Audio 1 Part 2: Instructions

The Audio 1 assignment has two parts:

  1. Unedited interview file
  2. Edited MP3 file (you can hear an example of an EDITED file)

For technical work in Audacity, follow the instructions given in Module 3 in Sakai (video tutorial and two handouts, plus other materials).

Here are the instructions for editing the interview for Part 2 of this assignment:

Content requirements

  1. You must edit the file you submitted unedited for Audio 1 Part 1.
  2. The final file must contain only the voice of the interview subject. The reporter's voice (your voice) must not be heard.
  3. The story must sound natural, as in the example linked above. It should sound like your subject is simply telling a story.
  4. Avoid or fix abrupt cuts or jumps; these will make it sound unnatural. (The example has too many abrupt cuts.)
  5. You may copy and insert very short bits of your "room tone" to create natural-sounding pauses if necessary. (That is how we fix abrupt cuts or jumps.)
  6. If the subject hesitates, repeats her/himself, or says "Um ... um," you must cut these out. Carefully.
  7. The story must make perfect sense AS IS, without any explanation accompanying it.
  8. Do not violate any point of ethics listed in the two reading assignments in Module 3.
  9. While you may move sentences around, you must NEVER construct new sentences or substitute one word for another. NEVER. That is a major ethics violation!
  10. The file must include a clear, complete self-ID (for example, "My name is Jennifer Mays, and I'm a sophomore at UF").

Technical requirements

  1. The only acceptable file format for this assignment is MP3.
  2. Length of MP3: 60–90 seconds
  3. The MP3 file must be mono (NOT stereo), 44.1 kHz, 128 kbps and 16-bit. These things are covered in the two handouts in Module 3.
  4. The file must contain NO distracting background noises, such as loud traffic.
  5. The file must have acceptable volume and sound clarity. The sound quality of a recorded CD is totally possible with these digital audio recorders, and that's the kind of quality I expect to hear. No distortions. No wavering, as if people are speaking underwater.

Advice and tips

Start the story with an interesting or intriguing statement by your subject. (The most boring way to start is with the ID. Avoid that.)

Do not try to cram everything in. Edit, edit, edit -- that means cut things out!

Start by selecting the most interesting or amusing things the person said. Cut out big dull patches. Make a rough edit first, as quickly as you can. Then -- afterward -- fine-tune. Trim out the ums and ahs last (that takes the longest).

Play it for someone who does not know your interview subject and see whether that person is confused. Once I listened to a boy talking about playing with a team in a tournament game in Russia, but I could not figure out which sport he was playing! He did not say "basketball" (or even "basket") until near the end! That was bad editing.

Naming your file

The filename for this assignment must match this style:

Your last name, your first initial, an underscore, and audio1p2

For example, if your name is Maria Jones, the name of your file would be:

jonesm_audio1p2.mp3

PLEASE NOTE that it is VERY IMPORTANT in this course that you name files EXACTLY as instructed for every assignment. Failure to do so will result in zero points for assignments, because a misnamed file is a file that will be LOST.

Questions?

If you have questions about any part of this assignment, post them in the Course Questions discussion in Sakai.