Working with Audio, Part 1 (45-60 min)
Guest lecturer Katie Brosky slides on working with audio
Let’s listen to this short news piece on Memorial Day and a person that helps to preserve veterans’ tombstones. I have some questions I want you to consider as you listen.
Note every type of sound you hear. Why? Why then? (Kairos). How does language and sound effect work together?
How do the speakers speak? How fast or slow? How do they enunciate their words? Is there a difference in approach among speakers? What kinds of words do they choose to use? What kinds of sentences?
Here is a transcript of the first approximately 40 seconds of the report:
On this Memorial Day, many Americans are pausing to place flowers and flags at the tombstones of military veterans. But we now have the story of a man who has made restoring those tombstones his mission. Here’s Kathy Carter of member station USF in Tampa.
A towering oak tree, draped with Spanish moss, offers little relief from the Florida sun as Andrew Lumisch scrubs grime from the headstone of a World War I veteran.
What kinds of sentences are these? Why are they written the way they are do you think? What can a listener process vs. a reader? What affordances are there? What can you do when you read vs. when you hear? What changes as new speakers come into play?
Let’s hear it one more time.
What do you think?
Working with Audio, Part 2 (30-45 min)
Katie helped set you up here on selecting a foundational “sound” to work from for your campaign groups. With that sound in mind, how can you use it to build out something meaningful in the context of your campaign? What possibilities are there? Try to create a 1-3 minute clip that communicates something meaningful in the context of your campaign. You could play it by the book (e.g., a news clip, a podcast) or get more avant-garde and so something like a poem, song, or something really out there (e.g., just noises of some kind).
You can (and probably should) use information from your campaign pieces to try to transform writing and images through the mode of audio.
Below I have some guidelines in working with audio editing software.
Keep in mind the following questions:
What changes when you are using a new mode of expression? When using a different genre?
What is an imagined context for this piece do you think? (target audience, news station or internet source, time of year or day it would be broadcast or shared, etc.) How does such a context shape how you compose your audio recording?
Do you want a speaker? If so, one speaker or more?
How will you share the ”same” message of previous documents in this new “document”?
When you are finished, we will share some rough cuts and talk about what happens when we think about our message in a different form, and in the mode of expression of audio.
Step 1: Getting audio editing software (download Audacity)
Click here to download Audacity. If you know sound recording software well enough already, feel free to use that software. If not, use Audacity as this document will give you pointers on how to work with it.
Step 2: Invention
What do you want to record? For today, spend some time planning out what information you will use to convert into a short news piece (about 2-4 minutes long) that conveys the “same” information (you may only choose to cover part of it, rather than all of it). What will you choose to say? Will there be one voice or more? How will you break it up? Will you use any music? Any sound effects? How fast will you speak? What words will you choose? What kinds of sentences fit better in speech than in writing? Sketch out some initial ideas for what you want to say, how you will say it, and then get ready to test things out in Step 3.
Step 3: Recording sound
You can record directly via Audacity. Click on the button with the red circle in the middle at the top of the page (it is the last button in the row that begins with the “pause” symbol, the “play” symbol, the “stop” symbol, the “rewind” symbol, and the “fast forward” symbol). If it is too difficult to record directly into your computer (e.g., poor quality, computer doesn’t have a microphone), you can record into your phone. An iPhone, for instance, has the “Voice Memo” app. If you go the phone route, come grab me and I can show you how to transfer that file to your computer (you will need to have a device that connects your phone to your computer, like a phone charger).
You will need to test things out for a few reasons. You need to make sure you are actually recording something. Speak into your device (sing “Happy Birthday” or just spout some random things) and play it back. Does it sound OK? Can you make out what is being said? Is there a weird background noise? It may be the case that you need to speak closer into your device, you might need to switch locations to somewhere quieter or with better acoustics, etc.
Step 4: Editing audio (some material adapted from an activity from Dr. Justin Sevenker)
I’m not going to do much to teach you how to use Audacity. It’s one of those things that you just have to start tinkering with and teach yourself to use. Still, I’ll show you a few things in class, and I’ll include a list of the most useful functions here. There are also several resources and tutorials online (try this or this, for instance) that are much better than anything I could put together for you, and they’re just a Google search away. Use them as you feel necessary. Learning how to delete sections is most important. Playing around with some other things can also be useful for this project (adding fades, music, sound effects). See the WFP Resources page for access to free sound effects and music.**
I will say this right now, though: when you open Audacity, it’s going to seem very overwhelming. There are going to be a lot of buttons and menus that don’t make immediate sense, but don’t be intimidated. Microsoft Word offers a host of features, too, and we routinely ignore most of them while we’re writing papers. Using Audacity will be just like that. You’re not going to need even half of the tools that the program offers to put together a really nice audio essay. Here are some of the most important tools that you may want to experiment with, though:
Under the Menus-
File: Import Audio (you can import multiple audio files for same Audacity file—e.g., music)
File: Save (!!!)
