Month: September 2019

Kenneth Sousie, a Baruch student, went to San Diego and Tijuana during the summer to work on a documentary. He was responsible for the camera work and he lived some amazing experiences while documenting the story of a man who teaches Son Jarocho music to people. What I aim to do is to interview Kenneth about his experience and his thoughts on the process of producing this documentary. 

For my podcast, I am going to interview the general manager of WBMB (Baruch’s Radio Station). We are going to discuss the importance of having a radio station as well as the day to day activities of being in charge of it.

For my first podcast assignment I am going to interview an aspiring fashion designer. We are going to discuss the hardships of finding a job in the fashion industry, the competitiveness and her own struggles throughout fashion school and how she overcame them.

https://soundcloud.com/giselle-medina-787051105/shameless-music-video-reaction/s-3C4Zt

 

My pitch for the first podcast assignment is to do a co-host type of podcast discussing a in-depth preview of the second week in the NFL. My co-host is a good friend of mine, and his favorite hobby is playing, watching and talking about football. We would further discuss each of the sixteen matchups  going into week two and give both of our opinions on who we like and dislike from each team going into each matchup. At the end of each matchup, we would give our prediction on which team would win and if it’s going to be a close game or just a blowout. This podcast would definitely suit a sports audience especially die hard football fans because they want to get hyped up for sunday football and listening to people talking about the NFL, is a great preview to the week. In general, sports is my passion and to be talking about one of my favorite sports with a good friend of mine for a podcast assignment, makes me more anxious to start it already.

https://soundcloud.com/taylastrose/go-back-to-your-country/s-EKx2F

In-class practice assignment, due by class time Wednesday (9/11) next week:

Partner up and record brief interviews, taking turns asking each other to tell a funny or interesting story you don’t mind sharing with the class. It can be between three to five minutes. Find a quiet place to record. Ask open-ended questions to get the best responses. (“Tell me about a time when you did something really spontaneous.” “What’s the craziest thing that ever happened to you in New York?” etc.) Feel free to jump in to get more details or provide a prompt. (“What did the guy look like?” “So you were stranded at a gas station in New Jersey…” You can cut out these little interruptions when you edit.

Before you put the recorder down, record yourself introducing yourself and your guest. Something like: “Hello listeners! I’m your host ___ ____ and I’m here with ___ _____, who’s going to tell us a story about _____.” Record a brief outro as well. “Thanks for listening! This has been a Baruch College production.” (Or however you’d like to sign off.)

Next, import the audio file into Audacity and edit it in the same way you will edit your first full-length podcasting assignment. By that I mean very little major editing is required for this—mostly just some trimming and tightening to make it flow well. You can get rid of ums, long pauses, tripped-over words, and tangents to keep the story moving—but make sure not to cut things too aggressively! This may be simple and straightforward editing, but it requires you to be exact and precise, so you’ll want to zoom in close on the waveform when you make any cuts. You want it to sound natural. Let the story breathe. (I mean this literally as well… careful not to cut any breaths too short! It’s jarring to the ear.)

Find and download some music that works well to introduce your story by setting the right tone. This can also be used as the outro music. Let the intro music fade down after you finish the host intro and the story begins. Let it fade up as you are about to give your outro.

Export and post it on SoundCloud. From there, embed it into a post on the blog. You’ll have until class time Wednesday next week to complete this assignment. Sound resources:

https://freesound.org
http://soundbible.com
https://www.audioblocks.com
http://freemusicarchive.org
https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music
http://dig.ccmixter.org

Audacity shortcuts to know:

Play/pause: space bar
Split track: Command I
Zoom in: Command 1
Zoom out: Command 3

In the tool bar, this is the selection tool that allows you to click and highlight and delete sections of track or select a spot where you want to split it:

And this is the tool that allows you to move sections of track:

And this is the one that lets youadjust the volume, basically the same way the pen tool works in Premiere:

Song Exploder is a podcast that I enjoy listening to. It’s currently hosted by musician Thao Nguyen but my favorite episodes, the ones featuring Kimbra and Solange, were hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway. Having only begun listening to podcasts this year I’m still in the process of figuring out what kinds I enjoy. However, it’s been really easy for me to get into this one because I’m a huge fan of celebrity musician interviews and the music itself. That being said, I’ve never seen an interview in which an artist breaks down a song the way Song Exploder expects its guests to. The podcast is similar to a book titled “Anatomy of a Song” by Marc Myers, however, listening to the breakdown of a song is always better than reading about it.

The format of the podcast is pretty simple. It’s not presented as an interview. The podcast is edited to that is seems like the guests are speaking freely about whichever song they decide to break down. In between talking and explaining the music-making process, guests actually play stems from the music and explain how each element of a song made them feel, how it led to another part and how integral it was to the finished product. Since podcast-listening is really new to me and to many others still, it can feel overwhelming to jump into a new medium but Song Exploder’s catalog is so expansive that anyone could find an episode they’d be drawn to that would make the podcast seem familiar enough to get into.

Personally, my two favorite episodes are Kimbra’s breakdown of her song “Top of the World” and Solange’s breakdown of her song “Cranes in the Sky.” Kimbra’s episode is really great for someone looking to get a closer look, or listen, at the technical aspect of music making since she had all the stems and samples included in the episode. Solange, on the other hand, gave more context and history since it took almost 10 years to make the song. She spoke more about the lyrics and the context of the song. While the podcast has a pretty concise format, the show heavily depends on the musicians for its content so there may be some inconsistency as some episodes are less interesting than others, but overall, whether youre getting a brief history or a deconstruction of a song, it’s still something so simple that hasnt really been done before.