Hi! I'm Kyle Quinsaat. I'm 16 years old and I'm from Catholic Filipino Academy. This quarter we were tasked with learning a skill. I chose audio editing using Audacity as the skill that I want to develop because I am interested in the different components in making music. To achieve this, I have my mom to guide me since she has experience using editing software like Audacity. The Internet also has many references in learning the basics of Audacity. We divided the learning process into 5 sessions, which will be done during the weekends. It will be 2 hours long each on Saturdays and Sundays.
What is Audacity? Audacity is a free open source digital recording and audio editing software. It is available for Windows, OS X, Linux and other computer operating systems. Audacity can be used for post-processing all types of audio, including podcasts, by adding effects. It can also be used in recording and mixing albums. It's free and open nature made it popular in education, making its developers come up with an interface that is easier to use for students and teachers.
Check them out! http://www.audacityteam.org/
SESSION 1
I learned simple techniques to record and edit a sound clip, adding a track, setting preferences, noise removal, normalization, compression and trimming of an audio clip. I also watched tutorials from the following websites so that I can gain more knowledge about Audacity:
A Full Introduction to Audacity
​
Audacity: Complete tutorial Guide for beginners by David Taylor
https://youtu.be/aCisC3sHneM ​
​
Audacity Editing 101
https://cyberdog.wikisoaces.com/Audio_Countdown_Exercise ​
​
King Tuts Pro
I find Audacity’s Interface pretty easy and “beginner-friendly.” At first, I was overwhelmed with the amount of information but I am sure with practice I will learn using these tools in no time.
LATEST video
A
ABOUT
V
l
SESSION 2
Our second session got me excited since I will be able to do hands-on practice. I chose to do my first Music Performance Based Assessment, which required me to make a mash-up of two African songs and two Latin songs. I chose James Brown’s “I Feel Good” and Aretha Franklin’s “Rocksteady” for the African songs. I was not decided on the Latin beat but I chose Samba and Bossanova on standby. I was confident that I was going to be able to mix these two songs easily but I was wrong. It was harder than I thought. My problem was that the two songs have different beats. When I tried to mix them, all it produced was a garbled sound. My mom suggested finding isolated voice tracks and instrumental backing tracks for the songs so that I will not have a hard time mixing them. Unfortunately, I was not able to find separate tracks for “Rocksteady” but then I discovered Bob Marley. His reggae songs both have isolated voice & backing instrumentals. It was like starting back to zero for me since I was not able to execute what I had in mind. My mom told me that sometimes when I will be starting a project I would encounter roadblocks along the way. She said that it is part of the learning process and suggested to look at it in a different perspective. With this in mind, I decided to start fresh on the next session.
SESSION 3
On our third session, I decided to proceed to the next Music Performance Based Assessment since I still do not have an idea how to mix the African and Latin Songs. We were required to do a mashup of two Popular songs and two Jazz songs. For this one, I chose the Rihanna’s RnB song, “Stay” and 30 Seconds To Mars’ rock vocal cover of the same song. For the beat, I found a hip-hop jazz beat from Blunted Beatz and the melody I got an excellent electronic guitar cover by Ry Jones. I was almost finished with editing the track when I realized that I was not doing a mashup. I was just mixing different genres of the same song. In my last attempt I added Ella Fitzgerald’s “I Want To Stay Here” to the beginning and end of the track but who am I kidding? The song that I edited was more of a cover than a mashup. I am back to the drawing board but this time, I did not feel discouraged. In fact, I was excited to try again. I did not scrap my “Stay” edit. I thought it was quite alright.
SESSION 5
On our last session, I gave the Afro-Latin mash-up another try. I still used James Brown's "I Feel Good" and Aretha Franklin's "Rocksteady." For the rhythm, I chose an upbeat Samba/Bahia beat which was really cool. I also added some vocals by Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up." It took some time to piece it all together. I mostly just chopped up the vocals and rearranged them to match every beat of the Samba/Bahia Beat. I didn't add any special effects because it would sound modern already. Overall, I think I did an OK job. There is still room for improvement.
Learning to edit music by using Audacity has been an awesome experience. I have a new found respect for musicians, composers, singer/songwriters, sound engineers, and other people responsible for making great music. It takes skill and a lot of creativity. It got me inspired to make my own music but first I think I need to learn how to play other musical instruments other than the guitar hehe :P
SESSION 4
On our fourth session, mom suggested to use music that I always listen to. I decided to use the Alternative Rock vocals of Coldplay for their song, “Yellow.” I also got the Pop vocals of Troye Sivan’s “Fools” and Gnash’s “I Hate U, I Love U.” Gnash’s song also features Olivia O’Brien, which is cool because she has such a beautiful voice. That is about it for the Popular Music. For Jazz, I asked my mom if she could suggest any songs because she listens to it a lot. She has a wide variety of music on her library and from it, I chose Al Green’s “Love & Happiness.” Now this could be somewhat tricky since his song is classified as soul music. It could be jazz or RnB. I chose his vocals so I think it is more on the blues jazz side. This time I really had an amazing time doing the editing. Aside from just cutting and rearranging the music, I also added effects like fading in & out, echoes, and reverberance. It is not perfect but I think I did an awesome job.
learning process
Don't hate. Congratulate :)
Pardon my newbie musical experiments,
I just learned how to edit music
& this is my learning process.
DISCLAIMER:
Copyrights of the music belong to their respective owners. Images and text owned by other copyright holders are used here under the guidelines of the Fair Use Provisions Copyright Law. The images and text that are used here are only for the education of high school students, and are not intended to generate income for the school, its employees, or its students.