How can I use my audio editing skills?

January 21, 2009 6:56 AM

I recently left my job in public radio and am curious about other fields, aside from radio, that use audio editors/producers. I've thought of museum audio commentaries, but I'm sure there are others that haven't crossed my mind.
posted by melodykramer to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

Television, film and new media are three other areas that come to mind. I've worked for post-production houses in the past that have needed dedicated audio people for sfx, voiceovers and other bits for use in corporate, broadcast and film pieces. The same for new media, although a lot of companies tend to just get a creative type that can handle audio stuff in relation to their main role.
posted by sektah at 7:01 AM on January 21, 2009

Audiobooks, perhaps?
posted by echo target at 7:39 AM on January 21, 2009

Video games, especially sports games which have hours and hours of voiceover work, have a huge amount of audio assets that need to be generated, edited, and managed.
posted by zsazsa at 7:50 AM on January 21, 2009

Newspapers are rapidly ramping up their websites. While there is growing amounts of video, they also have tons of photography they try to edit with music and VO to make compelling content. I would think someone like you would be perfect for that.
posted by lpsguy at 8:31 AM on January 21, 2009

Companies that produce training materials.
posted by Good Brain at 8:36 AM on January 21, 2009

Producing audio-books for the blind (these are different from your standard books-on-tape/CD).
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:42 AM on January 21, 2009

Seconding good brain. I worked for a company in Chicago that developed online training materials for various types of companies, so we utilized a ton of video and audio clips.
posted by scody at 8:46 AM on January 21, 2009

Sure, newspapers are ramping up their Web sites, but they're not hiring anyone new to do it. (Didn't y'all watch Season 5 of "The Wire"?) That said the top multimedia editor at my last paper had a background in radio -- the skills certainly fit.

What about universities that produce podcasts?
posted by Airhen at 9:49 AM on January 21, 2009

"Podcasting" for larger corporations/public relations.

(I'm reasonably certain that Microsoft has dedicated audio/video editors/engineers at the ol' head-office)

What about for "live" events - would this skillset transfer over to conferences?
posted by jkaczor at 9:56 AM on January 21, 2009

I'll second zsazsa's video games. Even a small title can have several days of studio time that needs to be edited down to precise sound bites for concatenated voice tracks (letting the game assemble sentences on the fly and still have it sound natural). A big game can have a month of studio time that needs to be edited down to a few hours of audio. Sports and role-playing games use the most speech.

Every day there are more professionally produced podcasts.

There is of course commercial radio and radio commercials.

Language training and other educational stuff.

This is just a guess, but what about places and organizations that hold lectures?

I know a church that edits every Sunday service down to commute-size and posts them on their web site.
posted by Ookseer at 10:02 AM on January 21, 2009

Response by poster: These are all great -- thanks. Do you know of any places in Philly where I could pick up some more multimedia skills? I write a bunch and I can work with audio, but I'm not familiar with video in the slightest.
posted by melodykramer at 10:51 AM on January 21, 2009