"Much like the camera doesn't blink, the recorder doesn't miss anything," sound expert Jon Pray tells my Digital Journalism II class.
"Hi! Audio is kind of my thing" – an understated introduction from the typically understated Jon Pray, the associate vice provost for educational technology at Marquette, who visited my Digital Journalism II class yesterday to talk about volume, frequency, sampling, bit rate, compression and all things related to recording and editing audio.
For acquiring, editing and distributing audio, Pray and the class discussed cloud-based options such as SoundCloud, AudioBoo and other apps used on smartphones. "I don't use these because I'm way too cool," he said before demonstrating how to use the, yes, very cool TASCAM DR-05 digital recorder.
His sound advice, no matter the recording choice: "Make sure you see seconds ticking on this thing when you're recording. ... The worst thing you can do is record someone somewhere there is music playing. ... Keep it under the person's chin. You're kind of getting in their face with this thing. It's kind of evasive. But get over it."
Pray then helped guide the class through Audacity, the free, open-source, audio editing software. "This is fun," he said as he advised the students to be sure to get the plug-in that will let them edit MP3s with Audacity. He also introduced them to two acronyms that I'm hopeful – and afraid – they will remember all too well. "I learned that RTM means (to) "read the manual," student Eric Oliver tweeted later. "I also learned that RTFM is like that but different."
The associate vice provost's previous visit to my class apparently was not for naught. "Jon Pray super-helpful in class last year," student Mark Strotman tweeted after seeing all this class' tweets. "Use his tips in every interview. Hope they took good notes." So do I. We'll see when the mid-term projects are presented in class on Tuesday.
For acquiring, editing and distributing audio, Pray and the class discussed cloud-based options such as SoundCloud, AudioBoo and other apps used on smartphones. "I don't use these because I'm way too cool," he said before demonstrating how to use the, yes, very cool TASCAM DR-05 digital recorder.
His sound advice, no matter the recording choice: "Make sure you see seconds ticking on this thing when you're recording. ... The worst thing you can do is record someone somewhere there is music playing. ... Keep it under the person's chin. You're kind of getting in their face with this thing. It's kind of evasive. But get over it."
Pray then helped guide the class through Audacity, the free, open-source, audio editing software. "This is fun," he said as he advised the students to be sure to get the plug-in that will let them edit MP3s with Audacity. He also introduced them to two acronyms that I'm hopeful – and afraid – they will remember all too well. "I learned that RTM means (to) "read the manual," student Eric Oliver tweeted later. "I also learned that RTFM is like that but different."
The associate vice provost's previous visit to my class apparently was not for naught. "Jon Pray super-helpful in class last year," student Mark Strotman tweeted after seeing all this class' tweets. "Use his tips in every interview. Hope they took good notes." So do I. We'll see when the mid-term projects are presented in class on Tuesday.
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