RadioEdu Week 06

Friday, November 1st, 2013 by WLOY Staff

Concept: Delay review, Introduction to Echo

Continuing with the students’ introduction to effects and effect chains, this week we learned about Echo. The students immediately noted that the interface of the Echo plug-in is similar to the Delay, and that many of the parameters are the same. We then began to highlight the distinctions and at the end of the session, the students were able to identify the differences and brainstorm about when they would use each.

As with the other effects, we began by loading an audio sample of a guitar on a track with Echo on the rack. I had each student choose a preset from the menu and predict what it would sound like, and then analyze the parameters on the plug-in. The students were able to note the relationship between the ‘Delay Time’ parameter and how apparent the Echo would become.

Proof of Concept: This week was mainly theoretical and focused on linking what they saw on the preset parameters and predicting how the guitar sample would be changed. The students demonstrated that they understood the impact of ‘Delay Time’ by noting that the longer the delay, the longer they would continue to hear audio after the initial sample ceased to play. This was very impressive, and we further solidified the concept by having each student say “Happy Halloween” at the same time, and then each of them stagger when they would begin. The result was similar to the echo created on the track, which led to comparisons to ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat,’ and how Echo can be considered similarly.

J decided to record a new version of his ‘Top Ten’ list, this week bringing a ‘Top Ten Pokemon’ installment. This was an excellent way for him to practice his ‘live radio show’ skills, as he did this entire list is largely spontaneous. He is continuing to work on designing a ‘Top Ten’ segment as a regular feature for an eventual radio show segment, and this list demonstrates his increasing comfort and confidence on the mic, as well as his technical skills regarding talking into the mic. Mic awareness is one of the ‘unseen’ skills that the students are continuing to develop, and this recording demonstrates a growing mindfulness in regard to these technical studio aspects.

M’s Loop

Download

Posted in News, Radio Edu | No Comments »

RadioEdu Week 05

Friday, October 25th, 2013 by WLOY Staff

Concepts: Reverb and Delay, Advanced Editing

Since we briefly introduced the concept of Reverb last week, we started with a discussion of Reverb and the students were able to understand how room size impacted sound, and why engineers would seek out certain rooms for recordings. As an experiment I had the class clap in our moderate sized room, and then predict what would happen if the room were smaller and larger. I said that next time they were in the school auditorium they should clap and report back whether or not their claps matched their predictions.

We also had a brief discussion about why room size would matter, and this lead to an introduction to acoustics and sound waves. We then revisited the story that they composed last week and M was able to edit the track herself! She went into the audio editor and cut the small dialogue section from the story, pasted it to a new track, added Reverb to the new track, and then silenced the section on the initial track. This is a very advanced concept and she was able to understand the need to put it on a separate track, and was able to perform the editing herself. As the original recording of the story was posted in last week’s blog entry, this week’s proof of concept is M’s edit with the section of dialogue cut and pasted to another track. This is a clear demonstration of the ability to follow through with an idea that was planned in advance, and a great introduction to some of the edits and manipulations that occur in post-processing of a recorded piece.

(TBA Caveman Story with Edit)

Posted in News, Radio Edu | No Comments »