Category Archives: DS106Radio

Spinning Yarns for DS106 Radio

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 “There’s so much that happens in life.  Little stories, big stories. Things that were no story and all the sudden you realize the significance of it.  And that there really is a story there. But at the time you don’t know it.  And for a long time you don’t know there’s a story. Until something clicks, and you tie that event together with something else that makes it a story. And that’s the beauty of life. You just go from one story to another.”  – Seth’s Mom, Karen

 

Spinning Round - the JunioRS

The JunioRS Radio Show Poster: Created by Seth Goodman

It was a real joy to collaborate with John Johnston in Glasgow, Scottland (@JohnJohnston Twitter) and Seth Goodman in Arizona (@GoodmanSeth Twitter)  to create our  DS106 Headless ’13 course radio show, Spinning Round, for Advanced Audio weeks 7 & 8 –  with live DS106 radio premieres on Oct 22nd for the US time zone folks and Oct 24th for our European contingent.

 

It all started with John’s description of a theme he wanted to explore that intrigued me so I added my name to his radio show group.

Thinking of stories with little narrative, without conclusions, that put a picture in your mind. Perhaps stories from your family, your people with little detail… Perhaps some other idea.

With the use of a shared Google Doc we started brainstorming our ideas.  All of us were well aware and expected the final product to be something different than what we started with, and it was.  Although the original theme of using story snippets to put a picture in your mind, and exploring whether stories needed a beginning, middle and end remained.  There was also this unique concept we threw into the mix of exploring, for lack of a better phrase, an Audio GIF:  A repeating audio phrase that highlighted the essence of a piece.

During our first Skype call we brainstormed more, throwing around ideas of a room full of voices where one voice or story would come to the forefront then fade away as another faded in.  I could see how this might work, but wasn’t clear how it would actually unfold.  I knew if I had some raw material to work with something would emerge. We each uploaded a few files to our shared dropbox, and even though we hadn’t decided on how to divvy up the workload, or even what we were going to do yet, I took a stab at editing the pieces together using GarageBand ’09.  I thought it would give us a good place to start when we had our next call.

The background music came about because John had listened to my first live DS106 Radio broadcast and had commented that he couldn’t get RnA’s (Rochelle and Amber Lockridge) rendition of “Comes A Time” out of his head.  Although we didn’t realize it at the time, it lent itself well to our Audio GIF experiment.  Not only is it being sung, but our speaking voices are layered in as well. Additionally, since I had recorded and engineered the original song I had the individual tracks available to mix and match if wanted. By underlaying only the guitar on certain segments I was able to reinforce the importance of one section over another.

THE RAW AUDIO

john-gran

John & Gran

Upon listening it was obvious that each of us was coming at this in a different way.  Seth had interviewed his mother about family stories, John shared glimpses of stories, and I had told two stories about my daughter as if I were telling them to my grandson.  This presented a creative challenge.  John’s segments were short, I could use them as is. Mine were also relatively short. Seth’s interview, however, was about 15 minutes long, (See media player below to listen to the full length interview.) and we were shooting for the entire piece to be 15 minutes.

 

SOUND EDITING BEGINS

Karen and Miryom

Seth’s Mom & sister Miryom

I wasn’t certain how I would tackle the editing of Seth’s interview with his mom. I could go through it minute by minute and add notes for each segment, then with my analytical mind pick out which parts I wanted to work with. But I didn’t find that process very appealing right then. I opted instead to lift out the parts that I felt attracted to – no rhyme or reason to it. If I liked it, I split that section out and copied it to another layer. I don’t know why I was attracted to one segment over another. I just was. When I finished I was left with about 5 minutes of the interview that I thought I might like to use. Then I started pulling it together. Mind you, I hadn’t checked any of this out with John or Seth. I just thought I’d play around with stuff and see what happened.

There comes a time when memory fades.  The backdrop gets blurred. Are we remembering or recalling our own retelling?  Or perhaps our stories are simplifying, clarifying or crystallizing around an image.  – John Johnston

Jenny_xmas86

Jenny & The Christmas Tree

I began grouping the segments together to have a “logical” flow to the piece.  As I worked an arc of a story began to emerge. Much the same as what happened during my Bygone Backyard Photo Safari.   The music flowed in and out easily, and segments magically aligned (with minimal tweaking) to have logical ending points as the song ended. The “process”  continued to be very intuitive.  But the amount of work I put into “playing around” was way more than I had expected to put into a rough draft.  I can’t tell you how relieved I was when John & Seth were pleased with my “draft”. It was a go!

