ACTIVITY GROUCHO RAP

Objetives In this activity your are going to learn how to use the most common edition tool used in programs like Audacity,: edit, cut copy, save, open, duplicate etc.).

NOTICE THAT THIS PART IS NOT THE ACTIVITY. HERE WE ARE TEACHING YOU HOW TO DO THE MOST FREQUENT ACTIONS WHILE EDITING SOUND WITH AUDACITY

Clip: (Un corte) A short piece of sound. Usually we select a part of a song, and copy or cut elsewhere. That is a clip.

Track. (Una pista). A track is the container used in Audacity to represent sound. A song may be place in a single track or is made up of different tracks sounding simultaneously. In audacity the tracks are shown as horizontal bands in which the user can place songs and clips.

Stereo tracks are represented with two horizontal bands. The image below shows a stereo track (two bands) and a mono track (one band)

The music is represented as a wave, showing the sound intensity in any given moment

1. How to open an audio file.

To open an audio file with Audacity:

a) Start Audacity and from the menu Archivo / Abrir select the file to open.

b) Another way is to drag the audio file over the Audacity main window.

c) Click in the audio file using the right button and deploy the contextual menu. Select the option abrir con Audacity.

d) Once you have an audio file open, you can add more audio files in other tracks (pista) selecting the menu Proyecto / Importar Audio.

2. How to copy and paste (copy a clip to another location)

An important part of sound edition is to copy and paste clips

With the selection tool activated , select the section of the track to copy and then press crtl + c or select Editar / Copiar, then put the cursor in the place where you want to copy the clip and select Editar / Pegar or crtl+v

3. How to cut and paste (move a clip to another location)

With the selection tool activated , select the section of the track to cut and then select Editar / Cortar or ctrl+x, then put the cursor in the place where you want to move the clip and select Editar / Pegar or crtl+v

4. How to silence a clip (a section of a track)

With the selection tool activated , select the section of the track you want to silence and select Editar / Silencio)

5. How to delete a clip (a section of a track)

With the selection tool activated , select the section of the track you want to delete and select Editar / Borrar, or use the tool

6. How to divide a track in two tracks

With the selection tool activated , select the section of the track you want to bring to other track and select Editar / Dividir. The selected clip will be moved to a new track.

7. How to import several tracks

With the menu Proyecto / Importar Audio you can import several sound files. If you click in the button Reproducir all the tracks will be played at the same time; use the buttons silencio to disable the sound in a track and solo to disable the sound in all tracks except the selected.

8. How to save a project

Save your projects in Audacity format, (extension aup) using Archivo / Guardar proyecto, because in this way, the file keeps the tracks, edition arrangements and audacity effects. The disadvantage of the aup format is that files are very heavy and can't be played by most sound players.

If you want to hear your sound files with a player use the option Archivo / Exporta Como Wav, Como MP3, Como OGG Vorbis. The disadvantage of these formats is that they will merge all the tracks in a single track.

ACTIVITY GROUCHO RAP

We are going to create a rap using some Groucho Marx audio clips, and a instrumental rap base downloaded from internet (license creative commons). To give you an idea of what is the expected result, listen these outstanding works made by 4ESO students as you, in the other years.

Alejandro Costa's work 2013-2014

Omar Lozano's work 2015-2016.

Download the following Grouxo Marx clips

• eslaguerra_mas_madera.mp3
• la_parte_contratante.mp3
• Reducción horaria
• El animal que llevo dentro
• Bocina Harpo
• Mozo
• groucho rap
• Groucho in motion
• Uñas
• Si lo hace le despido

Let's start with eslaguerra_masmadera.mp3.

• Import the file into a track(Archivo->importar)
• Listen the audio. It is made up of several different elements: 1 the sound of a running train, 2 'es la guerra', 3.the sound again of the train, 4 'traed madera 5. the sound of the train 6. traed madera'. We are going to divide the three Grouxo utterences (frases habladas) in different clips and delete the background sound of the running train.
• Select the first seconds when it is heard the sound of a train. With the selection tool activated click in the beginning of the clip and drag to the end. Play the selected area to ensure you have made the correct selection
• Click the key Supr to erase the selected area
• After this first clip, there are three sentences: Es la guerra.... traed madera..... traed madera. Select the length of the track taken up (ocupada) by the sentence 'Es la guerra' and cut it to another track.
• Between the first 'Traed madera' and the second 'traed madera' , there's a short sound of a running train. Select carefully the length occupied by the running train sound and silence it using the button silenciar audio
• Add in another track the rap base. First copy the URL shown bellow to your browser and download the compressed rap files. Extract the files and to choose one of them. If you don't like them, you can download your own rap base, as long as it is creative commons

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2ykroqm7cooabs/BASES%20DE%20RAP.zip?dl=0

Select the sentence 'traed madera'. Copy it and paste it several times in a new track. Sincronize it with the raprhythms , putting the beginning of the sentence where there's a peak in the music track.

