Shape the piece into a complete listening arc

Most unfinished collages are not missing sounds. They are missing a shape. Finishing means stepping back from individual edits and asking how a listener will move through the whole piece: where they arrive, what changes, and when they are released.

Find the arc

An arc does not have to be dramatic. It can be as simple as sparse, dense, sparse; or near, far, near; or a single sound that slowly transforms. Luc Ferrari's Presque rien No. 1 (1970) compresses daybreak at a seaside village into about twenty minutes of barely edited field recording, and it still has a clear arc because the density of activity rises and falls.

Endings deserve special care. A fade-out is the easy choice, but a collage can also end on a single exposed sound, a sudden cut to room tone, or the return of the first sound you heard. A deliberate ending tells the listener that everything before it was intentional too.

A deliberate ending tells the listener that everything before it was intentional too.From this page

Levels and loudness

Two numbers matter. Peak level is the highest instantaneous point; keep it below about −1 dBFS (or −1 dBTP if your meter shows true peak) to avoid distortion after conversion. Loudness, measured in LUFS, describes how loud the piece feels over time. Many streaming platforms normalise music to around −14 LUFS integrated, while European broadcast follows EBU R 128 at −23 LUFS. Experimental pieces often benefit from being quieter than pop music, because dynamics are part of the content.

Check your mix on at least three systems: good headphones, laptop speakers and a phone. If an important detail disappears on the phone, raise it or brighten it slightly with EQ rather than making everything louder.

Export

Always export a master in WAV at the same sample rate you worked in, typically 48 kHz, 24-bit. Keep it, along with the session file and your sound log. From the master, make sharing copies: FLAC for lossless distribution, or MP3 at 320 kbps where file size matters. Name versions clearly, for instance kettle-keys-voice_v3_master.wav, so you never overwrite the good one.

Recording permissions and samples

This section is general information, not legal advice. Laws on recording people and reusing audio differ between countries. As a working principle, get consent from anyone whose voice is recognisable in your piece, and keep a note of that consent. Be alert to background music in field recordings, because a café's radio may contain copyrighted material that you cannot freely publish.

When you use sounds from libraries such as Freesound, check each file's licence. Creative Commons Zero (CC0) requires nothing; CC BY requires attribution; CC BY-NC forbids commercial use. List credits in your description or liner notes, including the author's name, the sound title and the licence.

Finishing checklist

• Intensity drawn and the drift point fixed
• Ending chosen rather than faded by default
• Peaks below −1 dBFS
• Checked on headphones, laptop and phone
• WAV master saved with session and log
• Consent recorded for every recognisable voice
• Licences checked and credits written