Introductory Sound Recording and Editing Exercise (“sample.mp3”)

Successful completion of this exercise demonstrates that you’re familiar with the digital recording & editing techniques you’ll need to create mp3’s for artworks such as a sound installation, Flash Animations, the “Song Imagery” project, time lapse animations etc.

With one to 3 partners, create a 30-60 second MP3 file in Adobe Audition. Save often as Sample name name 1 name2.mp3 in your AWT4/Sound folder (name1, name2 etc. are of course your names. The content should be fun – lots of effects etc., but the listener must be able to hear and understand what’s going on. It should have these features:

• Use the default new file settings in the Edit Wave view of Audition: 44,000 samples per second, stereo, 16 bit
• Your names must be spoken, each by its owner
• Tell a riddle. The “question”’s pitch should be raised, with the answer lowered
• Create your own “canned laughter” (as a reaction to the riddle). Record yourselves laughing for a few seconds. Then copy and MIX PASTE on top of the original, but staggered a bit in time, so the laughs aren’t all at the same moments. BETTER: copy the laughter and paste into a new file. Then slightly stretch the time and alter the pitch. Then copy and Mix Paste back on top of the original laughter. Do this a few times with different stretches and pitches, and it should start sounding like a whole roomful of wildly amused people! You could also try adding echo or reverb , or even reversals, but don’t let it get so muddy that it doesn’t sound like laughter.
• Record a brief segment of spoken word content from any Internet site. Repeat little syllables of it a few times, just like Max Headroom. (Who?!)
• Record about 15 seconds of music from an Ipod (borrow one if you need to – you need to know how to do this).
• Fade in over the first 3 seconds.
• Do a Gliding Stretch of the last 10 seconds, so that both its pitch and time slow way down to nothing, like a dying record player (a what?!)
• Add whatever dazzling content you want over top of and after the music – maybe a farewell from your group with special effects.

Don’t know how? That’s what the web instructions are for!