AUDIO QUALITY ISSUES

We had some audio quality issues which had to be addressed such as different audio recording quality, volume levels, etc.  We hadn’t expected to use these initial files.  We were basically throwing things at the wall initially to see what would stick.  And now most of it was sticking.  The interview with Seth’s mother would have to be used as is.  We couldn’t redo that.  So when I needed to add more volume I simply doubled the tracks.  It worked fine.  For John’s pieces we really did need to have them re-recorded with more volume.  We ran into a snag there as he had a newer version of GarageBand (11 vs 9) and I wasn’t able to open his files.  After beating my head against a wall thinking there was something wrong with the drop box and my access, I finally just broke down and paid the $15 for the upgrade and everything was “fixed” immediately.

MIXING AND MASTERING

TakeItUp_DS106SfxStory_VolTkTxt

GarageBand ’09 Screenshot for Obruni Sound Effect Story

My skill as a sound engineer, mixing and mastering, are continuing to develop.  I’m quite familiar with layering and adjusting the volume levels and placement of sounds on the timeline, etc.  My post on the Obruni Arrives in Africa Sound Effect Story is a good example.  This one, however, presented an unexpected challenge that required more “futzing” around than usual.  I expect that most people will be listening to our show on their computer or mobile device. So relying on the quality of sound from mixing while simply listening through good quality headphones would be insufficient.

I needed to adjust the EQ and effects to optimize the audio experience across several platforms:  Computer, computer speakers, headphones, tiny cheap radio speakers, iPhone/iPod.  Adjusting the volume of the music soundtrack was especially tricky. On one set of speakers I could hear it just fine, another it was too low.

I also added a new tool to my sound engineering arsenal, Ozone 5.  A professional sound mastering software package that I picked up following a GarageBand sound editing class at my local Guitar Center.    While this optimization process was very time consuming. It was well worth it in the end. When I myself enjoy listening or viewing one of my projects over and over again, I know I’ve got something there.

I can tell you…. after all of the work I didn’t like having to reduce the quality to save it as 128K.  It about broke my heart, but those are the sacrifices one still has to make so that the piece can stream over the internet and download more easily.

I hope you enjoy listening to our show as much as we enjoyed creating it.

(Note: If you felt your audio experience was less than optimal listening to us spin our tales, try another listening mode. I’d even recommend you doing that anyway so you can hear for yourself what a difference it makes. Someday I hope to learn how to make these adjustments with learned skills instead of with trial and error.)

SUPPORTING AUDIO FILES

UPDATE: 10/26/13 addition of pre & post show live discussion on DS106 Radio 10/22/13 US premiere

DJ’s Radio Bumper

 

  • +  John Johnston Commercial
  •     Pre Show Discussion: Alan Levine, Christina Hendricks, Seth Goodman
  •     Spinning Round Radio Show (14min)
  •     Post Show Discussion
  •     Full Conversation with Seth's Mom (15min)
  •     Comes A Time Sound Track
  •     Comes A Time: Guitar Only

IMAGE SLIDE SHOW

 

DJ Rocks The Mic for DS106 Radio

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[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/114642943″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Introducing a future DS106 Radio DJ in training. He may only be starting to string words together, but with the magic of audio editing DJ and Nana have created a new radio bumper for DS106 Radio. [audio assignment 36]

DJ-Rock-The-Mic

This all started because I noticed on my regular Wednesday afternoon visit that DJ was wearing a “Rock the Mic!” t-shirt today.  There was no way I wasn’t going to snap a photo of that to post for audio week. (Camera+ app on my iPhone).  DJ loves having his picture taken.  He poses and smiles when asked, and wants to see the results of his “modeling” efforts right away.

Then using the Recordium App I was able to capture DJ repeating back to me, one word at a time,  “Nana listens to DS106 Radio”.  (And letter at a time when it came to the DS106 portion.) He did almost all of them on the first take! Both Mom and Nana were surprised.  It was great fun to replay the recordings and have him repeating the words all over again as he listened to it.

After dinner I downloaded the .wav files into GarageBand and chopped out the bits I wanted. I like that I start with the “can you say” phrases then follow up with a closely edited sound clip that strings together only the DJ parts. It tells more of a story and makes the bumper as a whole more interesting.

