Audio Assignments

Scott Lo The Driveby Show Interactive Audio Contribution

In what promises to be yet another wonderful ‘slice of life’ internet production, our friend-in-the-field, Scott Lo (@scottlo), has launched (at 6000 RPMs!) The Driveby Show on our very own #ds106radio. Each morning on his way to work in Saudi Arabia (or alternatively, on those mornings when Scott feels so inclined) Scott will broadcast his commute from home to work place, sharing his early morning reflections or his previous day’s learnings, accompanied by a nice background mix and selected classic engine revs from The Yaris.

Scott is asking you, the ds106radio community listener, for short, potentially interactive .mp3 audio files that he can incorporate into his broadcast. He’s looking for fun and original items and elements that wil serve to engage both himself and his listeners in educational, entertaining, and meaningful ways. 

Create an audio file (say a minute to three minutes in length) and either post it to soundcloud, or email it directly to Scott at scottloradio at gmai dot com. Then tune in to ds106radio to hear Scott and his take on the contributions from listeners, and how they relate to life. You, too, can listen to your own content shared from the other side of the world in real time. And we can all learn from that.  :-)

Music Mashup

Using Audacity (or any other sound editing program) create an audio mashup with 2 very distinct songs. According to wikepedia these mashaps may fall under “fairuse”.

Sound Scapes

Compose a sound piece using only found sounds. Edit and mix the piece on any sound editing equipment and upload to soundcloud.

Sardonic Mashups

The concept is to mashup something along the lines of a public apology, a commercial, a pandering politcial speech or anything you’d like to mock for the public good.

Here are the steps-

1. Pull the audio as an mp3 from YouTube using Zamzar or something similar.

2. Import it into audacity or any audio mixer you have

3. Import the music you want to layer behind the audio

4. Edit to taste

5. Upload to soundcloud

6. Share the link

A Capella With Yourself!

Get ready to sing with yourself!

Record at least 3 different voice tracks of you singing 15-20 seconds of your favorite song (or make up a song of your own.) Then put the tracks together to make it sound like you’re singing with other people. Ta-dah! Instant Barber Shop Quartet!

Include harmonization for extra kudos!

Beat Craig’s List

Craig’s List has some really interesting language choices in many of the ads, especially in the free section.  Find an ad that feels lyrical and odd enough to engage you.  Record it like a Beat poem. Add in jazz accents.  If you’re feeling really aggresive analyze your work as if it were intentional poetry.

Punctuate Like Victor Borge

In the spirit of the Victor Borge Phonetic Punctuation, assemble a collection of sounds (real objects, your voice) that you can use to replace punctuation marks. Record an audio (or video) of yourself reading something serious- an academic paper, a dry English poem, and use the method to bring those commas, dashes, and semi-colons to life.

Swap Shop

Welcome to the Swap Shop! Try to sell the most interesting item you can think of! Go on and on about it, be silly and have fun with it! Have a friend be the radio dj ready for the call in and ask you lots of questions about your item. [You can also ask yourself questions too–just try to change your voice].

911, What’s Your Emergency?

Most people don’t get to call 911, and you never get to call 911 unless it’s a true emergency. Well here’s your chance to “Call 911” and have some fun! Create a recording of how you think a 911 call would play out. It doesn’t have to be a real emergency at all! Operator: “What’s your emergency?” Caller: “THERES NO PEANUT BUTTER FOR PB&J SAMMICHES!!!!” Get creative!

Text Impersonations

For this audio assignment take a conversation between multiple people over a text based medium, like Facebook or Twitter, and create a audio version of that same conversation. If you know the people impersonate them the way you hear their voice. If you don’t, imagine what they would sound like based on what they are saying or their profile.