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BBC sound effects archive | Archifdy effeithiau sain BBC

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BBC sound effects archive | Archifdy effeithiau sain BBC

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Welcome to the BBC Sound Effects Archive site

You can search over 30,000 BBC sound effects, experiment with them in our mixer, use them in your own personal/educational projects, or licence them for use.

You don't appear to have JavaScript enabled - you will need to enable Javascript to run this app.

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Using podcasts for continuing professional development | Defnyddio podlediadau er datblygu proffesiynol

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Using podcasts for continuing professional development | Defnyddio podlediadau er datblygu proffesiynol

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Toolkit to assist reflections on the Social Work Research Podcast for continuing professional development

Podcasts are becoming an increasingly popular source of learning for social workers. Either for continuing professional development (CPD) or just a bit of fun, the format provides a flexible and accessible way to engage with new knowledge.

There are now an immense variety of podcasts on a range of interesting topics, some of which are relevant for social work. With lots of choice and the possibility of listening whenever and wherever you want, podcasts are an ideal way to fit professional development into a busy life.

Social Work Research Podcast

I created the Social Work Research Podcast a year ago to help make research papers more accessible for students and practitioners. Each episode features an in-depth conversation with a researcher about a study they have conducted of relevance to social work practice. A large variety of papers and topics have been covered in the past year and each episode can be accessed here .

To mark the first anniversary of the podcast, I have created some tools to support listeners' use of the podcast for their continuing professional development.

Firstly, I have developed a template for listeners to record their reflections or notes as they listen to episodes. It follows the flow of conversation and includes the following questions to prompt reflections:

Background - What was the context for the research? What were the research questions?

Methods - What methods were used? What were the strengths and limitations of the methods used?

Findings - What were the results of the research? What is new from these findings?

Implications for my practice - What have I learnt from listening to this podcast / reading this paper? What does this mean for my practice? What do I wish to discuss further with my colleagues?

The final set of questions relate to the Social Work England requirements to describe the learning from the CPD; reflect on the impact of the learning on practice; and discuss the CPD with a colleague. This is perhaps the most important part of listening to the podcast for your CPD. Considering what it means for your practice and reflecting on it with a colleague is likely to enhance the usefulness of the podcast for your learning.

To support the recording of learning from the Social Work Research Podcast, I have created a template with the fields which are required by Social Work England's online form. This can be used to draft your responses and then can be copied and pasted into the online form when complete. Two of these are required for re-registration, at least one of which must include a discussion with a peer. More information about the CPD requirements of Social Work England can be .

This template relates to the requirements for Social Work England, but I am happy to produce ones for other regulators if that will be of use. Please leave a message in the comments section below, with a link to the relevant regulator's requirements. Thank you.

Podnotes

Template for recording your podcast reflections [.docx]

Template for recording your continuing professional development (Social Work England) [.docx]

Here's a presentation which provides an introduction to the podcast and introduces the podnotes:

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Using podcasts for continuing professional development

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Toolkit to assist reflections on the Social Work Research Podcast for continuing professional development Podcasts are becoming an increasingly popular source of learning for social workers. Either for continuing professional development (CPD) or just a bit of fun, the format provides a flexible and accessible way to engage with new knowledge.

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Free music archive | Arhcifdy cerdd am ddim

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Free music archive | Arhcifdy cerdd am ddim

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Royalty free music and 'free to download' music - Free Music Archive

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Free Music Archive is your number 1 resource for royalty free music and 'free to download' music.

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Purple Planet free music | Cerdd am ddim Planed Porffor

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Purple Planet free music | Cerdd am ddim Planed Porffor

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Purple Planet Music is a collection of music written and performed by Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey.

You are welcome to use the pieces for free. We simply ask you credit us.

We are supported by users who kindly purchase commercial licences. This helps us to keep creating music. It also gives you a written licence and higher quality WAV file and means you don't have to credit us.

Lower quality 192kbps MP3 Download - FOR YOUR OWN PROJECTS
Credit: "Music: https://www.purple-planet.com"

OR

SUPPORT US
Purchase high quality WAVs with commercial licence for

LICENSED AMBIENT COLLECTION - 30 MINUTE PIECES FOR RELAXATION & THERAPY

The music in this section is by Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey, and has been designed using real sound effects from different parts of the world. Each track is slightly different, and creating a calm, relaxing environment for clients, making it useful for massage, spa, therapy and relaxing moods, ultimately to create a sense of freedom and escape.

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Purple Planet Music provides a free collection of royalty free music ideal for youtube and your media projects. Options to purchase commercial licences for professional use.

