Agenda Audio Recording & Basic Editing: 1:00 – 2:20 10 minute break Additional Editing Concepts and Podcasting: 2:30 – 4:00

Audio recordings have been used in education for years… Tape recording of children’s books for early readers Music recordings for history, choir, band, etc. Recordings or reenactments of famous speeches Foreign language labs Lecture summaries

Benefits of Digital Recordings Maintain quality over time – don’t degrade like tapes Can be distributed over the Internet for little or no cost, compared to the cost of duplicating tapes for students Don’t require special editing equipment – can be edited on the typical home or school computer with a sound card and free software

Computer Sound System Analog Signal Sound Card Speakers or Headphones Microphone Analog Signal Sound recording or playback program Digital Signal

Analog vs. Digital Recording Analog Signal Digital Signal Sample Rate 44,100 Hz = “CD quality”

Sound Recording/Editing Programs Windows Sound Recorder – on all school computers Audacity – on all school computers and can be downloaded for free at home Adobe Soundbooth – on all US computers Garage Band – available for Mac computers

Audacity Preferences: Audio I/O Edit  Preferences Select the Audio I/O tab Choose the playback and recording devices, if necessary.

Audacity Preferences: Quality The default quality is 44,100 Hz, which is CD quality Other default settings should be fine

Audacity Preferences: File Formats Choose “make a copy of the file before editing (safer)”. This makes a copy of files that you open in Audacity before you edit them. Notice the MP3 Export Setup. If you set up Audacity at home, this is the screen where you tell Audacity how to find the LAME encoder, necessary for creating Mp3 files

Changing the Recording Volume

Recording a Voice Clip

Navigation To zoom in, choose the Zoom tool, and left-click. To zoom out, choose the Zoom tool, and right-click. To make a track taller or shorter, point the mouse at the bottom edge of the track. When the cursor changes to an up/down arrow, you can change the height of the track.

Recording Tips Voice Over Tips

Recording Tips Review Finalize the script Review and rehearse the script – capitalize words, spell out difficult words phonetically, spell out large numbers. Place the script properly – use a big font for your script, don’t hold it so that it rattles Record in isolation Choose the best microphone available

Recording Tips Review Refresh your voice – have some water or tea handy to keep your mouth refreshed. Warm up your voice with scales or your favorite song. Don’t touch the microphone while recording. Don’t speak directly into the microphone – put it at a 30 to 45 degree angle so that the puff of air which accompanies a spoken “p” don’t hit the mic and create a popping “plosive.”

Basic Editing Selecting & Deleting Choose the Selection tool, then drag over part of a clip to select it. To delete the selection, press the Delete key. Amplifying & Silencing Select a sound Choose Effect  Amplify Increase or decrease the volume by a given number of decibels. Entering zero results in no change to the volume.

Combining Two Clips

Saving Your Project Don’t forget to save your Audacity project frequently. From the menu, choose File  Save Project, then choose a location and name for your file. Remember that you will need Audacity to open an Audacity project file. To create a file that other programs can open or that you can put on the Internet, you must Export the file.

Adding Background Music To import a music file, choose Project  Import Audio. To make the music fade in, select the portion that you want to change with the selection tool, then choose Effect  Fade In. Choose Effect  Fade Out to make the music fade out.

Cleaning Up Audio 1. Select the portion of the recording with just background noise. 2. Choose Effect  Noise Removal 3. Click Get Noise Profile, then click Close 4. Select the portion of the audio to be repaired 5. Choose Effect  Noise Removal 6. Click the Preview button. 7. Use the Less or More sliders to achieve the desired effect, then click Close.

Adding Effects Several effects are useful for managing background music. Change pitch Change speed Change tempo Select the portion of the audio to be changed, and then choose the desired effect from the Effects menu. To transition from one piece of music to another, align them so that the two tracks overlap slightly, then apply the Cross Fade Out and Cross Fade In effects.

Saving and Exporting as MP3 To save a copy of your Audacity project, choose File  Save Project. Audacity projects can only be opened by Audacity. To allow others to listen to your project, export it as a WAV file or an MP3 file. File  Export as MP3. When exporting an MP3 file, you will be asked to provide ID3 information. This information appears in the media player (such as iTunes) when someone listens to your podcast.

Identifying your Podcast Title: create an episode title for your podcast. Artist: your name Album: “Prestonwood Christian Academy” Year: current year Genre: “Other”

Listening to your Audio File iTunes Windows Media Player

What is a Podcast? An audio or video file … Distributed by subscription over the Internet

Basic Steps in Podcasting 1. Create an audio (or video) file in a common media player format, such as MP3 2. Save the audio file on a publicly-accessible website 3. Create an RSS feed for the audio file 4. Let listeners know where to find your RSS feed. For example, post a link to the feed on your class home page.

Podcasting increases comprehension… Assign a podcast prior to introduction of new material, have students listen, then come to class with questions Allow students to replay a lecture – focusing in the parts they didn’t understand in class Have students review a summary of key concepts after a lecture Cover material for students who are absent Introduce new vocabulary words before a lesson

It’s free!

Go to

Click the Sign Up link

Enter Your Information

Optional – opt-out of junk mail

Name your podcast (optional)

Skip Record-By-Phone

Make a note of your feed’s URL

Sample Feed URL

Create Additional Channels

It’s easy!

Upload or Record Audio

Select an Audio File

Publish your audio files

Publish An Entry to a Podcast

Through EDLINE…

Add your RSS feed as a new assignment on EDLINE

Enter the URL of your feed

What Students See on EDLINE

What Students See on GCAST

Your Podcast on iTunes

iTunes Settings

Review 1.Create an account on GCAST 2.Upload audio files from your computer 3.Create an assignment on EDLINE that links to your podcast 4.Direct students to subscribe to your podcast through Internet Explorer, iTunes or updates.

What’s Next? Keep adding audio files to GCAST on a regular basis, so that students continue to expect them No additional setup is necessary in GCAST or EDLINE. New files will automatically appear in the feed aggregator your students selected.

Take Advantage of Existing Podcasts Thousands of educational podcasts are available on the Internet Check the iTunes store for K-12 educational podcasts or the Education Podcast network at Science teachers might be interested in Dale Basler’s podcasts.Dale Basler’s