Category Archives: Assignments

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.

A 9-5 Story of Sound

Using many different sound effects to create a story really helped me expand my knowledge of how powerful sound can be and its impact on everyone. I chose to follow someone day at work to make a connection between us hearing millions of sounds everyday, and a typical day experienced by many. Creating a piece that may not be all sunshine and rainbows was my way of emphasizing the different uses of sound and how it can convey many different moods and tones, even without any use of words. Please listen to what I made and feel free to leave a comment on how you would rate it!

After Dinner

Tell a story using nothing but sound effects. There can be no verbal communication, only sound effects. Use at least five different sounds that you find online. The story can be no longer than 90 seconds. Another example (by a UMW student): http://ds106.us/wp-content/audio/audio_story.mp3

Link to assignment: https://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/sound-effects-story/

For this assignment, I used Soundtrap to combine different sounds and create a story. The scene follows a woman as she exits a restaurant, walks to her car, gets in, and drives home.

I really wish this assignment could have been longer than 90 seconds because I wanted to extend the story and include more sound clips, but I kept it within the time limit. I sourced all the audio from Freesound, and it was great to explore the variety of options available.

After selecting the sounds I wanted, I imported them into Soundtrap and applied fade-in and fade-out effects to ensure a smooth and natural flow. Once I was satisfied with the final result, I exported and uploaded the project to Soundtrap.

I hope you enjoy this very short story!

Soundtrack to Veronica’s Life

When I saw this assignment, I immediately knew I wanted to do it. But, I wanted to do something a bit different since I already love making playlists for a specific experience and wanted to challenge myself a bit. So, I decided to make a playlist for my course character, Veronica Malone. I go more in depth about her in my blog post, my Course Character, but basically, she is a detective, and has a hard-shell personality with a strong moral compass. When thinking about what music she would listen to, I knew she would like older pop and rock bands, such as Fleetwood Mac, No Doubt, and the Animals. She would also like classic singers such as Nancy Sinatra and Nina Simone. The genres do range a little, going from rock, alternative, pop, jazz, or blues. She likes the complex emotions that these songs address, as she can relate with the high-intensity field that she works in.

The Mind of a CEO

Craft a playlist on any music listening platform with more than 10 songs that represent or have played a significant role within your life.

Link to assignment: https://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/soundtrack-to-your-life/

The playlist I created reflects what I think Finn Calloway, my character, would listen to. It was a bit challenging since our music tastes are different, but I focused on songs that match his personality driven, introspective, and a little detached. In the end, I think it turned out well. I used Apple Music to create the playlist by finding each song and adding it to the playlist I created.