Audio Story Final – MHBA Promotional Audio Story: “Why Hire an MHBA Builder?”

For my audio story, I decided to create a promotional clip in which outlines the benefits of hiring an MHBA Builder member when building a brand-new home.

Background on the MHBA:

The Manitoba Home Builders’ Association is a non-profit trade association providing members and the general public information about the housing industry in the Province of Manitoba. The association is comprised of companies such as home builders, land developers, renovators, manufacturers, suppliers amongst other companies who contribute to the housing industry.

Not all home builders in the Province of Manitoba are required to be a member of the association, therefore the association strives to educate the public to put their trust in companies who are members. When hiring an MHBA builder, the customer gains the benefit of hiring a reputable company. All MHBA builders are mandated by the association to have a safety program in place, in addition to carrying a third-party warranty provider to give homeowners peach of mind.  

Purpose of the Audio Story:

The purpose of the audio story is to highlight the benefits of hiring an MHBA Builder member. The target audience of this promotional audio piece are families who are seeking to build a brand-new home. The audio details the benefits of hiring an MHBA member such as Safety and Warranty, and in the end has a call to action encouraging listeners to visit the association’s website for more information. For the purposes of this assignment, I have used a made-up web address.

Recording and Editing Process:

I used my iPhone’s Voice Memo recorder to record the audio. Then by using Adobe Audition, I was able to cut out the relevant audio pieces by using the “Razor Select Tool”. After I found the audio clips that I intended to use, I placed them on a separate track. I then looked for the appropriate background music using FreeSound.org – a creative commons audio website. I decided to use “Funky Upbeat Loop” by ispeakwaves as I wanted something upbeat to set the tone of the promotional piece. I placed this audio clip on the track below. Since the music audio is only a 32 second clip, I had to loop it repeatedly for the duration of my audio story.

My promotional clip starts out with the music fading in and the audio at +4.5 dB. Before the informative audio begins, the music slowly decreases to -11.4 dB while the informative audio is at +7.5 dB. Near the end of the informative audio, the music clip gradually gets louder from -11.4 dB, to +5.3 dB, then back to -11.4 dB just before the second informative clip starts. I repeat this process throughout the audio story. You will notice that after each informative clip, the music will get louder, then get softer just before the next informative clip begins. I did this in order to break up the dialogue and provide a natural ‘start’ and ‘stop’.

Peer Review of the Draft:

My peers gave me some great insight on how to better improve my audio story. Below were the suggestions I received…

• Getting rid of the ‘ums’ – I received a comment from a group member advising that I should clean up the soundbites some more by deleting the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ in the clips. I did try my best to do so when doing the draft but will indeed work on cleaning up the clips some more for the final draft.
  
• Using another music clip – I received another comment from a group member suggesting that I should use more than one music clip and create segments with no music and some natural sound. I plan to find some “construction” sounds and use those as part of my audio piece. Perhaps placing them before the soundbites. 

Revised Version:

Sticking to the suggestions I got from my peers, I started with trying to look for ambient sounds such as sounds that you hear on a construction site. I checked out Freesound.org and found the right clip called “Construction 1.wav” by sortan. I cut the sounds using the razor select tool and placed them to go along with the interview soundbite. I lowered the volume to -14.9 db so that it does not overpower the interview clips. Next, I cleaned up my interview clips by removing any “ums” and “ahs” using the razor select tool.

In the end, by adding the ambient sound to the interview clip, it gave it a more natural sound/feel as if the person was being interviewed at an actual construction site. It also gave listeners some type of context, that the conversation is likely related to construction.

In the end, I felt that the small additions and deletions to my initial draft vastly improved the overall quality of the promotional audio clip.