This week’s required assignment involved making a story using only sound effects. You can listen to mine on Soundcloud.
My story is about a guy going for a walk then he sees a car crash. He runs to the scene and uses his phone to call for help. He checks the heartbeat of one driver then the ambulance comes. I chose this because it isn’t boring, everyday noises and it’s easy to follow without listening to any voices. I used freesound.org to download 6 different sounds. 1. walking 2. car crash 3. running 4. phone calling 5. heartbeat and 6. sirens. I used audacity to cut the clips because some of them were too long and would cause the clip to exceed the 90-second limit and moved them around until I got them in the order I wanted. The hardest part was not being able to include voices because I think it’d be better to hear “what’s your emergency?” in the clip. But even without that, I think any listener could guess what’s going on.
My typical Sunday’s are spent praying to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I could of done the typical sound effects of me getting up, and brushing my teeth, showering, but that is exactly what you said not to do. I went with a different flip of my Sunday mornings. The mornings begin with me waking up around 11am, doing my normal morning routines, then getting straight into the car without eating. It is usually just me and my mom, because my dad is to lazy to go, and my brother goes to a different church. The effects story shows off use getting into the car, hearing the church bells (meaning 12 o’clock mass), Catholic singing, and then driving back home. Normally, we go and get food after Mass, but I couldn’t find any quality eating effects…
When the town is attacked, when the villagers are terrified, someone has to step up and go face these bandits. Save the town. I’ve always loved the classic tales of evil doers and the heroes that step up and become legends by doing great and heroic deeds. Typical D&D stuff. The kind of thing you’d see in many a nerds basements in the 80’s, and many a nerds living rooms today. Mine included.
This is our heroes first adventure in his story. He grabs his horse. Slings his sword over his back and storms out of the city gate on the trail of these bandits. He isn’t seeking to make a name or a fortune, he sees wrong and rushes to right it. And starts his journey to becoming a legend.
For this weeks mandatory 3.5 star assignment I thought to make a simple medieval adventurers quest. The constraint on the story was that it had to be made with only sound effects. And that was completely doable for what I wanted to do. Not only doable but making this short sound effect story was fun. Scouring the sound effect website I found the sound effects I was looking for to tell my story.
Once I had all my sound files, I loaded them all into Audacity and began editing.
All done editing. Now to export as an mp3. Just went to the file selected export and made sure to make it an mp3. Done.
The goal of this assignment was to tell a story using nothing but sound effects.
I chose to tell the story of someone going to the beach on the first day of a vacation. The story starts with the person taking off in an airplane to head to their destination. Then the first thing they do is head straight for the beach, where you here the waves rolling in as a flock of seagulls passes by. They spend quite a bit of time on the beach before they head for the boardwalk to see all the street vendors and carnival-like rides. The boardwalk concludes their first day of vacation.
To create this story I used sound effects, found on Sound Bible, and Audacity.
I first searched Sound Bible to find the sound effects I would need to create this first vacation day. I found sound effects such as an airplane taking off, ocean waves rolling in, seagulls calling, and an outdoor carnival. I downloaded each of the sound effects before importing them into Audacity. Once each of them was imported, I began trimming the different files and putting them into order I wanted. This was achieved by adjusting the start and stop times for each of the chosen files, by using the Time Shift and Trim tools in Audacity. I also overlapped a few of the files by having one file start while another file was still playing, to create a more realistic effect.
This was the final result.
The assignment was worth 3.5 stars and the link can be found here.
This 3 1/2 star sign assignment provided me with the opportunity to take an imaginary round trip excursion to the grocery store in my Land Rover. In preparation for my excursion I spent a few hours getting familiar with Audacity. One of the hints given in the DS106 handbook was a reference to YouTube video/tutorials. After trying unsuccessfully to decipher the online audacity manual I decided to give it a try…a smart move that saved me hours of frustration.
