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Audio Week Assignments:

1. Thoughts About Audio Storytelling
2. A Murder Of Crows
3. Create A Place
4. All The Relaxation
5. Remake That Genre!
6. Auditory Hell
7. What A Song Might Mean To You

Audio Summary

What did you learn?

I learned about some sound techniques such as using sound effects, layering, and music. I also learned about storytelling. The Ira Glass videos were quite informative regarding how to tell a story. It’s the most natural thing in the world to speak a story, but writing a story, or even producing a story, is much different. I don’t often consider the parts of a story, how I want the story to progress, what elements I want use to create a mood or give the story a certain pace or rhythm.

This week, I used Audacity for the first time. It wasn’t difficult to use. I have previous experience using sound and video editing programs and this one is similar to what I’m used to. The resources for free sounds and images were most useful during this week. Freesound.org made finding sound effects so easy. I also learned more about copywritten material and the different licenses. Though this was something I looked into on my own.

And, I learned that sites which use programs to auto-determine if something uploaded is copywritten can be wrong. SoundCloud pulled one of my sound clips as being copywritten even though it was under a Creative Commons 0 License.

What was harder than you thought it would be?

The most difficult thing was listening to hundreds of sound files to find the ones I needed. It was time-consuming. Sometimes the files I wanted didn’t exist. Other times, they didn’t have the necessary license for public use.

What was easier?

The idea of working with sound this week was daunting. When I looked at the amount of information included in this weeks resources and assignments, I felt overwhelmed. But when I finally sat down to do the work, it wasn’t that difficult.

Also, it appears that I haven’t been completing the assignments correctly. The whole thing was confusing to me. But it seems that I need to add sound, images, and video even if the assignment doesn’t call for it. Mentally, that felt like a lot of work and I was discouraged about it. I really didn’t even want to do any of the work this week because I was so frustrated. I’m an overachiever and I don’t like not meeting the mark. Anyway, when I finally sat down to work on the assignments, it wasn’t that much extra work. It was much easier now that I know about freesound.org and publicdomainvectors.org.

What drove you crazy? Why?

I find copyrights really annoying. It feels extremely limiting. I’m very confused as to how some people can include copywritten songs on their YouTube channels while others can’t. I want to create my own content in the future and I want to be able to use modern music and such without having to pay to use it. Right now, I don’t really have the time to research this, but in the future I plan to learn more about properly using copywritten materials on my own channels and websites.

What did you enjoy? Why?

I enjoyed listening to the podcasts. Podcasts are a part of my daily life since I spend so much time driving. It was a nice change of pace. Also, I enjoyed creating fuller content on my blog posts. I’m not sure if I met all the requirements yet since the due date hasn’t arrived. Some of the things I added were actually quite trivial. I’m not a believer that adding more content equals engagement. But, that’s because I’m a different kind of person. I’m not impressed with marketing tactics, clickbait, or empty pushes for user engagement. I do recognize that others are. So, I’m trying to change my mindset. I know that if I want to be successful as a content creator, I have to follow all the algorithms and marketing ploys. As annoying as it is to me, I know that it does work for others. I am surprised that I enjoyed adding a bit more content. It’s not quite where I would like it to be. But, I’m getting there through baby steps.

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Prompt: I’m sure you’ve listened to those longs videos of relaxing sounds that can be played for 10+ hours. Now it’s your turn to give it a try! Create something relaxing, with layered sounds, and some spontaneous sounds! It doesn’t have to be 10+ hours long, but something that could be on repeat for that long. Put in all of your favorite relaxation sounds, even if they don’t match! Just have fun with it!

This is a 2.5 star assignment.

#AudioAssignments2142

When I was about 5 years old, I started taking dance lessons at Carol’s School of Dance. I was the only Black girl in a class of about 20 or so kids. My mom signed me up for tap, ballet, pointe, and baton. As a kid, maybe I loved this stuff, but as a teen, I just remember feeling so out of place. My body wasn’t quite like the other kids bodies, and as I got older, it was clear that I had a sturdier physique than the girls in my school. Eventually, I felt so uncomfortable that I decided it was time for a change.

When I was about 10, I asked my mom if I could learn to play piano. She wasn’t very happy about it, but let me sign up for lessons with Mrs. Cibula. We drove about 20 minutes three times a week for lessons. Mom wouldn’t buy me a piano or a keyboard because the lessons were so expensive. So, at the beginning, I practiced on a paper keyboard that I drew myself. I had to imagine what the keys sounded like. Despite this I showed immediate progress. I took piano lessons until I was 16. At that time, Mrs. Cibula announced that I had learned everything that she could teach me. It was a true joy to practice at Mrs. Cibula’s house because she eventually bought a white baby grand piano. I loved practicing on such a magnificent instrument. By this time, my mom had also invested in an upright piano for me. Playing piano was so relaxing and wonderful. The instrument just speaks to me in a way no other does. I loved playing classical music and gospel music. I continued to play piano at home until I got married, around age 19.

Click here to explore different types of grand pianos in different colors. I had no idea that there are so many different colors!