You can bet you’ll be hearing this little guy’s radio bumper the next time Nana hits the DS106 radio waves. 

UPDATE: The JunioRS added this bumper to the end of their DS106 Radio Show, “Spinning Round” aired on 10/22/13 for the Headless ’13 Radio Show group assignment.

LoDown Part 1 – (Episode 17)

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[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/95490369″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

[UPDATE Oct. 7, 2013: This post was originally published on Scottlo’s DS106Zone LoDown blog on June 5, 2013. I am republishing it as a post on my own blog. Easy link to audio file.]

LouDown_RockylouHello… This is Rockylou standing in for Scottlo over at the ds106 open course in digital storytelling. We’re giving him a much needed break from producing the daily episodes of the LoDown. I can’t imagine trying to do this daily for 35 days straight. Making one of these is a lot more work with the behind the scenes preparation and post-production that you can’t appreciate until you’ve made one yourself. And keeping the time of the episode to 15 minutes or less is no easy walk in the park. By the time we finished recording our conversation we had so much material we thought it best to turn it into two shorter episodes instead of one VERY long one. [Link to 2nd episode] But I’ve also been on that “wild ride” that Scottlo and Prof. Groom were on in episode 15 of the LoDown. It’s a lot of fun when you are actually doing the recording.

AmberTiltedFace_PodcastIn this episode my daughter Amber agreed to join me to discuss our back and forth process when creating our own podcasts based on short stories and letters she had written while an AFS exchange student in Ghana, Africa in 2000. With a focus on sound effects, we talk about how we’ve had to deal with generational and different life experiences when deciding on the “right” sounds to be used for a character in a podcast. I’m envisioning sexy gamblers, while she’s intending clownish “antelope man.”

Like I mentioned above, it takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to create our kind of podcast. So why do we continue to make the sacrifices? What keeps bringing us back when there’s so much work that has to go into it? For me it’s all about spending time with my daughter, creating together. Although sometimes that creativity can get a little out-of-hand if we’re not careful. “Mom, we want them to say, ‘Please give us more. NOT Please make it stop.’”

As we were preparing for the podcast Scottlo prompted us to have Amber question me about my experience of being in the #ds106 course. What brought me here, and what are my impressions thus far? Great questions for any of us to reflect on. [Reflecting on DS106]

A shout-out to my fellow students whose work I used for the DS106 bumper (zinger?) mashup:

You can listen to all of the Obruni Podcast episodes with the audio player below. Photos and scripts are also available.
Episodes referenced in part one of our conversation:

  • Sound Effect Story was created from SFX in EP01- Obruni: Take It Up
  • The “Antelope Man” (The Entertainer) in EP05- All’s Hair in Love and War
  • +  EP01- Obruni: Take It Up
  • +  EP02- Obruni Ko Skuul
  • +  EP03- Transportation
  • +  EP04- Devil's Hairground
  • +  EP05- All's Hair in Love and War

Rockylou Hits The DS106 Airwaves

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ds106.ioAnimatedNewOldFriend_290I did it.  I successfully pulled off a live broadcast on ds106 radio this morning.  Christina Hendricks and I were going to rebroadcast our DS106 Headless week 4 audio review, but our open-online course mates had already listened to it through our earlier blog posts.

I decided to not let this free airtime go to waste.  What a perfect opportunity to mess around when no one is listening.  Although it did turn out that Cathleen Nardi caught the tail end of my broadcast before Nicecast severely degraded my sound quality until I paid for the $59 software license.  I signed off amidst static, but plan to come back on the air again with the entire Obruni podcast series in week 7 (Oct 14 – Oct 20). I may also pop in from time to time with some of my acoustic music.  I’ll let you know.

  • +  DS106 Headless Week 4 Audio Review
  • +  DS106 Radio Futz Cast

First Futzcast:

As a bonus to this blog post I’m including my first ds106 radio “futzcast” (as TalkyTina refers to it) aired last week 9/20/13. Dead air, sound level issues, talking to myself as I work through things, keyboard clicks during music… I can hear improvement this time around. 🙂

Here are the songs played in the my futz cast with videos I’d made a few years back for two of them.

 I’ll Fly Away (3:00) hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley

 Comes A Time (10:25) by Neil Young (Oops, forgot I’d already played this one, and put it in again for the “real” broadcast.) 

