Comments on: Audio editor presentation

By: Peicheng Chu

Peicheng Chu — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 04:21:10 +0000

I have heard Audacity before but never used it. Tim’s presentation gives me a basic idea of how to use it. so I have installed Audacity in my PC and used it to record and edit our first podcast assignment. In the beginning it took me a while to figure out how to edit tracks. I split the music into several tracks in order to edit individual track. I spent a lot of time just to edit a 1 minute padcast. But it is fun and I will be using audacity a lot.

By: Abimbolu Odusola

Abimbolu Odusola — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:58:45 +0000

Tim should be commended for his bravery to present on audio editor. As was highlighted by TCH, it can be very tricky and many things can go wrong in the beginning or at the end. I also support the idea that you start with “simple stuff”, test your presentation in the same location where you will be teaching it before the class meeting. How important is plan B? Really, you want to be a star and not a sorry sight to your inquisitive students. Have a goal and stick to it.
Furthermore, Audacity has several features that was highlighted by Tim including the easy editing whereby you can easily cut unwanted pieces. The final product is quality and can be tranfered to tapes, CD or other media. It is amazing to know that this fully functional, cross-platform product is freely available. I have used the product a few times and there is a whole lot you can do with it.

By: mcavallaro

mcavallaro — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:41:47 +0000

I used Garageband previously so I had some experience with that. I never used Audacity so that piece was new. That program seems easy to use and I felt Tim did a good job comparing the two products thoroughly. After this presentation, I will use Audacity for my next podcast. I think it is important to be familar with multiple tools especially since in this case, Garageband is platform specific.

By: tchammond

tchammond — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:16:26 +0000

Forgot to include: Some additional examples of podcasters exploring what can be done with this medium for education: Check out Eric Langhorst's site--he's a middle-school history teacher in Liberty, Missouri. I am especially impressed with his "studycasts." Also, a former student created a cool concept with a podcast assignment, "Conversations with the Past." Listen to him interview JS Bach and read a bit about the development of the product at his website.

By: tchammond

tchammond — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:10:24 +0000

The comments on the technical challenges that audio editing poses (both from reflecting on Tim’s presentation itself and classmates’ commenting on their own subsequent experiments) reminds me that, in my experience, the audio stage of any multimedia project in the classroom is typically a bottleneck. Audio is tricky. There are so many chokepoints, so many places for it to go wrong. If nothing else, consider how many layers of controls there are for a mic setting or a speaker setting–there are controls on the I/O device, controls in the OS, controls in the audio editor, etc. Keep these factors in mind when doing audio work in the classroom: plan ahead, keep it simple, test it yourself in the room with the actual gear before taking it live with the students, and have a plan B. In fact, it might be good to design multimedia projects, at least in the early iterations, that deal with pre-produced audio: excerpts from speeches, an oral history, a set of birdsongs, whatever. I just wanted to chime in that as Tim’s demo proved, and as Lifang’s comment supports, recording audio is tricky.

By: Lifang Chang

Lifang Chang — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:51:51 +0000

Audacity works pretty well when it is used to produce an audio Podcast. But I had a painful experience on the track volume control when I first used Audacity. I didn’t adjust the volume properly before I exported an .mp3 file. So, the listeners cannot hear clearly even they turn on their audio players to the maximum volume.

For the beginners, there is a really useful section — “Audacity Track Control Panel” which appears directly to the left of every track. We could use “Gain Control” panel (just below the “mute” and “solo” button) affects the volume of the track. We can move it left to decrease the volume of the track or to the right to increase it. It is suggested that we’d better adjust the volume of every track to the maximum before export the audio file.

–Lifang

By: Jhumur

Jhumur — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 03:15:33 +0000

To me Tim’s presentation is very informative, because I didn’t know before that ‘audacity’is a wonderful audio editing tool for audio podcasting. I used ‘garageband’ for my last podcast. Now I am thinking to use ‘audacity’ audio editor for my next podcast.Tim’s presentation was also very lively and interesting.

By: Stacy Getz

Stacy Getz — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:54:13 +0000

Thanks Tim for a great presentation. I was unaware of the audio editing tool called Audacity. I’ve used GarageBand before, so I’m sure I’d be able to pick up on using Audacity. I wouldn’t mind using this tool with my 4th grade students. I think they would find it easy to use just like GarageBand. Thanks for the tidbit on which audio file formats can be used with this tool. That’s always a good thing to know before trying something new with my students. Once again, thanks for the new information. I really appreciate it!

By: pkcarroll

pkcarroll — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:16:34 +0000

Your presentation was very informative. Since I have never used any audio editing software I found it very useful to hear about the topic from an experienced user. Good job even with the tech problems.

By: Terri Miquel

Terri Miquel — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:25:37 +0000

I enjoyed your presentation on audio editors. I use Audacity with elementary students. It is easy enough for them to use, yet effective enough for them to appreciate its usefulness. I’ve never used GarageBand but have several Mac user friends who swear by it. Too bad the audio clips couldn’t be heard, but that wasn’t your fault. Oh, the joys of technology!