Here we are, all back from spring break!! Though perhaps not all the students were quite as enthusiastic about this fact, Paul and Elizabeth started the day anticipating smooth sailing. Before spring break, the BTWs were purported to be nearly done - all we needed to do was finish things up, and send 'em off!
To liven things up a bit, and as per AJ's suggestion, Paul and Elizabeth had an example of professional level radio drama to start the class off. This American Life, a production of Public Radio, is one of AJ's favorite shows and provided a good intro to the class. The students listened to the 400th episode, in which the producers decided to undertake the most difficult task imaginable: taking stories their parents had pitched to them and make them into entertaining radio. Now of course, their parents were thinking of stories along the lines of the Erie Canal or the personality of Enron. The challenging story the class listened to was on "Funny Funerals". Many students seemed to enjoy it a lot - Diana was giggling through some of it and there were a couple times when students burst out into all out laughter (sometimes all by themselves as not everyone has quite the same sense of humor).
After listening to stories of ministers exiting funerals into a closet door and humorous masses in other Ukrainian, AJ and Elizabeth led a discussion to get a feel for what the students thought. AJ pointed out the fact that, though this story was only about 10 minutes long, this producer probably had 3 hours or so of other audio she had to sort through to create this story. When asked how the producer had made this difficult topic interesting and funny, Jose and Diana mentioned the different music and voices she used - Elizabeth added how much she had appreciated a scene where the producer particularly recorded the elevator music and commerical recording while she was on hold at a funeral :) Overall, the students learned a little bit more about story-crafting, and how to technically construct things well to make them interesting.
This discussion took up a good chunk of education time, so Paul did a quick review on more advanced concepts like clipping, different kinds of cords and mics, buses, normalization . . . the students took it all in (hopefully) and then went on break!
The due date for the BTWs was the end of class, yet it soon became apparent that this was a bit of a shock. Taylor was in a group with Keke and had been absent the past few weeks, so she didn't know much of what was happening and Keke was absent today. So she and Elizabeth worked on the script Keke and Taylor had agreed upon at the beginning of working on the project.
Tenzin, Diana, Michelle, and Jose's group unfortunately had difficulties saving and ALL their dialogue was lost - having to start from scratch, the whole group ended up in the recording studio, working well together.
Jaylah and Malibu's group also had difficulties and lost some of their project. They ended up in the copy machine room rewriting and rerecording. (as the conference room was locked)
Alli, Ninah, and Taylor, however, saved correctly! They all worked very well together the entire BTW time, various screams and bird call sound effects erupting every once in a while from their side of the room :)
Around 2:10, after all the craziness of discovering the missing projects and scrambling to get everyone set, Paul called the class together for the second permit test attempt. After this was over, Paul directed the students towards blogging, as Elizabeth spoke with Jaylah and Malibu about getting their .wav files off of the H2 recorder and saving them.
Though Paul and Elizabeth's dreams of completed, shiny, new BTWs were not realized, the day ended on a hopeful note - Paul announced that the class would have a whole other day to work on their BTWs!! Good planning Paul. Hopefully this extra time will allow everyone to complete projects they enjoy and are proud of.
Until next (two) week!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
ACID 4/10/10
The day started off with the students taking a learn@uw quiz. Chris went on to explain mastering in Audacity. Garrett was wise-crackin' as usual with his whole "lil' dude" thing with Chris. We told them that today was the first official BTW day so to get started with their song.
The artist of the day was Lady Gaga. We got to the "Bad Romance" music video during break and the whole class (including Chris) kept singing "Roma Ro-ma-ma-a... Ga Ga ooh la la..."
The students came back from break and were hard at work with their BTW projects. Although, there was frustration in the air. Richie, at a point, started to lose confidence and told Chris "Hey... this sucks." AJ and Chris helped motivate him to be creative and work on developing what he started. Marleny needed help getting a solid rhythm going so I helped set her on the right path and AJ further aided her in making the drums sound cleaner.
Overall, the session went well and the students got a lot done.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Acid Day 6
"Welcome to Acid Day 6!" ...nobody really said that at the start of class but it would have been a nice intro, especially if it was said with a super big and official voice (like Mufasa's voice from Lion King or something). :D
Well enough pointless, yet semi-comedic rambling for now, time for the good stuff.
