Category Archives: ds106radio

Livefutzing is something of a tradition here

We had our first night of ds106radio broadcasts last night, with a possible record crowd. At one point the ds106radio page said we had 23 listeners, although some may have been ghosts and doubles. They were treated to Isaiah Beacon’s Logic Pod show and Ravioli Radio, two excellent shows. I was curious as to why Beacon did a commercial on Ravioli Radio. Coincidence? I suspect there’s a story there, but no one said anything.

I was able to bring a few of the creators on air to talk about their processes. This had been an iffy proposition in the past when I used Ladiocast to broadcast. This time around I used Audio Hijack, which made working with multiple inputs easier. Here’s my setup:
screenshot of Audio Hijack setupI used Quicktime to play the show recordings, a Logitech headset to monitor and speak, and brought people on air through Streamyard on Firefox. There was a slight hiccup in the first on-air conversation in that I had the Logitech input turned off, so ds106radio listeners only heard half the conversation and were a bit confused. They got the important half of the discussion though, and I got it straightened out for the subsequent conversation. Live-futzing is something of a tradition on ds106ardio.

This is your brain on the radio

animated image of selecting a station on a radio We had a bunch of interesting radio show ideas this past week, including:

  • talk show
  • news show
  • day in a life
  • work together to take over the city
  • work together to defeat Dr. Oblivion
  • AI pros & cons
  • AI propaganda
  • AI as a weapon/tool for domination
  • storytime
  • reality show/office drama
  • female empowerment show

This was all before we sprung the Aggressive Technologies corporation idea on everyone. One idea specifically mentioned it anyway, but it could be easily connected to any of the other concepts. Even if a show concept is totally unrelated, Aggressive Technologies could show up as the show’s sponsor. The idea of Dr. Oblivion as a villain could be an interesting one. What’s his connection to AT? Is he a product? Is he the man behind the curtain? A rogue entity escaped from Research & Development?

I encourage everyone to look over everyone else’s ideas. Are there ways to make them work together? Are there ideas or characters you would like to work with? Everyone will be forming radio groups in a few weeks, and it’s better for people to make their own groups rather than get assigned randomly, so it won’t hurt to start thinking about it now.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – I listen to the ds106 radio

On Tuesday night I listened to an episode of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? on ds106 radio. I joined a little late, so missed some of the setup, but was able to catch up pretty easily. This is a story about a post-apocalyptic world where it is almost impossible to tell androids from humans. It follows a bounty hunter who is supposed to hunt down androids. I was mostly enthralled by the story so did not focus on the sound details as much as I was supposed to, but I do remember some interesting aspects.

First, the way the editors altered the voice actors was wonderful. Even when I wasn’t sure who was a robot, I had suspicions based on the slight edits on their voices. Some characters sounded a little odd and had weird intonations and tones. It’s possible that this was the voice actor’s work but I think it was the editors.

The background noise was very detailed and layered. Static and humming in the background helped add tension. Every footstep, gun click, and movement was audible. I knew exactly what the characters were doing without any descriptions. I could not believe how clear it all was.

Overall I was really impressed. A while ago my dad and I listened to some old mystery radio shows. I hadn’t thought about that in a while but now I want to go back and listen to them. I was much more invested in this story than I expected to be.

DS106 Radio Thoughts

I was unable to join the discussion due to the fact that I worked late pretty much every day this week. However, I did end up going back on discord to read what most people had to say. Professor Bond was able to send me the links, so I was still able to listen to some of the radio I missed.

In the radio, I do not know why but the voices that were carried throughout the radio reminds me of the voices of the Simpsons. Which was funny at first and then I really started to pay attention to the way the audio was set up. With the voices that mix with different sounds. In the radio with the dice, you can really see how they used both sounds at once. You can while you hear the dice in the background was two different sounds put into one second.

They all have an old sound of the radio. When you think about how people use to listen to the radio vs. now there is a big difference in the sound quality. Back in the day things had a kind of “old” sound to it and now everything is very crisp sounding. I never realize that listening through headphone could change how well you are able to hear different kinds of audios.

Listening through headphones I can hear all kinds of activity in the background

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The timing of the ds106 radio is really well done. Meaning that the people talking have no pauses where there should not be. Overall, very good audios that I inspire to create one day

DS106 Radio – What an Experience!

For the live DS106 radio session this week, I was working at night for all 3 of the sessions. However, I was able to check into the Wednesday night’s show and it was an absolute pleasure.

The first story called “A Logic Named Joe” was a lighthearted comedic interpretation of what the internet would look like back in the 50s. A lot of the transition effects sounded similar to a cartoon movie with its wonky antics. Some of the distance effects allowed for us to decipher the situation more clearly, and where each character was located during each part of the story. The most interesting thing I noticed was how the interpretation of an AI assistant didn’t sound very robotic at all. It sounded more like an older movie narrator with much more personality than what I imagined people in the 50s expected AI to be.

