Category Archives: Uncategorized

With or Without

From the beginning of the semester we learn about, How to properly use recorders and we had a chance to use a variety such as Tascam DR- 40, Zoom H2n Handy Recorder ( just to name a few. The overall purpose of using and testing these recorders, were to get a more indepth understanding of how sound works. How to check the levels, making sure you do the Checklist. These are great habits to follow especially as a sound engineer, or to asure quality recorder for, videos, interview etc..

Sound is a science and can be a work of art. I learned in this sound class about Sound Design. Which helps implement the quality in sound wether for television, movies or interviews. Sound designers create sound from scratch, there goal is to create the most realistic sound to match the display. I admire this video how creative Peter Jackson ( Director of Lord of The Rings) was for the specific sound he was looking for when creating this move. His design team spent hours to get the correct sound.

So for the past couple of weeks Professor Smith challenge us to come up to with a sound design for a cartoon ” Plane crazy mickey” Now my first thought was ok im going to match up the music with the cartoon etc.. However, it’s not that simple meaning you have to know what type of style Musicial, Orchestra, Action just to name a few.

My past projects I attempt Section 13 I choose which was from a group assignment. Below is my new assignment. I chose to redo Buster Keton ( you dont have to watch the whole video, but view some to give you a better understand who he is. I choose to do House falls on buster

What i did was totallly replace the sound using the program Premiere and just creating tons of layers. My list is below

Some sound was not in sync which I tried and mashing up on purpose. Mixing two different generes of sound design. Some cases it worked and some like: The running scene, the skidding and the house falling. I tried to mix the natural sound with the music. I gave it my very best of what I know to make it happen.

Wind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqPAAwR_32M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3PJjdcL6cQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1mOWVKygks

Wind Effect
Strong Wind
And actual trees blowing

(had to get 3 different wind sounds to make the quality sounds I was looking for in this design project)

Paper flying

http://soundbible.com/2066-Page-Turn.html

Sirens ( to help implement the sound design

http://soundbible.com/1937-Tornado-Siren-II.html

Metal Scrapping

http://soundbible.com/2037-Metal-Rattling.html

Thump on the grown

http://soundbible.com/1120-Bounce.html

Dirt

http://soundbible.com/998-Sweep-Kick.html / http://soundbible.com/1886-Crumbling.html

Breaking sound

http://soundbible.com/728-Out-Of-Control.html

Some one screaming help ( or just screaming)

http://soundbible.com/726-Falling-Off.html

Smack/ Hit

http://soundbible.com/1945-Smashing.html

Step

Sqweak sound

http://soundbible.com/1299-Banana-Peel-Slip-Zip.html

Whistle

Boing

http://soundbible.com/85-Cartoon-Hop.html

Metal rattle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PbD3I9eumM

Crash

Wood Breaking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWBn9t-Aym8

Crash

I orchestrated this list as i kept watching it to basically set a foundation of sound i would need to execute this project. I not only created one type of style but two. One with music and one without. Hope you enjoy.

Home Alone Final Project

For my Final project I choose to Take two of my favorite parts of one of my favorite christmas movies of all time, the 1990 blockbuster hit “Home Alone” starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern. Below is the original trailer of the movie.

As i was watching a directors note guide to the movie of AMC, I found out alot of very interesting details about the movie. What i found most interesting is that the movie is supposed to act as a human cartoon. Finding this out changed my perspective of the movie seeing it more as a cartoon movie instead of real life. I decided to take my favorite parts of the movie strip out the sound and use my own idea of how the sound effects would go.

Using the video of the best moments from the movie,i found two of my favorite parts in the clip. imported it into imovie, cut them out, exported it onto my desktop and created a new project that would allow me to work with those two clips alone. Below is the video of the best moments from the movie.

