With a few exceptions, it sounds like everyone’s ds106 radio groups are running smoothly, and everyone is on track. I look forward to hearing the finished projects this weekend.

Dr. Oblivion’s advice here on sound quality and transitions is very much on point. (And bravo for making use of him.) A common issue is one of sound levels and balancing. When layering voices and background music and sounds, the background needs to be loud enough to be effective, but not so much as to be overpowering. This may require some experimentation. One of the benefits of having a group is you can get an objective opinion from them.

The Isaiah Beacon audio bits make good examples. The second one is interesting because the voice and background music are so familiar, like they’ve been used elsewhere, multiple times, so it feels like exactly what one would expect in a commercial.

One comment that normally comes up repeatedly during audio weeks in ds106 is how much people are bothered by the sounds of their own voices. But this semester, so many people are using artificial voices, so far,  that that hasn’t happened. Some of the voices have a computer-generated quality to them, unlike Dr. Oblivion. It will be interesting to hear how that impacts the shows.

Radio listening, part II

The plan is to broadcast the completed radio projects on ds106radio during week 11. I’m hoping to bring Jim into the loop, which would necessitate a different broadcast schedule. My question for everyone is: Who would be available to participate in live listening and discussion at noon on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, April 1-3? I made a Doodle poll for this purpose, which will go out via email.

Depending on people’s availability, we may schedule noontime listening in addition to or instead of 7pm listening. I would like to get as many people as possible listening to as many shows as possible, because I am sure everyone will be impressed with everyone else’s work.

Behind the bot

I also need to share this video from Reclaim Today:

Michael Branson Smith talks a bit about what’s going on behind the scenes with Dr. Oblivion, and explains some of his occasional odd behavior. I would be very interested to hear people’s thoughts on this. In particular I’d like to know how Dr. Oblivion’s voice affects people’s reactions to what he has to say. Personally, I think the voice, cadence, inflection and accent all work together to convey a significant amount of information that is not included in the text of his responses, but familiarity colors my reaction.