This week, you’ll use Audacity to produce the audio that you’ve already recorded into a story. I will grade this assignment primarily on your successful completion of the steps below. Follow the steps here, and you will do well. I will also factor in technical proficiency with your use of microphones and edits, and the general impact of the story.
- Arrange all your media files into one folder. Open Audacity and save your .aup file in that same folder.
- Import your interview audio first and normalize it. Listen carefully to this audio and decide what parts of it you want to include. Do a rough edit of the interview — chop it up into themes, and then arrange those themes into the storyboard that you want.
- Import your environmental and ambient recordings. Fit those into your storyboard to create a multilayered story. You final piece must include interview, environmental, and ambient audio.
- Ask yourself: do you need to record more audio to complete the story? Does this piece need a voiceover? What kind of music is appropriate? Check out the YouTube audio library or Free Music Archive for music you can use. Import that content into your Audacity project as needed.
- Now that you have the rough storyboard worked out, fine-tune your piece by editing out the “ums” and irrelevant content. Smooth out the transitions. Adjust the volume so that the audio fades in and out without abrupt breaks.
- Export your final piece as a .wav file. It should be 2-3 min long. Save this file in the same folder as the rest of your media files.
- Upload the audio file to your website, and embed the audio player onto your page.
- Write a brief reflection (4-6 paragraphs) about your experience recording and producing this piece. What went wrong? What worked well? What will you change next time? Are you confused about anything?
Due date: Sept. 24, 6 p.m. Please talk to me if you’re having trouble with Audacity.
