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ds106 Audio Assignments

Monday, July 16th, 2012

I spent a good portion of one day working on ds106 assignments, just sitting at my computer, thinking, planning, searching, recording, rejecting, and trying again. Somehow, just sitting in that way was rough on my back and by dinner I could barely walk. (I’ve had lower back problems in the past, but usually for more justified reasons.)

That evening I created a ds106 radio bumper and focused on pain, not shockingly. I opened with an odd monster sound, just because it seemed like an interesting opening and it showed up when I searched for pain. Then I used a sound that was created to simulate someone falling down the stairs. I think, in context, it sounds more like a door opening. Finally, I ended with some maniacal laughter.

Another audio assignment I attempted was the One-Man Play. This was one of the first to catch my attention and I knew immediately what part of which play I wanted to use: the opening moments of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. It may not be a play many folks know, but it is one I love, especially the opening. Stoppard writes brilliant dialogue. The down side to that is I am no actress so I do not do justice to the words. I did have fun trying to make myself sound like both a 13 year old girl and a 22 year old man.

I didn’t add much beyond my voice. The scene takes place in Thomasina’s home, during a lesson with her tutor. I added a bit of pages turning as the two were working and some pen writing.

I’m still working on the Suess It assignment but Audacity and I are not getting along well at the moment. I’m trying to copy and paste some sounds but when I paste, nothing seems to happen. It thinks it did, because I can ‘undo paste’ but that’s not impressive when the sound isn’t there. I haven’t given up yet but at the moment Audacity is winning.

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Sweet Music on DS106 Radio

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

Audio Assignment 36: Create a bumper for DS 106 Radio.

I had such a good time participating in the DS106 class radio productions. I think the satisfaction of making something out of nothing but a thin thought wisping through your mind is amplified ten-fold when it melds with those of others to produce something only possible because these individuals came together at this moment in time for one and only one production. You can never step in that same sound wave twice. Then layer on the appreciation for those productions of others and the opportunity to contribute to the live experience and you’ve got great live, interactive radio.

Inspiration

Here’s a bumper that I created for my piece using a kindly contributed “soundtrack of summers past” by Norm. I rely on Norm’s compelling personality and the sweet music of the legendary Mamas and Papas to create kind of a pause that refreshes.

Process and Reflections

I love working with layers of music and voice and had a good and challenging time playing with the rise and fall of the music and Norm’s voice. Norm’s voice as recorded was giving me fits because it just mellowed out below the music and I could not seem to raise it loud enough — and, well, then, I discovered the sound mixer. Who have thought it would be under “View”? Still learning about fades in and out but this sounds pretty good for someone who has always heard horror stories about Audacity.

Thanks, Norm, for the assist!

Aspirations
I’d like to be able to record my own psa’s for the local radio station to promote fundraising events for my community garden. So, would Audacity work for that, if I got really, really good? Thanks for any advice.

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DS106 Radio Bumper

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

I really struggled a lot with trying to set my mind on a single idea for a radio bumper. I had tons of different ideas and takes I wanted to approach this assignment with. I came across a relatively new track by Kanye West and Pusha T called “New God Flow”.

I really loved how the piano at the beginning drove in the song, and the beat was built around it. I decided to keep it simple and and use that, and my voice as well. I tinkered a bit w/ the pitch of things, making it a bit lower. And also slowed down the tempo of my voice.

I don’t think this was my most extravagant audio assignment, but I think it is simple and iconic in a sense. If I heard this as a radio bumper, after a few times it would stick like the radio’s logo in my mind…

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Open Letter to Chanda

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Dear Chanda,

I totally ripped you off by co-opting a short clip from a well-known movie and turning it into my DS106 Radio bumper. I’m sorry. I was desperate. Attempts at other audio assignments failed. Miserably.

Sincerely,

You can listen to my bumper here:

You can find Chanda’s bumper here.

I’ve listened to DS106 Radio a few times, and I’m enamored with the set up and what I’ve been hearing. When DS106 Radio was first mentioned, I thought about that 1990 Christian Slater classic, Pump Up the Volume. God I loved that movie.

Over the weekend, I watched Awesome: I Fucking Shot That, a Beastie Boys concert film shot by 50 members of the audience. After this viewing, I got it in my mind to do the “Forced Collabo” audio assignment. Who wouldn’t really? Skip to about 3:30 in this video and tell me that Mixmaster Mike’s job doesn’t look totally easy. Right? Right?

Yeah. Not so much. After many attempts to find the perfect songs to mash-up, I gave up with the realization that (1) I have a crappy music collection and (2) I have been blindly consuming music rather than listening. Sad.

Here’s another clip from Awesome just for fun. It’s “Intergalactic.” Look how happy everyone in the crowd looks.

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Glad You Came…to the DS106 Radio Show!

Monday, June 25th, 2012

For this Audio Assignment I had to make a radio bumper for the DS106 radio station. To be honest I had no idea what a radio bumper was before this assignment, so that in itself was a learning experience! For inspiration I once again used my ipod. I figured it is a bumper for a radio station so it needs to have MUSIC in it. I came upon one of my new favorite songs “Glad You Came”, by The Wanted. When I saw the title I was like “viola!” I could use a slogan like “Glad you came to the Ds106 radio station!”…I hope everyone can sense my excitement.

