Okey Dokie, Another Draft and a FInal go tomorrow

I'm actually quite happy with this, but fresh eyes will give me more insight :)

Another draft of my final

Today I spent a lot of time fixing the audio on this piece. Mainly I played with noise reduction and audio repair in Soundtrack Pro, re-recorded my voice over, and attempted to fix my mom's levels in her interview.

I also further edited the piece for cohesion and improved narrative qualities. Hopefully the difference is clear! But maybe not, which is always why I love feedback.

No new sound....

But... the Repair audio tutorials on Lynda.com just changed my life! It's so nice to hear Nonno and have it sound like he's in the room with me right now.

So of course, nothing is ever really finished...

But you know... I'm trying

Another Final Addition

Hey blog readers,

I could really use your help! So, I'm sifting through hours and hours of material here, and this is what I've condensed down to so far. I think I might need to add a little bit of narrative to make the whole thing more cohesive. I also think that I may need to edit and shorten— Is this really boring anywhere? What should I change.

Needing a positive push— S

New Posting of my Final Piece

So, here is the latest version of my final project. I'm looking for any feedback you think could help me out as I continue working on this. I'm about to interview 4 people about this particular event, so I imagine things will change quite drastically in the near future but I'd still love your insight. What's working? What's really not working?

Thank you,

Steph

A New Haiku

Hey everyone,

I have a new haiku, and I like the subject quite a bit so I'm excited to continue working on it. The sound space is Detroit's Eastern Market.

I think I'm going to put in a little narration but I'm not sure what I want to say yet. Eastern Market is a really special space for me. From the time I was 15 until I left for college my mom and I went there every Saturday to buy fruits and vegetables.

It was the first place that I really realized where food came from, and because of Eastern Market I eventually stopped eating meat. Anyway, here is the clip below. I think it needs a lot of work and finesse, but here's to beginnings!

So I recognize the levels aren't good...

But, I think I'm going to use this as the main shape of my story. My plan from here is to interview my mom, dad and uncle:

I'm wondering if my mom used her wedding as a scheme to get them back together? Reunited and it feels so good?

As far as feedback, in this rough form I'm really trying to ease listeners in to a semi-heavy subject matter with the jokes and anecdotes. I also feel that these give everyone a sense of the characters we're dealing with...

What do you think?

A few Pieces of an Interview

Here are clips from the interview I've logged for my final class piece. The sound quality isn't the best—when I recorded this interview I had a lot less knowledge than I do now.

This is the meat of what I'll be using though, along with some narration that I'm writing (and struggling with) at the moment.

Re-post, with Questions

So I am re-posting my Sonic Haiku. This is my big question: Should I add a voice over narration?

I have been thinking about this for the past few days and have written a few lines and phrases but placed over what I have already, nothing seems to really work or make sense.

I'm not sure if this is clear in the piece in its current state, but in 20 seconds I go through all the steps it takes to make someone's sandwhich order. It starts with the man asking "bout how long before that'll be out" and then ends with "order for Jack". I feel like I'm already telling a story, but this might not be clear for various reasons.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this matter.

Sonic Haiku-zing

This is the first, very rough draft of my sonic haiku. Do you recognize the space? Do I need some voice over help? Should I re-mix and re-mix again?

Or this... Sorry, the track has to be downloaded

Hey everyone, I'm embedding a piece that I recorded last October and have been careful not to use as of yet. The sound quality isn't the best (it was recorded before I knew some of the basic principles that I have learned in class).

The piece itself is of my Nonno telling a story about purchasing roses for my Nonna, and how that went awry. I've added some music into the track. Let me know if you have any thoughts, comments, questions, etc.

http://www.divshare.com/download/10576057-d6d

Maybe this is my audio portrait?

Hey everyone, I'm embedding a piece that I recorded last October and have been careful not to use as of yet. The sound quality isn't the best (it was recorded before I knew some of the basic principles that I have learned in class).

The piece itself is of my Nonno telling a story about purchasing roses for my Nonna, and how that went awry. I've added some music into the track. Let me know if you have any thoughts, comments, questions, etc.

http://www.divshare.com/download/10576057-d6d

Null and Void

Hate to show embarrassing, Italian-Catholic-hillbilly superstitions on my blog, but post 17 has to remain audio free.

Finally, a Final Draft of a Poem about Sandwich Tests!

After multiple edits with multiple endings the "Choose your own Adventure" aspect of this project comes to an end. This is my final piece.

Another List, Just for Fun

My birthday party was yesterday, I made a list poem about it when I woke up. This is just a bonus, B-side list, but it's fun.

Am I married to this one?

Here is yet another draft of the list poem. I've made a lot of changes since draft one, but I'm still working on getting my voice up to par as far as performance/making it interesting goes.

I had a lot of fun playing with the idea of "word music" and repetition, but ended up taking out a lot of the word loops I made. Enjoy!

Another Draft with all the sounds

In Progress, but getting there: The Test

Here is the latest version of my list poem. I've experimented with several versions and layers of sound and thus far this has been the most enjoyable to me.

