Category Archives: Assignments

Sound Effect Story

For the sound effect story, it made me think of one of my favorite activities when going home for break, going to the beach! I am from Virginia Beach, so I was practically raised on the water. Some of my happiest childhood memories are being at the beach, swimming in the ocean, building sandcastles, even boogie boarding on the tiny, non-existent waves. When creating the story, I wanted to incorporate the usual sounds I would hear when trying to sunbathe at the beach, kids playing, seagulls, water splashing, lifeguard whistles, and the wind blowing. It starts off with the slamming of the car door, then walking on the sound, slowly starting to hear the crashing of the waves and the shouts of the children. Then, I decided to add a little dramatics with two girls getting swept into the tide and needing to be saved by a lifeguard. But, of course, it has a happy ending of the girls being saved, and everyone going on with their lives. I found most of the sounds off of the free sound effects sites that were given.

Dr. Oblivions Radio Bumper

Now that we have a #ds106 radio up and running creating a 15 to 30 second bumper for the station. What is a bumper? It is a short recording that identifies the radio station with signature music or an expression that makes sure the listeners know what they are tuned into (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_(broadcasting)). So for ds106 it should certainly include “DS106 Radio” and some sort of message about the station with voice over music. Link to assignment https://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/create-a-ds106-radio-bumper/

For this assignment, I wrote a bumper and requested Dr. Oblivion to recite it, as I wasn’t comfortable using my own voice. After receiving the audio file from Dr. Oblivion, I uploaded it to Soundtrap for editing. I removed the unnecessary parts, which I found amusing, and added an upbeat song on a separate track. To enhance the listening experience, I incorporated a fade-in and fade-out effect, giving the impression that Dr. Oblivion was speaking live. Additionally, I adjusted the volume for a more polished final product. This editing process was enjoyable, and I look forward to potentially hearing it on the radio show!

Radio Reflection

I really enjoyed listening in on Wednesday night and wish I had been available to listen on Monday and Tuesday. The story was very interesting, and the sound effects helped me vividly imagine the scenes. I usually struggle to listen to podcasts, but this show kept me engaged because the sounds made it easier to follow and stay interested in what was happening.

My favorite part was when they got into the car. You could hear how their space became smaller, making it feel like they were very close together. Then, when the door opened, the space expanded again, which was really immersive. The ending was also intense, with the sounds growing louder, the banging, and people trying to get into the room. I also liked how the ticking sound stopped after going for a while, it made its absence really noticeable.

Sound Effect Story

One assignment everyone must do is the sound effects story: This is a challenge to tell a short story (no longer than 90 seconds) using nothing but sound effects! And make it something more interesting than waking up, taking a shower and eating breakfast. We highly recommend using http://freesound.org to find free sound effects for this project. The BBC Sound Effects archive is another good source.

Freesound – Coughing 001.wav by frenkfurth

Freesound – Heart Rate – Normal, Increased Rate, Cardiac Arrest, Flatline.mp3 by thegreatperson

Freesound – Choking #2 by Universfield

Freesound – Kid running down the stairs by pfranzen

Freesound – Slam door.MP3 by SoundsForHim

Freesound – scream_male_Bram_AAH_and_OH.aiff by thanvannispen

These are the elements I used to create my story it is in fact a drama yes! Going to be a murder drama but I deemed that to be inappropriate so it’s just an unfortunate accident. There was no inspiration just hopes for something sad. Took a while to find a good balance of sounds and what can and can’t overlap. Like the live story I heard Tuesday I wanted to add extra elements to make the story feel more real. For this I stuck to Freesound for my effects. Hard to find a good door opening sound though almost made my own.

Radio Bumper

We will be working with ds106 radio this week, and in some future weeks, so we want you to try your hand at making your first radio “bumper” – a 10-30 second short audio that announces the radio station that is played between songs to remind listeners what they are tuned in to. This should be saved as an MP3 file, and then upload it to SoundCloud. Make sure in Soundcloud that you enable the option to allow downloads (so we can add it to ds106 radio!) Your audio must be embedded in your blog post summary of this assignment. You can embed Soundcloud audio by putting the plain text URL on its own line, and when you publish, WordPress will create a player to allow visitors to listen. The radio bumper is an assignment in the Assignment Bank, so you should tag your blog post correctly when you’re done. You may be able to get Dr. Oblivion to help out, if you ask nicely. Tag: radiobumper

For this I naturally had to go for the Technoir vibe my first thought was all about industrial sounds however I switched to thinking more along an unsettling vibe. I used one of the sounds from freesound made by a creator called looplicator. It was just perfect with some additional modifications I made it more unsettling. I was far less sure of what to actually say unfortunately.

I did try to look ups some examples after a bit of trial and error I ended up with this.

It took a few tries, but I managed to get it done. Ended up coming out far shorter than I wanted since I wasn’t the most inspired and did not know much about radio going in. So, mine is not cool or anything more about telling the viewers to relax and just enjoy. Since my original one was too cynical according to a friend.

Radio Show Ideas

What to do when the power goes out, hackers become innocent by standers and politicians are blamed. Join us for ‘Stuck in darkness’.  A radio show that interviews citizen about a mysterious event that took place a week ago lasted only a day but caused lasting chaos.  

This show will interview the various characters taking time to learn a bit about their daily lives and how the power outage affected them. Through these interviews you will discover what lies behind the scenes of this so-called accident.  

Joke ending a rat bit the wrong wire 

Drama ending it was all a ploy to drag to the current politicians so they could be replaced by the Governers people  

Another idea is a segment called “alternate reality” this would be the characters talk about making a small shift in their lives and talking about how they think it would play out. For example, if they chose to get a job cleaning the streets instead of doing the crime. So just short audio dramas presented through each character.

Final idea, A murder mystery show, the intention is to play these characters and have them discover clues in a Technoir setting until they figure out who done it. Yes, it’s basic but also very on theme!

Audio Assignments

Soundtrack to Your Life – Assignment Bank

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLelZtVeDFv_i4bRAeAihpMVazQpc1NbzE&si=D2ZwDV_L4XXCfnT4

I decided to think back to all the songs that got me through life and showed I wasn’t alone to songs I just sung because they were complete brain worms. Took a lot of searching with lyric finders to compile this. I use YouTube music instead of Spotify and pandora, if I look back at either app, I am sure I’d get a blast form the past.

Auditory Hell – Assignment Bank

Freesound – Short_metal_screeching_sounds by Artninja

Freesound – z scream 26 mph 35 c.wav by ERH

Freesound – Harddisk scream.wav by sumsa

Freesound – 3-mod; 101Hz @ -10dB (AS) + 1111Hz @ -6dB (Sq) + 10101Hz @ -.5dB.wav by shimsewn

Well, I truly did not want it to be too long since it’s irritating in my defense, I get annoyed when something drops so doesn’t take much. So, I simply went with sounds that are annoying shoved them together and boom a horrible thing was created. Honestly harder to find bad sounds then good sounds. Still, I managed this took less careful layering since the intention was to make it sound bad.

Keep it Closed!

While creating my sound effect story, I had wanted to use Freesound to find a sound of a door closing to convey the person in my story leaving their place of residence. I initially wanted a simple sound, but found only 4 present, with none being suitable for the story I was trying to tell. I instead went for a sound that including grabbing keys which turned out well, but that thought never left my mind. Why were there no uploaded sounds of a normal door closing, an activity we do countless times every day? For the assignment Sound Effects, I was tasked with uploading a new sound to Freesound, which helped me come full circle back to the sound I initially wanted.

In hindsight I probably could have made this and used it for my story😅 but it worked out for the best regardless.