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CONTENTS
RADIO-BASED LEARNING.3
DIY RADIO.4
THE WORKSHOP
1.POETRY AND SOUND.52.INTERVIEW, OPINION AND
EXPRESSION: IN THE NEWS ROOM..7
3.EDIT ROOM.8SOURCES
1.POETRY..102.SOUND.10
APPENDIX
1.NATIONAL CURRICULUM GUIDELINESMET BY DIY RADIO13
2.LESSON PLANS.153.USING A RECORDING DEVICE.204.GUIDE TO USING AUDACITY 20
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RADIO-BASED LEARNING
A nationwide lack of information and resources relating to radio-based
learning means that teachers are not able to use radio-based learning
methods that would otherwise furnish students with skills that are
useful during a students time at school (inside and outside the
classroom) and in their future careers.
We have created a series of class exercises that use radio production,
presentation, interview and discussion techniques to promote speaking
and listening skills amongst Key Stage 3 and other age groups. In
addition, the project will equip participants with transferable radio
production skills that will improve their capacity to contribute to new
media platforms inside and outside of their school life.
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DIY RADIO
DIY Radio comprises of three half-day exercises: Poetry and Sound,
Interview, Opinion and Expression: In the News Room and Edit
Room.
The first exercise is based around a poem. Students use the poem as a
source material for different exercises that include a discussion of the
poem, reciting and recording parts of the poem, listening back and
discussing delivery, re-recording with improved delivery and finally
choosing lines from the poem to illustrate with abstract sounds, gathered
from the school environment.
The second exercise is based around an event from current affairs.
Students are presented with a news story in print, which they read aloud.
Key themes are discussed and the groups use the news story as the basis
of a radio news bulletin. Students establish different characters - eg
anchor, interviewer, interviewee - and act out and record a news report.
The third exercise will conclude a technical training that takes place in the
first two exercises. Students will have already been trained how to use
recording devices and will take their recordings and edit them with
Audacity software. Primarily time will be spent creating a singe sound
poem from the first exercise.
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THE WORKSHOP
1. POETRY AND SOUND
(i) The first part involves reading.
Read some popular tongue twisters:
Unique New York, unique New York
You really need unique New York
Fluffy, Floppy, Puppy
Fresh fried fish, fresh fried fish, fresh fried fish
Red leather/lorry, yellow leather/lorry, red leather/lorry, yellow lorry
She sells seashells on the seashore
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; If Peter Piper picked a peck
of picked peppers, where is the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper
picked?
A proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee cup
The tip of the tongue, the teeth and the lips
This exercise is designed to get students excited and thinking creatively about
speaking.
Try reading some phonetic poetry.
We had great success using the Loch Ness Monster song by Edwin
Morgan. There is a recording of the poem being read by Morgan here:
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=1683
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(ii) The second part involves listening.
Select some sound clips from radio, television or make your own
recordings. Play them to the class and ask them to write down what they
think the recordings describe.
Examples of the kinds of recordings that can be used in this exercise
are available in the sound pack attached to this resource.
This exercise is designed to get students thinking about how they listen and
the ways in which sound describes the world.
(iii) The third part involves discussion of delivery.
Hand out the chosen poem. Let students read through individually
and discuss the key themes as a class.
Line the class up and assign a line to each student. Record the class
reading the poem in this way. Listen back and discuss the reading:
how was it successful and how can it be improved.
Lead the class through a discussion of the core concepts of speaking
and listening, including pitch, tone, rhythm and speed.
Illustrate these concepts by reading though passages of the poem
with emphasis on these concepts.
e.g. by reading a verse quickly in a high pitch, the delivery
sounds excited. Use similar examples to illustrate how the core
concepts are related.
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Again, line up the class and record them delivering a line each. Make
sure this time the delivery is clear, well pitched and in time. These
recordings will be used later for the sound poem.
(iv) The fourth part involves illustration.
Split the class into groups. Assign each group a verse. Ask each
group to locate as many words in the poem that they think could be
illustrated with a sound. Ask them to circle these words and write
next to them how they might make a sound that matches this word
using the available sound sources.
2. INTERVIEW, OPINION AND EXPRESSION:
IN THE NEWS ROOM
This exercise requires a selection of articles taken from current affairs. Split
the class into groups, with at least five people per group. Assign each
group an article. Get each group to discuss each news story and to identify
different voices in the article.