So this session only had two things on the agenda: 1) Lesson on some Basic Engineering Principles (i.e. mixing and mastering) and 2) BTW work time.
But before getting into all of that, Chris made a quick announcement on how well the students did on their Permit Test, with almost 100% of the class passing with a score above 60! The students were also reminded then, however, that the primary focus of the Acid Unit is audio production and that the secondary focus is audio production software (i.e. Sony Acid) ..what a way to re-insure some confidence levels for those who didn't do so well on the Permit Test!
Following the quick announcement, the students were asked to blog about the function of the beatmapper as well as begin their brainstorming for ideas on the they were going to create and produce for their BTW. After the spending a couple minutes on the blogs, the students took a quick Learn@UW quiz and then Chris and Tony got right into the Acid lesson of the day: Basic Engineering pt. 1.
The lesson touched on some mixing and mastering concepts such as volume, equalization, panning, and effects. The students were introduced to things like the volume and pan sliders and envelopes, and they were also given the chance to mess around with the different frequencies of, and add different effects to a track/sound.
Following the lesson, the students where free to do as they pleased for their first 10 minute break, and then once they returned they went to work hard on their 3 challenges for the day which pushed them to really apply what they just were taught about volume, equalization, panning, and effects in the context of mixing and mastering audio.
The remainder of the session was dedicated to the completion of the 3 challenges and although many did not finish all three and they didn't get the chance to work on their BTW's, it was still overall a pretty productive session and I'm sure the students got a lot out of it. It is clear that they are really ready and anxious to begin their BTW's so next session they will definitely get to work on them.
Well enough pointless, yet semi-comedic rambling for now, time for the good stuff.
So this session only had two things on the agenda: 1) Lesson on some Basic Engineering Principles (i.e. mixing and mastering) and 2) BTW work time.
But before getting into all of that, Chris made a quick announcement on how well the students did on their Permit Test, with almost 100% of the class passing with a score above 60! The students were also reminded then, however, that the primary focus of the Acid Unit is audio production and that the secondary focus is audio production software (i.e. Sony Acid) ..what a way to re-insure some confidence levels for those who didn't do so well on the Permit Test!
Following the quick announcement, the students were asked to blog about the function of the beatmapper as well as begin their brainstorming for ideas on the they were going to create and produce for their BTW. After the spending a couple minutes on the blogs, the students took a quick Learn@UW quiz and then Chris and Tony got right into the Acid lesson of the day: Basic Engineering pt. 1.
The lesson touched on some mixing and mastering concepts such as volume, equalization, panning, and effects. The students were introduced to things like the volume and pan sliders and envelopes, and they were also given the chance to mess around with the different frequencies of, and add different effects to a track/sound.
Following the lesson, the students where free to do as they pleased for their first 10 minute break, and then once they returned they went to work hard on their 3 challenges for the day which pushed them to really apply what they just were taught about volume, equalization, panning, and effects in the context of mixing and mastering audio.
The remainder of the session was dedicated to the completion of the 3 challenges and although many did not finish all three and they didn't get the chance to work on their BTW's, it was still overall a pretty productive session and I'm sure the students got a lot out of it. It is clear that they are really ready and anxious to begin their BTW's so next session they will definitely get to work on them.
Acid Day 5
Fifth session of Sony Acid and the day starts off right on time with everyone in attendance! Today was mostly a work day, with a quick review in the beginning and a Permit Test in the end.
The day began with Chris making the announcement that today's lab would be ending about 45 minutes early because there a performance planned that would require more time then usually allowed during community hour. Oh yeah, and that performance/poetry/workshop was great!
So after the quick announcement, Chris continued with the lesson and moved right on to a quick review of the Sony Acid interface and and tools. This review was well needed, as it covered the functions of the main tools, the difference between Draw tool and the Paint tool, and some very helpful vocab that Acid uses quite frequently such as "event clips" and "snapping."
