Sounds like Audio

This week's topic is close to my heart as a singer. I actually record things all the time. I don't have a voice teacher so I am always recording songs to listen to myself so I can improve. For my birthday this year, my husband gave me a good microphone and a Soundrite Scarlett 2i2  audio interface, so I can record on something better than my iPhone.

I love to use the software Audacity. I first began to use it when I was taking speech pathology classes. We used it for my speech science class to analyze sound waves, but I began using it to cut down audio tracks for auditions and to record myself. It's not exactly intuitive but it works really well once you get the hang of it. Last fall for Instructional Technology, I made a Screencast showing how to use Audacity for a poetry podcast. It's a five-minute video that is worth watching if you are at all curious about Audacity: http://screencast.com/t/hLtCYYmrE (I also made a lesson plan for this assignment.)

This week, I chose to use the site Clyp to upload my audio track. I have used SoundCloud to upload my recordings before, but they have aggressive copyright scans that reject most files that are not completely original. Since I usually sing to karaoke tracks, it's impossible to get SoundCloud to work for my needs. I sometimes turn audio into video files and post them to Youtube, but that's a pain.  Clyp looks like a good alternative to quickly upload files and get a shareable link. Anyway, this week I was learning a country song for an upcoming audition, so here it is. It's a totally corny song, I do not actually have a Southern accent, and I can hear all the flaws. But there you go. Long story short, I really like Clyp! Easy-peasy to use.

Blabberize is a fun tool as well. Once, when I was subbing, I saw a librarian use this with students who were researching Greek gods. They had to find a picture of a Greek god and use Blabberize to have the god talk about him or herself. The kids enjoyed it and it did not take long at all. I had never seen anything like Blabberize and I brought it home to show my tweens. They were SO VERY unimpressed. I was surprised. I still think it's cute, but maybe for smaller kids. Today, I played with Blabberizing a picture of my dog and got to the end and had to make an account, and then I didn't bother.

Vocaroo is no-frills and easy to use and does not require an account. You simply press record and talk, and then they give you a link to share. (Here is mine.) You can also download your recorded message. This has many applications--anything you can think of for which you might need a sound file. There is no recording time limit. However, there is no Vocaroo app for mobile devices, and tech support is non-existent.

Voki is a tool I have seen used by other students, with varying degrees of success. You create a video with a talking avatar that "reads" your presentation. It can be a bit dull to watch a Voki video, in my opinion, but students enjoy making their avatars and watching the videos. It is more interesting than listening to a plain audio file.

That's all for audio this week...my daughter's dance recital is this weekend and we have two grandmas coming to visit. Should be action-packed! (Pray for me.)