Favorite Song (1 1/2 Stars)

Take your favorite song. Remove the lyrics. Play only up to thirty seconds of the song. Listener must be able to guess.

Story Behind the Story

Phew, let me tell you, while this may have been 1 1/2 stars, the process I took to get to this stage was excruciating. Let me back track.

I originally wanted to do the assignment where you slow a song down to 800%. It was going to be the very first audio assignment that I completed. I figured it wasn’t going to be super easy but I had confidence that I knew how to at least slow down a song. Wrong. This was just the beginning of my frustrations. First of all, audacity and I have had a constant battle this week and it is hard to say who is in the lead. Did you know that it is impossible to slow a song down to 800% on Audacity? Well guess what, IT IS. So after two trips to the DKC and and injured mouse pad, I finally gave up. I wanted so badly to figure out a way, but it just wasn’t going to happen. Maybe one day I will have the courage to go to war, but this battle was a shut out.

I still wanted to do something with music. Mash-ups and remixes have always been an interests of mine (but I could never in a million years make one), so this was my tiny step into the world of audio editing. Now since I HAD no idea what I was doing, I once again went to the DKC (I should just become a promotional ad for your center because I feel like I have been in there at least 10 times). I found out it really wasn’t as hard as I had expected. The tutor walked me through the steps and then we spent some time playing around to get it at a good point.

This assignment really brought in the idea of background sound being the influential piece of music. As I learned when reading Hanson’s piece, sound makes the purpose of the song important. This isn’t a perfect example, apparently some songs have so many layers that newbies like me just can’t get rid of all of them. At first I was extremely frustrated by some of the background noise. My tutor and I even had Dr. Burtis listen to it to make sure that it qualified the assignment. Even though she said yes, I still came home and tried my hardest to find a way to get rid of it. There was one point when my roommate asked “well why don’t you just use the instrumental version on youtube?” Two thoughts ran through my head, first, why did I not know that there was an instrumental version, and second, it wouldn’t be as satisfying knowing I hadn’t done it myself.

“There are no finished products, only due dates.”

Work Itself

Narrate the Process

In case you missed it, I had to do a throwback. I mean who didn’t like the Backstreet Boys? This was a confusing process and by the end it was a lot of clicking random buttons and moving dials to get it right where I wanted it. I dragged the song from my iTunes account (I’m not ashamed to say this) and put it in audacity. I cut it to 30 seconds and that is about how far I got before the DKC tutor stepped in. He was a lifesaver! We googled the process and went through the steps.

I have realized while there are certain steps to be taken in sound editing, a lot of it stems off of messing around with the functions. By the end, I couldn’t tell you what buttons were used, I just know that at some point we had done it. While I am confident that I could do it again, it seems that there is no set way to ensure a perfect outcome. The end game develops from what you make of the process, it is a part of you.

Emotions Through Sound (3 Stars)

Try to convey a certain emotion, such as fear, stress, sadness, etc. by combing sound effects. They can be human sounds, such as crying with laughter in the background, to maybe express someone’s fears or being embarrassed, or you can get really artsy and try to convey an emotion by sound effects– like loud noises to show intensity, thunder to show fear, or quick, chirpy noises to show happiness. Edit at least 4 sounds together to show an emotion, upload it to soundcloud and then tag it with the appropriate tags.

Story Behind the Story:

This was my very first experience with Audacity, and let me tell you, I was not a happy camper. So, what better way to complete this assignment then to evoke the emotion of stress and anxiety. I have always been a fascinated by people that can take all of these different sounds and create something unique. Or I will hear mash-ups of songs and think “how on earth did they do that?” Well, I can finally say “I DID IT!” While I may not be on the same level, I am prettyyyyyyy proud of myself for combining four different sounds. It may not seem like a lot, but phew, did I spend way to much time finding the “right” noise, or figuring out which sounds should be louder or which ones needed to go in certain places. It was definitely not just a drag and drop assignment.

At this point, I still have a lot more audio assignments to complete, and a lot more to learn about sound editing. After a while, this one ended up being pretty easy (not saying that I didn’t just spend an hour putting it all together). I tried to jump right into the next assignment; I was feeling pretty confident that I could do it. Nope. Audacity just didn’t want to let me have this one. Kelsey 1: Audacity:1. Who will be victorious? Probably not me, but I will get there!

Anyway, the sounds in this assignment pretty much sum up how I feel when I am stressed or anxious, so basically everything I felt while making this wonderful sound compilation.

I really wanted to capture the essence of how little noises can escalate to full fledged episodes of irritation. I know pen clicking and gum chewing are the first noises that become noticeable when I am trying to focus. Then they become the only things I can focus on. However, I have adopted the habit of listening to soothing rain to drown out noises, but this assignment really hits on that point when there is no escape. I have the rain in the background but all of the other noises are overbearing. There is a moment, one little moment of just rain, but we all know that is too good to last.

I absolutely cannot stand these noises, and the amount of times I made myself listen to it to make sure it all sound good was TORTURE.

Work Itself: WARNING!!! ANNOYING AND IRRITATING NOISES LAY AHEAD OF YOU! BEWARE!

Narrate the Process:

I began by searching youtube for specific sounds that pertained to my own personal experience with the emotion of stress/anxiety: pen clicking and gum chewing. I then thought about what I try to do in order to relax and focus: listen to calming rain. Finally, I wanted a sound that encompassed the exact emotion I feel when I no longer have control over the sounds around me: a screaming goat (would you believe that, that was the most realistic scream I could find on youtube).

Once I had each of these sounds, I had to convert them from youtube videos into MP3s (which sounds like I know what I am doing but I actually had a friend tell me what needed to be done). I simply typed in “youtube MP3 converter for mac” into Google and clicked the very first link.

You simply copy and past the URL of the YouTube link into the converter, download it, and open it in Audacity. 

I opened each one in an individual window and then copied and pasted them all into one. From there I just played around with position, length, and loudness.