From creaking benches to train whistles, Emily Kreutz’s sound design turns Once Again into a vivid listening experience.
Audio engineer Emily Kreutz spent 15 years curating her sound library – water bubbling in a creek, birds singing in the Sandhills, wind rustling tall grasses – all sorts of sounds from across Nebraska.
“If I am working somewhere and I hear a good sound, I hit record and save it,” she said. Sounds from Kreutz’s library and others make the Once Again podcast come alive, much like a throwback to radio theater.
“You hear creaking benches, church bells, footsteps on gravel and horses neighing,” said Kreutz. “The sound becomes another character.”
Kreutz studied audio and recording technology at Northeast Community College in Norfolk. Host Bill Kelly trusted her creativity. “We started thinking about the possibilities and the collaboration took off. Bill let me run with it,” said Kreutz.
In addition to sound effects, Kreutz mixed in music specific to the history in each episode and brought in volunteer voice actors to play characters, rather than having just narration.
“We are thinking about how to put people in the space of the podcast without having a picture to look at.”