Directly following the review, the students were given their time to finish up the beats they've been working on from last session for their mini BTW project. Some of them were very far with their 24-measure beat, while others were still in the beginning phase of the process and still trying to find the right sounds. For the next 45 minutes or so the students spent working on their mini BTW's and Chris and Tony where constantly moving from student to student helping them along with their beats, answering questions, and troubleshooting any problems they may have been experiencing; everyone was quite busy, which is always a good sign! (unless of course everyone is all tired and stuff :]).
By the time their work time was just about up, a lot of the students had made outstanding progress with their mini BTW's and many were already finished! Following their work time the students were allowed a quick break and then upon their return they began their final portion of lab: their first attempt at the Sony Acid Permit Test--and I've got a feeling that they all did quite well on it.
The day began with Chris making the announcement that today's lab would be ending about 45 minutes early because there a performance planned that would require more time then usually allowed during community hour. Oh yeah, and that performance/poetry/workshop was great!
So after the quick announcement, Chris continued with the lesson and moved right on to a quick review of the Sony Acid interface and and tools. This review was well needed, as it covered the functions of the main tools, the difference between Draw tool and the Paint tool, and some very helpful vocab that Acid uses quite frequently such as "event clips" and "snapping."
Directly following the review, the students were given their time to finish up the beats they've been working on from last session for their mini BTW project. Some of them were very far with their 24-measure beat, while others were still in the beginning phase of the process and still trying to find the right sounds. For the next 45 minutes or so the students spent working on their mini BTW's and Chris and Tony where constantly moving from student to student helping them along with their beats, answering questions, and troubleshooting any problems they may have been experiencing; everyone was quite busy, which is always a good sign! (unless of course everyone is all tired and stuff :]).
By the time their work time was just about up, a lot of the students had made outstanding progress with their mini BTW's and many were already finished! Following their work time the students were allowed a quick break and then upon their return they began their final portion of lab: their first attempt at the Sony Acid Permit Test--and I've got a feeling that they all did quite well on it.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
EPIC DAY 6 - BTW CONQUEST!
What a title, huh? As today was mostly working on the BTW projects due at the end of next session, Elizabeth attempted to liven things up at the beginning with a pirated youtube LOTR video. Theoden and Aragorn charging against all orc odds at Helm's Deep ought to motivate anyone, right?
After this brief intro, accompanied with the suggestion on the part of Alli that we have a movie day (wouldn't that be a fun way to end the last session?!), Elizabeth launched the class into the learn@UW quiz. After clarifying a few details, such as the fact that the BTW is due at the end of NEXT session, the class was ready to begin worktime.
Many people were missing today, but groups made do with the resources they had. Krystal and Malibu quickly got together and decided on a course of action, running to the other tower to use the conference room to record. The rest of the class, in the meantime, continued working on their scripts. AJ eventually came in to introduce the feedback quiz on learn@UW, and to ask each student to take it. Soon after, Alli and Nina were ready to record as well - Paul esocrted them to the recording studio.
Before this, however, the class discussed, prompted by Elizabeth's question, what everyone was doing over spring break. Alli and Nina have track practice thwice a day the entire week!! Wow, you go girls! That's pretty intense. No one else seemed to really have any special plans.
Random sound effects, from screams to bells ringing filled the air over the calm solo piano that Elizabeth put on as background. Eventually, Michelle, Anny, Tenzin, Jose, and Diana were able to start working in earnest - for the first half Tenzin was writing their script so there wasn't as much to do. Jose and Diana, the two main actors, left for the recording studio after Alli and Nina had finished their time.
Elizabeth shared facts about romantic composers during the break (did you know that Felix Mendelssohn's sister was a virtuosic performer and composed Queen Victoria's favorite Mendelssohn piece?) and Michelle and Anny debated whether or not they could jump down to the outdoor courtyard without breaking something . . .
Switching up from Chopin Nocturnes to extravagant romantic orchestral settings, the end of class began in earnest. Perhaps music really does influence our actions - the students seemed particularly attentive during this last set of worktime. Wrapping things up with blogs at 2:45. Another fine day of ITA. BTW conquest to be completed next time!
After this brief intro, accompanied with the suggestion on the part of Alli that we have a movie day (wouldn't that be a fun way to end the last session?!), Elizabeth launched the class into the learn@UW quiz. After clarifying a few details, such as the fact that the BTW is due at the end of NEXT session, the class was ready to begin worktime.
Many people were missing today, but groups made do with the resources they had. Krystal and Malibu quickly got together and decided on a course of action, running to the other tower to use the conference room to record. The rest of the class, in the meantime, continued working on their scripts. AJ eventually came in to introduce the feedback quiz on learn@UW, and to ask each student to take it. Soon after, Alli and Nina were ready to record as well - Paul esocrted them to the recording studio.
Before this, however, the class discussed, prompted by Elizabeth's question, what everyone was doing over spring break. Alli and Nina have track practice thwice a day the entire week!! Wow, you go girls! That's pretty intense. No one else seemed to really have any special plans.
Random sound effects, from screams to bells ringing filled the air over the calm solo piano that Elizabeth put on as background. Eventually, Michelle, Anny, Tenzin, Jose, and Diana were able to start working in earnest - for the first half Tenzin was writing their script so there wasn't as much to do. Jose and Diana, the two main actors, left for the recording studio after Alli and Nina had finished their time.
Elizabeth shared facts about romantic composers during the break (did you know that Felix Mendelssohn's sister was a virtuosic performer and composed Queen Victoria's favorite Mendelssohn piece?) and Michelle and Anny debated whether or not they could jump down to the outdoor courtyard without breaking something . . .
Switching up from Chopin Nocturnes to extravagant romantic orchestral settings, the end of class began in earnest. Perhaps music really does influence our actions - the students seemed particularly attentive during this last set of worktime. Wrapping things up with blogs at 2:45. Another fine day of ITA. BTW conquest to be completed next time!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Learning About Mother
Zon escorted her students upstairs where their laptops were already set up and ready to go. However, since there were a shortage of computers in Elizabeth's classroom, the computers were given up.
The students sat still in their seats with a pen in hand scribbling furiously at their packet of notes for hardware. Everyone had questions about every part on the mother board.
Finally after about 50 minutes of lecturing, the students were given a quick 5 minute break. Afterwards, the class gathered around the small table and looked inside Yangchen's computer tower. Zon had the students point out each part and describe what its function was.
She also showed the students how to take out a RAM of stick and how to put it back. The students' faces lit up with amazement at how easy it was, and how much people are paying for other people to do such a simple task. Aliyah got a chance to try it out and she seemed proud of herself for figuring it out.
After awhile, the students began to complain about how tired and head-aching they were. So, Zon took them on a field trip to the ITA office. When they arrived there, AJ answered some of the questions they had about hard drives. The confusion on the students' faces cleared up.
The class was suppose to take their PowerPoint permit test and a learn@UW quiz, but the laptops were upstairs. Zon had forgotten that they needed the laptops.
When the class came back into the room, they began to write in their journals about what they learned about and what more do they want to know about. Also, they had to choose on focusing on either getting certified in PowerPoint or hardware. After everyone finished their journals, they walked downstairs for community hour.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Digital Audio Session 5
And it's off to the races . . . as students meandered in around 12:10-15, Paul started off another day of Storytelling with Digital Audio! And what better way to begin than with a learn@UW quiz?
After the quiz, Paul gave a brief overview of how to render files as a reminder - then, he set the students to work on their Behind the Wheels. After a bit of trouble getting freesound.org up (Jaylah and Taylor thought that it was freesoundS) the students began diligently working on their scripts, the end result and goal of the day. After their scripts were completed, students were free to start searching for sounds and recording. Soon the room echoed with intriguing noises students were checking out, while Paul and Elizabeth looked on fondly and discussed old Christmas TV specials. Students were so enraptured with their work, that they didn't even take their first break.
As she was going around checking on students to see how they were, Elizabeth discovered Carrie was in a lot of pain with a toothache - apparently, she'll have to have some dental work done tomorrow. It was difficult for Carrie to concentrate, so Elizabeth set her up on some comfortable chairs in the smaller partitioned part of the room. Feel better soon Carrie! AJ came in later and told her to head on home.
