DS106

Sounds of Mad Max

Hello everybody! For my last assignment of the week I chose the ¡Sounds Of Your City! Assignment. In this assignment I was tasked with recording different sounds I hear throughout the day. I then would take these sounds and overlay them on background music. Instead of recording sounds I hear everyday, I decided to take sounds from the Mad Max (1979) trailer. I chose to use the Mad Max trailer for this assignment because I have been thinking about that movie a lot since I watched it last week.

Below is my assignment.

Behind the Process

To begin this assignment, I downloaded the Mad Max (1979) trailer. I then opened it in Audacity and cut away all the narration. This left me with some good quotes and car sounds. I then went to the Free Music Archive from WFMU and found this amazing Lofi Hip Hop song called Soma by teeho x VYVCH. After discovering this track I tried to emulate the Lofi Hip Hop vibe. If you are unfamiliar with this genre of music check out this hilarious YouTube video. In Audacity, I shuffled the audio clips around and added some effects like changing the speed, adding reverb and fade in/out.

The difficult part of this assignment was the initial cutting away of the narration. Sometimes I got lost in the audio and had no idea what I was cutting. This confusion forced me to learn the keystrokes for zooming in and out on Audacity so I could cut things easier. Another thing I found difficult was trying to add some story element. I was working with really a random assortment of clips. So, I found it challenging to link these together into a working story.

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In this assignment, I found it easy to change the amplification and bring out the dialogue. Moreover, I think that my attention the dialogue and trying to emphasize it was something I did well. On the other hand, something I want to improve was distorting the dialogue. Even though I want to draw attention to the dialogue, in order for it to fit into the Lofi hip hop genre, it needs to have more distortion and reverb. I tried to apply these effects, but I didn’t do it very well as it wasn’t noticeable.

In general, I liked this assignment because I got to think creatively in my use of audio and music. If I had a choice I would do this assignment again, but actually record audio of my surroundings and not cop out by using a trailer.

Thanks y’all for reading. I’ll catch you on the flipside.   

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Her Visitor

Hello everybody! This week I chose to do the “Quote With A New Feeling” assignment. In this assignment I was to find a quote and record myself saying it. After recording myself, I was to mash up my audio recording with sounds, songs or instrumental music to better explain the feeling that this quote has on me.

I chose a quote from “La Jetée”. Below is my result.

“She accepts as a natural phenomenon the ways of this visitor who comes and goes, who exists, talks, laughs with her, stops talking, listens to her, then disappears.”

Behind the Process

To begin the process, I decided to use a quote from “La Jetée” as I had watched it for class last week. Since watching this film, one quote has been stuck in my head. So I chose this quote and translated it into English. I recorded myself saying it in Audacity. Recording myself was once again the easy part of the assignment because I knew how I wanted to say it and what inflection to bring to it.

I decided that me saying the quote was a little boring. So I decided to intercut the main character of “La Jetée” saying it too. This gave the quote an interesting back and forth, almost like a dialogue. I think that this element of my assignment is something I did well. I was inspired by this weeks listening from Detective Stories in which they use this technique. This element adds layers and a sense of character to the audio.

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For background music I went to 78 RPMs and Cylinder Collection. I dug around for awhile and stumbled upon this track called “By the Waters of Minnetonka” by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. There is something about this song itself and its quality that feels ethereal. This correlates to how I feel when I hear the quote from “La Jetée”. I also had to learn how to use this website because I initially had no idea how to download the audio. After finding where to download, I had to learn which file type would work best with my audio project.

One difficult thing about this assignment was getting the main character saying the quote. I could not find a short YouTube video of him saying it. I really wanted a short clip not a 21 minute video to download because I am not about that life. To avoid downloading a large video file, I used Screencast-O-Matic to rip the audio. I am not really happy with the quality of the audio therefore this is the one part of this assignment I would improve.

I liked this assignment as it allowed me to mess around more with layering audio. I also liked playing with the effects to achieve the quality I wanted. I did find this assignment fun and would definitely do it again if I had a choice.

