Using the m-audio, this beloved piece of modern technology, is so much harder than you would think. At least if you recently haven’t used it a great deal. So to start over we talked a bit… got to know each other levels and comfort zones and then went out and about.

Getting the quotes

This proved to be quiet helpful as the interview with Rachel Thomas from Cornwall Council’s transportation service went really well and the recording levels were in a word: superb.

So was the content, especially as it lead me to my second face-to-face interviewee: Brett Bowlzer, who owns a bike shop in Redruth. Since Mrs Thomas pointed out that a lot of infrastructure work was being done in Redruth, it seemed like a good idea to talk to someone from the area and get the “Redruth-view”. The man providing insight happened to be Mr Bowlzer…

One thing about going out and about to get voices for radio: the “time put in” – “quotes used in final package” ratio is just ridiculous! As for My trip to Cornwall Council in Truro it was (including driving back and forth) 2hrs 27mins : 0hrs 00mins 17secs… See what I mean?

The editing process

With two face-to-face interviews from within the area, a phono with one of the APPCG’s contributors in London and enough wildtrack to mix together a “Best of Cornwall Highway sounds”-CD, all I was left to do was scripting, editing and voicing the piece up…

The biggest challenge at that point: staying within the time limit of 2:30 for cue+package. Took me three rounds of re-editing until I managed to meet that criteria.

Making fair use of sound?

To make the piece a bit more lively and round, I put small extracts of Queens classic “Bicycle Race” to the start and end of my package as it was just hitting the nail on the head. Still, it raises questions about copyright…

Using a couple of seconds from a copyrighted song certainly falls under the legal exception of what is known as “fair use”. But to what extend is it legal and what role does context play?

Anyway, I had to use it and I’m pretty sure I made fair use of it…