Art Show Exercise

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Step 1: Read the script. (Word document) Notice the different types of audio: narration, interview, ambient sounds.

Step 2: Create a folder in an accessible place like your desktop.

Step 3: Open Audacity. Save As a Project into a folder. This is your working Audacity file.

Step 4: File> Import audio and open 20100921_Nevesina_St_James_NARR_RAW. This is the narration. You can also drag and drop it onto Audacity and it will appear as a track.

Step 5: Click on the space bar to play and listen to the entire file. You will see that it is raw and has a handful of errors. Your first task will be to isolate Narrative clips 1-4 which are outlined in the script.

Step 6: Position your cursor at the start of the file. Play. You will hear it is silence and can be deleted. Use the selection tool — which looks like an “I” and by looking at the flat line where audio should be, select that beginning piece and then click delete. You may want to zoom in first, using the Zoom tool or the Command/Ctrl (PC) 1 short cut. Zooming is a very common action so learning the short cut is a good idea.

Step 7: Click on the space bar again to play through the first narrative clip:

NARR 1: painter George White USUALLY sells his work through art brokers and small Galleries. Tonight, the 32-year-old and a few Friends are trying a new tactic – an auction where any piece that doesn’t get sold will be destroyed by the artist onstage.

Notice where the errors are, zooming in if necessary.

Step 8: Click on the space bar to play. Click on “P” to pause the cursor right where you see the steady audio flatten out, right before she makes mistakes. Next use your mouse/pad to select to the right until you see the flat line end. (Note: don’t do this too tight or you may accidentally delete the next sentence.) Click delete.

Step 9: Click on the space bar to play and listen through “destroyed by the artist on stage.” Click P to pause.

Step 10: Using your mouse/pad to select the clip from the beginning to the point where you have paused. Command/Ctrl X to cut.

Step 11: Go to Tracks > Add New > Mono track. Next, position your cursor into this track and click Command/Ctrl V to paste.

Step 12: Go to the Time Shift Tool (It looks like a double headed arrow ). Use it to drag the top track to the right. Leave a decent sized space between the two tracks as we will later insert and interview clip here.

Step 13: Name your second track “Narrative” by going to the top where it says Audio Track and clicking on the downward arrow.

Step 14: Use the Word Document script to isolate each of the four narrative clips. Edit them and place them — WELL SPACED OUT — in the Narrative track.

Remember to save frequently.

Step 15: Import or drag the first interview, AX_GW.wav, George White, onto a new track. Isolate this clip:

AX1 GW: Our idea is that rather than to go through a curator and a gallerist who takes half of the artist’s profits to turn it around, have the artist say, “We are going to engage directly with the art market and let the market decide.”

If you ever hear two clips playing at once, go to the Mute button to mute a track, or if you have many tracks, it is faster to click Solo to only hear that clip.

Step 16: Import or drag the second interview, AX_JM.wav, Jennifer McDougal, onto the same track where you put George White. Isolate this below clip but keep them separate. We will later put them in the slots between the Narrative clips.

AX2 JM: I really came here just to save the lives of artwork. But once I came in here and saw them in person. I realized there’s a couple I really want to have.

Step 17: Next import or drag the auctioneer ambient sound, AX3 Auctioneer, on to the same track as the interviews. Isolate the below clip while keeping it separate from the other interviews.

AX3 Auctioneer: $150. Come on let’s start it out here folks, this is a beautiful work of art look nice above any fireplace, or on any wall, anywhere at all. $150, $150 — Obviously, we have not met the reserve price. $150, $150. We are going once, we are going twice and der hammer ist gefallen. We are gone. Audience: No, no, no, no… (sound of cutting canvas, audience groans.) Auctioneer: Hey we weren’t kidding. (clapping) These guys are for real. And – that’s the way it works.

Step 18: Import or drag the crowd ambi.wav onto its own track. This will be sound that you play beneath all the other sounds to create a uniform sound. Lower the volume to the point where it doesn’t interfere with other audio files.

Step 19: Go to File > Export > Export as MP3. You can add the file info if you want. IMPORTANT: It is only after you export your project as a sound file that you are done. You can not share an Audacity file with someone and expect them to be able to listen to it.