Editing tools

• My notes on Audacity
• Other useful tools:
  • Temi
  • Descript

Recording

• See here

Interview editing steps

Create a transcript

• Start with a recording that has both voices on at once
  • You get this by default with a Zoom recording
  • in Squadcast, they’re separate by default, but you can get both voices in one recording like this:
    • Click the down arrow to the right of your session (default is Reusable session)
    • Select the two you’re interested in (using checkboxes on left)
    • Click Mix Recordings
• Upload the mixed recording to Temi (use the big button on the home page)
  • Create a transcript

Create first pass of section headings

• First get a feel for the broad outline
  • SKIM the transcript
  • Quickly insert headings broadly describing each section - these will have descriptive titles rather than the T001, etc you’ll be using later.
  • Use heading 2 (so it doesn’t conflict with all the heading 3s you’re going to use later on)
  • Keyboard shortcut in Word to create heading 2 is Ctrl + Alt + 2
  • Think about which sections you want to cut
    • This way you won’t waste ages listening to those sections in detail - you can just ignore them from the start
    • You can use Ctrl + Alt + S in Word to strikethrough the sections you want to lose (In Google docs, it’s Alt + Shift + 5).
    • It’s also worth suffixing headings with y, n and m for Yes, No and Maybe to indicate whether sections will be kept or not.

Make a note of timestamps

• Now start inserting timestamped labels in Audacity and Word
  • Have Audacity and the transcript open side by side
  • Do two passes:
    • On the first, just create an Audacity label + timestamp for each of your broad headings that you inserted before.
      • Go all the way to the end of the process - ie calculate total timings in the spreadsheet.
      • That way you can get a pretty good idea of what you want to keep / discard.
      • When you number the labels, leave gaps because you will be adding more granular labels later
      • For instance, T10, T20 etc (use your judgement re how big the gaps should be - leave bigger gaps than you think you’ll need)
    • On the second, add more granular timestamps, but only in the sections you’re keeping
  • Whenever you reach a point that may mark the start or end of a clip, give it a label (I just give them labels like T002, T003)
    • In Audacity:
      • Use Ctrl + mouse wheel to zoom in/out - but only one scroll click at a time! Otherwise it goes haywire.
      • click X to pause the recording there (means it will resume at the same point, which it wouldn’t if you used spacebar)
      • Ctrl + B to add a label
        • To remove a label:
        • click in the label text
        • Home
        • Shift + end
        • Delete
        • Delete again
      • Alt left/right to move between labels
    • In Word:
      • Insert the Audacity label text at the correct place in the transcription text (create a new line)
      • Add a space, and then the timestamp
        • Not in brackets
        • Include the hour even if the recording is not over an hour long (So 3m 21s would be 00:03:21)
        • Don’t include fractions of seconds
      • Add a space, and “y” for keep (= yes) or “m” if you’re not sure (= maybe), or “no” for don’t keep (= no) (followed by strikethrough)
      • It should look like this (the formatting matters for the spreadsheet later on): T020 00:03:21 y
      • Ctrl + Alt + 3 to highlight the label using heading 3 (makes it easier to find later)
        • !! Watch out though! Somehow all my text ended up being in Heading mode, even though it looked “normal” - and I have no idea how it happened. It seemed to happen after I was using Outline mode. I think maybe it happened because I started editing when I was still in Outline mode? Anyway, keep an eye out for this. The quickest way to check whether it’s happened is View => Navigation pane and check that all your label headings are appearing separately.
      • Ctrl + Alt + S to strikethrough passages you want cut from the recording
        • This is my custom shortcut for strikethrough in Microsoft Word - you can create your own following these instructions
      • Ctrl + Shift + N to undo the heading style (goes back to “normal”)
• Make sure you create one last label which marks the end of the recording.

Use timestamps to calculate rough episode length(s)

• When you’re done, transfer timestamps to a spreadsheet to get an idea of length:
  • In Word:
    • Click View => Outline
    • Make sure that “all levels” is selected from the “Show level” dropdown
    • Use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S to bring up styles dialog
    • Click the dropdown next to Heading 3 and choose “Select All XX Instance(s)”
    • Ctrl + C to copy them all into clipboard
  • In Excel or Google sheets:
    • Have headings Label, Timestamp, Include? and duration
    • Format the duration column as a time (select col, Format => Number => Time)
    • Paste clipboard
    • Data => Split text to columns => choose Space
    • Now in the fourth column (“duration”), use the formula =B3-B2 in the top non-heading cell, then drag down into all cells in this column (except the last, which should mark the end of the recording)
    • Now create min and max time totals (wherever you like), with the following formulas:
      • Min: =SUMIF(C2:C300, "=y", D2:D300)
      • Max: =SUMIF(C2:C300, "=m", D2:D300)+[cell containing min total]
      • (you’ll have to format those cells as times too - Format => Number => Time)

Audacity: Pull snippets / audiograms / teasers out into a new track

In Audacity…

• Use File => Import to load your wav or mp3 file into Audacity.
• Top tip before you start: Hold the Ctrl key down and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in on the waveform
  • But it’s slow to react, so don’t scroll quickly like you normally would
  • Instead, scroll ve-ery slowly - just one notch at a time - and wait for it to react after each notch
  • There are a few other useful Audacity tips here
• Highlight the relevant section manually, or use start and end times:
  • Note start and end time
  • Place your cursor in the source track
  • Select “Start and end of selection” from the dropdown at the bottom
  • Enter start and end time
    • I do it like this:
    • Place cursor at the start of the snippet
    • Use Ctrl + B to add a bookmark at that point (labelled something like “B start”)
    • Place cursor at the end of the snippet
    • Use Ctrl + B to add another bookmark at that point (labelled something like “B end”)
    • Make a note of the time stamp (you can see it at the bottom, under “Start and end of selection”)
    • Use Alt + left to move back to the previous bookmark
    • Now the timestamp of the first bookmark will be in both boxes under “Start and end of selection”
    • Edit the numbers in the second box (the end of the selection) to match the timestamp you just made a note of
    • Now the selection will match the two bookmarks (it will be highlighted in white)
  • Press play (spacebar) to check it worked
• Use Ctrl + D to copy the selection out into a new track
• Do NOT use Effect => Truncate Silence to move the snippet back to the start of its new track
  • Instead, just zoom in and highlight the empty section before the snippet… and use Ctrl + X to delete it.
• Press Solo on the new snippet track
• File => Export => Export as mp3