Recording and publishing sermons and other podcasts should be a norm in church life. This is probably one tool most churches are yet to harness and use effectively—underrated. Being a part of your normal church life or production cycle, editing should never take more time than it needs. Whether sermons or podcasts, here are great time saving tips for audio editing:
Your Tools
Nothing wastes time like trying to figure something out when you need it. Obviously, you are not always going to know everything about all the tools you need, but you want to make sure you know as much as you can. Taking time to understand your tools and software may take time now, but it will save you a lot of time and trouble in the future.
This may also mean training everyone on your tech or production team. Get everyone on the same page; create an obvious point of reference for what it means to have great sound or recording.
“Master your tools so that when it is time to edit, you are doing just that and not trying to learn.”
Settings — Input
You can correct many things post production. For example, noise removal or isolation, adjusting equalizer etc. Having said that, nothing beats not having to do those corrections. This means getting your settings right with the initial input or recordings. This calls for some experimenting.
Do this before you do actual recordings. When you have your baseline settings save them so that you have a point of reference for future tweaks. Never leave out testing your recording during your sound check. Why not include recording check with the music team’s sound check? You might discover a cable needs to be replaced, or that the last person to do sound changed the settings.
This is simple yet important: Always test your recording before time. Great quality input minimizes things to correct, saving you time in editing. When input is great, you will spend less time removing noise and making other corrections.
Make sure you get the best input so that you have fewer things to correct. This will save time post-production.
Speakers (The Human Kind)
One of the most unlikely time saving tips for audio editing is working with speakers. Encourage pastors, teachers, and other (audio) platform communicators to listen to their sermons. Some speakers do not realize how much they say, “…uhh…uhm…”, for example, until they hear themselves. Make unedited recordings available to them. It might be helpful for your church, teachers, and production team for the teachers review each others messages.
This round-table could be a great time for editors to share pertinent challenges. For instance, in-house language in the sermon. It could be references to dated events to you have to remove during your edits.
Train your speakers on how to use the microphone. This reduces the need to adjust volume levels during the sermon. One of the most time-consuming things is during editing is adjusting volume levels. You generally need to address this with speakers who use handheld microphones as a wand. Not being mindful with lapel microphones can also present challenges.
Intro / Outro
Have a standard intro and out for your sermons or series. This can include a jingle and introductory and concluding remarks. Trying to recreate a fresh jingle for every sermon may not always seem to take a lot of time, but those minutes add up if you have a lot to things looking for our attention.
Length
Agree on and or set a standard length for each message or podcast. This makes your edit time more predictable – particularly helpful when planning your diary and juggling other tasks. Your congregation and teaching team will love you for the predictability as well.
Other
Consider doing your own study. Log how long it takes you to edit. Note the hurdles that slow you down and address them.
These were just a few time saving tips for audio editing. Would love to know what you think. Leave a comment…
Eric Dye says
“Fix it in the mix” is a lie. ;P
Blessing Mpofu says
? nice one