On your blog:

We’re going to work with Soundslides now, so I’d like you to do a response post on this piece from The Washington Post (click on view photos to get to the Soundslides) and this piece from the New York Times.  Describe the different approaches and the impact of the two pieces, and discuss which approach you’d most be interested in trying for your own Soundslides.

UPDATE:  If the Post piece is having sound issues, substitute this piece.

Since a few of you were ill this past Tuesday, I’m going to extend the posting deadline for the audio piece until Wed, March 4, in order to ensure everyone can get it up without a hitch. For those of you who were out and are wondering how to post the piece on your blog, it’s as simple as clicking on the musical note in the “add media” row above the post window.  If you have problems, contact Nick at nicholasfiscina@yahoo.ca.

On a flash drive

We are going to work on a preset Soundslides assignment in order to practice using the software; the following week, you’ll be working on your own Soundslides.  So you will need images and audio for a Soundslides by the 10th, but feel free to bring material on the 3rd if you have it already.  We’ll be focusing on syncing sound to audio, so if you want to shoot your Soundslides now, make sure you bring an interview clip or narration (not just music) and a collection of images (think wide, medium, tight) that you can knit together to tell a visual story. Look at the Post story especially for visual guidance.

Some of you asked in class about the relationship between the individual assignments and your final project, so I wanted to go over it here on the blog. The pedagogical goal of the individual assignments is to get you to 1.) start collecting material; and 2.) start working with the tools and information you’ll need to put the final project together; and 3.) explore the fundamentals of multiplatform thinking. All the individual assignments are also graded SEPARATELY (as noted on the syllabus) from the final project.
The final project will be assessed in terms of its ability to tell a story in an integrated way — so expect that a round of editing and shaping will happen AFTER this individual assignments are complete.

This means, in other words, that though you may decide to include the audio story you are working on now in your final project, you might also decide that you need to edit it as your story develops. Or, you might decided to re-use the audio clip for your Soundslides assignment. Or you may create a Soundslides project for the Soundslides assignment, but then decide it isn’t really integral to the final project you’re producing. Finally — and I’ve discussed this with a few of you — your final project might feature video or data graphics that aren’t produced as separate graded assignments, especially if it seems like you don’t have many inherently compelling visual or sound components to your story. Each of you will be making different choices about your project, choices guided by the material you’re working with and your approach.

Let me know if you have questions about this. If you need extra help on your audio projects during reading week, Nick will be in the Final Cut Lab and you can fetch him any time for tech support. I will be offline from this Sunday until Monday the 2nd.

How to Use Audacity

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Audacity is a simple sound editing program that can be downloaded for free of the internet. While it is fairly easy to use some people may found it difficult to get started so here are some instuctions on creating a simple project:

Steps

1. Plug in your microphone and headphones or ensure your speakers are turned up.
2. Make sure “microphone” is selected in the top right hand corner.
3. Click on the red circle which will start recording and speak into your microphone. If it doesn’t look like anything is recording make sure that you increase the dial next to the microphone icon. Your voice will appear as a long jagged line but it may look more like a series of blue shapes.
4. Place your cursor at the beginning of the audio, click and drag towards to right to select all of the sound.
5. Go to “Effect” then Amplify to adjust the amplitude of your sound (i.e. loudness). If you click ok without adjusting anything then it will automatically make your sound as loud as possible before clipping occurs (where some sound is cut off and it will lose quality). You may not want it this loud though so you can adjust it to any volume. Setting it to a negative number will make it quieter.
6. Import some background music by going to project then Import audio and double clicking on selected music.
7. Edit the background to desired amplitude (See step 5)
8. (Optional) Select the part of the background music you want to have under your voice as it will likely be too long. Leave some extra to fade in and out. Then click the button shown in the image that will trim the out side selection.
9. Select the icon for the ‘time shift tool” (double headed arrow) which will allow you to move round your sound. Align your voice with the background music.
10. Click back on the ‘Selection Tool’ (looks like an I).
11. Select a small section at the begining of your background music.
12. showing the beginning section selected and how to fade in.]]Click on Effect then Fade in to fade in the music.
13. Select a small section at the end and then go to Effect then Fade out.
14. Experiment with other effects on the music and your voice. Continue with the steps when you are happy with what your have produced.
15. Go to file then save project as to save your work. Type in a filename and click save. This is the version you will open in order to edit your project if you wish.
16. Go to file then Export… or Export as Mp3 (Depending on the version of audacity) and save similarly to the previous step. This is a compressed version you can use on websites or other applications.

Tips

• Press CTRL + Z to undo your last change.
• Press CTRL + I as an alternative to step 6 (Importing sound)One
• Once you have completed this simple exercise then you will be able to go on and create bigger and better audacity projects. Aim high!
• Look on the internet for sound effects you can use. There are many websites that offer a large range of free ones for your use. Alternatively you can buy a CD of sound effects.
• Writing a script first will allow you to plan what your are going to say so you don’t have to go through the difficult process of editing out stutters and slip ups.

Things You’ll Need

• Audacity
• A microphone
• Speakers or headphones
• A computer
• A saved piece of music (on your hard drive or on removable hardware)

Related wikiHows

• How to Remove Unnecessary Audio with Audacity
• How to Record a CD Using Audacity and iTunes
• How to Get Higher Audio Quality when Using Audacity
• How to Record a Podcast with Audacity
• How to Make an MP3 or WAV out of a MIDI Using Audacity

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Use Audacity. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.