Review Assignments from Previous
Classes
Conducting an Interview
Editing and Mixing Audio
In-Class Activity: Using Goldwave to Edit & Mix Audio
Assignments for Next
Class:
* Reading Assignments * Hands-On Assignment 9 *
Blog Assignment 9
Review Assignments
from Last Class
Hands-On Assignment
For this week's hands-on
assignment, you should create a storyboard on the popular culture topic you
will be using for your final semester digital story project. If you create
your storyboard on the computer, you should email your storyboard to Dr.
Robin at: brobin@uh.edu or post a comment on your personal blog in which you
provide a link to an online location where the storyboard file can be viewed
and downloaded.
If you choose to create a paper-based storyboard, you should bring a copy of
the storyboard with you to class next week.
Blog Assignment
Post a comment on the course
discussion blog related to the storyboard you are creating for next week. In
your posting, you may also discuss any other aspect related to your digital
story, such as describing the progress of your work, discussing challenges
you faced as well as comment or ask questions about your work on this week's
storyboard assignment.
We will discuss the procedure for recording
an interview to include in your digital story. One of the
options is to check out and use a Digital Voice Recorder, such
as the Olympus WS-100, shown below. These are available from the
CITE Lab.
Editing and MixingAudiowith
Goldwave Digital Audio Editor
For this week's exploration of editing and mixing audio, we will be using
the Goldwave Digital Audio Editor for Windows. You may download a free trial
version of the program from:http://www.goldwave.com/release.php#download
One of the most useful features of Goldwave
is its left and right mouse button support. Using both mouse
buttons makes editing very easy, but it does take a little
practice to get familiar with the interface.
To select a portion of an audio file,
click the left mouse button on the left border of the
portion. Likewise, click the right mouse button on the right
border. The result will be a screen similar to that at left.
The blackened portions are not selected, but the blue
portion is. Any action performed will be performed to the
blue portion only.
Two common actions are deleting and
trimming. Clicking the delete button will delete the
blue-highlighted portion while retaining the
black-highlighted portions. Trimming does just the opposite.
The Most
Important Things toRemember:
Let's say you have recorded a short segment and there is a
second or two of no sound at the beginning and end of the
clip. You want to remove the blank material at the beginning
and end so that only the desired sound is heard when the
file is played. First, select the portion of the file you
want to save by using the left and right mouse buttons. Be
sure to select a small amount of the file in front of and at
the end of the desired sound. Click the Trim button and this
will remove all the unwanted portion of the file.
Standard cutting and pasting
operations can also be performed in Goldwave. Explore all
the buttons on the toolbar to see what they do.
Mixing Multiple Audio Tracks with Goldwave
Mixing two different audio
tracks, such as narration and music, into a single one is a fairly
easy process using Goldwave.
To mix two tracks into one, follow these steps:
Let's start with the audio
clip of a person speaking: the narration. Open this audio file
in Goldwave.
Open the music clip in
Goldwave. It should open in a separate window.
Select the entire clip (of the music) and copy it to the
clipboard. Close the music clip window. This will leave just the
narration track open.
Set the start marker in the
narration track by clicking with your right mouse button at the
approximate place where you want the music to begin playing.
From the Edit menu, choose
Mix.
The Mix window will open
and volume should be set to 0 (0 dB is full volume). Move the
Volume slider to the left if you want the music to be softer so
that it does not overpower the sound of the narration. You can
click on the green arrow button to listen to how the mixed audio
will sound. When you are satisfied with the volume, click the OK
button.
Note that the Mix window also
allows you to adjust the start time but you will need to press the
play button again before the new settings are previewed.
Save the new file with a different file name so that it doesn't
overwrite the original file.
Using Effects in Goldwave
Effects provide a means to enhance an audio
file or to add special effects and are accessed under the Effects
menu in Goldwave. Some of the most commonly used effects are Volume,
which is used to adjust the volume of an audio file and Filter >
Noise Reduction, which is used to reduce hiss or electronic hum from
a file.
audio problems in the CITE Lab have now been fixed. So, we will move the
audio mixing and editing material and assignments to Class 10. So, for this
week, please complete your midterm projects and continue working on your
final semester projects.
Assignments for next week:
Hands-On Assignment 9:
In this week's class, we explored the use of the Goldwave Digital Audio
Editor to edit and mix audio files. The hands-on assignment for this week is
to download and use Goldwave, Audacity or any other digital audio editing
program of your choice, to try to create an edited audio file that has one
person talking with music mixed in at the proper volume level so that music
does not drown out the narration.
Remember, that if you need to, you can check out a microphone or portable
digital voice recorder from the CITE Lab with which you can record audio for
this assignment.
When you have completed the audio editing, you should save the file as a
.WMA or .MP3 file (you may need to download and install the LAME encoder
first if you're using Goldwave in order to save files in MP3 format.)
Then go to the Sound Upload website at: http://www.soundupload.com/ and
upload your edited audio file and then retrieve the link to the file (it
will be emailed to you) and post the link on your personal blog (see Blog
Assignment 9a below). If you prefer, you may use another method to put your
audio file online as long as you can add a link or an embedded audio player
(such as adding MP3s with BoomP3, located at:http://boomp3.com/)
to your blog posting.
Blog Assignment 9a:
Post the link to your edited audio file from this week's hands-on
assignment (or an embedded audio player) on your personal blog.
Blog Assignment 9b:
Post a comment on the course discussion blog related the Class 9
hands-on assignment about editing and mixing audio files and/or uploading
the audio file to an online site that provides a hyperlink or an embedded
audio player for your blog.