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by Russell Todd

Caerdydd | Cardiff

A podcast about Community Development practice: | Promoting its value | Sharing its learning | Connecting its practitioners

The Community Development Podcast's tracks

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A podcast about Community Development practice: | Promoting its value | Sharing its learning | Connecting its practitioners

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Discussing the Wales national team Trafod tîm cenedlaethol Cymru

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This page lists features which got removed from Audacity, as well as their replacements.

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Leicester Stories Audio Editing with Audacity

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https://youtu.be/PDigWxHHjEQ

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Rav Levi: on the importance of editing your podcast | ar bwysigrwydd o olygu eich podlediad 

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Rav Levi: on the importance of editing your podcast | ar bwysigrwydd o olygu eich podlediad 

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For many podcasters, editing is the least appealing part of making the podcast. I can understand the sentiment. After all, recording the show is the fun part: You get together with your pals, drink a few beers and talk about stuff you like. If you're a geek like me, even the research phase of making an episode can be fun. But for many podcasters, editing is boring. It's like washing the dishes after a meal, or sweeping the floor after a party.

Screenshot of Audacity, the open-source editing program (from http://www.audacityteam.org/)

Unsurprisingly, many podcasters choose to skip this part of the podcast-making process. They convince themselves that editing is unnecessary in their case, since their show "has to sound spontaneous", or because "the listeners don't care that much". They do the minimum amount of editing, or sometimes none at all - and release the episode as it was recorded, in a state otherwise known in its more professional term: ' unedited piece of crap unfit for human consumption.'

Well, I edit all of my shows, and I'm here to convince you that not editing your episodes is a bad mistake. Here's why.

1. Audio Quality

Here's an experiment: open iTunes and check the 50 highest ranked podcasts. You might find that some genres are more prominent than others in that list - but you'll also find that no matter what the podcast is about, its sound quality is excellent, or at the very least adequate. By 'sound quality' I mean good volume levels for all hosts and no distracting background noises, at the minimum.

What that means is that Sound Quality is the most important characteristic of a podcast. It precedes content by a mile. The fact that all the top ranking podcasts boast good sound quality means that you can't have a successful podcast without one.

What makes sound quality so important? well, one explanation has to do with what is sometimes called ' Ear Fatigue ': when the act of listening takes too much effort and focus, the listener can get "tired". It takes dedication and determination to keep listening to a podcast whose volume levels are too low, or one with distracting background noises.

But the most important factor, I feel, has to be with ' first impression'. As web designers, product designers and behavioral economists know - subconscious decisions made within seconds of encountering a new situation or product have a big influence on our behaviors. Problematic audio can and does make a potential listener form a critical mindset about your podcast within the first few minutes of listening. It is then up to the content of the episode to correct this bad first impression - but by then you're already fighting an uphill battle.

2. Pruning, or: Less is More

As an author who's background is in the written word, I can appreciate a well-known idiom about creative writing: " Good Authors Write - Great Authors Erase." I came across this important principle in Stephen King's book 'On Writing', and I have since came to learn that it's just as valid in podcasting as it is in writing.

What makes More is Less an important guideline? It has to do with our brain's tendency to enjoy well crafted stories. A great story evokes strong feelings in the reader/listener - but strong feelings are also emotionally draining. They require a sort of mental energy and focus that can only last for so long. Think of a roller coaster, with its sharp turns and surprising falls. Now imagine the roller coaster slowly climbing up along the tracks. For the first few seconds there's a feeling of suspense: are we heading for a great fall, full of adrenaline and fun? But now imagine the climb continuing on and on. A minute. Two minutes. Now five. At some point the climb stops being fun, the suspense is gone and is replaced with irritation. The fall at the end of the climb should now be extremely fun for it to compensate for the boredom of the last five minutes.

This principle applies to podcasting as well. A natural conversation between two or more people tends to follow random tangents: the more people participating in the conversation, the more likely it is to stray away from its main topic. Each such tangent is like a climb in a roller coaster. At first, the listener (who started listening to the episode based on the premise that you'll be talking about what was in the episode's description) might be intrigued by the tangent and its potential to be related in some way to the main topic. But as the conversation veers more and more away from the main topic, curiosity turns into frustration. The mental energy is wasted, and before long the disappointed listener presses the Stop button, never to return again.

That's why editing is so crucial, especially for podcasts rich with natural conversations and interviews. Personally, each interview I record goes through a careful editing process which results in roughly half of the original material being left out. Is it a waste? no, on the contrary: it makes the interview two times as powerful. Even more.

Bottom line: Less is More. Edit away the tangents, and only keep the good parts.