I also availed myself of the sound effects available at FreeSound.org. By planning out my story I was able to find five soundtracks for my project. By using the various techniques taught in the YouTube video I was able to select, cut, duplicate, move, and manipulate all the soundtracks to create my 90 second trip from home, to the local grocery store, and back.
What you hear in the sound cloud below is me getting into the car, buckling my seat belt, starting the car up, and driving to the store. At the store I collect a shopping basket and after shopping going through the checkout line. I then get back into the car and then drive home.
It’d been a long day full of fun outdoorsiness. We set up camp by the river, as we usually do. It was a long walk from the park’s welcome center, carrying all our gear and swatting mosquitos away for what felt like 600 years, but we finally made it to our favorite site in the late afternoon. I dipped my feet in the cool river as my best friend fished downstream. She had chided me for sitting downstream of her before, saying “I’m going to hook your foot, you idiot.” So I moved up.
We made a fire, cooked our dinner, and made s’mores. The day had caught up with us though, and we decided it was time to turn in. Our tent was, for lack of a better word, kickass. Nice and roomy, cool, and no bugs ever got in. When it rained, it never leaked. It might sound like I have low standards, but I’ve been burned (or bitten/soaked) before. Crawling into the tent, we zipped up, muffling the noise of the crickets and katydids screaming for attention. Out of habit, I swept my sleeping bag til it was totally wrinkle-free, until I was unceremoniously shushed.
Someone was out there.
As I’ve mentioned before, I loooove scary stories. And I don’t know many things that are more terrifying than being out of your element, in the dark, with only a tent between you and who-knows-what. A person? A bear? A mountain lion? BIGFOOT??? I wouldn’t be prepared for it. I’m not even outdoorsy, and I haven’t camped since I was a kid. That makes these kinds of stories extra scary to me – I have no idea what the heck to do, and I’d probably be running at 20% scared the entire time even when the sun was out. You never know if there’s gonna be a spider in your shoe. Or a snake. Or a daytime murderer.
This turned out to be a really tough, but rewarding assignment I think. I remember listening to Scottlo’s radio clips and hearing him say that audio editing is really time consuming, and thinking to myself “pshh…” but oh my god. Why didn’t I listen? This is only a 50 second clip and it took me almost 2 hours to make. Plus, I forgot to document my steps, so what I did was basically remake the clip a second time so I could lay out how I made it! BLARG
I’ll link to some of the tutorials I used before I embed my gallery of steps:
1. How to Muffle Audio in Audacity (it’s easiest to just read the top comment since the guy in the video goes on and on for 3 minutes and there are only 3 steps)
2. Saving as an mp3 in Audacity (my mortal foe)
I had some serious issues with LAME at first, but I think it was human error. When I downloaded the zipped file, I think I exported the unzipped folders to some other location and that may have messed things up. I like to keep my programs (like Audacity, Paint.net, Gimp, etc) all in one folder, so when I sent it there it may have garbled something. I ended up going back to the website and choosing the .exe download option, then following the instructions in the tutorial that I linked above the gallery. After that it really was smooth sailing.
To begin this project, I opened up Audacity and selected my main background noise, which would be the Fire Engine Siren City Centre. I’ve always heard this type of background when it comes to describing a city, and after spending nights in cities on vacation, I can tell you that it’s true. There’s always a fire engine, for one reason or another, just cruising down the road.
I then added the wind. Seeing as the woman (you will find this out later) is on the edge of a building. Again, I’ve never stood on the edge of a building, because my fear of heights prevents me from doing that, but I know the sound. The chill. The way you just want to follow it to the depth of nowhere and be free. I got the sound from here. It fit perfectly.
I then added a ghostly whisper. I was just browsing through different sounds when I came across this. It’s as depressing as you think, even if the voices in her head are telling her good things, she won’t be able to hear them. Not after the next sound, I planned to add. But first I had to shorten the wind so that it was under fifty seconds long.