BUT, I have a few questions: Does the music acting as a bed underneath the vocals work for the piece? Am I clear enough on the vocals? Is anything distracting or taking away from the piece overall? Any thoughts or comments are welcome!

Just kidding: The last one didn't upload

So here is my list again, because Divshare was doing something weird before. But the comments/story behind the list are still valid from the last post, and I'd still like comments.

List Poem: Draft 1

I've recorded a lot of material for this list poem, but have been semi-wickedly sick all weekend so the draft is just a rough cut of the spoken word, without anything else attached. In the poem I'm taking a peculiar test. A test I may or may not have been avoiding in "real life" for a very long time. A test that this poem is preparing me for... maybe.

In case you're wondering/intrigued, the words I'm saying are all elements of sandwiches. The sandwiches are part of the menu at Zingerman's, where there is a monster sandwich test that I have been avoiding. My concept is that I will read the ingredients as the abbreviations, then add a layer where someone else reads the number. There will also be a layer of sounds, right now I have the sound of a pencil writing and erasing, breathing, and a recording of someone answering the phone at the Deli. I also will most likely go into the Deli and record the cash registers/ general noise and chaos . I'm thinking of adding music but I haven't been particularly inspired by anything yet and I don't want a song choice to be a "force for evil" in this project.

For feedback: clearly this is a very rough cut, but I'm wondering if reading the abbreviations as I am right now is too confusing... or does it add to the mystery and fun of this list? I'm also open to song suggestions and any layering suggestions beyond the aforementioned. I appreciate any feedback and look forward to listening to everyone's work. Ciao!

Some Times Gap v.7 featuring SM Final version

This is the final version of my "On the Road" project. By final I mean that my eyes hurt from watching audio tracks on Soundtrack Pro, and while I could probably edit this about 20 more times...or 21 times...or 22 (almost my age!) I think I'm going to let this rest now.

I can't believe that this is my 9th post on this blog. So many interviews and sounds later this is what I'm posting. Last night I even recorded the sounds of spray glue and silver glitter as I made a Lady Gaga costume. Oh boy.

Dueling Drafts:

Yup, Another Draft

I'm not married to this as the final version of my project. The delay/distortion may be a little too heavy handed for the narrative, and I think after a few hours of letting this rest (ie doing other homework) will be good for me to come back and reevaluate the sound.

And another draft rolls around....

This is my third (?) attempt at a draft of Liz talking about her Dad. I have played a lot with the effects on Sound Track Pro and am looking forward to critique to get some feedback. Most likely, I went to far in the way of "Wine and Cheese Redux" and need to pull back some. There are just so many fun toys to play with on the program (and I am still SEVERAL lynda tutorials away from anything called "mastery").

Also, because I can't resist, here is the "Scraper Bike" video freshly googled post Third Coast curiosity...

New Piece: On the Road Again

This piece is completely different, and separate from the first draft I posted. I appreciate everyone's comments, and we're totally on the same page. While I enjoyed mixing in all of the sounds I had recorded over the past few weeks, it was too many sounds and it took away from the piece: the audio version of word vomit.

This new piece is from an interview I collected from my friend Liz. She is talking about visiting the UP to see her Dad, whom I'll be meeting for the first time in a few weeks. I've always known Liz wasn't close to her Dad, she barely talks about him and sees him only (maybe) twice a year. But, it wasn't until I was editing the audio that I was able to hear how much she dislikes him. Her imitation is brilliant, but when ever she switched to "Scotty Mik" mode she leveled out the recorder. The things we learn on Soundtrack Pro.

Any way, here is the new piece. It still needs a lot of work, but I think I'm in a better place than I was on Wednesday with the rough draft. If you have any ideas for sounds that could be added in/suggestions to make things better, please let me know!

On the Road Draft 1: Wine and Cheese Redux

This is my work in progress for the On the Road journey. I started out with the first post, something more formal. Then, this weekend I started recording sounds from the Wine and Cheese Party that my house has each semester. Inspired by that, I cut together sounds from the party with Kelikee's story, ultimately trying to mix the chaos of the house with her coherent narrative on a grey hound trip. I'm not really satisfied where I am with the project at this point, and might decide to go in a different direction entirely, but here's where I am at the moment!

Other Sounds I've Collected

Rather than post the rest of my interviews, I'm going to share a couple of sounds I collected over the weekend. The first sound is my uncle's motorcycle. In the background my Dad is talking.



The second sound is of the train in Royal Oak, Michigan. I was walking to a coffee shop to meet an old friend, who the day before had been teasing me for being notoriously late for everything. Determined to be on time, I left my house in a hurry only to hear the train coming on the way to the coffee shop. I stopped to record the train. Needless to say, I ended up late.

Kelikee's Trip

This is a short interview with my housemate Kelikee about a trip she took from NYC back to Detroit, with plenty of bumps on the way back. On the trip she meets someone from Ann Arbor and this is how Kelikee ultimately found out about the Co-op system. Pretty interesting.

South Dakota Clip

This is a clip of me reading a short poem I wrote about my time in South Dakota. It is one of the first pieces I recorded with my new H2 Zoom recorder. Check it out below.