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March 29, 2024, 08:21:34 AM

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how to get more audio monging in this forum

Started by hands cold, liver warm, October 05, 2006, 04:08:34 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

I would like to mash audio

yes
20 (80%)
no
5 (20%)

Total Members Voted: 25

Voting closed: October 05, 2006, 04:08:34 PM

Jemble Fred

Well personally I fucking venerate Michael Parkinson, and I enjoyed that very much, ta – perhaps we should all choose a different Radio 2 presenter to pick on, and build up 30 minutes or more of monged R2?

That's just an excuse for me to re-post this: http://download.yousendit.com/6652983D2E06FC7B

God I hate her.

Quote from: "Jemble Fred"Well personally I fucking venerate Michael Parkinson, and I enjoyed that very much, ta – perhaps we should all choose a different Radio 2 presenter to pick on, and build up 30 minutes or more of monged R2?

That's just an excuse for me to re-post this: http://download.yousendit.com/6652983D2E06FC7B

God I hate her.

Nice work, Jemble.
She really is quite astonishingly unbearable isn't she.



Robot DeNiro

Nice Vine cut up.  Seems like he's great source material, more please.

Oh blimey, I have no idea what this so called guide of mine was going to contain.  I think I only know two things about the technical side of audio-monging:

1) If you are using sounds that you have recorded into your computer using the line in or microphone input on your soundcard, you might need to adjust the file's DC Offset.  You can tell if this is necessary because the waveform will be sitting above or below the zero line, e.g.



If you do not correct this, you will get glitches when you edit.  On Soundforge you do this by selecting DC Offset from the Process menu, and then choosing Automatically Detect and Remove.  This is the first thing you should do when you open your source material.  However,  it is not necessary on all soundcards, and if you are using material that didn't enter your computer analogically via your soundcard, it probably won't need to be done.

And the other thing I know is

2) Edit points should always be where the waveform crosses the zero line, otherwise you will get annoying clicks and glitches.



Sometimes this isn't possible, especially with stereo files, where the left and right channel may cross the line at different points.  In these instances, I usually do a tiny fade in or out at the start or end of the sample.  These fades should not be audible if they are short enough, and they will prevent glitches. 

The other option is to ensure that the two samples being edited together match up, so if the left channel of the first sample ends half a centimetre below the zero line, make sure that the second sample starts in the same position.  To be honest it's easier to do it with fades though.

Also, ensure that you zoom in both horizontally and vertically when choosing your edit points.  Especially with quiet files, it can be difficult to accurately judge where the waveform crosses the zero line unless you are fully zoomed in vertically (i.e. magnifying the height of the waveform).  On Soundforge this is done by pressing shift and the up cursor key.

This can all get a bit dull, so it's not something that I pay much attention too whilst collecting the raw material for a piece.  The way I work, I amass say forty interesting words into one material file, only twenty of which will end up in the finished piece.  So I don't bother too much about glitches whilst collecting material, because at least half the words won't even be used.  Only when I am putting together the final piece do I eliminate glitches with fades and the careful selection of edit points.

Maybe at this point I could clarify the process I use when making a piece, although I expect it's pretty standard.  Typically I will use three files: the unedited Source file, a Material file and a Final file.  The process is as follows:

- Choose some Source material.  Targeting a celebrity that you hate is good fun, or for a more narrative based piece it is good to choose a programme that covers a wide range of topics (e.g. Pick of the Week, GMTV or Jeremy Vine).  This ensures that there will be a good range of words to juxtapose.  Remember, the more Source material you can gather, the better the Final piece will be. 

- Listen to the Source.  Copy any unusual or inherently funny words and phrases into a Material file.  I also collect any really clear phrases that might be useful as links or set ups, e.g. "his name was" or "she ate nothing but" or "what happened was" or even just very clear, isolated instances of words like "but", "I", "or" etc.  It is also worth collecting some breaths and silence to help with the pacing of the finished piece.  I save a bit of 'silence' because inevitably there will be some ambient background noise which will need to be preserved in the pauses.

- Listen to the Material you just gathered.  At this point it will become obvious what the piece will be about, or if there is enough potential in the Source to even do a piece.  Assuming there is, you will need to listen to the Source again to find all the dull words necessary to make sentences out of the highlights you initially collected.  Copy all these dull words into your Material file.

- Copy the relevant samples from the Material file into the Final file, and assemble the first draft of the finished piece.  Only use each sample once, especially if it is an unusual word.  Common words like 'and' can be repeated, especially if they are well spread out, but using the same 'shit' or 'Albert' more than once will make the piece sound stilted and will limit the comic impact.  Try to structure your piece so it starts with the weaker gags and ends with the best.

- Listen to the entire Source file again.  Now you have a good idea of what the final piece will sound like, it is likely that you will find some more useful words or phrases.  Add these to the Material file, and then arrange them into the Final file.  Repeat this step as many times as necessary.