After shortening, I added a much louder and clearer whisperer, who I warped the voice off at the end to make it sound like this was it. She would go through with it. It was at this time that I began adding the bulk of my audio, including a woman whispering for her to “please don’t” and that was the moment I had to stop because all of this began looking really familiar and I had to go and figure out why.
A few hours later, I came back to the project after figuring out why all of this felt familiar (turns out I have written something similar to this a few years back) and went back to work. I was unable to take photos of most of my work because I had forgotten about that, but I will include what I did.
After adding in the “please don’t” dialogue, I decided to add a moment of silence in both the whispering, city and the wind in order to ready anyone listening for her scream. It was a few seconds long and then I amplified both the wind and city noise while having the fade in, so it sounded as if she was falling. I made that until the forty second mark, so she fell for about ten seconds.
I then decided to pick a wet impact instead of bones hitting the ground. I’ve seen some people throw themselves off a building before, on television of course, but I never heard the sound. Maybe it should’ve been bones breaking and blood splattering everywhere, but I just decided to go with the splatter. Cue people screaming, which I timed so that it would be exactly when she hit the ground. It’s a busy city, so it should draw a crowd.
But they’re no longer important, and neither is the city or the wind, and I found this amazing sounds before you die, that I timed to go off as soon as the impact was over. I made sure the crowd faded out into this sound around the fifty-second mark. Then I added a woman gasping right after the impact as well and had it carry out into the end, making her gasping the last thing that you hear.
I hope you enjoyed this fifty-five-second story. You can view the full list of sounds that I used and some that I speculated using here.
Tell a story using nothing but sound effects. There can be no verbal communication, only sound effects. Use at least five different sounds that you find online. The story can be no longer than 90 seconds.
Charlie McHue was a NASCAR driver with a passion for speed. This made him one of the best racers of his time, but was always a sensitive spot in his marriage. His wife, Angela, didn’t like his career; she thought it was dangerous and, quite frankly, stupid. She didn’t understand the rush he got from racing and the simultaneous calm that washed over him on the constant turn of the wheel. He felt at peace on the track, while she was nothing but a ball of nerves watching him from behind his pit stop.
During Charlie’s last race of the summer season, he was up against one of his greatest competitors. Charlie knew if he won this race that he may win so much money that he would never have to work again. He vowed to himself to win this race at all costs so that he could make his wife happy and stop racing for good.
Charlie and his opponent were neck and neck throughout the whole race, until the last lap. Charlie pulled ahead ever so slightly, and had just crossed the finish line when his tire popped and sent him spiraling off the track. His car flipped four times and burst into flames. The whole crowd called out along with Angela’s scream. Charlie survived the crash, but had severe burns and many fractured bones. The ambulances rushed to the center of the track where Charlie’s car laid. He was pinned under the car and paramedics couldn’t get him free for about seven minutes.
Charlie was rushed to surgery and Angela waited in the hospital hallway, alone. After fours hours of pacing and worrying and biting her nails, the doctor came out to update Angela. There was severe internal bleeding and Charlie didn’t make it through surgery.
Angela was stunned; almost too stunned to cry. Charlie was all she had in this world and now he was gone. He had left her his winnings, but she would have given anything to have him back, and even racing if he wanted, she just wanted him alive.
For this 3.5 star assignment I thought it would be an easy(ish) way to ease myself into creating audio assignments. I used the recommended website for free sound effects. I am also using Garageband, because that is what I have installed on my Mac already. I am not very well versed in Garageband, so I configured this recording kind of unconventionally. I was pleased with the final product, especially because it was my first time using Garageband to make this kind of media. I would have liked the transitions between sounds to be more smooth, but I hadn’t quite figured that out yet. I may be kicking myself later for not using Audacity.
First, I thought of the story I wanted to tell. I then opened Garageband and clicked the voice option.
That will take you to this screen.