I googled some sound effects and used some sound effects built into imovie. I imported them into itunes and exported them into imovie. Using some pitch correction and eq’s i was able to create the exact sounds i wanted to hear and how i wanted to hear them. I organized and lined up the sound according to the video than i exported the video out of imovie onto my desktop. I than googled the Home Alone soundtrack and found a piece titled “The Home”. I downloaded the piece from youtube and exported it into imovie adding it as the background music to the clip. I than exported the whole clip into vimeo. Below you will find a list of sound effects used in the clip, the song “The Home” from the Home Alone soundtrack and the link to my final project.

Slip and Crash and Fall

http://mp3skull.com/mp3/slip_sound_effects.html

Gun shot

http://mp3skull.com/mp3/gun_shot_sound_effects.html

Falling down the stairs

http://mp3skull.com/mp3/falling_down_sound_effects.html

Sizzle noise

http://mp3skull.com/mp3/sizzle_sound_effects.html

Falling body

http://mp3skull.com/mp3/sound_effects_body_fall.html

Torch

http://mp3skull.com/mp3/torch_sound_effects.html

FINAL PROJECT

no title

So we bring the semester to and end so soon. I am so excited what I learn and take this and apply it to my furture projects. I can honestly say I havent done anything projects for short term goals, but for long term goals. Being a freelancer Designer, Videographer, Photographer etc. it’s especially to know these things especially about sound. From the beginning of the semester we learn about, How to properly use recorders and we had a chance to use a variety such as Tascam DR- 40, Zoom H2n Handy Recorder ( just to name a few. The overall purpose of using and testing these recorders, were to get a more indepth understanding of how sound works. How to check the levels, making sure you do the Checklist. These are great habits to follow especially as a sound engineer, or to asure quality recorder for, videos, interview etc.. Sound is a science and can be a work of art. I learned in this sound class about Sound Design. Which helps implement the quality in sound wether for television, movies or interviews. Sound designers create sound from scratch, there goal is to create the most realistic sound to match the display. I admire this video how creative Peter Jackson ( Director of Lord of The Rings) was for the specific sound he was looking for when creating this move. His design team spent hours to get the correct sound. So for the past couple of weeks Professor Smith challenge us to come up to with a sound design for a cartoon ” Plane crazy mickey” Now my first thought was ok im going to match up the music with the cartoon etc.. However, it’s not that simple meaning you have to know what type of style Musicial, Orchestra, Action just to name a few. My past projects I attempt Section 13 I choose which was from a group assignment. Below is my new assignment. I chose to redo Buster Keton ( you dont have to watch the whole video, but view some to give you a better understand who he is. I choose to do House falls on buster http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN2SKWSOdGM What i did was totallly replace the sound using the program Premiere and just creating tons of layers. My list is below Sound that will be incoperated in this project will be Wind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqPAAwR_32M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3PJjdcL6cQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1mOWVKygks

Wind Effect
Strong Wind
And actual trees blowing

I orchestrated this list as i kept watching it to basically set a foundation of sounds ( Natural and Metophoric sounds) i would need to execute this project. I not only created one type of style but two. One with music and one without. Hope you enjoy.

With Music

Final Project – Mickey Mouse Haunted House (00:20 – 2:00) Sound Rework

For my final project, I reworked the entire sound design for Mickey Mouse Haunted House cartoon, from 00:20 to 2:00. This cartoon was actually created in 1929 by Walt Disney. I made an attempt to produce this project using the Matilda Approach, however it wasn’t working the way I wanted to to a changed my mind to only use sounds without music. Although it challenging, because I had no music that could possibly cover up some areas. I had a lot of fun doing this project. I challenged myself to design all the sound effects in a way that would tell what is happening and most importantly, to portray the feelings of the character. I spent a lot of time finding the right sounds for each scenes to make the project as perfect as possible. Whatever sound I couldn’t find. I had to use whatever is available and play around with them, until I find what I wanted or could use to represent the sound I was achieving to get.

This project also helped me to become better with timing when editing my designing a sound effect to the video.

I have used a combination of natural sounds and free sounds from the web. I used Adobe Premiere CS6 and Avid Pro Tools to put all the sounds together.

