Media Exercise 5

Basic Audio Recording and Editing (Due: Feb. 12)

Task

This media exercise is intended to familiarize you with basic audio editing in Audacity and to challenge you creatively.
The task is to create a 30 second audio piece that represents the beginning of a pretend podcast show on a topic of your choice. In other words, imagine that you are creating an audio podcast series, and then create the first 30 seconds of one of your shows for the imagined series.

Your audio piece should include audio elements from at least three of the following sound categories:

Voice (e.g. spoken word, dialogue)
Sound Effects (distinguishable sounds such as a door slam, foot steps, cat meow, etc.)
Background (ambiance sounds, such as being in an office, a crowd, a forest, a school yard, etc.)
Music (any genre)

At least one of the audio elements you include should be created and recorded by you.
At least one of the audio elements you include should be an audio asset that is available online for people to use for noncommercial purposes. (See below for a list of "PodSafe Audio Resources" to help you find this kind of audio.)
Use Audacity to mix and edit your audio. You can also use Audacity to record voice, but this is not required.
Your audio piece should be exactly 30 seconds long. It is OK if it ends abruptly in midstream or fades out.
You may NOT use any audio elements that are protected by copyright that you do not have explicit permission to use.

To create your audio piece, review and refer to these Audacity Tutorial and Help Resources. You are encouraged to record multiple takes if and as needed to get a clean recording, and to pay close attention to your audio edits.
When you are done editing your audio piece, export your audio as an mp3 file.
Upload your mp3 file to a server. If you do not currently have access to a server, you will need to set this up. The College of Information provides CI students with server space on iSpace that you can use. Go to All About iSpace for instructions. You can also contact the CI iTec Help Desk for assistance with iSpace: 850-644-8108 or help@ci.fsu.edu.
Create a blog post that contains the following elements:

Use the title of your imagined podcast series as the title for the blog post.
Include a short description of your imagined podcast series, and a brief description of the sound elements used in the piece.
Include a link to your audio file.
Directly under the link to your audio file, provide a Creative Commons License. To do this, follow the instructions at Creative Commons: Choose a License, and copy the html provided by Creative Commons into the "Code" window of your blog post.
If applicable: Under your Creative Commons License, include a list of "Credits" that gives attribution information for any audio assets you used that were created by someone else. Typically, this information will include a person's name (or username) and the name of their audio file; it may also include a link to the audio file.
Categorize your post under "Media Projects".
Check your post to make sure it is formatted correctly and that your audio file plays correctly. Edit the post as necessary.

Submit the assignment in Blackboard by going to Blackboard > Assignments > Media Exercise 5. Click "View/Complete Assignment" and provide the URL to your blog post in the Comments Box.