  • Bread & Roses (6:30) 1911 poem by James Oppenheimer set to music in 1974 by Mimi Baez Farina

 

DS106 Audio Week 4 Reviews Are In

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Play AUDIO ONLY Version DS106 Headless13 Audio Week 4 Review

Link to VIDEO version DS106 Headless13 Audio Week 4 Review

Christina Hendricks and I volunteered to be helpers for the Headless 13 DS106 week 4 Intro to Audio – Listening. As a part of that Christina organized a Google Hangout: ds106 Radio How To Jamathon on broadcasting to DS106 Radio. Then on Saturday we pulled together and reviewed the radio bumpers and sound effect stories created by the “headless” ds106ers this week.

DS106_wk4_RnC_Smile

Rochelle Lockridge & Christina Hendricks review the DS106 Headless 13 week 4 audio projects.

To make it easier for the two of us we’ve divvied up the write-ups such that Christina’s post provides the discussion of the audio material for the podcast, while my post is covering the nuts & bolts of production.

1. To start with we took quite a bit of time scouring the ds106 Google+ Community, #ds106 Twitter feed, and ds106 linked blogs to find completed assignments. We kept track of links and comments in a shared Google Doc.

2. We had contemplated doing the show live on DS106 Radio, but neither of us had the experience to pull that off. Eventually we’ll get there.  But first I have to figure out how to route my system sound through Skype, so the person on the other end can hear the additional audio I’m playing at my end.  I’ve read a bunch of tutorials, corresponded with experienced ds106 radio broadcasters, and have become quite friendly with the Skype test call lady testing a multitude of settings to use with NiceCast.  Nothing has worked yet.  I’m beginning to think that my Mac hardware and operating system (10.6.8) might be the culprit.

3. We finally settled on “simply” recording our Skype conversation and turning it into a podcast to play on DS106 Radio next week.  For recording I use:

Call Recorder For Skype (Mac Only): $29  http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/

It allows me at the click of a button the option to record each side of the conversation as audio and video on separate tracks. It also provides a number of translation tools so I can combine them as needed.

4. It took us almost an hour to get ourselves set-up to record the conversation.  We tested levels and other settings to make sure we were good there. We had all of our audio tracks lined up and ready to go as quickly as possible in real-time.  This would lessen the post-production editing time.  Dead air and click, click, click as we find something on our computer doesn’t make for a riveting podcast.

5. Our 53 minute conversation went smoothly, except for three spots we had to edit when:

  • My little dog Abby was scratching the floor so loud Christina couldn’t concentrate.
  • Christina’s husband decided to pop in to get something from the fridge.
  • I pulled up Stefanie’s DS106 Rap too early in the sequence. (This caused me to move the segment to later on in the podcast, which resulted in some jumbled conversation as noted in Christina’s comments below.  Oops!)

6. Once the recording was finished, then comes post production.  We had both thought the review would be about half as long, and I wasn’t keen on using up half of my remaining minutes on my SoundCloud account to post the 50+ minute podcast.  Christina also had restrictions on what her Tumblr blog would allow for media embedding.  My inspired idea to post it on YouTube addressed both of our issues.

7. I used the movie translation tools with the Skype recorder app to produce a side-by-side video chat. This was loaded into Adobe Premiere Elements 11 for the Mac. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the translation or maybe importing it into Premiere which resulted in the sound and video being out-of-sync after only a few minutes into the conversation.  I was able to keep our introductions, but the remainder of the video would have to be manually re-synced bit by bit, (which would be painstakingly slow and tedious). My fix? To overlay still images & GIFs in place of the messed up video.

DS106Headless13_wk4

 To make it a little more visually interesting, I added the animated DS106 Radio GIF when we are playing an audio clip.

7.  chicken_2After the first draft was completed, Christina reminded me she had envisioned us including John Johnston’s Chicken Talk podcast material as intro and outro clips.  Boy did I amuse myself. I used the Mel Blanc and Sound Effect Man- Chicken Farm Song. Then one thing led to another and John’s B&W chicken GIF and his Red cartoon chicken GIF became once again stars in one of my videos [First appearance in Star Spangled… WHAT?!] The B&W movie studio chicken brings us in, and a duet with the B&W and the Red chicken take us out. I think it’s really funny! Although after looking at it again, I wish that I had flipped sides so they were singing to each other instead of back-to-back. (See update below.)