The second story was “Report on the Barnhouse Effect” and this was a big shift between the last story. A lot of the creeking of doors and chairs, footsteps, and other subtle sounds made the story eerie, with each one adding to a sense of overall urgency in the story. There was a lot more to take in with this story, and I really appreciated all of the intricate sound effects used to portray the story. Professor Bond mentioning that the bell ringing at the end of the story signaled that the location was at a service desk, and I wouldn’t have caught that without his insight.

Overall I took a lot of lessons away from this session, and I’d definitely tune in again for some more stories.

Tuning in

This week we were supposed to tune into the ds106 radio. I tuned in on Monday and was met with an old futuristic radio story filled with sounds. When listening, I along with others tuning in, were able to hear different distinct sounds. We were able to hear escalating music letting you know what is going on. I was unable to listen to about 15 minutes worth of the show unfortunately because there was a fire alarm mid way through the show. I soon returned and caught up on what happened from the chat. When I was listening the sounds of footsteps were the most intriguing part of the story fro me. Based off of the footsteps we were able to tell who the characters are and where they were. The pace and breaks in footsteps also helped build the story. It was a really interesting story, and I look forward to listening into the radio again sometime soon.

DS106 Radio

Listening to the DS106 radio and seeing which sounds people picked up on emphasized how people can sometimes get the same vibes from a story, but from different aspects of it. There seemed to be a lot of agreement on the themes of certain sounds/ stories, but everyone was pointing out the sounds that stood out to them to give them that sense. This is similar to watching a show or a movie with a group of people where most people get the general idea of a scene, but notice different visual details. The only difference is the focus on the audio over radio!

I enjoyed seeing the different perspectives and being able to focus on different sounds that others would point out that I did not pick up on as clearly. Getting a sense of how everyone interprets audio differently emphasizes how people can get different lessons out of any type of story, whether visual, audio, or both.

DS106 Radio Session

I was able to make it to the 1st night of group radio listening. I have listened to vintage radio shows before, so I did have an idea on what to expect. We listen to “Do androids dream of electric sheep” It was a great story. They made great use of the sounds to let you know where the characters were at any given point. They sounded different in the car then they did in a big empty space. There were footsteps and paper shuffling. I was unable to make it to the 2nd installment of the story and listened to it on my own. In the 2nd half of the story a famous painting is described and then the painting is used a reference to explain and describe the scene. The painting used was Edvard Munch “the Scream”. The music and sound effects did a great job of painting the scene as gritty and post-apocalyptic sci-fi.

On Wednesday we listened to 2 shorter programs. The first was “A Logic named Joe”. It was cartoonish and silly but with a sense urgency. It made use of cartoonish transition music. You got the idea that the characters were in quite a pickle but in a fun way. You could tell when they were on the phone with a person by the way they distorted the other voice slightly. At one point a kid is slapped and you just have to catch it with the sound effects since they don’t out right say it.

The other program was more serious in nature with less music. It was called “Report on the Barnhouse Effect”. Some ties the scenes faded into each other and other times there was transition music. The radar sound effect noise sounded like old school call waiting beeping. The sound effects were not silly like in Joe. They were much more serious. The music was simple and eerie chords. It really built suspense. Near the end a gun (I think they might have said pistol) was being fired and it was machine gun sounds. I laughed because the sound did not match what was described. (I grew up with a parent in the military and married a veteran of the armed forces) The sounds used really carried the story along providing information.

ds106 Radio Experience

My experience with the radio was a bit odd. I tried to get in on the session on earlier in the week and the audio wasn’t working for me. I pressed play on the whatever was in the middle of the screen and turned my volume up all the way on everything and still nothing came out. I then pulled it up on my phone and the same thing. Then I tried on Wednesday night, and it did the same thing. I wasn’t sure if it was just plating songs or someone was talking but I was bummed I missed out on the experience of the radio, but I’m sure it will come back later on for future assignments.

ai hour experience: audio production

I joined the radio show on Tuesday night, where we listened to the second episode of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? At first, I was a bit confused since I hadn’t heard the previous night’s episode. Though by listening to the episode through the lens of audio production I was quickly able to fill in the gaps of what I missed.

I enjoyed the usage of ambient sound in the background denoting where each scene took place. The sounds of the world outside while traveling. When Deckard confronts the androids and J.R. the accompanying suspense music puts the listener on edge without being too obvious. Also, the usage of sound effects like the breaking of glass as Pris escapes put us right in the scene with them.

The distinct voices of each character made it easy to tell them apart as well as gain a bit of an insight into what they’re like. Resch’s gruff voice and often domineering tone that softens slightly when questioning his status as a human. J.R.’s desperation and loss of faith in the androids when the spider is tortured. And Rachel’s slightly robotic voice and tone of manipulation as she directs Deckard right where she wants him.

The story itself was gripping as well. The exploration of android rights that were only brought into the world by humans who tried to play God. As well as the ending of the story with the final question Rachel delivers to Deckard that it doesn’t matter anymore who’s human or android left me thinking for a while after. At the end of the show, I got to hear a great example of audio production and enjoyed a gripping plot.