This is my second audio assignment of the week. In this assignment we had to create a conversation between the artists using parts from two or more songs. I chose this assignment because I enjoy watching the videos people put on youtube and twitter when they incorporate lyrics into their everyday conversations. I thought this would be a good opportunity to create one of these by myself. I also thought it would be a fun assignment that I would be able to make using Audacity so I can get better at using it.

This conversation is between Drake and Rihanna. Drake and Rihanna have a long history of being together and then breaking up and then getting back together again a couple of years later just to break up again. Drake is known for being a “soft” rap artist sometimes because he likes to rap about his feelings and his relationships in a sad way, so I thought it would be a perfect conversation if I had Drake spilling his emotions to Rihanna and asking for her to take him back and having Rihanna telling hime no. I used two Drake songs and one that he was featured in and two Rihanna songs (one that actually features Drake later in the song) to create a conversation where each person gets to say three lines to each other. I hope after this conversation Drake doesn’t think about it Too Much.

Conversation:

Drake: “We coulda worked it out, uh, but I guess things change/ It’s funny how someone else’s success brings pain/ When you no longer involved, that person has it all/ And you just stuck standing there/But, I’m gonna need you to say something baby/ Say something baby” (Say Something)

Rihanna: “Nobody text me in a crisis/ I believed all of your dreams, adoration/ You took my heart and my keys and my patience/ You took my heart on my sleeve for decoration/ You mistaken my love I brought for you for foundation” (Work)

Drake: “I can’t help it, I can’t help it, I was young and I was selfish/ I made every woman feel like she was mine and no one else’s/ And now you hate me/Stop pretending, stop that fronting/ I can’t take it/ Girl don’t treat me like a stranger” (Furthest Thing)

Rihanna: “I opened up my eyes, and I finally realized/ Today, today, it’s too late/ You’re fading away” (Fading)

Drake: “You’re still the one that I adore/ Ain’t much out there to have feelings for.” (Own It)

Rihanna: “Things just ain’t the same/ And I’m ready for change/ Go on, begone, bye bye, so long” (Fading)

Assignment: Music Mash

Stars: 4

I created this assignment using Audacity.

I played the songs from my phone and recorded and trimmed them on Audacity.

Step 1: After opening Audacity, click the record button at the top to start recording the song and then the stop button at the top to stop recording.

Step 2: Click the selection tool at the top and highlight the parts of the recording that you want to delete and then click Edit -> Delete.

Step 3: When you record another song using step 1 again, you can click on the Time Shift Tool at the top to move the recording to where you want it to start in relation to the recording(s) that you already have.

Step 4: Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until your conversation is finished.

Step 5: Step 6: Click File -> Export Audio to save your conversation.

Audio #3: Music Mash

Has anyone ever asked you, “if you could be born in any other decade what would it be?” When I get asked this question I always say the 80’s. I love the clothes they wore at the time, the movies they made, and the music that was written (for examples of each click the links). For this particular reason I decided that for this assignment I would do an 80’s mashup. This assignment involves taking songs that are similar and creating a conversation with them. See if you can discover what the conversation is about in my mashup below!

For copyright purposes I wasn’t able to post the following mashup to SoundCloud.

If you couldn’t crack the code on what the song was about, then it’s time for me to spill the beans. The songs I used in order of appearance were: Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astely, Every Rose Has It’s Thorn by Poison, Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper, I Ran (So Far Away) by A Flock of Seagulls, Tainted Love by Soft Cell, and Love Is A Battlefield by Pat Benatar. The conversation I made with these songs is between a boy and a girl. These two individuals were dating, but as time went by the girl wanted to break it off.

To break the audio down further, the conversation commences with the boy telling the girl that he’s Never Gonna Give You (her) Up, which she replies to with Every Rose Has It’s (his) Thorn. I incorporated this song because I wanted to send the message that the girl finds a lot of flaws in their relationship, but the guy replies with Time After Time. The clip I used from that song is supposed to display the guy’s commitment to the girl. However, she is not convinced so she replies with I Ran (So Far Away). After failed attempts into trying to convince his partner, the guy’s mood changes with Tainted Love. I wanted to end the conversation with a powerful song, so I chose Love Is A Battlefield. This last song is said by the girl to the guy letting him know that relationships come and go, but in the end it’ll be alright.

In order to do this assignment all you need is Audacity. If you do not have the program you can download it here. In the section below you will discover how I created my mash up by following the step-by-step procedure. Good Luck!

Procedure

Step 1: Open Audacity and go to the file tab. Select the import option and click the audio subcatergory. Upload your first song. In this instance it would be Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astely.