LouNChristina_Flag_38. Christina also noticed that our sound levels were unbalanced and at times she had difficulty hearing her comments when listening on her iPod earbuds.  Unfortunately, it would have been a HUGE piece of work for me to go back in and fix it for the video. I should have used the Levelator before I began the editing. This is a free software app that helps to balance the volume of a recorded conversation. It was recommended by John Johnston in his audio post Levelling up the LoDown . (The tip is about 3:30 minutes in.) I tried using it after the fact and it brought her volume up, but also the background hiss. It didn’t make it easier to hear her, so I left it as is.

9. The finishing touches required me to add two additional DS106 Radio bumpers at the beginning and end.  The first one is a mashup I created this summer.

The final bumper at the end of the podcast was produced by Ary Aranguiz.

10. But wait… there was more that wasn’t quite right…. an excerpt from an e-mail received while I was writing up this post.

The only thing I noticed is that when we switch to talking about Ary’s project, after we talked first about Stefanie’s, the wording gets a bit garbled and then jumps to “Ary”, then goes right into her sound effect story (at about 27:25). I expect this is the best that could be done with the fact that we had to cut something out! Just wanted to check that how it ended up is what you meant, as it seems a bit jumbled.

Oh, and I just listened to the end, b/c I hadn’t had a chance to do that yet, and your last words are: “I had fun…I will” and then it jumps to the music. Not sure if you wanted to end it there?

But hey…this does not have to be perfect, and I don’t want you to put any more work into this if you don’t feel it’s necessary…so feel free to say: Christina, it’s just fine as is!

And in the end… that I decided to NOT INDULGE MY PERFECTIONISTIC TENDENCIES and let these go is a good sign.  I’m getting more comfortable allowing myself to be seen in the world as a work in-progress, blemishes and all.

UPDATE: I tried…. I really tried to let it go.  But when I heard the HUGE error with Ary’s radio bumper accidentally playing over a part of our conversation – I HAD to fix it.  It turned out I had moved the bumper clear up to layer 8 while adjusting something else and forgot about it. The error was towards the end, and I hadn’t taken the time to listen to the entire 51 minute audio file before I posted it. Lesson learned? Either make my projects shorter or listen to the whole thing before I decide to release it to the public. I may’ve let it be played on DS106 Radio, but when Alan Levine decided to add it to the week 4 assignment page, so that future students could hear it, there was no way that mistake was going to remain for posterity.

Since I was going to edit the file anyway, I decided to fix the rest of what I could.

  • I essentially started over by separating the two audio tracks, which allowed me to boost Christina’s volume and apply a noise reduction filter to her audio only.
  • Alan Levine & John Johnston had recommended that I dial down the audio quality from 256k to 128k to reduce the file size.  John said he’ll even go as low as 94k.  My comfort level with the lower sound quality isn’t great, but I’m willing to listen to the voices of experience here.
  • Alan also suggested that I add meta data to the mp3 version so that when it plays on DS106 radio people will know what it is.
  • Remember my concerns about the length of the 51 minute audio file and where to post it? Once again Alan & John came to the rescue offering me advice on uploading the file via FTP to my own website and embedding that file into my blog post. I use Cyberduck for the upload and followed the directions for the Compact WordPress Audio/Music Player settings to get the cute little player button at the top of this post
  • What the heck… I flipped the chicken images too.  They are now singing their duet to one another.

Attributions & Links:

Ary Aranguiz- DS106 Radio Bumper 2 (The one accidentally inserted into the original version of this podcast.) https://soundcloud.com/ary-aranguiz/ds106-radio-bumper2

Rochelle’s sound effect story: [Headphones highly recommended] Spend a summer day at an island cabin in Northern Wisconsin. Wake up to the sounds of loons on the lake. Spend the day enjoying all the amenities that no running water or electricity can provide. Fall to sleep to the rumbling of a thunderstorm. And don’t get me started on the MOSQUITOES!

DS106zone Reflections – LouDown EP33

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LouDown_RockylouHey there!  Rockylou is back home and hosting what is most likely her last DS106zone LoDown – or the LouDown as I’m calling it now 😉 – since she took over the duties from ScottLo last week. I’ve enjoyed my time in this whirlwind 5 weeks of the DS106 Summer 2013 session. I’ve met a number of creative people and seen a lot of great projects that have inspired me to take my own projects to another level. Thank you everyone for playing with me.

