Category Archives: Audio Assignments

Audio Tweet

Why didn’t I think of this? The Audio Tweet?

I was already using the tools that Scott Lo uses to make audio tweets. It is pretty simple. Use Voice Record Pro app to record an audio message 2.5 minutes long or less. Add a catchy graphic and background music. Save the recording as a video to the camera roll (photos) on the iPad. Post the video to Twitter. Call it an Audio Tweet. So simple!

The one missing piece for me was adding in the desired graphic. I did not realize how simply done this is. I have made videos out of the audio recordings and posted them to YouTube. Below are a couple of such videos I have made. But I used default graphics, not realizing how you can “roll” your own graphic such as Scott Lo did in his tweet.

 

Ladiocast

The latest addition to my array of software is Ladiocast, which I installed on the iMac this morning. I had already installed iShowU Audio Capture from another project I’ve worked on – setting up OBS.

I also set up an iPad with the Pocket Streamer app and it works great!

These tools should allow me to stream audio from my iMac to the DS106rad.io server for the DS106 Radio Show. I referred once again to CogDog’s Rube Goldberg Machine documentation for settings on connecting to that server.

Next on my list of things to master is building an Icecast server of my own to experiment with. That might be taking things a little too far since DS106rad.io is a perfectly functional server. My only thought on that is if I want to experiment, sometimes I have to wait my turn because so many broadcasters have returned to using it during the Covid-19 pandemic.

ESC: Sonic Adventure in the Anthropocene

ESC: Sonic Adventure in the Anthropocene

https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/rx913r17x?locale=en

a work of experimental audio-based scholarship combining sound studies, radio history, and environmental criticism. This unique project is a fully open access, fully digital suite of audiographic essays, presented as a ten-part podcast series, combining spoken commentary, clips from classic radio dramas, excerpts from films and television shows, news reports, and the work of contemporary sound artists.

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head

 

Today’s Daily Create was to make a mashup. I decided to do one of music and an image. Then I decided to record my own music and use my own photograph. My New Year’s resolution was to make more things and write more on my blog, so this post is a daily create activity that sort of got out of hand. Daily Creates are typically done in 10-15 minutes or so, but this one took considerably more than that. But that’s ok. That’s the whole idea of doing daily creative activities. Sometimes it leads to something more substantial.

I used an app on my iPad called Voice Record Pro by Dayana Networks. I love this app. It is the Swiss Army Knife of audio recording apps. I sometimes use it in my Hardware and Networking class to demonstrate the concept of a server. Voice Record Pro is so versatile, it includes a web server feature that turns your iPad into a web server so you can easily download your recordings. There are about a dozen other ways to get your files as well. For example, you can upload directly to YouTube in video form, you can send it to your other Apple devices via AirDrop (my favorite way). If you are a user of Apple devices and don’t use AirDrop you are missing out. It is the simplest of ways to transfer files from one device to another but only works on Apple products.

I recorded the ukelele part, then I recorded myself singing as well and mixed these files together in Adobe Audition. I think when I get more confidence, I’ll play and sing at the same time. Finally, I brought the audio into Adobe Premiere and added some pictures and simple animations to be rendered as a video that I then uploaded to YouTube.

New Year’s Still Life 2019

My daughter has been asking me to paint with her. I finally made some time for painting over the New Year’s holiday. We set up a still life of objects we found from around the house. We put an ordinary desk lamp above it for lighting. Here is a photo of the items we found.

My daughter is working with acrylic paints and I have been using watercolors.

First, I suggested we make sketches as a warmup activity. Here is my sketch.

Then I painted a first draft painting. Here is my first draft.

I did two more iterations of the same still life arrangement. Each time I zoomed in the focus of my attention a little more. Here is my second painting

 

‘See how my strokes are bolder and more confident this time? I left out some of the details.

Finally, here is my third painting. I was interrupted in the middle of making this one. It is a lot more free than the first two.

Today’s Daily Create calls for making a composition using the Rule of Thirds. I typically have this rule in the back of my mind whenever I am making drawings or photographs although it varies on how closely I adhere to it.

Out of the three paintings, I think still life number two most closely follows the rule of thirds.

 

Bathroom On The Right

When I was a kid, most of the music we listened to came to us from the radio. There was no internet and no album jackets with song lyrics, we just relied completely on our ears. When I got older and started buying records and tapes, I was finally able read the words to the songs I listened to. Now, with the internet, almost any song’s lyrics are just a Google search away.

One thing that sometimes happened to me when I listened to music is that I would mis-hear (and mis-sing along with) favorite songs. Evidently I am not the only one this has happened to, because there is a website called Kiss This Guy. Kiss This Guy is named after a famous mis-heard lyric from the Jimi Hendrix song. The actual lyric is ‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky, but plenty of people heard ‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy.

So, without further adieu, here is my favorite misheard lyric: There’s a Bathroom on the Right, by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Process:

First, I submitted this assignment to the DS106 Assignment Bank. Then, I recorded the song Bad Moon Rising off of an old CCR cassette tape into Audacity. I edited the song down to just include the intro and the refrain. I recorded my daughter & I singing the misheard lyrics, “there’s a bathroom on the right.” Then we edited the two tracks together. I saved to an MP3 and published the piece on Soundcloud.