3. Make it an Art

The third reason for editing relates to some types of podcasts more than others. In podcasts built around natural conversation - e.g. interviews and panels - there isn't usually much room or need for additions such as music, archive material, etc.. The free flowing nature of conversations does not lend itself easily for pauses and tempo changes.

Yet in other types of podcasts - from single voice narrations to audio dramas - there's a lot of room for additions that will benefit the show greatly. For example cinematic music to emphasize certain feelings in appropriate moments, or archival segments to strengthen or demonstrate topics.

These additions are always optional, of course, but they have the potential to lift your podcast from a mere audio program - to a true form of art. Award winning podcasts such as RadioLab and This American Life use various editing techniques to create breathtaking episodes.

How hard is it to learn editing?

Surprisingly easy. Open Source tools such as Audacity lower the entry barrier greatly, and mastering the basic techniques needed for improving the audio quality of a podcast or pruning unneeded bits takes about half an hour of YouTube browsing and practice. It is more than worth your time to learn them.

To be sure, the more advanced techniques take about the same length of time to learn - but require much more practice to master. If editing is not your passion, go for the more conversational formats of podcasting, or hire the services of an experienced Sound Editor.

editing is not an optional part of the podcast production process. It is a vital part of making a good podcast. It can also help you raise your show above the general clutter of 'audio programs' and make it a true piece of art, if you wish it to be so. Take the time to learn the basics of editing - which will the focus of my next article.

Ran Levi
ran@cmpod.net

Podcasters - Check out my Podcast Cross-Promotion Database initiative! more than 30 podcasts are already there, willing to swap pre-recorded promos and host-read testimonials with your show.

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The Importance of Editing to Your Podcast

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For many podcasters, editing is the least appealing part of making the podcast. I can understand the sentiment. After all, recording the show is the fun part: You get together with your pals, drink a few beers and talk about stuff you like.

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https://impress.press/

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In this Spotlight On piece marking World Mental Health Day 2022, Hannah discusses what the pandemic exposed about the pressures faced by journalists today and the importance of placing empathy at the heart of the newsroom.

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https://communityreporter.net/

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The Institute of Community Reporters is a UK and European wide organisation that maintains standards and quality of Community Reporter activity. We believe in achieving positive change for communities by bringing community voices together to influence change, from the ground up.

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Origins of the term 'Podcast' | Gwreiddiau'r term 'Podlediad'

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Origins of the term 'Podcast' | Gwreiddiau'r term 'Podlediad'

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One night 15 years ago journalist Ben Hammersley was on a deadline at the Guardian newspaper, writing a column on internet radio blogs.

He filed the piece and then, just as he was packing up, got a last minute call from the subs desk (the team that give stories a final check).

"They said: 'We need one more sentence - just to fill the page,'" the British writer says.

"So I wrote something pompous like: 'And what should we call this new phenomenon - audioblogs? How about podcasts?'"

A few months later Ben received a call from the Oxford English Dictionary.

They said they couldn't find any earlier citation of the word "podcast" and asked if he had really made it up?

Yes, he had. Podcasts may not have been born that evening - but they had been christened.

A decade and a half later, what had been a motley collection of what Mr Hammersley calls "mostly unlistenable" MP3 recordings has become a global industry.

Technical breakthrough

Podcasts are now produced by commercial broadcasters, individuals and companies with no connection to broadcasting. In fact anyone with something to say, and a few pounds to spend on the equipment to say it, can get involved.

The digital audio files are cheap to produce and, thanks to the internet, easy to distribute.

Mr Hammersley says two changes transformed the market - one cultural and one technical.

A technical breakthrough came in 2012 when Apple produced the iPhone podcast app, which proved a popular library system for listeners.

This was followed by a dramatic improvement in inexpensive recording production and editing equipment.

Finally, the development of 4G mobile phone connections and widespread wi-fi meant listeners could browse, download or stream shows whenever they wanted.

The cultural breakthrough came in 2014 with a very specific podcast - Serial, a piece of investigative journalism hosted by Sarah Koenig, narrating a non-fiction story over multiple episodes.

To date, the first and second seasons of the show have had more than 340 million downloads

"Serial changed everything. By the time it got into series two, the advertising space sold out in a day for sums that went into the millions," Mr Hammersley says.

Georgie Howes, a consultant at market research firm Ovum, says British series My Dad Wrote a Porno also helped raise awareness. Launched in 2015, it quickly became a hit, going on to have more than 180 million downloads.

"That was the point at which the advertisers started to catch on to [podcasts'] value," she says.

Today we are in the middle of a podcast boom. In the UK nearly six million adults tune in each week, about double that of five years ago, according to the telecoms regulator Ofcom.

