Audacious Audio

Overview

Here, students create a soundtrack that they can add to their presentation. We used Audacity to compose and edit their soundtrack. Students create a piece of music that reflects, and add impact to, the theme and content of their presentation.

Description

In this activity students acquire basic competencies in audio editing. We suggest using Audacity, a free open source digital audio editor. You can download the software at http://audacity.sourceforge.net. The students can record their own soundtrack or use mp3 or wav files. If you are unfamiliar with the software you can find lots of advice, tutorials and ‘how to…’ guides by going to the Audacity homepage http://audacity.sourceforge.net and clicking the ‘Help’ tab.

It is important to encourage students to create an original soundtrack and to not use an existing one. You could suggest, for example, they use two or three songs mixed or mashed together to create an original track.

It’s important that the soundtrack is at least as long as the planned video.

When students have created their soundtrack, ask them to save it as .wav or mp3 file.

Time needed 2 hours,

Resources

• Audacity or similar e.g. Garageband (for Mac users).

Hints and tips

You can find materials and support in the dedicated section on the Audacity website http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/.
If your students are using original songs or soundtracks and want to publish the work on line, you could have some issues relating to copyright. You have to make sure they use copyright-free soundtracks.

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