- Once you are certain that you have sucked all the potential gags out of the Source, it is time to refine the Final file.  You will probably be using words like 'and' or 'so', which occur multiple times in the Source.  Go back to the Source and experiment with using alternate versions of common words in the Final piece, until you find the most natural sounding combinations.  This is especially necessary if you are making words out of individual syllables - you must chop and change the 'd' and 'ick' sounds until you have found the perfect 'dick'.

- Ideally you should play the Final piece to someone.  If they cannot hear what is being said at any point, cut that bit out.  At this stage you will have gone mad with the editing, and are no longer the best judge of whether or not your creation is actually discernible.  You might have spent an hour combining 'ma', 'st', 'er', 'bay', 'sh' and 'un' sounds to make 'masturbation', but you will not be able to tell if the end result is successful or not.

- listen to the Final piece again, and remove any bits that don't add anything or that you are unsure of.  Listening to cut ups is hard work, so you want to get in there, get the job done and get out as soon as possible.

- If you want to annoy Jemble, set the whole thing to music.

Sorry if all that was teaching my grandmother to cut up eggs.  Hopefully it will have been vaguely useful to someone though.

Although last year's World Cuts had lots of people dropping out and went on for far too long, I think maybe doing something similar might start people monging again.  How about some sort of chain, whereby someone does a mong, the next person on the list does one inspired by the first, the next person does one inspired by the second and so on?  No rounds or tournaments, just a commitment from people to create something new when it's their turn.

Actually, thinking about it that could work really well.  If each mong was designed to follow on from the last we could compile a 30 minute radio show thirty seconds at a time.  Anyone up for it?


Jemble Fred

Quote- If you want to annoy Jemble, set the whole thing to music.

Well, to be fair it's not an annoyance, just a personal preference for the more realistic kind of cut-up. But when you hear what Cassetteboy and whatsisname, Leyton K Curtis can do with musical cut-uppery, it's impossible not to applaud.

Robot DeNiro

Sorry, no offence intended, I completely understand your position re music on mongs.

I really enjoyed Radio Dada by the way.  Has your second compilation been aired yet, and if so can I download it from somewhere?

Jemble Fred

It was on last night – see the CaB radio thread... It seems it was a bit too long for most people, but I wanted to get as much input from everyone in there as possible – dunno if it's ready for download yet, but perhaps being able to pause it and listen at leisure might help.

petula dusty

Just wanted to say thanks for the guide Robot. I suspect Neil bumped this because I wanted to know more about cutups after listening to other Verbwhores' work. I was thinking of trying it out it and I hadn't a clue where to start so what you posted is really helpful to a complete novice like me. Thanks again.

Famous Mortimer

As a complete novice, I'll give it a go. I'll see if I can edit something I've got and make it rude, as a test run (hopefully my completely legal copy of Soundforge should have arrived in the mail by the time I get home). But I'm definitely up for this.

Neil

TV Belch is here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/acx6pe

Quote from: Robot DeNiro on August 27, 2007, 12:55:26 PM
Oh blimey, I have no idea what this so called guide of mine was going to contain. 

Heh, sorry, I thought you'd already posted one, and that it was in this thread!   Looking forward to reading through that though, cheers.

alan nagsworth

So are we gonna make a proper go of this then? If enough people can be arsed I'd be up for it, had a brief (very brief) pop at it a couple years ago after hearing the Parker Tapes and wouldn't mind seeing what people can come up with. I like the idea of posting the audio from a tv show or speech and letting everyone go to work on it. Something about 30 minutes long would be ideal methinks.

JesusAndYourBush

Here's an audio cutup I did a few years ago.  With this one my "Material file" was a minidisc.  I'd set it on pause/record and my minidisc recorder has a 12 sec buffer so when I heard something I could use I'd hit record and catch it.  This is 5 small cutups joined together into 1 file and almost all the bits of audio in the first 2 and a half minutes is in the same order I recorded it.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/zqlscb

Baxter

tippy tip tip tip: In audacity pressing "z" will snap the selection to the closest two points where the waveform crosses the zero line.

Robot DeNiro

That's very nicely done JesusAndYourBush.  I remember being very excited about the possibilities of those mini disc recorders with buffers, but I never got one.

I won't be doing anything with it myself, but if anyone is looking for source material, I have the David Cameron Newsnight special from a few days ago.  I haven't listened to it, so I don't know how much potential there is in it, but lengthy political interviews will generally throw up something worthwhile.

If anyone wants it, let me know and I'll yousendit it or something.

alan nagsworth

Do it, I need a forceful shove in the audio monging direction and that could well be it. (Please, thank you, etc)

Robot DeNiro

Here you go then.  I missed the intro, but apart from that it's the whole show (45 minutes).  It's quite a big file (43 MB) but I didn't see much point in encoding it below 128kbps.

Cameron Newsnight (Yousendit)


Would people mind if I incorporated their audio mongs into a new music mix for cab radio? (daneilreal2k, JesusAndYourBush, Jemble etc)