AUDACITY – NARROWING ANSWERSCOMM 106

AUDACITY-NARROWING ANSWERS

* When you open your AUDACITY File (.AUP) from your USB drive you should open up to where you left off – with a RAW INTERVIEW FILE and NO questions * Now you need to decide what bites you want to use in your final story – REMEMBER THE TOTAL LENGTH NEEDS TO BE BETWEEN 90 seconds and 2 minutes! * You should restrict yourself to about 90 seconds of answers/interview

AUDACITY-NARROWING ANSWERS

* THINK ABOUT THE FOCUS OF YOUR STORY AND ANY NARRATION YOU WILL ADD – THAT WILL DETERMINE WHICH BITES YOU USE!

~ If a bite doesn’t serve your focus then don’t use it! * REMEMBER THAT YOU’LL BE ABLE TO MOVE THE BITES AROUND INTO ANY ORDER YOU WISH – it’s always good to start a piece with a strong and engaging bite, as well as end with one. Sometimes it’s useful to decide how you want to start or end and then work it out from there. * DON’T FORGET YOUR NARRATION – how will you connect the bites to each other?

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

AUDACITY-STEP #1: REMOVING QUESTIONSLocate the AUDACITY PROJECT FILE on your USB that you saved last class and double-click it to open your saved work

AUDACITY-NEW MONO TRACK* Now GO TRACK ADD NEW MONO TRACK* There is now a new and empty audio trackbelow your existing onewhich you will use to make your next round of edits

AUDACITY-NEW MONO TRACK* You should see one long track with all your interview answers* Now GO TRACK ADD NEW MONO TRACK* There is now a new and empty audio trackbelow your existing onewhich you will use to make your next round of edits

AUDACITY-CHOOSING BITES * You will now highlight only the audio/bites you WANT to keep for your project * You highlight the audio by clicking inside the audio file and dragging to the left or right while keeping the mouse button depressed

AUDACITY-CHOOSING BITES * The highlighted area will now be dark gray and when you hit the SPACE bar/PLAY button all that will play is the dark gray area

AUDACITY-CHOOSING BITES * When you are certain that the dark gray area contains only audio you DO want you are ready to duplicate that portion – TIP: you can visually see where audio begins and ends * Go EDIT COPY to copy that portion

AUDACITY-CHOOSING BITES * Then place your cursor in the empty audio track you just made and GO EDIT PASTE * You can also use the COPY and PASTE buttons to do the same functions (see arrow) * That section of audio is now pasted into the new track

COPY & PASTE BUTTONS

AUDACITY-CHOOSING BITES * That section of audio is now pasted into the new track * Repeat for each bite you want to save, placing each at a different point in the new file

COPY & PASTE BUTTONS

AUDACITY-CHOOSING BITES * Once you have all your bites copied into the new track, we can mute the RAW INTERVIEW track (see arrow) so you won’t hear it play but it’s still there * Now you have all the bites you want to keep all in the same track with gaps between them

AUDACITY-CHOOSING BITES * You can move these bites around within the track 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 give you a sense of their order before you record your narration

AUDACITY-CHOOSING BITES * Next you will write your introduction, transitions, and conclusion for your piece * Those can be recorded at your desk directly into AUDACITY

AUDACITY-LOOKING AHEAD * Before you leave today you will have chosen the sound-bites you want and started considering your narration to tie it all together * Starting next class we will record your narration * We will also be adding music to the project but not until you have your bites and narration done and in sequence * Feel free to use the AUDACITY Help Manual and the Internet to figure out answers to your questions