In the spirit of sharing and collaboration that is so prevalent in DS106, this 33rd episode of the LoDown features highlights from the audio self-reflections of two UMW students, Claire Patrick and Kelli Wisbauer, and one open-onliner from Virgina Beach, Virgina, Bill Smith.  The background music was all my doing. I hope they don’t mind the ramblin’ feel to it all. It worked for me…

So what brought them here? What have they encountered? Why are they still here? Claire admits that her first week was a complete and utter failure. But she pulled herself together and Prof. Groom even congratulated her on being the come-back kid of DS106. Kelli had to get through a lot of hurdles and maybe even shed a tear or two. Her advice? Get help as soon as you can and start the work on Monday! Channeling the spirit of ScottLo – he really can’t leave us for good – Bill Smith recorded a “drive-by” for his introduction. What keeps him in DS106? The community that’s formed, the ability to experiment, and having a forum that’s open and supportive.

Unfortunately, two UMW students posted their self-reflection assignments too late for me to include in this episode #33 of the LoDown. (I do need to get some sleep, afterall.)  I want to highlight them just the same.

I’d also hoped to include a parody by Sean Placchetti who didn’t think he could stomach all the anticipated mushy stuff about DS106.  As a matter of fact, I created the parody assignment just for him.  Sean’s Parody – Chet Shamus

It’s been a blast. I hope to create and collaborate with some of you again in the future. This is Rockylou signing off from the DS106zone LouDown. #4life

CREDITS:

DS106Zone Audio Self-Reflections

Music:

 The How And Why Of Creating EP33

construction,under-128On EP32 of the DS106zone LoDown, Alan Levine talked about how it was just as meaningful to him to know why we chose to do something as well as how we did it. Since I’m not formally trained in this area, I do a lot of my work by intuition and trial & error. This project was no different. Here’s what went through my head producing this podcast.

The How & Why of LouDown #33

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On EP32 of the DS106zone LoDown, Alan Levine talked about how it was just as meaningful to him to know why we chose to do something as well as how we did it. Since I’m not formally trained in this area, I do a lot of my work by intuition and trial & error. This project was no different. I had three early posts of self-reflections that I could use as my base material. And as the case with anything I’ve created for this course, there was a very limited time-frame in which to finish the project. Here’s what went through my head producing DS106zone LoDown #33.

construction,under-128Kelli’s file provided a number of challenges. First off, she had forgotten to tell SoundCloud to allow downloads. But thanks to a tip from Christina Hendricks, I figured out how to use SoundFlower with my GarageBand software to record Kelli’s audio self-reflection directly onto my computer while I played it on-line. Unfortunately, I also had to deal with a sound level that was extremely low and there was a noticeable hum that only became more pronounced as I tried to boost the volume. I’d appreciate any advice on how to remedy this situation more easily than my trial and error attempts using various GarageBand effects until I found a combination that seemed to work well enough.

Once I had all three files loaded into GarageBand the real work began. As usual, I wanted more of a challenge than simply stringing the files together as-is. My initial attempts to have them commenting back and forth on similar themes didn’t work. So, I decided to stick with each person talking solo using soundbite length clips to tell their individual story instead.

Next, I wanted an audio background track. Sampling of stuff I had easily available on my computer lead me on a search for the right track in order to enhance the individual reflections and the overall theme/mood I wanted for the finished podcast. I tried various ambient sounds I had on hand recorded from my backyard, but none of them sounded right. Did I want serious? Did I want moody? Or Twilight Zone eerie? Oh my… some of those just didn’t work at all. The bluegrass, ramblin’ theme I finally chose came about because I had a few similar sounding music tracks from past projects that I knew worked together, and they fit well with the Rockylou-On-The-Road story arc I’d been using.

This is where I took a real risk. Instead of editing the small soundbite clips so that they gave the illusion of a natural continuos flow of conversation, (Which was going to be a particular challenge with both Kelli’s and Bill’s audio.) I opted to make each transition very obvious and pronounced. That lead me to going even a step further by synching the clips to the rhythm of the music. I like this effect here. There’s no trying to mask anything, and I feel it punctuates that these are the highlights. I’m curious as to how others perceive this staccato effect. Any and all comments are most welcome.