Podcasts are now available on a wide range of platforms, with streaming sites like Spotify competing with downloads.

And where the audience goes, the money follows.

From 2017 to 2018 advertising spending on podcasts in the UK went from $10.6m (£8.5m) to $19.7m, an 85% increase, according to Ovum. It expects the annual expansion in ad revenue to be in double digits over the next five years.

It's not the size of the audiences that is important to advertisers, it's who they are. Podcasts offer a chance to speak intimately to a very precise selection of people.

A half-hour podcast on, say, 1950s sci-fi novels, is going to hit a very specific audience. If you want to target gaming fans you go for a gaming podcast. That specificity can be worth a lot of money.

The Stockholm-based podcasting platform Acast says that average industry rates for podcast advertising range from $18 for a 30-second ad to $45 for a 60-second sponsor read, for every thousand listeners. That's 50-100% more than broadcast radio advertising.

But podcasting advertising comes in many forms.

The first is similar to what you would hear on traditional radio - in other words, professionally produced adverts for products or services.

But there's a slight difference. Such ads have to be "less shouty and more subtle" to work in the more intimate environment of a podcast, says Joe Copeman, the managing director of Acast.

Then there is sponsorship. In the early days this was simply a case of the podcast host dropping a glowing reference to the sponsor's name into the script.

But increasingly hosts are recording adverts themselves, which are then edited into the show.

On top of this companies are making their own podcasts, to help draw people to their brands.

Such marketing can be powerful when it's done well, says Mr Copeman: "It is great to be in that space where people are immersed in the sound of a person's voice, where they are enclosed in that world."

Broadcasting change

The boom in podcasting embraces a huge range of talent, from professional broadcasters to enthusiasts offering insights on anything from off-the-wall conspiracy theories to whale watching.

In fact, as Ben Hammersley explains, podcasting has brought people into broadcasting who would normally never have seen the inside of a recording studio.

"There are of course professional podcasters, but there are many more people who create quality content and do it for nothing," he says.

And that is changing not just the way we listen to audio but the way the broadcasting industry works.

"If you are a 20-year-old just out of college, wanting to be a radio producer and full of ideas, what do you do?" Mr Hammersley continues. "Go and apply for a job in local radio and end up making the tea for three years? Or go straight into making programmes for podcasting?

"That's something the main broadcasters haven't yet really accepted, but that is the way it's going."

Celebrity opportunities

Of course if you are a celebrity, podcasts can provide a new branch of business.

Jo Wood, ex-wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, and long convinced of the existence of alien life, this year launched Alien Nation. It hosts "other celebrities, experts, and everyday earthlings who have had close encounters or simply think we cannot be the only planet with life in this vast universe".

The singer George Ezra has done a series of "George Ezra and Friends" podcasts, in which he interviews other famous musicians such as Lily Allen, Ed Sheeran and Jessie Ware (who has her own podcast called Table Manners).

"For these artists it's less about sales as about exploring new areas," says Mr Copeman.

"Jessie [Ware] has really been able to monetise her podcasts and attracted sponsors, but she has also opened a way into another profession, testing out her presenting skills."

Follow Technology of Business editor Ben Morris on Twitter

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How podcasts went from unlistenable to unmissable

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One night 15 years ago journalist Ben Hammersley was on a deadline at the Guardian newspaper, writing a column on internet radio blogs. He filed the piece and then, just as he was packing up, got a last minute call from the subs desk (the team that give stories a final check).

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Insole Court

Cardiff | Caerdydd

The Insole Court Podcast explores the rich history of Insole Court, the Insole family and it's transformation from a derelict building to a much-loved community and heritage destination. Mae'r Podlediad Cwrt Insole yn archwilio hanes cyfoethog Cwrt Insole, y teulu Insole a'i drawsffurfiad o adeilad wedi mynd â'i ben iddo i'r lleoliad cymunedol a threftadaeth tra hoff.

Insole Court | Cwrt Insole's tracks

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The Insole Court Podcast explores the rich history of Insole Court, the Insole family and it's transformation from a derelict building to a much-loved community and heritage destination. Mae'r Podlediad Cwrt Insole yn archwilio hanes cyfoethog Cwrt Insole, y teulu Insole a'i drawsffurfiad o adeilad wedi mynd â'i ben iddo i'r lleoliad cymunedol a threftadaeth tra hoff.

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Working to keep your sporting stories alive. Visit our website for the latest news and activity, add your sporting heritage collection and become a supporter. Get Involved! National Sporting Heritage Day: 30th September #NSHD2024