I then went to freesound.org and registered my free account. From there, I searched the sounds that are listed below. There are links to the ones I ultimately chose.
Instead of importing and trimming each sound (I didn’t know how), I had both Garageband and freesound.org open in two separate windows. I started recording in Garageband (click the red circle button at the top) and then switched to freesound.org and played the recording from where I wanted it to start.
When you want to stop recording, click the red circle button again. This will stop recording sound. You then need to press the square stop button to stop the recording from moving forward.
Click and drag the vertical white line to determine where you want each new recording to start. Once all the recordings are done, you can trim each section individually by selecting each box and clicking and dragging the edge of it to be as long as you want. Then, choose file > save as and choose a name for your sound effect story.
Then upload to SoundCloud, or another audio sharing website. You can do this from Garageband by going to share > song to SoundCloud.
For this assignment, it is the sound effects story, which was 3 1/2 stars. I used audacity to do the recording and recorded the individual sounds. I made this recording to tell a short story of being at a baseball game. You walk into the ballpark and you’re sitting there watching and listening to the game. You hear the pitch, you can hear the ball whistling towards the plate. Then, you hear the sound of the crack of the bat, as the batter makes contact with the ball. You then hear the batter running towards the bases as the crowd cheers. The batter than slides into third base, as you hear the crowd cheer some more for what a great play just took place. I picture this at a Washington Nationals game. I’m sitting behind home plate, with my best friend and his family. Ryan Zimmerman is at the plate and smacks a ball to the left-center field gap. He rounds the bases quickly as possible, headed for third. He slides in to third head first to give the Nationals a runner in scoring position, tied, in the bottom of the ninth inning, so the crowd loses their mind in cheer.
How many of us have walked into a pet store and are saddened by the lack of dogs there? My audio story is based on an owner who goes to pick up her puppy from the pet store groomer. However, when she walks into the pet store she doesn’t immediately pick up her dog. She walks in, browses the fish, and the dog toys until it’s time to pick up her puppy.
The reason I picked this topic for my project is because my family is thinking about getting their first dog and I thought it would be an interesting approach. However, I couldn’t get all the sounds I wanted. Most of the audio files came from the FreeSound website. The five sounds I used were, the entrance bell, high heels, fish tank noise, squeaky dog toys, and the dog barks.
If you wanted to do this assignment and need assistance, the instructions are posted below.
Part 1: FreeSound
Step 1: Go to this website and download the following sounds. I posted the screenshots to each of the sounds I used in my audio except for the dogs. In order to get the dogs type in the search bar, “dogs barking” and it will be your first result.
Part 2: Audacity
Step 2: Go to File, Import, and select the Audio subcatergory. Import your first audio file. You will be uploading your files SEPARATELY
Step 3: Once you open your first file, select the trim tool. I’ve circled it in red in the screenshot below. After you select this tool highlight the section of the audio that you DO want to use.
Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 by importing your second audio file and trimming the audio.
Step 5: Now that you have a previous audio file (file 1) you don’t want to overlap the sound. Select the Time Shift tool (circled in red on the screenshot below) and slide/move your audio to where it doesn’t interfer with the first audio file
Step 6: Repeat steps 2-5 for the remaining audio files, so for this specific example it would be for the last three.
Step 7: Once you’ve trimmed your audio and you’ve aligned them it is now time to save your work. Go to File and select Export Audio.
Step 8: When you complete step 7 you should have the option of exporting your audio file as an MP3 file. If you do not, you need to download the plug-in, Lame. Once you download the plug-in, you will see the option to download as an MP3 file. Click the save button!
Part 3: SoundCloud
Step 9: Go to your SoundCloud and log in. Select the upload button on the upper right hand side of the webpage
Step 10: Select the ‘Choose a file…’ option and upload your audacity file.
Step 11: Copy the link to link given and embed it in your blog!
Link to assignment is tagged above in ‘Audio #1 :Sound Effects Story?