Next hurdle? Adding my intro narration. I wanted to use a soundtrack under my voice chosen from music I had personally recorded of my singing and playing guitar. Landslide is one of my signature songs. [Listen] The finger-picking style I use on my 12-string guitar lends itself well to the banjo picking of the other music used under the self-reflections. AND … this was one of those serendipitous bonuses I’ve talked about before…. the lyrics “I saw my reflection in a snow covered hill…” fit perfectly with the theme of the entire podcast. YIPPEE!!! As a matter of fact, if you listen close enough you can hear other lyrics match up with the speaker as well. Like when Claire talks about getting her act together the Landslide lyrics chime in with, “when children get older.” Cool, huh?

The placing of my narration and background music took some careful thought. I felt a need to break up and differentiate movement from one speaker to the next. But having narration as well as my music between each speaker, was too choppy and distracted the listener from the real purpose of the podcast – to hear the self-reflections of our class mates. I liked how Christina in Wednesday’s episode of the LoDown used background music in the beginning and end, and her solo voice with the personal narration in-between. That seemed to work well here too.

LouDown_RockylouSo that’s how LoDown podcast EP33 came to be. And while I still have you here…I’d like to learn more of the technical tools of creating a good podcast instead of relying so heavily on trial and error. I’m sure some of you can point me in the right direction. Thanks!

The Devil’s Hairground (EP:30)

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LouNAmberRockylou Productions will be guest hosting today’s LouDown EP:30, by giving the DS106zone participants an opportunity to listen to The Devil’s Hairground podcast referenced in past episodes of the LoDown [EP17 & EP23].

This is episode 4 of Amber’s Obruni (white person) adventures as an AFS exchange student to Takoradi, Ghana, Africa in 2000. In this first of a two part story reliving Amber’s arduous and humorous experience to an African beauty salon, you’ll meet the infamous ‘woman in blue pants’. Unfortunately, we don’t introduce the ‘antelope man’ until part 2, All’s Hair In Love And War. You can view photos and listen to the entire series of podcasts at: www.rockylouproductions.com/Obruni.html

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The DS106zone is about to come to an end with Prof. Groom posting his expectations for week 5 yesterday. What a great idea to have the audio self-reflection assignment as part of the final exam. I’m looking forward to getting to know the UMW students, and hopefully a few more of the open-onliners as well.

We have only 5 more episodes to go to make it to the originally planned 35. Tomorrow [EP31] Christina Hendricks will be guest hosting from Australia, and on Thursday [EP32] CogDog himself will be joining us once again. We’re not sure what will happen on Friday [EP33]. I’d personally enjoy highlighting some of the UMW self-reflections, but I’ll need you to post them by Wed. evening in order to produce a podcast for Friday.

On Saturday, [EP34] we have a very special guest host scheduled with a live broadcast on DS106 Radio. TalkyTina will be taking on the #pretenders, and all will be revealed.

Don’t miss LoDown 34’s live broadcast. Talky Tina Reveals All!

Calling All you #pretenderTinas

The Episode: LoDown #34
The Date: Saturday, June 22
The Event: @iamTalkyTina Takes on ALL #pretenderTinas

Submit your best #pretenderTinas Tina audio by 6 pm GMT Friday, June 21.
upload to: http://www.dropitto.me/iamTalkyTina password: pretenderTinas

Tune in for a LIVE LoDown Broadcast on #ds106radio on Saturday, June 22 (time TBA) to hear ME, the one and only @iamTalkyTina, take on all you bogus #pretenderTinas.

You won’t want to miss this event, as all will be revealed, and the TRUE identity of @iamTalkyTina will be made clear!

Both Eyes On You !! by iamtalkytina

Both Eyes On You !! by iamtalkytina

 

by
Mon, Jun 17 2013 19:40:31


Talky Tina Takes on the Pretenders

  1. IamTalkyTina

    Talky Tina@IamTalkyTina
    Calling All you #pretenderTinas wp.me/p3jUN7-8B

    Mon, Jun 17 2013 19:30:10

  2. IamTalkyTina

    Talky Tina@IamTalkyTina
    Photo: Calling All you #pretenderTinas The Episode: LoDown #34 The Date: Saturday, June 22 The Event:… tmblr.co/ZoTwfsnbhG7i

    Mon, Jun 17 2013 19:30:26

  3. IamTalkyTina

    Talky Tina@IamTalkyTina
    @scottlo @Rockylou22 @jimgroom Calling All you #pretenderTinas wp.me/p3jUN7-8B #ds106zone @techsavvyed @bennettscience @phb256

