September 14, 2009 Archives

Peer Review

• Get into groups of 3 and read your editorial aloud. 
• Share the printed copy, and offer feedback and suggestions in small groups.

Technical Practice

• Download Audacity Portable to a thumb drive or your network space.
• Add MP3 support (which is not included in the free Audacity download due to copyright restrictions; it can be easily added, however). (Note:  We were required to have administrator privileges to unzip the required export file, so we couldn't complete this assignment in class.  Next week, I'll come around and share with you the files you need to export an MP3. In the meanwhile, just save your work as an Audacity Project.)
  

During class, practice recording this text (the First Amendment)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

If we have time, practice editing it, normalizing the result, and exporting it as an MP3.

• Edit.  Remove any false starts or unwanted sound before and after your text.  While it is unethical to edit live sound in order to alter or change the way a source speaks, it is acceptable for you to remove mistakes in your own studio recordings, and it is of course acceptable to isolate parts of what a source says, so long as your editing does not distort the source's meaning.
• Normalize. When you are happy with your result, select the whole file (CTRL-A), and select Effect -> Normalize. (This will make everyone's selection play at roughly the same volume, which is very important when you are working with an archive of sound from different sources.)
• Save and Export. Save your project (which includes all the digital information in an uncompressed form), and also File -> Export as MP3. (You will be prompted to point to the file you placed in your AudacityPortable\App\LAME directory, after which you should be able to export MP3s normally.)

Bring a written version to read aloud in class. I'm not asking you to record it yet.