Good journalism should include a number of different opinions;
encourage your students to respond personally to the article and then
to identify how the journalist has presented a variety of opinions in
the article.
When you have identified at least three different points of view, ask
students to adopt the role of anchor, interviewer, or interviewee. They will
then act out a radio news bulletin, by creating questions and answers for
the interviewer and interviewees, as well as scripting an introduction for
the anchor.
Record the final piece as one single recording, to further create a
sense of what it is like to make live radio.
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If possible, try and have the news article projected on a wall and invite
groups into the room individually. Try and create the sense of being in a
newsroom, pushing the students to make quick decisions when distilling
the essence of the article and rehearsing their different parts.
3. EDIT ROOM
The third part of the workshop involves editing together a sound poem
from the recordings made during the Sound and Poetry exercise. Please
refer to the Audacity User Guide in the index for instructions on how to use
Audacity.
In order to make this part of the workshop as fluent ass possible for the
students, we recommend that project leaders edit down the raw
recordings and label them. For example, locate individual sound effects
and trim them, labelling them clearly. For ease of location, group sound
effects for each verse in a folder of the same name. Do the same for
recordings of each verse of the poem.
Upload the edited recordings to the shared network. Ask the
students to find their verse and open it inside Audacity. Ask the
students to listen to their recordings again.
Then go through the basics of audacity, using the guide provided.
When the students seem confident using the software, ask them to
upload the relevant sound effects and place them alongside the part
of the spoken recording that they refer to. This is done using the
time shift tool, which is a double arrow located in the cursor
toolbar.
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When students have done this, ask them to ensure volume levels are
correct.
Students who complete this task in good time can do the same for all
verses.
Encourage them to experiment with different edits and also by using
the effects located in the effects menu of Audacity. By selecting an area
of the recording, then clicking on Effects from the main toolbar you
will be able to make lots of different kinds of changes to the originalrecording.
Once you have finished this exercise for every verse, export the
individual verses as mp3s. These can then be uploaded into Audacity
again, in order to make a single long recording of all the verses. Once
you have completed this, play back the final sound poem to the class.
It can be burnt onto CD and given to the students to take home.
This completes the workshop.
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SOURCES
1. POETRY
It is important that the poem you choose has images that can easily be
illustrated with sounds found in the school environment. Here are a few that
we have had success with in the pilot scheme:Benjamin Zephaniah Overstanding
Benjamin Zephaniah Nature Trail
Alan Albergh Please Mrs Butler
2. SOUND
When sourcing sounds to illustrate poems, nearly all kinds of materials can be
used. For example:
A piece of paper placed against the back of the grill of a fan accuratelysimulates the sound of bees or dragonflies buzzing.
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Submerging an old shampoo bottle submerged in a bucket of water is
useful to portray an underwater environment.
Crinkling different kinds of paper can be used to simulate footsteps
through different kinds of environments.
It is also useful to think about how abstract sounds can convey emotions.
A slow, descending tone can be used to portray disappointment.
A fast rhythm beat on a drum can be used to convey excitement.
These kinds of aural effects all add to the ambience of the sound poem; using
such metaphors encourage students to think deeply about the meaning of
language and the potential of non-verbal languages, such as sounds and
music.
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APPENDIX
1. NATIONAL CURRICULUM GUIDELINES MET BY DIY
RADIO
Relating directly to curriculum opportunities that should be provided in the
course of developing pupils speaking and listening skills:
The curriculum should provide opportunities for pupils to:
Experiment with a range of approaches, produce different outcomes and
play with language.
Speak and listen in contexts beyond the classroom.
(Taken from http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-3-and-
4/subjects/key-stage-3/english/programme-of-study/index.aspx?tab=2)
Relating directly to the range and content of activities that enhance speaking
and listening skills:
The range of speaking and listening activities should include:
Describing, instructing, narrating, explaining, justifying, persuading,
entertaining, hypothesising; and exploring, shaping and expressing
ideas, feelings and opinions.
(Taken from http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-3-and-
4/subjects/key-stage-3/english/programme-of-study/index.aspx?tab=2)
Relating directly to the key processes in developing speaking and listening
skills:
Pupils should be able to:
Listen and respond constructively to others, taking different views into
account and modifying their own views in the light of what others say.
