Introduction to Audacity, Soundslides

Audacity

  1. Downloading and locating LAME MP3 encoder
    1. Audacity
      1. Mac: (stable | beta)
      2. Windows (stable | beta)
    2. LAME encoder
  2. Opening and saving/exporting a track
  3. Difference between saving a project file and exporting audio
  4. Cutting, copying and pasting
  5. Putting together an audio file for Soundslides
    1. All your audio must be in one MP3 file; length of this file determines the length of soundslides show
  6. Start a new file for the project and do a Save As.
    1. Make sure your Project Rate is set to 44.1 (44100 Hz): Soundslides requires this
    1. Open up separate source files in new audacity windows
    2. Use the main track to lay down your main audio. This would be sources talking, plus any voice-over narration you include.
      1. Show how to lay down narrative audio for first 40 seconds of clock shop slideshow
        1. Add Nat intro, followed by middle portion of Nat what doing; paste back to back, then insert silence
        2. Point out the levels, talk about peaking and introduce amplify and normalize effects
    3. Use additional tracks to add nat (natural) sound
      1. Show how to add a new stereo track; note difference between stereo/mono
      2. Show how to adjust height of audio track viewer
      3. Add nat sound for clocks chiming, clocks ticking and cleaning tool
        1. Draw attention to levels; reduce level of clocks chiming, cleaning tool
    4. Test the mix
    5. Export your finished file as MP3 format
      1. Show how to use options to adjust encoding settings; Soundslides supports 32kbps, 48kbps, 56kbps, 64kbps, 128kbps, 160kbps or 256kbps
      2. Audacity will flatten the mix, so that's why you want to save a project file to go back and work on

Soundslides

  1. Starting a new project in Soundslides basic
    1. Adding JPGs
    2. Adding audio track
      1. The length of the project will match the length of the audio; images will default to equal length of duration
  2. Display options
    1. Leave as default
  3. Navigation
    1. Use arrow keys to move between slides in main workspace
  4. Arranging images
    1. Drag and drop
  5. Adjusting timing of images
    1. Slider, drag and drop, double click slide to change "in point",
  6. Transitions
    1. Adjusting all transitions
      1. click template, then transitions
    1. Changing individual transitions (better to be consistent)
      1. Double click on any slide (or click "slide info" and navigate to one you want)
      2. Select from dropdown menu
  7. Additional features (brief)
    1. Adding, removing and replacing images
    2. Captions
      1. Can be revealed or hidden in final product
    3. Metadata
      1. Headline, credits
        1. Credits can be revealed, hidden in final product
    4. Adding lower thirds (Soundslides Pro only)
      1. Video tutorial
      2. First select the slide you want to add it to in "slides" window
      3. Then click Audio --> Lower thirds --> Add and click/type in text boxes
    5. Replacing the audio track

  1. Testing project
    1. Click "test". Should open in web browser
    2. If it opens in a text editor, do this:
      1. Open a new web browser window
      2. Ctrl O or "open" from the File menu
      3. Navigate to index.html within your soundslides project file; click ok
  2. Exporting finished project
    1. Click Export. This creates a folder called publish_to_web, and that folder should open up
    2. Make a .zip file of all contents of this folder. That .zip file is what I'll be uploading to the spokesman media server

More resources

Soundslides manual

Download the Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency by Mindy McAdams: Available here.

If you purchased the basic Soundslides and want to upgrade to the Pro version, instructions are here.

After the slideshow is published, you can use the Soundslides embedding tool to republish the slideshow on your own blog or website. Just enter the URL of the slideshow on spokesman.com, click continue and grab the code from the box that appears.