Prof. Cameron Blevins

Introduction to Digital Studies
HIST 3260/5260 | COMM 3081/5081
M/W 2:00-3:15pm
North Classroom 1608
Office Hours: W. 3:30-4:30pm
TA Office Hours: M. 12:30-1:30pm

Overview

The goal of today is to stitch together an audio file of examples of students’ ideas for their media project, interspersed with music and sound effects. It should incorporate the following components:

  • Brief musical introduction
  • Main audio of project ideas
  • A personal sign-off with a sound effect

Your building blocks

  • If you haven’t done so already, make a new folder inside your tutorials class folder and name the folder audio-editing.
  • Download the .zip file posted to the #in-class Slack channel by Prof. Blevins according to your group number:
    • Groups 1 & 2: files-01
    • Groups 3 & 4: files-02
    • Groups 5 & 6: files-03
  • Extract your zip file (Windows, Mac, Chromebook instructions) and move the enclosed folder of files (ex. files-01) to your audio-editing folder.
  • Inside this folder you will find several audio recordings of your media project ideas (.mp3 files).
  • Download this rockin’ banjo music and save it under your audio-editing folder. Note: you might need to right-click on the link to download/save the file.

Putting it Together

  • Start a new project and save it as audio-editing-2 under your audio-editing folder.
  • Import all the .mp3 files you just downloaded of your classmate project ideas and make sure they’re added as new tracks
  • Import the banjo music .mp3 file and add it as a new track
  • Select and trim the banjo music audio track so that you have a roughly 10-second musical intro.
  • Use the Selection Tool to rearrange the order of your project ideas so that the first one begins towards the end of the banjo music, with roughly three seconds of overlap
  • Use the Envelope Tool to fade the banjo song out as it leads up to the first project idea.
  • Use the Selection Tool and delete or cut the following from each track:
    • A long pause between words or sentences
    • An “um” or “uh”
    • A spike in noise (like a mouse click)
    • More than 1 second of silence at the beginning or end of the track
  • Use the Loudness Normalization effect to even out the different recordings so that one isn’t much louder than the others
  • Let’s end your audio with a couple soothing seconds of a kitten purring. Go to the Quick Sounds library, search for kitten purr, download the sound effect, and add it to the end of your project. Note: you’ll need to select, move, and trim the track.h
  • Export your edited audio as a .mp3 file called yourlastname-yourfirstname-audio-2.mp3
  • Upload your completed audio file by using Reply in Thread to Prof. Blevins’s post in the #in-class Slack channel distributing the original files.

General Podcast Resources

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