Lost & Found, Course Blog

Hello, all.

A couple of quick things.

Someone left a small notebook and pen in B91--I placed them in my
mailbox in the Department office.

Also, some of you mentioned that it was difficult to locate the "Post a
Comment" link on the Survey post. Here is a screenshot of where to find
the link: http://tinyurl.com/d5t948

Your response to the Survey is due Sunday, February 1, 5 PM. Here is
the link:
http://film-116.blogspot.com/2009/01/film-116-survey.html

Sunday the 1st is also the deadline to register for the Technical Forum:
http://tinyurl.com/bsbnbg

I'll send another note this weekend in preparation for Monday's Soundwalk.

Prep for Wednesday, January 28

Hello, all.

Welcome, again, to FILM 116. We have a busy semester ahead of us, and
a productive one as well, I hope.

Some reminders:

We meet again on Wednesday, 3 PM, B91, for a demo on Blogger and
PantherFile. We will also listen to previous examples of Drift 1
recordings, as well as go through a preview of microphone building.

Remember to post your Survey answers as a comment to this post on the
Course Blog by Sunday, February 1, 5 PM:
http://film-116.blogspot.com/2009/01/film-116-survey.html

Also, register for the Technical Forum, also by Sunday:
http://www.freeforum101.com/forum/index.php?mforum=06116filmforum

Here is the link to the list of required supplies that you will need to
purchase by Monday, February 9:
http://www.glennbach.com/film_116/116_syllabus.html#supplies

All of these supplies (except for the optional faux fur and soldering
wand) are available from Riverwest Film and Video, 824 East Center St.,
Milwaukee, WI 53212, Hours: 3-11pm daily, 414-265-8433)
http://tinyurl.com/36avvt

Remember to keep up on your reading. To prepare for Monday's Soundwalk,
make sure you've gotten through Hart, Westerkamp, Debord, and Sant.

Note that my updates to the syllabus and schedule are ongoing, so please
be patient!

See you all on Wednesday.

SonicStage and Audacity issues

Hello, all.

We saw a few more of you today during the Help Sessions, and we hope that you are all well along on your Drifts.

If you are using SonicStage at home, there are some specific steps you have to take to make sure that your recordings convert to WAV (and, contrary to my earlier note, SonicStage DOES allow WAV transfers in Vista). I've added the new screenshots to the SonicStage tutorial (thanks, Steve). The added sections also detail how to save your files to the right folder on the Desktop so you can find them when you're ready to backup.
http://www.glennbach.com/film_116/116_sonicstage.html

Some of you may have recordings that are a little "hot," or really loud. This is because the manual gain setting may have been too high while you were recording. Or it could be due to an particularly sensitive batch of microphone capsules from Riverwest Film and Video, or the exceptional precision and skill with which you were able to solder your leads, resulting in crystal clear connections.

In any case, if your recordings are a bit too hot, you can open them in Audacity, highlight the problem areas (or the whole file if necessary), go into "Effect," and select "Amplify." Slide the horizontal slider to the left (you are basically "de-amplifying"). You may have to play around a bit to get the right levels. Remember that you can always "Undo."

I've requested that your PantherFile allotments be increased to 2GB. This may take a few days, but in the meantime you should have plenty of room to store your MP3s for Drift 1.

Good luck this weekend. We will have mandatory Critique sessions in your Lab Sections on Monday at 3 PM, so your Drift Blogs have to be done by then. If you have any technical problems between now and then, remember to search the Technical Forum for any possible solutions, and post your question if you can't find an answer.
http://www.freeforum101.com/forum/index.php?mforum=06116filmforum

Survey and Technical Forum

Just a quick note to ask some of you to clarify your Blogger and Tech Forum IDs. These folks haven't given us enough information to properly identify them--please let us know who you are:

BLOGGER
Davey Havoc
Alex
Jon
nectarguru
Strummer
Andrew

TECHNICAL FORUM
nectarguru
panamafred


To date, we have received 51 surveys, and 52 folks have registered for the Technical Forum. The deadline for turning in the survey was last Sunday, and the deadline for registering for the Technical Forum was yesterday. So, for those who haven't met those deadlines, fill out those surveys and sign up for the Forum right away.