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Sound Ethics, Sound Recording, Sound Studio

Texts to have read / listened to: Writer/Designer on “Working with Multimodal Assets and Sources” (Ball, Sheppard, Arola); Stuart Fowkes on field recording; Alison MacAdam on breathing life into audio scenes; and optionally some overviews of CC licenses and Fair Use.

Work to have achieved: a proposal for the soundscape narrative, posted to the issue queue

Plan for the day

  1. Key Concepts and Practical Takeaways (10-15 min)
  2. Fair Use and Open Licensing (10-15 min)
  3. Homework preview
  4. Studio time

1. Key Concepts and Practical Takeaways (10-15 min)

In breakout rooms, work through the following questions about the reading/listening for today. Some you should be able to go through rather quickly; others may require more discussion.

Please take notes in our shared note doc to make up for my inability to hear all the rooms at once. I'll float around as best I can, but I do love finding overlaps and tensions across groups, when possible!

Call me in (ask for help button, which shows a question mark in a circle) if you can’t come to a resolution!

Using Sources

  • True or false: if you can find it on the internet, you can use it in your project.
  • True or false: the only sources you can use in this project are those you record yourself.
  • True or false: if you record your own sources, you don’t have to cite them.
  • True or false: if you use a source with a Creative Commons license, you don’t have to cite it.
  • What’s the difference between fair use and Creative Commons?
  • How would you define a “credible citation” in relation to the soundscape narratives you’ve proposed?
  • Why do you think Ball, Sheppard, and Arola are so insistent about folder structure and file naming conventions?

  • EXT: Does my assignment of the Writer/Designer chapter fulfill the criteria of fair use? Consider all four major factors.

  • EXT: For each entry in your project’s assets list, add Rights information as per Writer/Designer page 160. (You’ll need to keep updating this, of course, as you determine what assets you really want to use.)

Recording Audio

  • What’s one way to make sure you’re recording the sound you want to (and not, say, the loud bus passing by your conversation)?
  • What do Fowkes and MacAdam consider tempting cliches of soundwriting, and how do they suggest getting past them?
  • Would you (each of you, specifically, for this project) want to work from a written script? Why or why not?
  • Would you (again, each of you in the breakout room) want to incorporate human voices in your soundscape narratives? How or how much, and why (or why not)?
  • EXT: Read through the link at the top of Fowkes’ piece: Top 10 Simple Field Recording Tips. Any surprises that others in the class should know about?
ALT: If you're async for this lesson, please add 2-3 comments to the shared doc with questions, clarifications, or links to / quotes from relevant passages from the reading (or elsewhere). Bonus if the quotes/links are to a reading that was optional.

2. Fair Use, Open Licensing, and Citation (10-15 min)

Let’s talk through any questions or tensions that came up. I especially want to make sure we’re all on the same page about those True/Falses – some of which weren’t quite as clear-cut as that framing might suggest…

Has anyone tried out any of the sites linked to from our plentiful Resources page? Any recommendations, warnings, or other advice for your classmates?

Note that there are sections for both free/licensed sounds and music, and also (separately) for audio-unit-specific advice and examples.

3. Homework preview (5 min)

4. Studio time! (40-45 min)

Do whatever work you need to get something toward your project posted to your GitHub repository by Thursday: find audio sources you have permission to use, extract assets from them, record test voiceover with your phone or computer, start moving things around in Audacity, practice some more with GitHub Desktop (or command line git).

Remember, don't use the GitHub website for Audacity files! It can't handle the _data folder, and you must include the _data folder for your project to play back. Commit the .aup all at once with the _data, then push from GH Desktop (or the command line).

The goal for now is to get a feel for how you work with audio, not to have a finished product. On Thursday, we’ll use your experience to refine our shared baseline criteria and brainstorm some aspirational goals.

To help with goal-setting and reflection (and, again, so I can figure out where I can be most helpful), please write a brief note in the shared doc about what you're planning to work on today; at the end of class, reply to your own note to say what you achieved and/or to set yourself a new goal for homework.

Call me over if you need help with Audacity, Git/GitHub, or determining the license on an audio source!

Lots of great ideas in those proposals. My small bits of broadly applicable advice:

This is My Life If you're doing a day-in-the-life or commute, the challenge is to make at least some of your sounds different from everyone else's: parts of a particular soundscape, not a generic one. Voiceover, even the little mutterings of a solitary person to themselves, may help; your choice of a soundtrack overlay might, as well.
Consider Getting it in Writing One benefit to drafting a project in prose is that your script doubles as a transcript – which improves both accessibility and discoverability. (One downside is that it's sometimes easier to do or say than it is to write.) Still: something to keep in the back of your mind.
Roll Tape If you're proposing something where you're not sure what you'll find, consider a journalistic approach: record more than you think you'll need; narrate what you're doing as you're doing it; then add a post-hoc voiceover that makes sense of (tells the story of) what you ultimately found.

Homework for next time:

  • Once again look over the audio resources on the site, and dig into anything that seems like it would help you.
  • Work on your soundscape narratives, including at least two sound assets in conversation in Audacity. If you have time, do more!
  • Push a soundscape preview to your GitHub repository. As per the assignment prompt, this should include:
    • A layered Audacity project file (.aup), showing the arrangement of your sounds so far (need not be a complete soundscape or narrative yet).
    • The _data folder associated with your Audacity file.
    • At least one static screenshot (.png or .jpg) of your Audacity file in progress. (You'll use this in your final reflection, for comparison later to subsequent drafts).
    • A plain text (.txt) or markdown (.md) file, explaining in at least 300 words what you're showing us in this preview. Feel free also to ask questions or lay out next steps for yourself!
    • An updated ASSETS.md, indicating which the files you've actually recorded or otherwise obtained. Add source documentation for any outside sources – and your permission to use them (e.g. licenses, fair use; see Writer/Designer p. 160-165).
    • Finally, export a playable mp3 file, just in case something goes awry with your _data folder.