This took me some time to figure out how to do. What I ended up doing was downloading the song onto Myxer and cropping the segment out that I wanted to use for my bumper. I had to do this because I could not directly import songs from Itunes into Audacity. I imported the cropped version of the song from Myxer into Audacity. I played the song on Audacity and as soon as it ended I recorded in my voice. I saved the file and I was done!

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Jasmine’s Blog 2012-06-24 20:32:54

Monday, June 25th, 2012

My very first radio bumper!!!!! ds 106 Radio Bumper

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Acouplabumpas

Sunday, June 24th, 2012

Here’s my shot at a couple of DS106 radio bumpers. Hai!

Bumpa1 by wwnorm

Bumpa2 by wwnorm

That’s my story. Any Questions.

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DS106: I’ll Have What She’s Having!

Saturday, June 23rd, 2012

One of this week’s require assignment is Audio Assignments 36—Create a ds106 radio bumper (2 stars). I confess that I have not yet tuned into ds106 radio. To get a sense of some of the other bumpers that have been created I started trolling my way through other campers blogs, noting what I liked or didn’t about each piece.

Ultimately, I wanted to do something that would stand out and be attention getting. I don’t like the sound of my recorded voice so I wanted to minimize my vocal participation. I started thinking through song lyrics and tunes that might be cool to smash together, but my technical skills are inhibiting me.

Then I remembered a classic scene from the movie “When Harry Met Sally”. You know the one…in the restaurant, Meg Ryan’s character Sally shows Harry her version of a fake orgasm. It was a great scene that makes many people giggle and blush. When Sally is done, an older woman at another table tells the waitress “I’ll have what she’s having.”

I thought that sounds effects of the fake orgasm and the older woman’s line would be a great way to peak curiosity about ds106.

DS106 I’ll Have What She’s Having… by Chanda Sorrell Cowger

Once I had my idea, I went in search of the sound clip from the movie. Finding it on JoBlo.com, I downloaded the mp3 file to my laptop so that I import it into Audacity. Once in the program, I listened to it a few times, trimming it and looking for where to incorporate the DS106 plug. I was about to shortened the pause in the clip, when I decide to just use that break in the sound to insert the words DS106 there. I like the way it turned out. Simple to do and effective, I think.

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Radio Bumper

Saturday, June 23rd, 2012

This is my first shot at the DS106 Radio Bumper. For some reason, when I was creating the bumper I couldn’t stop thinking about the Looney Toons. I found the opening theme on Frogstar.com and added the theme in as an opener. I then clipped several different songs to create the message in the bumper. I complied all the clips together in Audacity.

Having an assignment like this that is so open to creative interpretation is amazingly fun, yet at the same time, frustratingly hard. You want to create something awesome and memorable and you have to narrow down which resources you use and the multitude of ideas that you have brainstormed. I played with the idea of adding in clips from Doctor Who, The Simpsons, and Star Trek. I toyed with the idea of a musical interlude, different sounds, and different song choices. This was the final cut and I had fun manipulating it until I was happy.

While I was making this bumper, I was trying to figure out how the Looney Toons figured into DS 106. Yet, I thought of all the fun and craziness that accompanies the Bugs Bunny and all his co-cartoons. It definitely makes sense now and has it says in the Tiny Toons theme, “Expect the Unexpected” which seems to be a guiding philosophy at DS 106.

So in the words of Porky the Pig, “That’s All Folks!”

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DS106 Week 5 – Radio Bumper

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

cc licensed ( BY ND ) flickr photo shared by Andrew Morrell Photography

Here we are in Week 5 in Camp Magic MacGuffin and now we are working with audio. I was afraid I would find the tasks too difficult by now, but I am still coping. What I learnt in my podcasting EVO course last winter has come in really handy here. I did have a lot of technical issues with the first assignment and I still don’t understand why.

This assignment is about creating a bumper for DS106 radio. I recorded my voice in Audacity and exported the file to LAME. This part worked fine. Then I added some music to it. When I tried to export the new file, Audacity reported an error and couldn’t export the file. I ended up with Audacity’s own .aup file which was completely useless as I was unable to find any other program that would convert .aup to .waw or .mp3. What I did in the end was use Myna to create a new bumper. I still don’t know why I have this problem.

Anyway, here is my bumper:

When it comes to the radio, I am a complete amateur. I don’t know whether a radio bumper is supposed to sound like that, but I kind of like when people on the radio talk to me in an honest and simple way, as if I were one of them. That’s why I didn’t use any effects to alter my voice.

I hope I will have better luck with other audio assignments, but this problem with Audacity is still puzzling me. It seems to happen every time I try to export audio that is a mixture of music and speech (could it be the fact that it is also a mixture of mono and stereo?). The problem is new, but it seems to be here to stay. Any ideas what might be going on?

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