    Mon, Jun 17 2013 19:32:49

  4. IamTalkyTina

    Talky Tina@IamTalkyTina
    Calling All You #pretenderTinas wp.me/p3jUN7-8B #ds106zone @dkernohan @cogdog @clhendricksbc @DrGarcia @seanplacchetti @olHatchetJack

    Mon, Jun 17 2013 19:34:24

 

Rockylou On The Road (EP:29)

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LouNJohn_2Scottlo has totally disappeared now.  He’s not even posting to his Scottlo Radio Blog. Maybe he really has joined a guerilla sect in the Syrian civil war [EP27] and is arming rebel groups instead of arming us with his audio tips and tricks. How is it that Rockylou has become the “official” coordinator for the remainder of the LoDowns? CogDog has made some mention of Scottlo totally Tom Sawyering his way out of podcasting. Expect some smack-talk when Alan Levin takes the mic on Thursday’s episode 32 of the “Lou” Down. (Like the new thumbnail image?)

So…. Rockylou is hittin’ the road.  Yesterday  she was visiting with Scottlo over in Saudia Arabia [Ep28]. Today she’s chattin’ it up with John Johnston in Glasgow, Scotland.  And on Wednesday [Ep31], Christina Hendricks will be joining the LouDown from downunder in Melbourne, Australia.

A big thanks to DS106 open-onlinerJohn Johnston who was the first to respond to the call for volunteers to sign-up for a self-reflection chat with Rockylou.  You can listen to the 5 min highlights distilled from our conversation in his DS106 audio self-reflection.

Talk about serendipity…. John produces a regular podcast with his co-host David Noble on Edutalk (Educational Audio and the Home of Radio Edutalk) and shared some tips of the trade with this interviewing & podcasting newbie.

When all was said and done, we had a great “15 min” conversation.

  • While I was sitting outside Skyping from my grandson’s backyard as he played with his water table. [Tip: Use music or recorded ambient background audio to help mask the empty spaces left during editing.]
  • Our voice levels were surprisingly well balanced – NOT. [Tip: Use the Levelator software to adjust the audio levels when you have variations from one speaker to the next. John talks more about this on his blog post.]
  • Recording our conversation with a Skype add-on called Call Recorder. [Tip: Turn ON your recording software.  You never know how you might be able to use the audio file in the future.]

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You’re also welcome to sit in on our entire 40 min unedited chat.

Lo & The Lou LoDown on Self-Reflections: (EP:28)

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LoNLou_FadeAs scottlo fades into the airwaves and twitter feeds [EP:25] Rockylou has stepped up once again to fill in on the LoDown. Jim Groom and Mikhail Gershovich posited a number of theories yesterday in episode 27 for Scott’s sudden and unexplained departure – from joining a rebel group to getting a much deserved PAID gig with one of the big MOOCs.  But he hasn’t totally abandoned us. Thanks to the wonderful world of recorded audio, we’re able to listen in on a recent Skype chat between the Lo and the Lou to witness the birth of the audio self-reflection project.

Scott was concerned about the amount of work that it would take to produce and post the DS106 self-reflections. But, as I surmise in this previously recorded chat, I’ve only had three submissions so far, four if you count mine. Not a whole lot of work to do here.

So where are you all? We’d love to know who you are, how you found yourself in DS106, and why you’re still here.  Especially the UMW students in this insanely compressed 5 week summer course.  I’m making it easy.  You can send me a tweet @rockylou22 , fill out the contact form to submit your own 3-5 min audio file, or schedule a Skype chat with Rockylou.  You can even earn stars with AudioAssignments1119.

And, thanks to Sean’s twitter comments [Twitter Feed] there’s a new audio assignment [AudioAssignments1121] for those of you who can’t stomach all those glowing self-reflections about what’s so great about DS106. Have a little fun and make a parody by recording a 3-5 minute “self-reflection” from the point of view of a disgruntled student, teacher, or open-onliner, etc.  Start by creating an obviously fictitious name and location, then let ‘er rip.  Maybe use a different voice, and some strange background music.  Provide a thumbnail image that will grab the reader’s attention when they scroll down the list.  Here’s an example of a self-reflection you can poke fun at.   

  • Kudos to Jennifer for the DS106 bumper introducing this episode.
  • Link to mentioned animated GIF of DJ’s Daddy
  • Links to mentioned Rockylou & Amber interviews on the LoDown (EP17, EP23)
  • DS106 Mashup at the end created by yours truly. 

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