Edit: Undo (!!!)
Tracks: Add New Audio Track
Generate: Silence
Effect: Amplify
Effect: Fade In
Effect: Fade Out
Effect: Noise Removal 5
—You’ll see the standard buttons for Play, Pause, Stop, etc. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to edit your audio if it’s only paused. You need to stop it. (The space bar will also allow you to play or stop your audio.)
—You’ll see a cursor tool. It works a lot like a cursor in Word. It allows you to click on or highlight sections of your audio so that you can copy, paste, or delete. You can do these things under the Edit menu or with the standard keyboard shortcuts.
—Next to the cursor, you’ll see the “Envelope” tool that will allow to you stretch out segments of your audio tracks so that you can emphasize key moments with higher volume.
—Finally, toward the middle-right of the toolbar, you’ll see various icons for cut, paste, etc. Among them, there’s the trim tool (it trims everything that you DON’T highlight with your cursor), a tool for inserting silence into your tracks, and tools for zooming in and out that will make it easier to edit your tracks with precision.
IMPORTANT THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
Audacity creates “projects” and these consist of two items: (1) an .aup project file and (2) a data folder. You always need both of these to work on and play your project (up until the time you save the final version as an mp3). Always keep these two items in a folder together.
Although projects rarely get corrupted, back up frequently. If Audacity ever crashes or loses data, you don’t want to start from scratch. I make a duplicate copy after each substantial work session.
When you are working in Audacity, close as many other applications as possible. Audacity works best when it’s not competing for memory with other programs.
Step 5: Turning into an audio file to share
If you want to turn it into an mp3 file (easier to transfer than something like .wav, so sometimes worth it), you’ll have to download the LAME mp3 encoder. A step by step process on how to do this can be found here. You can find information on the differences between file types for sound recordings here (this article may be a little dated, but it covers most of the major types).
Otherwise, click “File” and then “export.” From there, a window will come up asking where you want to save the file and you have the option to choose the file type. Choose your preferred file type (recommend .wav if on Windows, not sure if same option via Mac). If you downloaded the LAME mp3 encoder, you can choose mp3. There are other file options, like m4a, but I believe you’ll need an encoder for that one and possibly others as well.
Debrief, questions from above.
Break (15 min)
Peer Response Activity: Working/Responding (20-30 min)
We are going to do something a little different today. We will split up in trios (thanks to our “prime number” class size) to work together on your campaign piece draft.
Each of you will briefly show the others what you did and what you are trying to do. You’ll talk about what is working well for you and what challenges you are facing. No more than 2-3 minutes per.
Then, start working together and use each other as resources (and me, I’ll come around!). Perhaps someone is good with Publisher, InDesign, or Pages and can help you? Maybe someone else is good with working with images and can help you? Maybe someone else is really good with sentence craft, and can review some passages that you feel are just too wordy or clunky for the document you are working with? Or, maybe someone has a lot of experience with WordPress, Tumblr, or Wix and can help you with some functions that you are trying to work with there?
Looking back: Unit 1, Erin’s lesson, Katie’s lesson, maybe sentences (10-15 min)
Anything there that seems odd? Anything NOT there that seems odd? What themes do you note as you go back and read through some reflections? What is there that you agree with? What is missing? What isn’t represented in the word cloud that is represented after a skim of the reflections?
Thoughts on social media writing? On working with audio?
Probably won’t have time for this, but we didn’t last week and I didn’t want to forget about it! May have to push off again:
Thinking about syntax, punctuation, and sentence type as a way to change rhythms of your writing. Have some sentences from your letters this week that I wanted to talk about.
Admin (5-10 min)
-Have your draft submitted on BlackBoard by 11:59pm tomorrow.
-I’ll have feedback on your campaign pieces sometime toward the end of spring break. I’ll also have your “provisional grade” based on everything I have received from you so far. This is just a “if the semester ended today” sort of gauge for your to see where you are at now. I’ll be using the course objectives (see syllabus) and the rubric (on BlackBoard) to guide my evaluation to this point in the term.
-On 3/13, we close out the unit on design and modes, and will start transitioning to the last stretch of the course. Units 3 and 4 focus on delivery, circulation, and revision. Remember that we will be meeting in G27, a room inside one of the ground floor computer labs in the Cathedral. Once we break, we will then return to our normal room.