Step 2: Next, highlight the beginning of the song that you want and select the trim audio tool (where the mouse is located on the screenshot)

Step 3: Repeat step 1. The next song that should be uploaded is Every Rose Has It’s Thorn by Poison.

Step 4: Once your second song is uploaded repeat step 2.

Step 5: After you’ve selected the section of the song you want you are going to move the audio of the second song, so that it plays directly after the first. This can be done by selecting the time shift tool (shown in the second screenshot)

Step 6: Keep repeating steps 3-5 for each song. The list order for the songs should be as follows:

1. Never Gonna Give You Up
2. Every Rose Has It’s Thorn
3. Time After Time
4. I Ran (So Far Away)
5. Tainted Love
6. Love Is A Battlefield

Step 7: For Love is a Battlefield (or for your last song) you want to make sure that it ends smoothly, if you didn’t pick the ending of the song to be your final audio clip. What you want to do is highlight the last snippet of the audio (shown in screenshot below), go to the effects tab, scroll down and click on fade out.

Step 8: Go to the file tab and select the export audio option.

Step 9: When saving your new song double check that you save it as an MP3 file. If you do not have the option to save as an MP3 go to this website and download the plug-in for Audacity.

Link to assignment is tagged above in ‘Audio #3 :Music Mash?

For this assignment http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/music-mash-2/ , I had to take two or more songs that are similar and mash them together into a conversation.  This assignment was rated 4 stars. I choose to create a conversation between Little mix and the chainsmokers. I choose the song Touch by Little Mix and Paris by the chainsmokers. I took the music videos from YouTube and converted them into a mp3 so I could upload it to Audacity. From there it was easy to cut the audio I want and combine the two and I had my conversation. The story I create was of two lovers who tired of keeping their relationship a secret. Overall, I had a lot of fun creating this conversation and I believe it turn out well!

This 4 point audio assignment instructed me to choose two similar songs and mash them together so that a conversation of sorts between the singers appears to be happening. Below is my creation.

I chose the songs “You are the First, My Last, My Everything” by Barry White and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, since both songs had a similar Motown influence and both lyrically discussed loving someone through the possible physical distances and divides that come between two people.

I found the process of editing these songs together challenging particularly because “…High Enough” often had Gaye singing adlibs in-between Terrell’s lines, requiring extra attention to details in fitting the songs together coherently. I settled on a romantic discussion of sorts, with White’s feelings of being lost countered by Terrell’s stance that if he calls her, she’ll go where-ever she needs to to get to him.

Additionally, because I noticed a disjointedness when listening to the two vocal parts switching between differing background tracks, I took introductory instrumental segments of both songs and played them during the opposing song’s vocal lines to make the tracks sound more cohesive overall through this subtle but intentional repetition (Shown below).

I’d rate this assignment as average, as my difficulties were only due to my desire to make the song fusion sound slightly less disjointed even when viewed as a conversation instead.

I decided to do the Music Mash Assignment that was to take two or more songs that are similar and mash them together into a conversation. I decided to do a conversation between Adele and Taylor Swift. So a little bit of background into this conversation is that adele is pretty obsessive and really wants to get back together with Taylor, but Taylor is not having it!

I used audacity for this and it was a little bit difficult but I think I cheated and used my phone for the audio and recorded it in #oops. I did have a lot of fun though, and I think it turned out pretty good!

It was rated 4 stars.

For this assignment I used the songs “Dog days are over” by Florence and the Machine and “It’s not over” by Daughtry. Basically whenever Florence sings “the dog days are over” I insert the hook from Daughtry’s song. I use the envelope option to lower the volume of Dog Days when the other song is being played. It mostly just sounds like two people arguing over whether the dog days are over or not, but I think it works. Check it out below:

I’m sensing a theme in my art this week. Feminity. Objectification. Romance. A mix bag really of cultural expectations and the way I define my own sense of beautiful. The assignment this week was to take two songs and mash them together into a conversation. 

I decided to use Cake’s Short Skirt/ Long Jacket and Alanis Morissette’s 21 things I want in a Lover. I like the back and forth about what the other is looking for in the perfect partner but I am having issues with How Slow Alanis Sounds HELP!!! Suggestions? I am using Audacity.

Wait, hold on… I’m having major issues now…

The song represents three days of work, and I feel pretty close to done. However, I would love to “fix” the way Alanis sounds when she’s singing (too slow?). I’m not very musical, I don’t have a lot of practice listening to beats and scales and sounds, and I feel all panic-y when it comes to anything singing/musical but I also love music. All kinds. So I’m glad I picked this assignment but I’m putting it out here early in the hopes someone can offer a suggestion on how I can fix that one little issue I have.

Oh, and then there were the unseen issues with actually using real songs to create this mashup but I think I figured out a way around it here…