Here is the final attempt. I added room tone to it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD6aV5tXkMA[/youtube]

Here is the first attempt to my project.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVoRVDeQa4g[/youtube]

Here is a link to the original video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNuq5v7INeo[/youtube]

Here are link to the free sounds i have used.

http://www.freesound.org/people/RHumphries/sounds/2523/

http://www.freesound.org/people/Erdie/sounds/24003/

http://www.freesound.org/people/juskiddink/sounds/81185/

http://www.freesound.org/people/fogma/sounds/26187/

http://soundbible.com/1234-Bomb.html

http://www.freesound.org/people/winsx87/sounds/152015/

http://www.freesound.org/people/mmaruska/sounds/191656/

http://www.freesound.org/people/promete/sounds/60143/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TudMykewh_I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3vSRzkG82U

Live entertainment on the subway…or is it?

For the final project, I chose to create a sound mix of acoustic music and surrounding sounds to convince my listeners into believe that this recording is a live entertainment session on the NYC subway. In the link above, the sound mix is a short acoustic song by the popular punk rock, Paramore. The Paramore song is used is called “Interlude: Moving On“, which is featured on their latest self-titled album. But instead of me using the produced version, I discovered for a Ukelele Version by Marilyn White. For the subway sounds in the background, I used the audio of video I found on YouTube called “NYC train ride through Brooklyn“. At the beginning of creating the final project, I recorded my own subway ride but it wasn’t coming out the way I wanted it to so I chose to look on Soundbible for some assistance but that was also a fail as well. As for looking for the right song to use, I tried look for a simple song that involved just one instrument that most subway musicians carry around, so that I can, again, fool my listeners. For creating the entire sound mix, I used Audacity at first but it wasn’t coming the way I wanted it to so I chose to use Pro-Tools instead.

Fake Applause The clapping when the song is finished playing.

Shopping Mall Ambiance The sounds of people walking in and out of the train at the stops.

For the final project, it was fun for me in a way because it was freelance and it was something that I did out of my own creativty. In my opinion, I feel I accomplished the goal I was aiming for with this project. I got 3 listeners so far to listen to my project and before I told them that it was a sound mix, they really believed that Paramore was actually on the train playing their music on the train for the public. In the beginning, I was actually going to sing the lyrics and record it myself but I’m really not that good vocally so I chose to use the actual song instead. I think that this is something that I would do more in my free time outside of school and because I am a Communications Technology major, I learned more about, specifically in sound mixing, using other applications other than GarageBand to create the sound mixes.

Alasia’s Final Project Post On her Final Project called the “DANCEMIXMASHUP” !!!!!!!!

Once again, I managed to come up with another idea for my final project. At first, I wanted to use Miley Cyrus’s song and isolate her vocals from the track using audacity. However, over the weeks I’ve been working at home on my computer and trying to make that isolation happen, and I got it to work, but it didn’t come out exactly how I wanted it to. The vocals were isolated, but the instrumental music in the background was still a bit noticeable, and I didn’t like how it sounded. Therefore, I thought of another one of my favorite things to do, which is listening to dance/electronica music. So then, what came to my mind was maybe I should just create a remix of all of my favorite dance/electronica songs, and change up the instruments, beats, tempo, and so much more of the songs and make it into a “DanceMixMashup” track.

I then began my searching on YouTube and audacity.com on how to mix up and change the beats of various songs, and I am really happy with my final result. I chose 4 of my favorite songs, the first is called “Thinking About You” by Calvin Harris, the second is called “Work Bitch” by Britney Spears, the third is called, “She Wolf” by David Guetta, and the fourth song is called “Memories” by David Guetta. If you search on YouTubee and listen to all of these songs carefully, you will really hear the difference between my versions of the songs and the original song. You will notice how dramaticaly I changed the pitch, volume, and used a variety of effects on audacity to make it sound totally different. I really wanted to do something related to music for my final project because I have always been a music fanatic, and music is truly a mood changer, and can really help you out of stress, feeling sad, angry, and a bunch of other emotions you have inside of you.