While I was never a famous pianist or anything, I often was the closing pianist in my school’s recitals, a place of honor at my school. I went on to teach at Chords & Keys, though I didn’t enjoy teaching children at all. And, I sometimes played piano at my high school for events. I was often nervous to do that, so it was pretty rare. It was ironic that I left one creative field due to being the only Black person there, an then entered another where being Black was equally rare. There was only one other Black girl at my piano school. It just so happened that I knew her and we were friends.

Here is an example of Hazel Scott, a famous pianist, playing a very complicated piano tune. I couldn’t find many videos of Black women playing a baby grand without vocals. I wanted to focus on the instrument rather than the voice. I wasn’t as good as Hazel Scott, but this video will give you an idea of how the instrument sounds. The joy Hazel has here is the same I felt as a pianist. I even tried to become a jazz pianist during my college years at VCU, but it just didn’t work out for me. Anyway, Hazel Scott is my piano hero!

During my adult life, I moved overseas and couldn’t take my piano with me. I stayed gone so long that eventually my mom sold my piano. I was sad to see it go, but I couldn’t take it with me. Even after returning to the States, I never lived anywhere large enough to accommodate even an upright piano. Over time, my ability to play diminished. I still feel connected to the piano though. Listening to instrumental piano music sends chills through me and makes my body hum. I sure miss playing. One good thing is that my time overseas introduced other styles of music to me, as well as new instruments. I now own a guzheng, which I have tried to teach myself to play with minimal success. I can play one song after nearly a year of practicing. Here’s another video if you want to see how it sounds. It’s a very unique instrument.

Due to these cultural influences, my idea of what is relaxing has changed over time. At night, for relaxation, I now listen to white noise, relaxing sounds, or audiobooks. In a previous post called Create A Place, I mentioned that the sound of the ocean is relaxing to me. Now, you know that the piano is too! Due to Asian influences from my overseas experiences, I also enjoy the sound of chanting. Here is a sound clip that I mixed together using some sounds I found on Freesound. It includes the piano, the ocean, and chanting sounds. It’s a little odd, but it isn’t meant to be amazing. It’s just supposed to include some of my favorite relaxing sounds. So, I hope you find it a bit relaxing too!

Relaxation music comes in all forms. There is some really bad relaxation music and some that work really well. In this assignment, I am combining all of my favorite relaxation sounds into one to make the ultimate relaxation audio. I like the idea of using various sounds to create an overlay that is peaceful. While making this, I tried not to place sounds over top of one another that created a loud or eerie sound. The sound that plays all the way through is the ocean and waves. You will hear a train passing by, which reminds me of when I was younger. Birds will also chirp, which is very relaxing and peaceful to me. The ringing of the bells makes me think of Christmas, which is one of my favorite times of the year. This all ends with relaxing music that could put me to sleep. Hope you find this relaxing!

For one of my assignments from the assignment bank this week I chose “All the Relaxation”. This assignment challenged us to put together a piece containing some of the sounds that we find most relaxing and could listen to for hours on end. I decided to use garage band since that is the audio editor that I have had the most experience with and it was easy for me to compile sounds together. For this specific project I used 4 different sounds: Bubbles,  Waterfall in the Rain Forrest, White Noise, and a Fire Burning. I chose this specific assignment because I believe that it could be cool to implement into our radio show by giving our audience a moment to meditate and clear their minds. It is not something we see often in radio shows so I thought why not now.

I knew I needed to do this Audio Assignment because it asked me to create my own layered relaxation sound track. I love ASMR and use a sound app to fall asleep so I really loved this challenge.
I pondered what layered sounds I would want to hear to relax and decided on some soothing outdoor sounds. I love camping in the summer and listening to fire crackling, owls hooting, and crickets chirping so those were the sounds I set out to find.
I found a great five minute clip on freesound.org of a river and crickets I then duplicated a clip of a crackling fire to the same length. From there I added the hooting owl in multiple locations to make it more natural.
If you are a fellow ASMR lover or just enjoy the soothing sound of nature I hope you find this as enjoyable as I do.

Close your eyes…and listen to this 2.5 star audio assignment.

My inspiration for this was spa-style massage music. I can think of no more relaxing place than the beach.

This was pretty simple to make. I used freesound.org to find ambient sounds and music that would fit together. To me, the most relaxing instrument is the harp. I sought out harp music and combined it with gorgeous sounds of waves. I added reverb to the harp music to give it an echo-y feel that sounds like it would be meditation music. I also sprinkled seagulls in some sections to increase the beach feel.

For this audio assignment about relaxing sounds I decided to record the sounds around me while I sat in the UC. Sometimes I find that background noise can be quite relaxing. I recorded myself writing as well to capture the noise of my pencil on paper. This is a recording that can be looped and would not feel as if it’s too repetative because most of the noise is just noise from many many students speaking at once in the distance around me.

For this assignment I first needed a subject matter, I then knew I wanted to record writing of some type so I needed a pencil and paper. I also recorded this using my iPhone voice memos app.