Thurs, Oct. 30: if you don't ask, they'll never tell

Greetings, radio personalities about to populate the fruited plain,

Today, you will be completing one task, and beginning another. Let's start with the second one first:

PRACTICE INTERVIEWING SKILLS

A few of you have already begun doing this, at least in a limited sense. Now, each of you will have to begin setting up interviews. Here's what you need to do:

A) Find at least two other people in this class who are NOT IN YOUR GROUP who are willing to be interviewed. (I'm trying to mix it up here a little bit). If no one consents, well, too bad for everyone involved, I'll just start matching people up if that happens. (Or as Darth Sidious put it, "I will make it legal")

B) You will have to agree on an interview topic with each of these two people. The topic has to be school appropriate and something you are both comfortable talking about.

C) set up a series of questions you plan on asking this person about the topic you both agreed to. For now, five good questions will do.

D) When you have this all set up, please post the names of the two people you plan on interviewing, the topic for each one, and the set of questions. This should be set up as a Discussion posting on our Google group; you should title it using your name plus the phrase "Interviews, step one"

When you are done with that, please complete any work that you have not finished up in the past few days.

Cheers,
Mr. L

Wed, Oct 29: part two from yesterday, aka review all other radio shows

Yesterday, you were asked to make sure to upload your "rough draft" of your radio show. It would seem that most of you have done so, and I know this because I have placed a copy of all your radio shows in a folder at this address:

http://www.box.net/shared/ghgdxhy6ic

Today, your job is to review all shows that are not your own. Eventually, when you have heard every show that's being created by this class, you will have to post your review in the form of a discussion posting on our Google group. All INDIVIDUAL students in this class are responsible for making this posting. Your Discussion must be named "all the shows". Each posting must include the following:

A one or two sentence summation of what you thought of each show. Be nice be polite be honest and get to the point

This summation should include at least one constructive suggestion for each show

OK, I think that will be enough exercise for this morning.
Let's do it, let's get it done!

Cheers,
Mr. L

Tuesday October 28: Part One

Greetings all you fine radio people!

Today you have two great tasks ahead of you. The first is for ALL radio shows to be "finished", in the sense of having a rough draft uploaded to Box.net. Please recall that I posted a blog discussion last week detailing exactly what needs to be included. If you forget what that includes, check out this blog post from last Tuesday, here:

http://dissonantdisturbances.blogspot.com/2008/10/tuesday-oct-21-your-radio-show-as-rough.html

If you still need to record something next door, get up to my desk, and let's get going! If you already have all your parts, and just need to put them together, then what on earth are you waiting for? Let's do it, let's get it done

Cheers, Mr. L

Thursday, Oct. 23: Putting it all together

Greetings O greatest of all student DJs!

Today we will continue to work towards completing your radio shows preparatory to us streaming them online. There's lots to be done, and as a way of helping you find out what you still need to do -- not that you didn't sort of already know anyway -- I have sent emails to all members of this class to let them know where they stand. Please get cracking on all work which you must complete. Anything that can be done in the lab should get done, tutto pronto; those of you who need to finsih up work in the radio production room, well, we will get a batting order set up straight away.

Cheers,
Mr. L

Tuesday Oct 21: your radio show as a "rough draft"

Greetings exuberant radio people,

Today, you will need to do two things:

A) finish up everything assigned yesterday, and last week. This means bumper files that are MP3s, NOT session files! So, if you passed in a session file yesterday, even if it had "all your mp3s", DON'T DO THAT AGAIN! I am not accepting session files anymore.

B) You also need to be able to start creating a "rough draft" of your radio show. This rough draft must have the following:

• an intro theme song
• a studio recording from next door
• An "on air identifier"
• another studio recording from next door
• A segment of bumper music on EITHER SIDE of those studio recordings
• A "signing off" segment, where you somehjow signal the end of the show, either through a voice recording of yours, or some bumper segment that you ALWAYS use to end your show

All of the aforegoing files MUST be saved as mp3s, which you then import into an Adobe Audition session file. You lay down each of these mp3 files into a different track, arrange them so they sound good, then EXPORT this whole session file as one big Mp3 which contains everything I just ementioned

This is the "rough draft" of your radio show, and it must be named after ALL the members of your group, and UPLOADED to your shared folder on Box.Net