I had a lot of fun doing this project, more then any of my other final projects I must say. The reason being so, is because I felt like I really got a chance to explore and mess around with so many tools into making my final project sound the way it does. I had a lot of fun doing both trial and errors on the effects, and deciding which effect and where I should place it inside of my dance mashup mix. Overall, I am very happy that I took this audio class, because I think I can really use it in my future when I want to create my own films or just about anything. I will know the true essence of sound and sound design, and I will really listen out for peaks, amplitudes, and frequency especially. I think that this class taught me way more about sound then I have ever known, and I am positive that I will carry everything I learned in this class throughout the rest of my courses and in my future career.

The links and videos below are the tutorials I watched that helped me create my mashup.

Effects used in Audacity to Edit Audio

How to make Beat Mashups:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzlvBxX7gYE[/youtube]

How To Mix Songs:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0prhAjEdY6k[/youtube]

How to Mix and Match Songs:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HLSKyXov5Q[/youtube]

HERE BELOW IS MY PROJECT THAT I UPLOADED TO MY SOUNDCLOUD ACCOUNT!!

PRESS PLAY & ENJOY!!

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/125137224″ params=”color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Final Audio Project

My final project I did is based on a holiday mix since Christmas is almost here. The project is composed of the 6 best moments in my opinion for The Raymond Mora Sports Show with co-hosts and guests. I used audacity and my shows that I have done throughout the semester. It was a pretty long process because I had to choose if i should do 10 or 5. The 6 best moments were better based on it being close to the sample unless if I done a loop.

Here is the audio project and the sample I used for the background music credit to ESPN DJ Steve Porter. This particular DJ is very good and has come catchy moments during his mix. I chose to do it this way because it made it seem like it was a live radio show and it be fun to when you know what you are talking about.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/124836512″ params=”color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

(00:08- Number Six)- This moment was in the first show and its about the New York Giants and the struggles they had. The season was pretty early at the time and being 0-3 didn’t really help a lot.

(00:37- Number Five)- Second Show was shared with a co-host name Bryan White. Giants continue to struggle and Bryan, a giants fan talks about that. There was a lot of emotion and laughing but it shows that we had a good talk.

(00:59- Number Four)- This moment discusses the Knicks upcoming season and evaluating players that need to step up in order to take the next level. Iman Shumpert, Shooting Guard for the Knicks was being discussed and how much he needs to improve for the team to be successful.

(01:23- Number Three)- The show with guest Ashley Oken discussed the point guards against the Knicks since Center Tyson Chandler is out for an extended period of time. It was a funny moment because I was talking about point guards in the NBA scoring at will since the Knicks lack in help defense.

(01:45- Number Two)- Me, Bryan and new co-host Satish Ram discuss the star or superstar treatment that other players get in the NBA. It was a heated argument that can go on and on plus it provide some good details on the difference between a star and superstar.

(02:20- Number One)- The crew talks about the struggles of the Knicks including point guard Raymond Felton and some possible replacements for that position. I went emotional on the lack of consistency for Felton and they told me about some hate toward Felton. The player Kyle Lowry was part of the discussion as well.

These are the moments and I really enjoyed doing the project. Being able to make a mix even if it wasn’t like the sample made me think how hard it is to make an excellent one. DJ’s and mixers really know how to match and flow with the music. I have been doing my radio show for almost 2 years and I always try to improve on with each show.

To be able to talk about sports and trying to put some humor is quite challenging without outlining the show and getting a good script. This is a pretty great mix I thought even if its not like the sample, but overall it was a great project to do and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The Dream of Becoming a Song Writer ( Starring Kevin Jackson Prod by Mc Alexander S C)

There it is :

For my final I want to make a short portrait documentary. This will be my first attempt of making any type of filming, that is what excited me the most I enjoy doing challenging stuff it is a way for me to see how far I can actually push myself. The documentary will be about a friend of mine his name is Kevin Jackson, he is part of a music label called Merlot Inc. I met Kevin when I was a freshman at York College. Kevin is from the Bronx New York, growing up music always has been a part of his life. His dad use to play R&B musics. He is an English major here at York College he enjoying writing poetry. His music have a message, it have a purpose nowadays people misunderstand the Rap Culture whenever someone say rap the first thing that come in their mind is SEX, DRUG AND THUGS. The documentary will introduce him as an artist and his process recording, writing songs and also his dream of becoming a song writer.

