Today I tried to create a city ambience using free sounds and Audacity. Sound editing is not something I have any practice or experience with which made this was a real challenge. I also love working while listening to music, which you can’t do when you are editing sounds, so that was frustrating.
I wanted this clip to feel like a calm day in a city or small square area. I hope you enjoy!
https://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/sound-effects-story/
“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.“
I used sounds sourced exclusively from Freesound.org to create a story where a man enters a spooky castle and potentially doesn’t make it back alive. There are some supernatural elements to the sounds used, such as weird alien noises that are indescribable in daily life.
The story starts off with a whispering man, then our main character is transported to the haunted castle. He opens the door only to find a void of black and the emergence of an unknown extraterrestrial being. Then his screams can be heard echoing throughout the castle, never to be heard again.
Audacity was surprisingly simple to use for mashing together sound effects clips like this, it made me feel more comfortable with working with the software in bigger projects in the future.
Instead of Dr. Phil it is Dr. Ravioli, he helps people with their personal technological overuse issues. An example would be someone who is deeply in love with a character AI and thinks they are real, Dr. Ravioli proposes the solution to delete the character Ai and gain 2 million dollars worth of mopeds or continue their sad lonely digital life. The other participants in this radio show could be guest advisors and the ones being interrogated by Dr. Ravioli.
We could also just do a get to know you podcast where the characters talk about their lives and things they have experienced sharing wisdom with the worlds. There could be a prompt such as “young love” or “biggest mistake in your life.” The characters would share stories and discuss how things happened to them and how they feel about things that have happened to other characters. Everyone would be included and would be able to come up with even more backstory to their characters and really develop them into being.
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.
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.
In Moon Graffiti, written and produced by Jonathan Mitchell, is a fictional retelling of the moon landing where Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong crashed and became stranded. Matt Evans and Ed Herbstman played the two astronats. The story is inspired by the speech written for Nixon by William Saffire in the event that Aldrin and Armstrong didn’t survive the journey. After crashing on the moon, they realize they are stranded and spend their last two hours unable to do anything about their impending deaths. They try to place the flag, discuss the future of space travel, and kill time before their oxygen runs out.
Audio is used very well in this. From the cracking of their radio systems to scientific equipment beeping to sand flying through the air after a kick, every one of the many layers of audio creates a rich atmosphere. I tried to listen to the background as much as possible. They used long humming, static, and beeping at tense moments and kept the background clear during the calmer moments. The techniques were very simple, but effective. I started listening without looking at the description, so I had no clue what was about to happen. In the first ten seconds, I was able to understand that these men were in some sort of space-related emergency.
I enjoyed this more than I expected to. I haven’t listened to many things like this, but found it very compelling. I had a clear image of everything going on without description. They did a great job on this and I may have to listen to more.
Below is a link to the story. Some sections I found particularly interesting are at 2:48, 8:08, and 11:35. These are places where I found the sound editing particularly impactful and detailed. Specifically the footsteps at 2:48, the flag sounds at 8:08, and the breathing and background noise at 11:35.
This short story was unexpectedly gripping for the entirety of the 10 minutes. The conversation between Armstrong and Aldrin signifies uncharted territory, as this was the first time man stepped foot on the moon. The entire story has an underlying mysterious backtrack, until the middle where sometimes just their voices and breathing fill the audio. Sound effects are also littered into the story, and even if these sounds aren’t accurate to what can be heard in space, it adds to the suspense and gravity of the situation.
I am personally very afraid of space, and anything of the unknown. It’s the feeling of knowing that there are things out there that are unknown to us, or potentially too advanced for the human mind to grasp. The “fear of missing out” or FOMO is also a reason why I fear the unknown, as eventually man may be able to conquer space and comprehend all of the mysteries in our galaxy, but I’ll never be around to witness this.
But the nature of the unknown and the fear that future civilizations will have to conquer gives me comfort at times. At least I won’t have to face these uncharted territories myself, all at the cost of my FOMO inside of my tombstone.
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.
The first minute of “Moon Graffiti” was brilliant and made me think it was going to be a short sci-fi audio story. Once the context was provided for the basis of the story, I found this idea fascinating. Like the hosts pointed out, I never even considered the possibility of the moon landing not succeeding and the president having to give a speech afterwards.
It may seem odd, but I recently went to a concert where the theme was interdimensional space travel. The band would have audio clips between sets with very similar space noises to “Moon Graffiti”. I did not realize it then, but those soundbites really put everyone in the venue in a collective “dream state” that Jad Abumrad was discussing in the YouTube video.
Sound is critical to any story whether it’s a podcast, movie, or concert. Oftentimes, certain sounds are very recognizable, giving the listener a clear picture of the story’s setting. However, certain sounds also have the ability to bring people to places they’ve never been, like the moon. Most likely, anyone listening to the podcast has never been to the moon or to space, but the sounds are commonly used in movies taking place in space and sound like what we would expect this place we’ve never been to to sound like.
Not only are there beeps and boops that give the listener an idea of the setting, but also sounds meant to elicit specific emotions. The increasing volume of sounds used to build suspense comes to mind from the podcast. The eeriness of the scene is also emphasized by certain sounds frequently used in space-themed movies.
On Monday 2/5/2024 I tuned into Ds106 radio at 8pm Est where I listened to “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.” Those of us listening joined the Ds106 Discord group so we could share our thoughts on what we heard throught the show. This was a really cool experience and I really enjoyed talking with the community in the Discord chat and discussing what was unique and interesting about the story. Since this was a story solely based on audio there were lots of extra sound effects that really made you feel like you were experienceing the story as it was happening. The story is set in a post-apocolyptic world where the Earth has been devistated by nuclear war. Many of the humans from earth moved to other planets and they created androids to help serve humans to perform tasks of labor. The main character Rick Deckard is an android bounty hunter who has been tasked with destroying the rogue androids who hide amongst the humans. The andropids were made to look indistinguishable from humans so it is pretty hard to tell the difference between robot and flesh. Rick tests the suspected androids by performing phsychological tests on them to see if they show any human emotions. Rick explores themes of identity, morality, and the consequences of technological advancements while dealing with his own and others internal struggles. In the Discord group chat we discussed what some of the sounds remined us of and funny references to other films or books. We talked about the use of sound used as imiagery and how it is used to show us specifically what is happening within the dialogue. The story can be listened to below.