BACKGROUND: You already know how to do some very basic recording using either the Sound Recorder or Vegas. This unit will help you to go a little farther than that.

PROCESS: For doing these tutorials, grab a set of recording headphones and plug them into the computer. Double-Click on the little gray horn in the very bottom right of your computer screen. When the Volume Settings Screen pops up, click Options>Properties. We need the RECORDING SETTINGS. From the RECORDING window, make sure that MICROPHONE and WAVE OUT MIX are both turned on. Then click OK. Depending on what you are recording, voice through the microphone or music and sound through the computer, you will either turn on the MICROPHONE or the WAVE OUT MIX as your recording source. Drag the slider to about the 3rd or 4th tick from the bottom for clear recording.

Once you have your recording levels set up, go into your Start Menu System. We are looking for the SONY Menus and SOUND FORGE AUDIO STUDIO. Open the SOUND FORGE program. At the top of your screen, you will see a button that says : "SHOW ME HOW." Click on this button, a large menu system of "How-to Tutorials" will pop up.

Please go through the following tutorials:

• "How to Open a File."
• "How to Record Audio" You might go to a site like amazon.com and record a couple of clips of your favorite music. You should also record a couple of words of text using the Microphone, as well.
• "How to Select Audio"
• "How to Split and Combine Audio Files." Try combining your song files that you recorded on the "Record" tutorial.
• "How to Fade Audio In and Out" Useful when transitioning from one clip to the next.
• "How to Apply an Effect" Some of these are interesting and may sometimes be useful.

Before class is up, get a copy of the announcements for the day and record them using Sound Forge. When you have the entire announcement read, click on File>Save As and select MP3. This will save your announcement in MP3 format that we could use in video or publish on the web.

DELIVERABLES: You will be responsible for a couple of deliverables for this unit:

• DELIVERABLES: You will be responsible for a couple of deliverables for this unit:

  • "The Daily Announcements": I will be giving credit for that first Daily Announcement recording that you create, make sure to save it and turn it in!
  • "TOP FIVE": You will use Audacity to record your FIVE favorite musical pieces of all time. You can use any online source that you wish to get your music. Then, you will edit them altogether, with you as the DJ introducing each song and telling why the song is in your top five. Count the songs up from number five to number one.
  • "The SOUND EFFECTS MIX": Using your editing skills, combine AT LEAST 10 different sound effects clips, music loops or vocal clips into one mixed piece that is at least 30 seconds long. This will probably end up sounding like a weird techno song. Burn it out as an MP3 for all to hear. Try checking out these websites below for some good sound loops and sound effects:
    • Flashkit.com: A good site for sound fx and loops of all sorts. I recommend downloading MP3 files, whenever possible, as these come straight to your computer. WAV files come zipped and need to be unzipped before you can use them.
    • freesound.com: An online collaborative, with tons of great content, a little hard to navigate, though, try searching for the sound you need.
    • free-loops.com: decent site, with a good deal of loops and clips. Not the easiest site to browse, though.
    • looperman.com: site with 5000+ clips and loops.
    • audiosparx.com: A decent looking site, with searchable clips, most of it is pay to download, but you can preview clips, with leading and trailing "Preview!" voiceovers. Creative use of recording software might be useful here.
  • "The Movie Sound Mix": You will use Audacity and Vegas to provide the soundtrack to a piece of film. You can download the following two files and save them to your V: Drive Folder, but I recommend COPYING THESE TWO FILES FROM THE RESOURCE FOLDER ON THE Q: DRIVE!:
    • "Strange Chase" MPG Movie.
    • Strange Chase Vegas Project File, complete with FOUR blank audio layers.
  • Open the Project File in Vegas. The program will likely say that it is missing the MPG clip. Tell Vegas you will locate it and browse until you find the MPG in your folder. Then you are ready to do some sound engineering. 
    • Review the movie clip.  Become familiar with the action on the film, so that you can find appropriate sounds for your mix.
    • You will need to provide ALL SOUND for this clip.  Including, but not limited to:
      • Dubbing of character voices.
      • Sound effects: Car engines, sirens, screeching wheels, crashes, etc.
      • Background music:  as appropriate
      • Other sounds:  Gulping noises, lighters flicking, background birds, etc.
    • Collect or create your sounds using your microphone or the sound effect websites above.
    • Mix them as necessary in Audacity, then place them into Sony Vegas. You can have up to FOUR audio tracks on a Vegas project. Don't be afraid to use them!
    • When you are done, "MAKE MOVIE" out of your final clip.  Place this into the V: Drive DROPBOX, call the movie "lastname_movie_mix"

  Deliverable	Point Value
  Your ANNOUNCEMENT, that first sound file that you created long ago.	10 points
  Your TOP FIVE: A sound edit of your five favorite songs, with you as the DJ introducing the songs and talking about why you like them.	30 points
  Your SOUND EFFECTS EDIT: You edited 10 different sounds together to create a funky mix.	30 points
  Your MOVIE SOUND MIX: You used your recording and sound editing skills to create the sound mix for a video clip.	30 points