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Make different kinds of relevant contributions in groups, responding
appropriately to others, proposing ideas and asking questions.
Take different roles in organising, planning and sustaining talkin groups.
Sift, summarise and use the most important points.
(Taken from http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-3-and-
4/subjects/key-stage-3/english/programme-of-study/index.aspx?tab=2)
Relating directly to radio based learning:
To participate fully in a technology-driven society, young people must
develop the practical skills to use technology confidently and productively.
[Young people] should have opportunities across the curriculum to use
technology to personalise learning, so they can work at different times, in
different places and with a wider audience.
(Taken from http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-3-and-4/cross-
curriculum-dimensions/technologymedia/index.aspx)
Relating directly to the key concepts from the National Curriculum for English,
which are creativity, competence, critical understanding and cultural
understanding:
Using inventive approaches to making meaning, taking risks, playing with
language and using it to create new effects.
Using creative approaches to answering questions, solving problems and
developing ideas.
(Taken from http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-3-and-
4/subjects/key-stage-3/english/programme-of-study/index.aspx?tab=2)
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Relating directly to radio based learning:
To participate fully in a technology-driven society, young people must
develop the practical skills to use technology confidently and
productively.
[Young people] should have opportunities across the curriculum to use
technology to personalise learning, so they can work at different times, in
different places and with a wider audience.
(Taken from http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-3-and-4/cross-
curriculum-dimensions/technologymedia/index.aspx)
2. LESSON PLANS
The following lesson plans are included only as guidelines.
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Times Activities
9:45 9:55 Sit down.
Register/Stickers
9:55 10:05 Explain purpose of day and agenda
Starter Exercise: Tongue Twisters
10:05 10:20 Poetry & SoundIntroduce first exercise.
Play sound recordings/ Performance poets
Loch Ness recording?
10: 20 10:30 Hand out poem and do a preliminary read through
Discuss pitch, tone, speed. How can we tell if someone is happy/sadsimply from hearing them speak?
Play Tone examples
10:30 - 10:45 Play recording of Benjamin Zephaniah reading
In pairs, read through poem together concentrating on pitch, tone, pace
10: 45 11:00BREAK
11:00
11:15
Repeat twice with two different pieces of music asbackground.
11:15 11: 30
Introduce the Edirol/Zoom recorder.
Demonstrate functions/recording
Title: DIY Radio LESSON NO: 1/2!
Class:
Key Stage:Teacher:!
No. in Group:
SEN:EAL:
Learning Objectives
By the end of this session, pupils will be able to:
Consider how to use sound to illustrate or accentuate the spoken word. Consider how to use interview techniques to gather and present knowledge.
Resources
Headphones
Edirol Recorders
Poem - PHOTCOPIES
Newspaper Cuttings
Instruments for sound making
Paper for writing
Key Concepts &Terms
Pitch
Tone
Pace
Interview
Found Sounds
Date:
Period:Room:
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positioning/spatiality/interference
Examples of bad recordings to play.
Make 2 recordings;
1- noisy, no pop screen, background noiseEVALUATE
2- quiet, pop screen, headphones on.
11:30 11:55
Read poem back as group in a circle with each persondoing a separate line? RECORD
Play back to group Evaluate what works / doesn !t work
Re- record to make better.
11:55 - 12:10 Discuss accentuating words with sounds.
Play sound examples students to write down what they hear
12:10 12:20 Sounds in the poem
I, Pair, Share:1 minute for individual thinking,
2 minutes in pairs, group questioning for what sounds could be used to
give emphasis to words/sentences in the poems.
Share back to group.
12:20 1:00 Place into pre-arranged groups
Allocate section of poem
Write down sounds to record
30 minutes to record sounds (out of classroom?)
Return recorders (remember numbers)
If finished listen back to recordings and check clarity etc
1: 00 1:40
LUNCH
1:40 2: 00
Interview, Opinion and Expression
Introduce interview exercise.
In groups, students are given an envelope with a news cutting inside.
Group to read news cutting first quietly in their group, then quick
description of subject to wider group.
2:00 2:10 PLAY recordings of interview examples
Discuss and demonstrate interview techniques.
One person at a time Microphone movement
Open/closed questions?
2:10 2:40 In groups, students to decide and write down (MINDMAP)
Who are the characters?
Who is asking the questions? (This could be more than 1 person)
What questions are you asking?
What might your answers be, in character?
TS and TB to go around groups and discuss possible methods of
questioning.
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2:40 3:20 Recorders handed out, students to record their interviews.
3:20 3:30 Students to return to room
Pack away equipment
3:30 Leave
Differentiation
All will be able toconsider recording and applying found sounds and to ask questions
on a given subject.
Most will be able to consider questioning and vocal techniques to acquire informationand apply found sounds to the spoken word
Some will be able to consider complex questioning, vocal manipulation, character
development and in-depth understanding of applying found sound to the spoken word.
Homework
Listen to the radio news and consider the questions asked and the responses people
give.
Questions and Questioning Strategies
I, Pair, ShareLollipop Questioning
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Times Activities
TBC Sit down.
Register
Starter Exercise: Recap on key words from previous lesson.
Open up Audacity
Demonstrate basic editing in Audacity. Cut, crop, splice, loop, effects etc.
Students to practice on test audio files.
Students to open up sound recordings from previous day and listen to
them in full.
Edit and splice recordings of poem and news eventstogether.
On board, demonstrate exporting of files to mp3. Students to export own
files and save back to folder.
Plenary: Keywords on BoardPlayback mp3 files.
2 stars 1 wish: evaluation per group
Students must include keywords in their evaluation
Students to log out of computers + pack away any equipment
Leave
Title: DIY Radio LESSON NO: 2/2!Class:
Key Stage:Teacher:!
No. in Group:
SEN:EAL:
Learning Objectives
By the end of this session, pupils will be able to:
Critically evaluate recordings through listening.Resources
Dedicated folder + sound files on system
HeadphonesDouble headphone jacks
Audacity ResourceHard drive
Key Concepts &
Terms
EditingEvaluation
DifferentiationAll will have listened back to their recordings and identified elements to edit out.
Most will have evaluated the recordings and edited one recording down
Some will have evaluated the recordings and edited down and spliced both recordings
together.
Date:
Period:
Room: Computer Room +
Interactive White board/Pro ector!
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4. AUDACITY USER GUIDE
Audacity can be downloaded for free from:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
3. USING A RECORDING DEVICE
There are many different kinds of recording devices. Whichever one you
choose to use, the following rules should be kept in mind.
Before recording, test the levels with headphones. This can usually be
done by pressing the record button of the device once (so it will flash)
and adjusting the input level. Make sure that the black bar, which
indicates the volume of the recording, fills up no more than three
quarters of the screen.
Record a sample of the ambient sound and listen back to ensure there
is no obscuring sound such as air conditioning units, or nearby
roads, that will interfere with your recording.
Always record in a quiet space.
Hold the recorder about a foot from the sound source.
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Using AudacityControl Panel buttonsRecording
EditingAdjusting volume using the Envelope ToolApplying EffectsPersonalising your recordingSaving/exporting
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Control tool bar Input device Meter toolbar Mixer toolbar
!Sample rate
Audacity upon first opening the software.
Control toolbarThe icons on this toolbar work exactly like a video, CD or audio-cassette recorder.
Record initiates the recording of an audio filePause temporarily stops the recording or playback. This is useful if yourecord one part of your Podcast and then want to prepare yourself for thenext section. To restart the recording press the pause button again.
Stop ends the recording or playback. This must be done before anyfurther editing is carried out.
Play plays back a recording. (Holding Shift will play in a continuous loop)Forward skip skips to the end of the recording or to a position where thecursor is placed.
Backskip skips to the beginning of the recordingThe Cursor This is a very useful tool that can be used to select a certainposition in a recording or selecting a sample of the recording to be edited.Well look at, this in more detail, shortly.
The only other feature that is important at this stage is the input device you are using. If youclick the drop-down arrow you will see a list of four options, we need to select the input. Wewill be using the Microphone / importing Media File to make voice recordings.
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Considering recording conditionsWhen making a recording you should bear in mind that the microphone will pick up most of thebackground sound occurring close by during that time. Here are some tips to consider:
1. Background noise: the recording will pick up other sounds made in the room includingother people talking, machine noise and telephone rings! Try to avoid this it is best torecord in a quiet and secluded room. Possible with a do not disturb or Recording Silence Please! notice on the door.
2. Microphone position, the microphone doesnt have to be too close to your mouth, as ittends to pick up noises like your breathing, plus the recording tends to be too loud if themicrophone is too close.
However, when making a recording try to keep the microphone at a constant distance
from your mouth because varying the distance changes the volume of the recording. Thisis helped by the use of a headset that has a microphone attached.
3. Try to do all the recordings for a particular Podcast on the same computer as differentmachines tend to have different ambient sounds which will vary through the recording ifnot done on the same machine.
Start recording with the computer microphoneBefore you start recording, here are a few last-minute checks: (i) check your microphone isplugged in! (ii) that the input is set to microphone and finally (iii) the sample rate is set at44100Hz (this can be altered, but this comes recommended). Then press record and startspeaking. As you talk, you will know it is working because a sound wave trace of yourvoice is produced on-screen. The other thing you may notice is that the meter toolbar willmove to the fluctuations of your voice, and finally the Timer Positions at the bottom of thescreen will be counting. Some of these features can be seen in fig 3.
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At this stage its a good idea to listen to your recording. Right now we are interested in thesound quality. If you think it is too loud, you can adjust the record volume level by movingthe tab on the microphone section of the Mixer Toolbar (fig 4). Its a good idea to adjustthis until it is at a level that you consider acceptable.
What if I make a mistake when recording?When making a recording it can be frustrating if you say the wrong thing or make a mistake,especially if you are doing a lengthy recording, because you might think youll need topstart again. This is not the case, as I can recommend a simple step-by-step guide toovercome it, which I have outlined in fig 5.
1. Dont panic.2. Be silent for about 3 seconds. This produces a flat-line in the sound wave which you can
use to identify the mistake later.
3. If you require time to compose yourself click on the pause button again to continuerecording.
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4. Then continue by repeating the section leading up to the mistake and carrying on withthe correct dialogue.
You can remove the mistake, on completion of the recording. Once youve clicked stop listento the section in which you made the mistake to decide exactly which part needs to be removed.
This may take a few attempts.
Once you have decided which part needs to be removed from the recording, use the cursor tohighlight the section, as seen in fig 6. This is done by left clicking the mouse at the start of thesection, then, whilst holding down the left mouse button moving the cursor along the requiredsection until you reach the point in the section, which you want removed.
Then to remove this section of the recording press the Delete key on your keyboard and thesound wave will realign itself as shown in fig 7, thus shortening the length of the recording bythe amount of time removed.
What if I want to add some more dialogue to my recording?If you have made a recording, and after listening back, and you feel that you might have missed
something out, simply click record again. This will open a secondAudio Trackas seen in fig 8.Then talk through the section you want inserted, and select stop when completed.
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To place this newly recorded Audio Track into position desired, within the recording, use theTime Shift tool found in the Control toolbar.
This is done using the following steps:
1. Position the cursor line at the point in the recording where the second recording will fit in,shown in fig 9.
2. Then go to the Edit menu bar and select the split option. This creates a small gap inthe recording as shown in fig 10.
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3. Using the Time Shift tool hold the cursor over the new audio track recording, click andhold down the left mouse button and move the recording to a position where the start ofit id aligned with the split as shown in fig 11.
4. Finally do the same with the sound wave to the right of the split in the first Audio Track.Using the Time Shift tool, positioning it at the end of the recording in the second audiotrack, as shown in fig 12. The recording will now play back seamlessly with the newrecording section inserted.
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Use the Envelope tool to adjust volume on tracks/parts of tracks
Select the Envelope toolPoint & click to insert edit points on to the envelope.The points can then be dragged down to lower the volume between the points, to fade in orfade out sections. (Fade in & fade out also available in Effects menu)
Edit points addedand drag to adjust
envelope
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Sounds can be modified by applying effects and filters
Try effects out on a copy of a good track until you understand what they doCopy the track to work on it, mute the original.Highlight the track (or part of track) you want to apply effects toHighlight the section then apply the effect, always listen to the results.
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Personalising your recording Adding ID Tags (Metadata)Once you have completed your recording and are happy with how it sounds, you can nowpersonalise it. This means putting the info on that appears when you play tracks on an .mp3
player or computer media player in other words giving it a title and putting your name on it.
This is done by going to the Project menu on the Menu bar and selecting Edit ID3 Tags whichbrings up the box shown in fig 13. (If you want you can leave it until you save the box opensautomatically when saving.)
(version 1.3.0 or earlier) (version 1.3.5)
This allows you to add a Title to your recording, which could be the main theme of yourPodcast.
The Artistname which is you, if you have recorded it.
An album name, this could be the name of the series of Podcasts. If your recording is one in aseries of Podcasts its position in the order can be put in Track Number.
The year it was produced can be in the Year box.
ForGenre, this can be selected from a lengthy list. A podcast is normally classed as vocalrecording.
Finally, if you wish, you can add further Comments. Finish and save the information bypressing OK.
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Saving your recording.You can save your podcast by going to the File Menu and selecting Save Project As Thisoption saves the recording as an Audacity Project which is a format with the extension aup.
The format can then be listened to repeatedly but only on Audacity software. Unfortunately thisformat cannot be played on typical digital audio devices. Therefore, this file has to beconverted into an mp3 format, which is much more accessible. This can be done by selecting theExport AS mp3 option on the File Menu.
Unfortunately Audacity does not have the inbuilt ability to do this. To achieve this, an add-on
called lame-enc.dll has to be downloaded from the Internet and is also free to download.
The easiest way to find this is to open any Internet search engine, type in the name of the file asprinted above and the first item to appear on the search results list is the website to download it
from.
Once you have found a source website, please download the file much in the same way as youdownloaded the Audacity program. However, this time it does not have an installation process,the file just needs to be on your computer. It is best saved in the PLUG-INS folder which is in thePrograms folder where Audacity itself is stored (normally somewhere like C:\ProgramFiles\Audacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode)\Plug-Ins)
Once the file is on your computer, your recording can be converted to an MP3 format using thefollowing steps:
1. On the File Menu select Export as mp3.2. This leads to a save window, which prompts you to name your recording and select
where you would like to store it on your computer. Then select ok.
3. The first time this process is carried out the message shown in fig 14 will appear. This isasking you to locate the lame_enc.dll file, select yes and then use the browser to find thefile downloaded.
Fig 14
4. This step of the process only has to be done once. After this, on using steps 1 and 2(above), Audacity will convert your recordings to an MP3 format.
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Considering file sizeWhen recording a Podcast considering the file size of your recording is very important, becauseat the end of the project the file is likely to be made available on the Internet for downloading.When getting files from the internet, the larger they are the longer they take to download.
Therefore you want to make them as small as possible, without compromising the content of yourrecording. To achieve this with a sound file, there are three ways you could do this:
1. By altering the Sample Rate: which is a measure of how many times a second thecomputer makes a recording of your voice. Audacity has default settings of a frequencybetween 11025Hz and 96000Hz. Hertz (Hz) is a frequency measure of per second. Alower frequency setting implies means fewer recordings per second. Of course, a lowerfrequency setting also means lower quality recordings.
2. By altering the Sample Format: which is measured in bits. It simply means how manybits of computer memory space the recording uses for each second of audio recorded.Once again, the lower this number the lower the quality of the recording.
Both these settings can be altered in the Edit Menu in the Preferences section. Thisopens a window called Audacity Preferences. Once in this window, select the Qualitytab as shown in fig 15.
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The two variables discussed above can be changed in the two drop-down boxes at the top ofthis window. It is recommended that the settings show a Sample Rate of 44100Hz and a Formatof 16-bit. These are settings used by the BBC to produce Podcasts and CDs.
3. The final variable that can be altered is the Bit-rate of the mp3 file created. An mp3 is acomputer sound file and the Bit-rate is how many bits, or how much of that file, is playedback to you in one second.
This can be altered in the Edit Menu in the Preferences section. This time using theFile Format tab, shown in fig 16.
Audacity has a default setting of 128 and this is quite a typical rate for an mp3 file. However,this quality is only required for music files. For a voice recording a much lower Bit-rate isacceptable and the Bit-rate is lowered as it decreases the file size dramatically. The graph infig.17 shows the results of a recent study I carried out, which shows by lowering the Bit-rate byhalf, file size is also halved.
Its really up to you to decide which sounds the best, as is true for the two variables. Investigate
this for yourself.