Cheers,

Mr. L

PS If you don't have all the stuff for this "rough draft" of your show,

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Mon, Oct 20: Part Two

OK, while some groups are getting started with creating "bumper music", others of you STILL have to get next door and create at least one 5 minute studio recording, save it as an mp3 and then get it to me so I can give you credit for it. You know who you are, so don't be shy: get up here to my desk and get signed up to go next door. Ditto for those of you who need to record and save as an mp3 an "on air identifier"

Also, if you have already done all that, ALL groups owe me an mp3 containing what their radio show is so far, including the theme song, an on air identifier and at least two recording sessions from next door, with one being at least 5 minutes long. The file MUST be in the form of an mp3 and it must contain the words "Radio Show" PLUS the date it was created on PLUS the names of ALL group members. This file, like all files MUST be uploaded to your group's shared folder

Cheers,
Mr. L

MON Oct 20, Part One bumper music!:

OK, by now you ought to have some music mp3 files available; and if you don't, you get to use my tunes, such as they are. (Hey, don't complain if my selection isn't quite the same as yours; I've been telling you about this for over a week now.) Here's what you're going do with them: create "bumper music" by using the selection tool in Adobe Audition to take out a nice 20 seconds or so from a favorite song. Bumper music is usually used to bridge the gap between sections where you're saying something, or playing an entire song, or conducting an interview etc, etc etc. Each of you will need to create at least five "bumpers" for your group, with each one being 10 to 20 seconds long. SO, if you have two people in your group, I'll be expecting a total of ten "bumpers".

OK, but just how do you make a "bumper"? It's a simple four step process, and you will need to use Adobe Audition every step of the way, so get that program started!, Then, do this:

A) Use the import command to put a song on the list at the left side of the program (just like we did with loops way back when)
(if you don't have any mp3 song files to work with, I have a bunch of them here: http://www.box.net/shared/g3kmhntxou ) B) drag this song onto a track, just like we used to do with loops C) doubleclick on that song to get into edit mode D) In edit mode, listen to the song to find a small piece of it that you like. Then just hold the mouse button down while dragging to select the piece you like

E) Once you have that piece selected, Click the FILE command then click on "Save Selection As"

F) SAVE the file as an MP3, and name it after yourself plus the name of the song or the name of the group.

G) Repeat this process until you have them all done

H) Make sure to upload a copy of ALL your bumpers to the Shared folder I've made for you

Wed Oct 15: putting it all together

Greetings children, and welcome back!

BEFORE WE BEGIN, LET ME PLEASE PUT IN ANOTHER CALL FOR YOU TO BRING IN MP3 FILES OF SONGS THAT YOU REALLY LIKE. TWO OR THREE SHOULD DO THE TRICK!

Today, we will be accomplishing three very important things:

A) I have some shared folders available for you on BOX.net. What this means is that you will all have a place where you can upload files that you will need for future classes, whether it be song or sound files (more on that in just a second), or sessions that you have done in the "radio room" next door, and then converted to mp3s.

In your email inbox, you should find an invitation from me to share this new folder. I want you to respond to that email, and then see if you can upload a file that is named after you -- it can be even just a simple Word document.

B) From this point forward, you should upload work that you have finished into this shared folder. So for example, many of you will be continuing the process of recording 5 minutes of material next door, and then exporting this stuff as an mp3. Please upload this stuff to your new shared folder directly. (If you also want to email it to me and to yourself that is also fine)

C) Finally, I want you to start working on putting your show together. By this I mean that you already have a theme song and at least two different mp3 recordings. What I want you to do is to use Adobe Audition to fit these pieces together, using a separate track for each file you use. You will probably find that there are some things where you need to choose which parts of it you want. For example, many of you have theme songs that are just way too long. At this point, you will want to consider how best to get them to a minute long or less.

You may also have places in yopur other files where you messed up, and you will want to cut out those parts using the "selection" tool I showed you in Audition.

Well, that should be enough exercise for the lunch block :-)

Cheers,
Mr. L

Tues Oct. 14: making a name for yourself!

