Historical Tour of Northampton: Transcript recording completed.

Today, I completed the recording of the spoken-word narration for the tour. The narrative was recorded using a RODE NT2-A. The large diaphragm and wide frequency response of this microphone is ideal for capturing every nuance of the human voice without colouration or distortion. The mic was set to cardiod pattern, to avoid extraneous sound being recorded, as per Sound on Sound journalist Paul White's recommendations: "Assuming that a vocal booth is out of the question, using a cardioid pattern mic will go a little way to excluding reflected sound coming from the sides and from behind the mic." (White, P., 1994).The NT2-A was ran through a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 preamp, a preamp with a 'natural' sound and flat frequency response, again aiding the natural sound present in the resulting recordings.

Cubase 5 was the recording software of choice, and the audio was recorded at 96kHz / 24bit, to avoid quantisation error and to capture the truest signal possible. Whence the audio had been recorded, sensitive processing was applied as not to colour the sound of the vocal. Thus, compression set to a soft knee and restrained ratio was applied, to help tame the upper dynamics, allowing for the track to be amplified without peaking - this brings the volume of the lower dynamic closer to the upper and prevents quieter passages of spoken word from being masked by the ambient music or extraneous sound that will occur on the tour. On the subject of compression being used to address fluctuations is output volume, Dittmar writes: "This is a useful signal processing tool when you want a vocal to sit more consistently in a mix or make any instrument sound consistent in volume." (Dittmar, T., 2011, pg110) A limiter was also applied, to prevent clipping. A 5kHz EQ cut was applied also, 5kHz is a particularly 'loud' frequency to the human ear, thus a cut at this frequency will aid listing pleasure and reduce fatigue. A slight reverb set to a large size helps to add a sense of space without being overpowering. I was sure to be sympathetic with the application of this plug-in, as overuse can lead to a loss in sonic definition (Rudolph, T. and Leonard, V., 2001, pg195).

A screenshot showing the processing applied to the audio narrative.

A number of websites have been useful in compiling the different sections of audio, the original written documentation from which the transcripts were inspired can be found at: