{"id":97866,"date":"2018-01-08T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=97866"},"modified":"2018-01-03T15:03:17","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T21:03:17","slug":"5-tips-editing-interview-soundbites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/5-tips-editing-interview-soundbites\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Essential Tips for Editing Professional Interview Soundbites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quality audio is the key to any interview. Here’s how you can clean up your interview soundbites and make them sound clear, natural, and professional.<\/h2>\n

Cover image via Shutterstock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

When you’re filming interviews, whether for documentaries, corporate videos, or anything in between, it\u2019s always a challenge to work with soundbites, which can be full of pauses, interruptions, and awkward phrasing.<\/p>\n

However, with the right editing tools (and things like B-roll to cover your edits), a creative editor can work with awkward interview\u00a0audio and turn it into clear, natural, and professional soundbites, which will impress clients and audiences alike. Check out these five simple (and essential) tips to help you clean up your interview soundbites in post.<\/p>\n

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Distinguishing\u00a0Good Soundbites from Bad Ones<\/h3>\n

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\n<\/a>Image via Shutterstock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

When you’re starting off, your goal (more often than not), is to look for crisp, concise, and insightful soundbites to work with. However, while there may be a few home run quotes you find right off the bat, you’re much more likely to find staggered soundbites here and there. I’d recommend going through,\u00a0marking the obviously good ones for later, then finding the best bits and pieces that you may need to fill gaps or help finish thoughts later. Go ahead and delete any parts where the audio is beyond repair (for any reason) to clear space for later.<\/p>\n

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Remove “Umms” and Pauses<\/h3>\n

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\n<\/a>Image via Shutterstock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once you have your solid soundbites, you may want to start doctoring\u00a0them right away. We’ll assume you either have B-roll to use in your video (or something else to cover, like a second camera angle, stock images, etc.). This will help you hide your cuts.\u00a0Watch your footage and listen to the soundbites a few times to catch all the “hmmms” and “ummms” and long pauses that your subject might deliver during the interview. It’s hard work talking on camera, so people usually speak a little out of their natural cadence. A few short pauses are okay if you’re looking for conversational or thoughtful soundbites, but you should be able to tell what\u00a0sounds unnatural or unflattering. Find these segments, delete the awkward beats, and ripple edit everything back together.<\/p>\n

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Refining\u00a0the Soundbites<\/h3>\n

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\n<\/a>Image via Shutterstock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

After you\u00a0remove all the blips and pauses, you’ll have a full set of soundbites. If you were asking one-off questions, the soundbites should all be pretty coherent from start to finish, but that doesn’t mean people don’t tend to ramble or repeat themselves. Listen to the soundbite all the way through a few times\u00a0again to see what information they’re really conveying. If you like to look at text, you can transcribe here (or if it’s for a client, you may have to). From here, you can mark any parts\u00a0that\u00a0seem superfluous.<\/p>\n

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Look for Valleys<\/h3>\n

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When picking your points to cut soundbites, the first place to look is for natural valleys in the audio files. The best valleys are obviously ones\u00a0that include full pauses. However, if you’re looking to make some tricky cuts in the middle of sentences, you may find some valleys between words (or sometimes even syllables) where there is still some sound, but it’s much quieter and\u00a0deeper in the valley. The trick\u00a0then is finding a comparable valley to connect it to to create the sound of a natural speech pattern.<\/p>\n

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Find Similar Syllable Peaks<\/h3>\n

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Which brings us to our next trick. If you cannot find suitable valleys to cut on, you can try to match syllable sounds to create natural transitions in dialogue and soundbites when a person starts to say a word. This one is a little trickier, but if you mess with the timing, it can be pretty effective.<\/p>\n

This is all to say that soundbite editing requires a great deal of creativity and problem-solving skills \u2014 as well as technical tips and tricks. Your goal is always to\u00a0reflect what your subject intended to say \u2014 just a little cleaned up and more professional.\u00a0And while there may come a day where soundbite editing can be completely synthesized (and that day may already be here<\/a>), it’s important to never use these doctoring techniques for disingenuous purposes or, for lack of a better expression, to put words in peoples’ mouths.<\/p>\n

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If you’d like to learn more about soundbite and audio editing, check out some of these great resources below.<\/p>\n