I had no idea what I would do for this project when it was assigned. For one, I strongly dislike how my voice sounds recorded. Second, I had never worked with an audio editing software. It was fun to play around with the software to figure out how I was going to do the project. So, I read one of Aesop’s Fables for my audio project. The fable I recorded onto Audacity was titled “The Frogs and the Well.” The Moral of this fable is look before you leap. I chose to read this one because I feel like I don’t do that enough. Maybe creating a project around a story that’s so purpose is to educate and guide will help me look before I leap. The audio I chose is has a slow tempo, and kind of makes me think of the Lemony Snicket movies. I imagine theses two frogs living in a lush algae filled marsh. Until one day, their green home just vanishes. As they look for their new home, contemplating locations to settle I feel like the tune in the background  I incorporates a mysterious vibe to the story. My ultimate goal was that, to add some mystery and whimsicality to a kind of point-blank story. Thank you for listening.

By: Nieman T. Adams-Jackson

I’ll try to keep my story short…

Originally, I was going to recreate the opening scene from one of my favorite films, The Social Network. I got most of it done, but wasn’t able to get a friend to record the dialogue for the second character. Somehow, I was reminded of a quote that the same writer wrote for the TV show, The West Wing.
“The President likes smart people who disagree with him.”
This quote got me thinking about our current political situation and how it’s the exact opposite. I was then reminded about a conversation I had with a neighbor who is a Trump supporter. In this conversation, he told me that “we need to stop b****ing about Trump. We just need to work with him on whatever he’s planning on doing.”
This then reminded me of a poem I was shown in my freshman year of high school, The Hangman by Maurice Ogden. The poem is an allegory of the holocaust and how no one did anything to stop it. The poem has always stuck with me with its haunting message.

Anyways, I decided to read the first part of the poem to introduce everyone in the class to this poem. I hope this won’t be too depressing to everyone.

By Hunter Ruland

I chose to make a cheesy Radio Car commercial. I have literally always heard them on the radio for as I have been alive, some corny music playing in the background and all these deep voiced men sounding lazily excited about the car deals a local dealership is offering. It is kind of funny to me. I chose Nissan of Huntington Beach just because that’s where I’m from and I chose Nissan because the only car accident I have ever been in was in a Nissan so it kind of just popped into my head. It was fun recording and I did not get it down perfectly but voice acting the funny radio voice was a good time. I had trouble sounding exactly the same each time I would stop recording and start again but I got it the best I could. The rock music in the background is something I have had for awhile that I used to make a commercial with in high school, I had bought it so I have the rights to it and it fit perfectly. I like the program because it is pretty straight forward and user friendly but It also has some weird quirks that I did not understand.

I didn’t really know what I was doing for this project. I guess my goal was to give my audience an idea of my point of view about basketball. Or maybe give people who don’t understand the importance of basketball insight into why some people are really passionate about it.

A lot of people see basketball as a stupid game that jocks play, but I wanted to shed some light on some other perspectives of basketball. The relationships you develop, the work ethic it breeds, the passion that people have around it, the inspiration it creates in the youth, and why there’s a lot of people who really care for it.

Some people are very passionate about politics, for example, and although it’s not something I understand, or want to understand, I try to see their perspective and realize that it’s in their psychology and nature and nurture, and there’s a reason why they’re passionate about it.

I didn’t do a very good job on it, but in my defense, voice overs aren’t really my forte. You probably will get a better understanding of it through my writing, so it’s a good thing we’re required to write something on it.

So my inspiration for this audio piece was based off the immortal Chekov play, Three Sisters, and the written works of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, though it should very oblivious with in the context of the piece…

Actually, I got the idea from the inspirational psa they play on the tv late at night when I can’t sleep. I get about three channels with my broken bunny ears, so what I watch is very limited. I should probably pick up a book. Anyway, so the ads they have on at 3 in the morning usually consists of some kid who thinks he has been defeated by life’s hardships but is picked right back up by a friend because teamwork is power, featuring a cheesy soundtrack. So, I took the concept of that kind of tripe and maturely rolled poop into it! The original recording of this piece had a sub plot involving Business Man Peter Dingle and a young psa writer Jimmy, but I didn’t write it out so it went way too long (over 3 minutes!) so this is just the psa song about unity, in a time when we all need it….or whatever the kids are saying these days.

I have used Audioacity years ago and it was cool to record something again, though I didn’t compress anything or tweek with the effects because they make me nervous. My biggest difficulty was mic control using the little dinky dot on my laptop screen. I’m used to physically holding a microphone that I can pull away from my voice when I get loud. With this I didn’t get used to the setup. Also why is the monitor so small?!? Audacity should fix that though I don’t believe they haven’t updated the program since like the ‘70s! SHAAA WHATEVER!!!!

By Billy Dyball

I was driving to work one day and I saw a sign that was advertising a new park in town, and it gave me an idea for a sketch or bit or something: Rosa Park’s Park. This began as something along those lines, but as I got more familiar with audacity, it quickly devolved into something kinda odd. I don’t even think I used the sound effects as effectively as possible, but they have their comedic values and I don’t regret it.

This project was really fun because it made me feel like some cool guy who really knew what they were doing. When my roommates would come in my room to see what I was up to, I could tell that they were somewhat impressed by my seemingly complicated sound project. I don’t know. Why do people go to Starbucks to write their screenplay? It’s a nice feeling.