• Do the same with the sentence 'Es la guerra'. use these short clips as rhythmical base, sequencing them evenly in the track (a intervalos regulares)
• Add more short clips. Extract from the clips individual words and short sentences. You must extract all the short sentences in the following table:

FILE	SHORT CLIPS
LA PARTE CONTRATANTE.mp3	Dice que Que es lo que nos queda ahora Más de medio metro todavía
ESLAGUERRA_TRAEDMADERA.mp3	Es la guerra Traed madera
MOZO.mp3	Mozo Tiene un cerdito de leche
UÑAS.mp3	Dejemelas cortas
SI LO HACE LE DESPIDO.mp3	Apreciado dentista Si lo hace le despido

• Add an Echo effect. Import to a new track any of the short clips you have just downloaded and add to it the echo effect following the next steps:
• Select the track. Add the clip
• Add a silence of some seconds after the clip following these steps :
• Put the cursor at the end of the clip
• Select an area of some seconds after the clip

• Select the menu option Generar->Silencio

• Select all the clip, (including the silenced area) and click in the menú Efectos | Eco. Set a short echo delay (retraso del eco), around 0,3 seconds. The Decay Factor (El factor de decamiento) must be long, around 0,5. When you click in accept, the echo modification on the sound wave will be visible at first sight (a simple vista)

• Now try out the use of echoes in other clips using different delays and decay factors
• Insert the clip Groucho in motion. To do so, we have to prepare it first, insert it onto a track, and add to it a light echo effect (delay 0,2, decay 0,4)
• We are going to stop the music for a short time, and we are going to insert the Groucho rap clip and then we will resume the music again. Así es como suena
• We must look for a suitable breaking point to insert the clip, where the original music stops and resumes. In rap music this is very frequent. For example, if you use the provided Rap_instrumental.mp3, in the 29.130 second, the sound wave shows how the music dies off (se desvanece) for around 0,3 seconds, and then it resumes. This is the perfect place to stop the music, insert a clip, and restart it again.

• Look for a place in your rap base, where there's a similar stop and resume.Put the cursor there. You can improve the accuracy using the toolbar shown below

• Select the track on the right of the selected place, and cut it, using ctrl+x or edicion->cortar
• Place the cursor 2,5 seconds on the right and select edicion->pegar or ctrl+v. With this movement you've the silence needed for Groucho in motion.
• Add Groucho in motion in a new track. Move it in order to place it in the silence slot of time

• Así es como suena
• Add in a new track the clip 'la parte contratante'. Do several copies and sincronice then with the music.
• Do the same with 'reducción horario'.
• It's very important to avoid that clips sounding at the same time. The longer clips must accompany the music, while the shorter ones must be sincroniced with the rhythmic beats.
• The final result might look similar to the image shown below:

.

How to upload this activity to MOODLE

Moodle only allows us to upload files of a maximum size of 1Mb. It's very likely that your song weighs at least 3 or 4 Mb. So in oder to upload the file, we might reduce the sampling frequency (frecuencia de muestreo) and split the file in several pieces

• Select a sampling frequency of 16.000hz. The image below shows how to do it.

• Export the first minut to an mp3 file and upload it to Moodle to the link ACTIVIDAD GROUXORAP 1. To do this follow the next steps:
• Select the first minute in any of the tracks (whatever)
• Select the menu option Edicion->Seleccion->Todas las pistas. This select the first minute in all the tracks
• Select the menu option Archivo->Exportar Seleccion
• Name the file and export it with mp3 format

• Export the second minut to an mp3 file and upload it to Moodle using the link ACTIVIDAD GROUXORAP 2
• Export the rest of the file to a third mp3 file and upload it to Moodle using the link ACTIVIDAD GROUXORAP 3

 

Make an screen capture of your audacity project and upload it to Moodle To see all the project in the screen capture select the option Ventana | ajustar verticalmente and then Ventana | ajustar a la ventana