Promptly at 1:20, Paul introduced the permit test, explaining that today was the first attempt.
The room fell silent as students stared intently at their computer screens, weighing their options. Towards the end, Malibu asked when we were doing blogs. Good call Malibu! Though originally planned to be at the very end of the session, it seemed to make the most sense to use the current post-PT silence for blog writing time. Paul and Elizabeth switched the schedule around slightly so students could complete their blogs immediately. This way, the instructors already had a captive audience and didn't have to gather the class's attention from something else!
The students were very on top of things today! As they commenced blog writing, Diana asked if there needed to be a picture this? Excellent work Diana! Artifacts are always required for ITA blogs, though today Paul and Elizabeth forgot to mention this!
Class ended early at around 2:00 in order to allow plenty of time for the students to make it to community hour in the basement, escorted by Paul as per the new rules of ITA
When Paul returned, as this blog is unnaturally short considering the shorter day, he wrestled the computer away from Elizabeth . . . . ahhh!!! Paul - no!!!!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And then some other stuff happened. A long, sinewy creature descended from the sky in a cloud of mist, sunlight flashing on its golden scales. It was Tianlong, the great and powerful celestial dragon of China. With a voice like a hundred thousand cheering soldiers, Tianlong whispered to us the secret of Creation, granting us a all a brief glimpse of the eternal wonder of the universe before breathing salient vapors on us and making us forget what he had said. Though we no longer remember the secret which he told us, the moment of awareness left an indelible mark on the heart of each and every one of us, manifesting as a subconscious joy that accompanies each passing moment.
But, maybe I just imagined that. Still, it would have been cool, right?
After the quiz, Paul gave a brief overview of how to render files as a reminder - then, he set the students to work on their Behind the Wheels. After a bit of trouble getting freesound.org up (Jaylah and Taylor thought that it was freesoundS) the students began diligently working on their scripts, the end result and goal of the day. After their scripts were completed, students were free to start searching for sounds and recording. Soon the room echoed with intriguing noises students were checking out, while Paul and Elizabeth looked on fondly and discussed old Christmas TV specials. Students were so enraptured with their work, that they didn't even take their first break.
As she was going around checking on students to see how they were, Elizabeth discovered Carrie was in a lot of pain with a toothache - apparently, she'll have to have some dental work done tomorrow. It was difficult for Carrie to concentrate, so Elizabeth set her up on some comfortable chairs in the smaller partitioned part of the room. Feel better soon Carrie! AJ came in later and told her to head on home.
Promptly at 1:20, Paul introduced the permit test, explaining that today was the first attempt.
The room fell silent as students stared intently at their computer screens, weighing their options. Towards the end, Malibu asked when we were doing blogs. Good call Malibu! Though originally planned to be at the very end of the session, it seemed to make the most sense to use the current post-PT silence for blog writing time. Paul and Elizabeth switched the schedule around slightly so students could complete their blogs immediately. This way, the instructors already had a captive audience and didn't have to gather the class's attention from something else!
The students were very on top of things today! As they commenced blog writing, Diana asked if there needed to be a picture this? Excellent work Diana! Artifacts are always required for ITA blogs, though today Paul and Elizabeth forgot to mention this!
Class ended early at around 2:00 in order to allow plenty of time for the students to make it to community hour in the basement, escorted by Paul as per the new rules of ITA
When Paul returned, as this blog is unnaturally short considering the shorter day, he wrestled the computer away from Elizabeth . . . . ahhh!!! Paul - no!!!!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And then some other stuff happened. A long, sinewy creature descended from the sky in a cloud of mist, sunlight flashing on its golden scales. It was Tianlong, the great and powerful celestial dragon of China. With a voice like a hundred thousand cheering soldiers, Tianlong whispered to us the secret of Creation, granting us a all a brief glimpse of the eternal wonder of the universe before breathing salient vapors on us and making us forget what he had said. Though we no longer remember the secret which he told us, the moment of awareness left an indelible mark on the heart of each and every one of us, manifesting as a subconscious joy that accompanies each passing moment.
But, maybe I just imagined that. Still, it would have been cool, right?
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