SC-S26W3/ Video Editing : Introduction to Audio in CapCut.

_{Edited By Canva}

I am happy to share my original participation for Steemit Challenge S26 – Week 3, where I decided to craft a vertical reel that distills the warmth of last year’s vacation at Niagara into a single emotional thread, and where sound does not merely accompany the images but patiently guides the viewer’s feelings from curiosity to wonder and finally to a quiet, heartfelt declaration to my son Yahya, whose laughter and questions made those days feel like a first discovery for me as well.

Three-step editing walkthrough (audio front and center)

1) Project setup, aspect ratio discipline, and a clean silent canvas

I opened CapCut → New video, imported only my own Niagara clips and phone photos, and immediately set Aspect ratio to 9:16 to lock the composition for vertical viewing, which meant I could crop and reframe each shot with confidence that titles, overlays, and faces would sit inside safe margins on most phones, I arranged the timeline in a narrative order arrivals and street energy first, then watery vistas and arcade focus, and finally a warm closing set of shots because audio timing becomes easier when visual storytelling already flows, and I trimmed each clip with short, confident cuts so the viewer feels momentum without losing the sincerity of candid moments.

I created a truly silent base by tapping Mute clip at the sequence level, this removes inconsistent on-site noise such as chatter or machine hums while leaving myself the option to unmute tiny fragments later if a specific natural sound would help a transition and I scrubbed the line once at normal speed and once at 1.5× just to feel pacing in my body, because if the “silent movie” works, the soundtrack will only make it better.

Practical tips I applied in this step: I kept clip lengths in the 2–4 second range for street shots and a little longer (4–6 seconds) for vistas so the eye can read the scene, I avoided jump cuts on fast action by cutting on movement, and I used the Cover option to set a clean first frame so the export looks polished when shared as a reel.

2) Music selection, beat awareness, SFX seasoning, and level management

Inside Audio → Sounds, I auditioned several royalty-free tracks from my device and chose a piece that was moderately upbeat yet not aggressive, because the goal was to support childlike focus rather than push adrenaline, and once placed on the timeline I applied a 1.5 second fade-in so the first impression rises like a curtain instead of snapping on, then a ~2 second fade-out so the ending breathes while the final images linger, I kept overall music volume around 65%, which creates headroom for the closing narration, and I listened on both phone speakers and wired earbuds, since voices that feel clear on tiny speakers may sit too hot on headphones and vice versa.

To place sound effects tastefully, I looked for moments where the ear naturally expects something—like the reveal of the falls or a fast cutand I added two very short cues: a whoosh to help a visual transition read as intentional rather than abrupt and a gentle waterfall/river ambience layered at low level under a panoramic shot; I then opened Sound collection to see all audio items as a single track, which makes sliding, trimming, and balancing them faster and safer, and I used simple volume keyframes to create micro-dips (a quick “duck” to ~45%) under the densest part of the voice so that the words bloom without me having to lower the entire song.

3) Recording an honest voice-over, aligning meaning to image, and exporting cleanly

When the bed felt balanced, I went to Audio → Record, switched my phone to Airplane mode, held the microphone about a hand’s span from my mouth, and recorded the narration in one uninterrupted take, deliberately choosing no voice enhancement, no voice changer, no text-to-audio, and no AI avatars, since the task rewards authenticity and because the tiny imperfections of breath and pace are exactly what make the message feel like it is truly for Yahya, after recording, I trimmed the silence at the head and tail, nudged the clip so the words “I will always ride a little behind you” align with the shot of the arcade bike, and checked that the waveform never spikes harshly against the music by listening once at low phone volume and once near maximum.

Before exporting, I confirmed again that the Aspect ratio was still 9:16, I verified the Steemit overlay placement on both bright and dark frames, and I tapped Export choosing 1080p at 30 fps which offers a nice balance between clarity and file size while being friendly to upload speeds, the render completed smoothly and I uploaded to YouTube for stable sharing, then copied the link into this post so the judges and community can view it without friction.

Recording/VO tips I used here: I read the script slightly slower than normal conversation so consonants remain intelligible over music, I kept my chin level to avoid “p-pops,” and I smiled during the last sentence yes, it sounds corny, but a smile subtly lifts vowel shape and makes the tone kinder, which is exactly what I wanted.

I added a light Steemit overlay early in the timeline so I could check its legibility across bright and dark frames and ensure it never collides with important action; finally, before touching audio,

What I wanted to express

I wanted this mini-film to feel like a continuous, breathable ribbon of memory in which the clatter of arcades and the glow of neon are not the point but the colorful frame around a simple observation, that Yahya’s curiosity expands with every new place and that my role is to make room for that expansion, so the images were chosen not for spectacle but for the small human beats (a quick look back, a hand on a handlebar, a step into the mist) and the sound design was set up to escort those beats rather than overpower them, allowing the music to set a gentle forward motion, the environmental effects to whisper “we are really there,” and my closing voice to thread meaning through the final seconds in a way that stays with him when the screen goes dark.

Final result: