Our task last week was to listen a podcast on Sonar Radio:

4 elements that I think were successful:

• Speaks really smoothly (got that flow in it!)
• Pronouncing words really clearly
• Communication skills were very acceptable for the target audience, whom is the students
• Fading of the music was really good.

3  things that it could have been improved:

• They could greet the audience
• Introduce themselves
• There was slight overlapping and cutting each other from time to time.

 

In this week, we have to pick our group. Majority of people just go with the people who are on their table. I am in a group with Ali, James and Matas. Our group name is “Back & Forth.”

This week is about researching and finding sources. Distinguishing between sources (what is most useful for us?). Using sources in our work referencing. Most importantly, refining our ideas and making plans for our pitch next week.

 

Research:

Succeed at Solent gives you a quick tip on how to get the best out of your research.

Sources that would be useful:

• Library catalogue
• BBC Sounds
• LinkedIn Learning
• Google Scholar

Top tip: when read through Wikipedia click on the reference to check if the source is reliable.

Group Work:

We shared our ideas about how to make a good show based on listening to Radio Sonar:

• good interaction with presenters
• ice breaker
• jingles
• sound effects
• sound scape + textile
• audience involvement – social media interaction live
• avoid silence
• avoid talking over each other
• open ended questions
• listen & respond

 

Next week we will be pitching our ideas for our podcast and get feedback from our tutor and peers. We need to do:

1. identify our chosen SU society and have made contact with them
2. identify three key facts/points of interest about our chosen society
3. identify 3 sources of research that we can draw on.
4. group contracts and participation logs – how to make them work for us
5. finding fitting roles for all group members
6. agree a plan of action for the coming week.

For our pitch, we need to produce something that have:

• a sense of our chosen society (why are they interesting, who is involved, what do they do etc.)
• who we are planning to include in our show (main interviewee and ideas for vox pops)
• what thoughts do we have about the creative direction of our show.

 

Reflection time:

I feel pretty confident of what I will be doing, as I can transfer my skills from last year to this year. I am happily to take in any role but from observation of my group personality it seems like being a presenter would be the most suitable thing for me and the group because I am the most talkative person in the group and I have the qualities of a presenter already. Least suitable role for me would be a producer because organisation skill is not my strongest point but I am happy to take the role and improve my weakness for the best of the team. My plan of action this week is to get in contact with the society and try move things forward as much as possible.

 

 

Today, we were doing multi-track editing on Adobe Audition. Again, same as last week I already have an experience of doing this before. Therefore, it was a quick recap for me. All I need to worry about is thinking about which WAV file should go where, in their best particular orders. The only time consuming thing about this is I have to experiment with it to make it sounds acceptable but it will be worth it. Add a melody music in the background to prevent boredom for the audience. Do a fadeaway at the end to finish it off. If you have to cut some of the file then do it, as long it sounds professional.

Top tip: play around with the volume at the start, to catch your audience attention.

Then remember to save it and export it as WAV.

I was one hour late today. Therefore, next time I need to make sure I get a good night sleep and take care of myself better try not to miss or be late to a lecture because it’s very crucial to the degree. Maybe I can look up for a Time Management book in the library to improve my future action(s).

For this week we went through assessment brief again. I am not going to repeat myself so go have a look in my Audio 1.1.

What do I know about Radio Sonar? It’s our university radio society. Where student gets to practice and run a show for 1 hour. Guess who is running a show every Wednesday at 7pm. That’s right, you know who it is… Me!

Next week, I am going to listen to a radio sonar show. Write down at least 4 elements that I think were successful and 3 things that it could have been improved.

We then have to interview each other on our table:

• What societies have you joined?
• What society surprised you?
• Why do you think it is important that universities have societies?
• What society would you start?

James said he joined tennis society and the other two still haven’t join any society. UFO society was the most surprising one. However, little bird told me that this society has been folded (wonder why?). We all came up with a conclusion, societies were created to build up networking with people who has the same interests, socialising, and to get better at something. Last but not least, I’d love to create an Asian society because I do feel like I am the only Asian guy in the university even though there are plenty of us.

For group Dynamics:

Few issues that might arise:

• Poor discipline.
• Uneven workload.
• Conflict with each other opinions.

Few benefits of  working in a group:

• Prepare for the real world teamworking.
• Shared workload.
• Adaptability.

Scenario 1:

A few group members seem to be doing a lot of the same kind of activities and you are worried the outcome is going to sound repetitive.

Solution: have a group meeting and go through it together. Make sure it doesn’t sound repetitive. Next time, set up a clear direction on who is doing what.

Scenario 2:

Someone else in your group has done an interview but it’s not very good. The sound quality is poor and they haven’t used the questions that you wrote together.

Solution: Make sure there is a sound engineer to listen to the zoom recorder whilst interviewing, set the recorder at a mature volume. After interview listen through it. Repeat the interview (if needed). Also, write down a quick note for the interviewer and sound engineer to remind themselves not to miss a question.

Scenario 3:

The leader in the group is not attending sessions and is not responding to messages on the group chat.

Solution: Try get in contact with the leader via phone. If that person is not responding, then elect a temporary leader or a new one (depending on the situation).

Scenario 4:

There are loads of great ideas but the group can’t come to any decision.

Solution: Everyone move to a corner of the room not allow to see each other paper. Write down who has the best idea. Also, their name on it to make sure they’re not voting for themselves. If the results are very even get an alternative vote from your big boss or lecturer (in our case).

We need to complete our group contract on roles, attitudes, behaviour and communication.

So I will be taking part in producing, presenter and sound engineer. Attitude? Obviously 110%. Behaviour, c’mon we’re adults here. Communication? Facebook group created and everyone has my phone number so it’s cool beans.

Reflection time:

To be honest, I don’t really know about the threats within our group because I just got move to this class. Positively, there is Ali who was foundation student from last year and we have experience on this. I believe doing this assignment would help me improve my radio and presenter skills, which is one of the things I want to get into after graduation. Let’s think about it! How cool would it be to get paid for interviewing interesting people.

 

 

 

 

 

So this is kind of confusing because 0.2 Audio session with Steve/Paul is now 0.1, and Audio with Frankie is now with Ani and it is 0.2. Get it? It’s cool you don’t have to get it. But at least my time table is sorted though!

In this session, we get to do a linear editing using Adobe Audition. For me, I am quite lucky because last year I have already done this but it’s good to do a quick recap. All we have to do was make sure the volume from each tape is similar to each other (should have the consistency in the orange area), as they all have different volume. This is also an opportunity to work out which is tape should stay and which one should be deleted. Also, we can crop out the silent, “um” and “errr”. Then we need to save it as WAV. and there you go! Kaboom!

 

In this session, it is about studio operation and recording: “driving the desk”, hosting, presenting, and contributing.

Okay this is the most similar mixing board I can find on google images.

1. Open Adobe Audition > File > New.
2. Test the sound on each (microphone) channel.
3. It should be around the -6 to -12 (orange area).
4. Click record when you’re ready.
5. Pause to take break, stop to stop recording.
6. Give it a listen (repeat the process for improvement).

In this session, we recorded our voice and we’re going to input this just before our quick vox-pox from previous session. One thing Paul told us to be aware of is the “p” and “b” sounds, as it usually will up the volume to the red zone.

I didn’t stay much longer in this session because Paul (my lecturer) want me to get my timetable sorted first before it gets out of hand. Also, I’ve already done this last year.