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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: Lots of people have a particular song that reminds them of certain situations, I know I do! Embed the video of your particular song and a short recording of why you really like the song, or what makes it importatnt to you (I would recomend Soundcloud for this assignment! Have fun!!

This is a 3.5 star assignment.

#AudioAssignments1923

At the end of April, the week before finals, my dad died. It was sudden. I remember sitting at home. It was late at night and I was working on a final research paper. My mom tried to call but I didn’t answer because I was on a time crunch to get the work done. Then, she texted me: “Kelly. Your dad just died.” What a crazy way to find out that your parent has just died. That night, I dropped everything to become the point of contact in my city for everything going on with my dad. My parents were divorced and dad never remarried, so it fell to me and my two older brothers to handle things. Unfortunately, they live in another state. At 12am, I was out, driving to the nursing home where dad died, trying to get there before the funeral home arrived to remove him from the facility. It was a close call, but I was able to see him right before they took him away. It was a difficult moment. I’m not over it. My eyes are tearing up while I type this. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why everyone wanted me to rush down there that night. My aunt was already there with my cousin. They were the ones who called the funeral home. And they even had some of dad’s effects in hand. To be honest, none of it made sense. Why was everyone in such a hurry?

Later, at the funeral home, after the whirlwind of planning a funeral and burial, my family finally gathered together at the private viewing. I was shocked. Dad didn’t look like dad at all. I didn’t even think I was in the right place. But my oldest brother was there, and they had dad’s name on the tv screen above the pulpit, so it must have been him. The fact that it didn’t really look like dad made the whole thing rather comical. It made it easy for me to disconnect my pain from the actuality of what was happening. In many ways, it helped. At that time, I was so thankful that I had seen dad before he went to the funeral home. I received something my brothers didn’t get. I got to see him as I remembered him. And I got to say goodbye to him even though he was already gone.

During the planning, one of the things I had to do was create a program for the funeral. My brothers gave input as needed. Finally, we needed a song to play along with a slideshow during the public viewing. My second oldest brother chose the song, His Eye Is On The Sparrow, by Lauryn Hill and Tanya Blount. So, that was what we listened to during the viewing.

So, why did I choose this song?

My dad was laid to rest a couple days after the viewing. I have not listened to His Eye Is On The Sparrow since then. Even in creating this blog post, I didn’t listen to it. I might not listen to it for many years unless it happens to come on the radio one day. I don’t have any desire to hear it. And, honestly, the grief comes in waves. Not so much now as it did during that first month. Not as much as when we were planning, cleaning out his house, going through his effects, and just trying to figure this stuff out. But it still comes now and again. Things were troubled with me and my dad. With everyone and my dad, really. It was tough to love him, but I loved him anyway. Maybe one day, someone will say the same thing about me. Much can change in the lifetime of a person.

I don’t know if there is a heaven, a hell, or some other magical afterlife place. But, wherever he is…if he is…I hope he is happy. I hope he is healthy. I hope he is loved.

I liked this assignment because it made me do some thinking. I had to think about what songs made me feel the strongest about something. There were a few songs that were sad that I could have used but Tik Tok brings me back to a time when there were very few worries and everything was fun.

The third audio assignment I chose was to pick a song that you like or means a lot to you. I chose the song Beat it by Michael Jackson, a classic but I was only able to easily find the instrumental version for download. Still when its included in my audio everyone knows what it is because its so recognizable. This goes along with out 80’s theme and you’ll hear more in the audacity recording why I like it but it just brings back good memories.

For this assignment I found a youtube video of It’s Your Wedding Day from The Wedding Singer and then I did a voice memo about my experience and memories of this song. This musical takes place in the 80s and brings back the music and fashion. I combined the very beginning and end of the song into my voice memo by using GarageBand. I hope you enjoy the song just as much as I do!

#AudioAssignments #AudioAssignments1923

For this assignment I found a youtube video of It’s Your Wedding Day from The Wedding Singer and then I did a voice memo about my experience and memories of this song. This musical takes place in the 80s and brings back the music and fashion. I combined the very beginning and end of the song into my voice memo by using GarageBand. I hope you enjoy the song just as much as I do!

#AudioAssignments #AudioAssignments1923

For this audio assignment I reviewed one of my favorite songs to explain what it means to me.

I reviewed Andromeda by Weyes Blood and have embed it here:

Here is my review:

For this assignment I didn’t need that many tools. I only needed to find the song on YouTube as well as record my reflection on it.

I really enjoyed this project and hopefully get to see everything that people produce in the future.