Oh! Also, I wanted to say that as I went further with this, the weirder it got, and I honestly could have used anyone’s name for the spokesperson. At first I used Rosa for the “Park’s Park” gag, but as it went further I strayed farther away from that. By no means am I insinuating anything along the lines of “this park is weird because it’s made by Rosa Parks.” I just wanted to make that clear.

With this audio assignment, my main idea was create a product with my sister reading one of my nephew’s baby books, particularly Dr. Suess because he’s always been one of my favorite authors, along with adding some fun and silly sounds to it. The reason I chose to go this route is because I would love to raise awareness on how important it is for children to start reading at any age.

When I was little, I didn’t read as much as I should’ve. It is something that I regret because growing up my reading was never at the level it could’ve been. Even today, I’m still not where I should be when it comes to my reading level. When I started college at LCC, I was put into the Guided Studies program due to my reading scores. I truly believe that the Reading and Effective Learning classes helped me improve an enormous amount. I’m still not the best at reading or where I should be but I continue to improve everyday.

Now that I have a year old nephew, who I love and adore dearly, I read to him multiple times a day everyday. The best part about it is that he enjoys sitting down with me. When he wants to read, he loves picking out his own books and turning the pages himself. I enjoy reading with him because not only do I help educate him but it’s a great way to spend quality time with my nephew, which is completely one of the most important thing to me.

With this audio assignment, my main idea was create a product with my sister reading one of my nephew’s baby books, particularly Dr. Suess because he’s always been one of my favorite authors, along with adding some fun and silly sounds to it. The reason I chose to go this route is because I would love to raise awareness on how important it is for children to start reading at any age.

When I was little, I didn’t read as much as I should’ve. It is something that I regret because growing up my reading was never at the level it could’ve been. Even today, I’m still not where I should be when it comes to my reading level. When I started college at LCC, I was put into the Guided Studies program due to my reading scores. I truly believe that the Reading and Effective Learning classes helped me improve an enormous amount. I’m still not the best at reading or where I should be but I continue to improve everyday.

Now that I have a year old nephew, who I love and adore dearly, I read to him multiple times a day everyday. The best part about it is that he enjoys sitting down with me. When he wants to read, he loves picking out his own books and turning the pages himself. I enjoy reading with him because not only do I help educate him but it’s a great way to spend quality time with my nephew, which is completely one of the most important thing to me.

Credit to the amazing artist: Artur Szygulski as I borrowed this wonderful image from his work posted on Bēhance.

This Audio project reflects some thoughts that I wrote down one day after driving through slow traffic and observing a burst of wind gliding through a tree. In that moment time slowed almost to a stop for me, as I watched a flurry of crispy dead leaves cycle through the waving branches forming an intrinsic and swirling design, until it lightly kissed the side walk and continued on down as if they were alive and had another place to rush away to.

In that moment it hit me.. this was a symbol of my testimony of what God did for me. I was on my way to a dentist appointment, but when I pulled into the parking lot I had to write, I had to record this, because it was beautiful, because it was perfect. Because it was mine.

This marked one of the most powerful turning points of my entire life. It represents a day for me that I surrendered because I couldn’t do life my way any longer, I would have rather died.. but I was saved. I was delivered. I was made new.

Life is so precious.

Never give up!

By: Sarah Andrews

With this project, I decided to do a radio book ad where it gives a brief synopsis of what the story is. The story is not real and was just a quick summary I made up on the spot. I honestly regret choosing the mythological creature, the basilisk. That word set me back quite a bit. I had a hard time saying it when I was recording for some reason. I did about 5 or 6 takes of just saying the word basilisk alone.

Note to self: Never say the word basilisk for a recording again. It’s more trouble than it’s worth. Next time, use yeti or dragon!

Overall, I am pretty happy with my project. I think the music suits the fantasy theme of the book ad. The sound effects I think stayed pretty true to the theme as well. Maybe the evil laugh was a little bit cheesy but to be fair, there was not very many evil laughs that didn’t sound a little corny. This was the best one I could find. I also think the writing isn’t too bad  for something I wrote on the spot. I think it goes along with the traditional cheesy fantasy quest plot.

As far as my voice, I’m not too happy with it. Audiobooks or radio ads are definitely not my calling. Luckily, my voice isn’t recognizable.  How? Well fun fact, when I showed the recording to my partner Elliot, it took them two listens to even believe it was me. Elliot thought it was someone completely different. Hopefully others think the same.

Lastly, here’s my written synopsis if you would like to read it again:

“An old threat rises in the land of Orlon when a mysterious and powerful warlock resurrects the basilisk once defeated from the ancient legends. Volos, the warlock is using the basilisks evil eye as a way of controlling individuals in his army. Its gaze can control, petrify, and even kill. Everyday the army grows larger as innocent creatures,humanoids, and people are being taken into the Tower of Ladon to be converted or some are willingly joining. The Tower of Ladon was dominated by Volos and is used as his base.It was once a monument to the heroes who sacrificed themselves in the older tales. His goal is to take over all of Orlon through fear and domination. The surrounding kingdoms are each sending one champion to all unite on a quest to ambush and defeat  Volos in secret while the rest if the  kingdoms come together to prepare for war. ”

Thanks for reading!