wcc comm 106 audacity - recording narration

AUDIO PROJECT – RECORDING NARRATIONCOMM 106

AUDACITY-BASICSALWAYS plug headphones in before starting AUDACITYNEVER drag your work off your USB to the desktop/lab hard driveALWAYS click on the PROJECT file on your USB to open your work – that file’s icon should look like this

RECORDING TIPSoBe animated and lively – you have to be interested and engaged with your own work in order for the listener to do the sameoRecord it until you get it right – this is what lab time is for!oDon’t worry about people in the lab hearing you – they’re all doing the same thing

AUDACITY-WRITING THE SCRIPT * The script includes 3 parts:

◦ THE INTRODUCTION; set up the story for us – DO NOT INTRODUCE YOURSELF – you’ll tell us who you are at the end

◦ THE TRANSITIONS; you may need to provide information between the bites to move your story along but YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TRANSITION IF IT’S UNNEEDED

◦ THE CONCLUSION; In addition to any closing info you have, everyone will finally conclude with the same “tag” = “This is *YOUR NAME* for W-C-C news.”

AUDACITY-CLOSE RAW TRACK•If you’re certain you have all the bites you want/need, you can close your raw interview track by clicking the “X” – if you’re not certain, just mute it.•If you do close it, you’ll just have the one track with your chosen bites

AUDACITY-RECORDING NARRATION

* Be sure your existing tracks are MUTED * Use headphones with a microphone attached* Make sure the MICROPHONE selection is “LOGITECH” and that you’ve chosen “MONO” for the recording

AUDACITY-RECORDING NARRATION

* Click on the red RECORD BUTTON at the top and a new mono track will be made and you’ll be recording automatically from the play-head on

AUDACITY-RECORDING NARRATION

* It is entirely possible your levels will be too high and/or the microphone won’t work at first so be patient* Record all your narrations in one track at one time and push STOP when you’re done – just like with the raw interview, you will edit it down next step

AUDACITY-CHOOSING NARRATION BITES

* You will now DELETE the audio/bites from your narration track that you DON’T WANT to keep

* You highlight the audio you want to DELETE by clicking inside the audio file and dragging to the left or right while keeping the mouse button depressed

AUDACITY-CHOOSING NARRATION BITES

* When you are certain that the dark gray area contains only audio you DON’T want you are ready to delete that portion – TIP: you can visually see where audio begins and ends

AUDACITY-CHOOSING NARRATION BITES

**DIFFERENT TECHNIQUE** * Go EDIT REMOVE SPECIAL SPLIT DELETE to remove that portion, leaving a gap between the portions you are keeping * Repeat for each piece of narration you want to save

AUDACITY-ASSEMBLING * When you’re done you should have one track with all your interview bites and one track with your narration bites * Make sure they are both active and unmuted * When you play you’ll hear both tracks alternate based on where you put them

AUDACITY-ASSEMBLING * You can move these bites around within the tracks by using the TIME-SHIFT tool found up by the CUT, COPY, & PASTE buttons (see arrow) * Selecting that allows you to grab and move the individual bites independently inside the track and put them in order

AUDACITY-ASSEMBLING * You will also use the VOLUME slider on each track to make sure the tracks are similar in volume when they play

AUDACITY-LOOKING AHEAD * Before you leave today you should have recorded your narration and put all your bites in order and with proper volume in respect to each other * Remember your segment should be between 90 seconds and 2 minutes long * Next class we will add music so think about what you’d like to add and bring it with you as an MP3 file on your USB drive – NO LYRICS (unless they are to be part of the story)