Well, that is it for now. I’ll catch you on the flipside.

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Pick Up I’m Calling

Hello everybody! This week I explored Frequency 2156. Frequency 2156 is a community based Internet radio from the post-apocalyptic future. Essentially, you can go around the world and listen to radio messages that people have published.

Thinking critically about Frequency 2156, I believe that the creators chose audio for their medium as it is simple. Audio is a simple medium to convey messages, stories or feelings. I also think that we associate audio/radio with the past and the idea of lower tech. This lends to the post-apocalyptic narrative the creators are facilitating. As I referred to in my last post, radio also harkens back to ancient storytelling. There is something about plain audio that pulls us back to times around the campfire. Also, in terms of server space, audio would also be a smaller file size compared to a video. So they were probably thinking about that as well.

Furthermore, I really like the crowd-sourced radio feel to tell the post-apocalyptic story. I really like it because every message is unique as we all bring different ideas to the genre. I think that these different perspectives also add to the story because it would reflect what really happens in the apocalypse. I mean the world is so large that we would all *have to have* different post-apocalyptic experiences. Thus, I think that the crowd-sourced audio works very well in terms of telling the story.

If I had created the story, I would have given users options to insert images or videos. Obviously, it is currently audio week. However, I think that giving users the option to add image or video would have elevated the story. I also think a visual stimuli would really help immerse the viewer into the post-apocalyptic world.

I had the opportunity to complete the “Frequency 2156, Can You Hear Me?” assignment. Below is my result. To listen on Frequency 2156, click here. 

Hello?

I know someone is out there.

I heard the radio click today.

Were you trying to send a code?

I heard you doing some clicking, but I was outside so I didn’t catch all of it.

I mean, you’ve got to be close, right?

We can work together.

I promise, I’m not scary.

I mean unless you wake me up without coffee.

Hello?

Oh god I’ll do whatever you say.

I promise. I promise…

Behind the Process

To start this assignment, I wrote down a quick script. The premise of my story is that a loner is in the woods. They were working outside on something and heard their radio click. They assume that someone is trying to make contact with them. So later that night, after a waiting awhile for the other person to try and make contact again, the main character releases a radio message. While they are on their radio, a person comes and interrupts them. Let’s just say, the main character is no longer with us.

I would have to say that the most difficult part of this assignment was trying to incorporate a story into my radio message. I wanted it to feel like a normal radio message in the beginning, but somewhat tense and jolting in the end. I really struggled with trying to achieve this feel without using visuals. Thus, when I wanted there to be almost like dead air after the scream I had to really think about how to do this with audio. This is why I finally chose to have the forest, fire and wind sounds continue on even though there was no dialogue. These continued sounds really helped conclude the story and give the listener a palate cleanser from the scream. Because I really thought about creating a story thorough audio, I think that it is something I did well.

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After nailing down the script, I went into Audacity and recorded me speaking it. I found recording myself quite easy as I knew how I wanted my script to sound. I then went online and found the various sounds I needed including TV static, forest noises, a scream, fire crackling and a wind breeze. An interesting noise I decided to add was the Shepard Tone. The Shepard Tone is an interesting little sound that adds stress and tension to an audio clip. Vox made a really interesting video about it that you can watch here. In Audacity, I adjusted the volume and reverb. I also add some fade in/out to make the audio flow. Something I learned was how to layer the sounds so that the listener would be able to imagine the environment of the story. Using this layering effect really gave the listener a lot of sound to analyze and absorb.

Something I want to improve was my use of audio effects. I tried to make my speaking audio a little muffled, but could not really find the effects to get the sound I wanted. If I could go back, I would try out more effects and play around with those that got close to what I wanted.

All in all, I liked this assignment as I was able to do storytelling through audio. I also found it fun to find sound clips to incorporate into my radio message. If I had a choice, I would do this again. Being me, I would probably make an accompanying video that is a little Blair Witch project-y if I did it again.

Well, that is it for now. I’ll catch you on the flipside.

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