Tag Archives: AudioAssignments36

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.

Bumping The LoDown

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What better way to show my appreciation than create a series of radio show bumpers for my teacher.

Scott Lo hosting the LoDown for DS106 this summer

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AudioAssignments36 to create a DS106 Radio Bumper

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HAPPY STUDENT improving her audio storytelling skills

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5 different LoDown bumpers for Scott to use freely on his radio show and blog posts

What is a bumper? It is a short recording that identifies the radio station with signature music or an expression that makes sure the listeners know what they are tuned into.

Lo DownThere’s no mistaking that you know where you are and where you’re tuned into with this set of bumpers.  I used as my foundation a single voice track that I recorded while in the grocery store parking lot with a new iPhone app, Recordium, that I downloaded yesterday at the recommendation of Scott on LoDown episode 12.  Then the real fun began …….

I’ve been experimenting lately with how a soundtrack can drastically change the mood of the media project I’m working with. A few months back I was creating a photo slideshow for a friend, and it was amazing how the flow of images, and our decision to add title text or not, was altered by the choice of music.  I’m able to illustrate that effect at some level with this set of bumpers.  The spoken audio remains the same, just new music underneath.

I had plans to really show this effect by adding a soundtrack that was silly or comedic. But sadly, couldn’t find an audio file in my stock list of jingles and stingers in GarageBand that fit the bill.  I’m still giggling though at finding the Medal Ceremony (LoDown3) and Broadcast News (LoDown 5) clips.  I hope Scott will be just as amused and want to use them for DS106 Audio Week. 😉 I’d highly recommend anyone who hasn’t worked with soundtracks to try something like this.  You gain a whole new understanding and appreciation for the emotional power of sound.

One last note: I’m sure most of us have run up against the powers that be and have had issues with YouTube or Facebook taking down our videos (or highjacking them by adding product advertisements – grrrrr)  because of Copyright Infringement.  My way of addressing this from the beginning is to use the Vimeo Music Store to locate tracks I can use legally without question. You can even create custom tracks that perfectly fit your videos.  It’s a great resource and there is a lot there. There are free creative commons, $1.99 personal use licenses, and $20+ commercial use licenses available.   I’ll test a tracks suitability and mood by having two windows open on my computer, one playing the slideshow the other playing the music file on Vimeo.  Then when I find something I like, I pay the $1.99 just like on iTunes, and download it. Check it out.

[Other Radio Bumper projects I’ve completed: Obruni Podcasts, Mashing for DS106 Radio)]

 

Mashing a DS106 Radio Bumper

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Thanks to my fellow DS106 students who made sure they clicked on the “Allow Downloads” button in SoundCloud, I was able to mash this DS106 Radio bumper.  It’s short and sweet, just like this post. AudioAssignments36

Big kudos to my unsuspecting contributors….

Dylan Gott – Brooke Parker –  Kristen Lamb – Jennifer  – Rapt’nRent

ds106.ioAnimatedNewOldFriend_290

Podcast Bumpers for Obruni Series

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For an earlier audio assignment to create a 90sec story out of at least 5 sound effects, I used sound effects that I already had on hand from a series of podcasts I am producing with my daughter, Amber. As before, I’m again making a slight tweak on the formal assignment description for DS106 Audio Assignment 36, “Create A Ds106 Radio Bumper”.

What is a bumper? It is a short recording that identifies the radio station with signature music or an expression that makes sure the listeners know what they are tuned into.

It’s still a bumper, but for a podcast, not DS106 Radio. There are three different audio files posted in the series.

Track 1: “Intro Music RLProductions” is used like an abbreviation or I what I like referring to as an Audio Icon for anything associated with Rockylou Productions. I’ll digress just a minute hear to say that I know I’m mentioning Rockylou Productions  often in my posts. I’m not trying to promote myself, this just happens to be my personal playground of creativity where I spend much of my free time, and I have material I can easily pull from to complete the assignments in a more compressed time frame.  I then have time to create tutorials for the assignments that can help others.

Back to your regularly scheduled program…….

The Audio Icon is used at the beginning as part of the intro and at the very end.  We also use this chord as part of the final credit sequence for some of our videos. It was made by recording myself playing a simple “D” chord on my 12 string guitar.  Then I used GarageBand to layer 5 different tracks by playing around with different effects. It was a fun morning putting that together.  I just kept trying this or that, until I stumbled across a combination that I felt was memorable.

GarageBand screen shot of the layered tracks for the Rockylou Productions "Audio Logo".

GarageBand screen shot of the layered tracks for the Rockylou Productions “Audio Logo”.

Track 2: “Obruni Bumper Start” is an example of the template and style we use for our intro.  The chord plays to let you know that you’ve arrived.  Then I welcome the listener and give a short introduction of the podcast they are about to hear.  We want this to be short, but descriptive enough to grab the listener’s attention and they’ll want to keep on listening.

Track 3: “Obruni Bumper End” is an example from another podcast in the series, “Transportation”. But the format is always the same.  At the end of the spoken text of the story I increase the volume of the soundtrack that we have associated with the Obruni podcasts.(See note.) I then fade in the the audio credits – like who it was written by, an attribution for the soundtrack music, and anything else that may be needed. At the very end you hear the familiar Rockylou Productions chord strum that lets the listener know we have now “left the building”.

Note: I had to track down the publishers to obtain written permission to use the Fanti music, Apatampe, so that I wouldn’t infringe on copyright issues.  It took some digging, but I finally found the publishers and they were very nice about it.  As long as I included an attribution and I didn’t use it for commercial purposes, it was fine to use for my projects.