot in the past.  

Oh and sure, some (or many) questions will be chalked into the basket, but I learned that no question (however silly or simple you may think) is ever a waste!