For this documentary I will be using the Canon 60D which will allow me to shoot at 24 frames per second and also at 1080p.

For the sound recording I will use the lavalier microphone which is a small electret or dynamic microphone used for television, theatre, interview etc…

For the light & tripod:
I will need at least two lights, preferably three. A soft source of light is best for the subject, a second light for the background, and a third for either fill light, hair light, or a side light (variously called “edge”; light or “rim” light). Umbrella for the main light, but umbrellas tend to scatter light all over the place, making subtlety difficult. A softbox are much better its much easier to control to my opinion.

The problem that I had to face for this project was the noise, more precisely the low frequency noise.I had these noise because I do not use another to record the sounds. However I was able to remove of some it by adding a sound track to the video and also the professor show how to remove it in Pro Tools by finding which frequency the noise is coming from which was around 10k then we flipped the opposite was reduce most of the noise and also we put it to 18 DB…
One the other challenges I had to face was cutting up the audio so he what is was saying could make senses. This the first time in my life I ever had to edit or show a video. It was hard but I tried my best I have learned a lot of stuff from it such always use another device to record the audio

The video and the audio came out great I showed it to some of my friends they liked it. Overall I was able to take the stuff that I have learned during this semester such knowing the different type of microphone know their purpose. Also the sound design by adding different perspective of the sound for example I have a shot from outside where they are working on a song in the room when I got inside I changed the audio so if someone was listening only to the audio so they could know they are in the studio working on a sound or doing something else it help the audience to visualize whatever they are listening to. Overall I really liked this project and this class it helped me understand the importance or should I say the role audio play in whatever medium you are working on.

For this project I used a video Kevin already had on their Youtube channel and I extract the audio from it and I also used some of the video clip as B-ROLL

I also use music and the instrumental as a soundtrack while he is doing the interview

Another one

B-roll video

http://www.videezy.com/urban/271-new-york-city-subway-stock-video-in-hd

New Final Project Idea

For my final project, I have chosen a new animated cartoon, since professor said my first choice Alarm, was already used in other previous sound class. I will rework the sound design for Mickey Mouse Haunted House cartoon. I will attempt to produce this using the Matilda Approach. Therefore, I will a combination of natural sounds, and metaphoric sounds to create a dramatic scene. I will use Adobe Premiere CS6 and Avid Pro Tools to put all the sounds together. I will rework from 00:20 to 2:00.

Here is the video I will rework.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNuq5v7INeo[/youtube]

Here’s a lists of some free sounds that I planned to use:

http://www.freesound.org/people/RHumphries/sounds/2523/

http://www.freesound.org/people/Erdie/sounds/24003/

http://www.freesound.org/people/juskiddink/sounds/81185/

http://www.freesound.org/people/fogma/sounds/26187/

http://soundbible.com/1234-Bomb.html

http://www.freesound.org/people/winsx87/sounds/152015/

http://www.freesound.org/people/mmaruska/sounds/191656/

http://www.freesound.org/people/promete/sounds/60143/

My Back-up Project Idea

My other project idea is basically taking off a segment of my show and putting in the most detail moments. Its more of a trim and it is pretty much challenge. I was going to put my whole 30 minutes of my show with effects, but it would be too long.

Here is my latest show on the Raymond Mora Sports Show. We discuss the New York Sports Teams, Knicks and Nets Match-up and NFL Picks. The Knicks struggle and structuring teams on a certain star. Also we ended it with NFL Picks.

http://www.spreaker.com/user/ycradio.org/ray-mora-sports-show-w-bryan-and-satish_1

Apparently I have to embed the video from spreaker and need a widget, but this the link and podcast to YCRADIO.