BEFORE WE BEGIN: PLEASE REMEMBER TO START BRINGING IN MP3s OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS. PLEASE GET THEM HERE ANYWAY YOU CAN, AS I HAVE SOMETHING PLANNED FOR THEM

Greetings radio children, and welcome to our first class after a long and much deserved weekend break. We are going to "cycle through" all the groups today, trying to give as many people as possible a chance at some time in the production room next door. While you're waiting for your turn, I want you to do the following:

A) Come up with a name for your show. Be creative but remain school appropriate. C'mon, if you're reading a blog called the "Dissonant Disturbances" and make discussion posts at a group called "Father Nature's Wild Kingdom", your instructor obviously doesn't mind some strangeness, but it has to be something that won't get us all in trouble

B) Come up with a name for yourself and your other group members. Again, be creative and appropriate. Just as an example, I am currently listed as "Uncle Paulie" on our Google group. I've also been known --in other places and other times-- as the mightyWalrus, the sonic superman, student X and Commander Zero. It's not that hard to make a name for yourself, you just have to do it.

C) Come up with a slogan for your show. Nike has the "just do it" slogan. The army has the "army of one" slogan. My own slogan is that "I'm not the best at what I do, I'm the only one who does it!" Come up with your own. Again, be creative and appropriate.

Please post all three of these as a group discussion posting on our Google group.

When you are finished with that, please work on anything else you still have not finished up for this class.

Cheers,

Mr. L

Wed, October 8: getting some air time

Greetings, DJs in the making!

Today, each group of you will be in the "production room" next door for a 5 minute session. Please be ready with what it is you wish to say, and be ready to go. It is important that your group be completely ready, as it is the only way that everyone will be able to get a turn.

While you are waiting your turn, make sure that you are completely caught up on everything else we have done this week, and make sure to check your emails to see if you have had any more responses.

Cheers,

Mr. L

Tuesday, October 7: yesterday, part two

Greetings O most noisy and happy of all radio people!

Today, I wish for you to continue your work from yesterday, only more so:

A) If you have received answers to questions you have asked of various DJs, then please post both the questions and answers in a Discussion posting on our blog. YOU ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE for at least one posting of this type; this is NOT a group project.

B) Continue refining the "script" for your group's next session in the Radio Production room next door. If you feel that your group has at least five minutes worth of material, and you guys can just go in there and get it done without wasting any time, then let's go for it.

C) Make sure that your group has posted what you will be saying for this new session

D) If you have not received any feedback from any of the DJs you emailed, then email some other DJs. Don't waste too much time nagging people who won't write back.

Cheers,

Mr. L

Monday October 6: Getting some air time, talking to DJs

Greetings loud noisy exuberant radio children!

Today, we will be working to accomplish three things, all of them really K3WL!!!

A) Everyone who has NOT had a chance to get into the radio room and record will be able to do so. BE READY !!

B) If you have received permission from your DJs to write to them and ask them some questions. When you get their answers back, you have to post both your questions and their answers under a new Discussion topic called " the DJs talk back"
Please be sure to include the name of the DJ, the website of their radio station and their email address for EACH DJ who responds to you.

C) All of you who have already had that chance will be putting your time to good use by starting to come up with a rough idea of the topic you would like to talk about for your first show. The topic has to be something specific -- "we wanna talk about the Patriots" is way too general for example.

The topic you choose has to have at least four or five different parts to it. For example, if you were going to talk about a particular band, you might want to talk about a new song they have which is getting a lot of airplay, a tour they've been on, what you think about the price of tickets, etc etc etc.
You will need to post a discussion topic about this as well. For this discussion you will only need one per group.

Cheers,

Mr. L

Thursday October 2: sending emails, setting more questions and getting into the "room next door"

Greetings radio children!

Today, we are going to work towards several different goals, one after the other:

A) You will send an email to each of the five radio DJs you selected as part of an earlier assignment. Each email you send will let them know who you are ( a high school student) what you are doing (working in a class on radio production) and why you are writing -- you would like to ask them some basic questions about what they do. Please make each email brief, polite and appropriate. Be respectful in all ways.

B) AFTER you have sent that, you will each need to make a new discusssion posting. You have had some time since you posted your original three questions you wish to ask your DJs; now you will need to create not less than five additional questions. Try to think of exactly what you will need to ask. This is important, as the people we are trying to contact are very busy people, and we may not get more than one chance to ask them anything.

C) While this is going on, I would like to take in groups of four people at a time to the radio room next door, to get acquainted with the equipment and possibly create a test recording of your voices. When I take you in there, please be aware that the equipment in that room is all precision made, and probably worth more than my car. In other words, you need to be very careful. This is one place where we DO NOT ACT LIKE WE'RE STILL IN GRADE SCHOOL. If you can't handle the responsibility, you will not be allowed to stay in there.

D) If this still applies, any makeup work you need to hand in needs to get done TODAY.

Cheers,
Mr. L