How to Create an Audio SlideShow Using Soundslides

Mark Berkey-Gerard, Journalism Department, Rowan University

Audio Slide Show

Three stages:

1. Gathering and editing audio

2. Gathering and editing images

3. Producing audio slide show by synching sounds to images

Think Story First

Not about a lot of information

But a sense of the experience

Think Story First

Think of your story as “someone does

something

because”

Think Story First

What do you want to

communicate?

One idea.

Keep it simple.

Think Story First

Audio Structure:

Begin with something interesting

Build to the point (the why?) of your story

Think Story First

Layer photos:

Pacing (balance wide, medium, close and

content)

Audio

Good audio is the basis of multimedia.

Audio

VoicesEmotion

People telling their own stories in their own words

Allows audience to imagine visuals

Audio

WHAT YOU NEED TO GATHER AUDIO:

•Digital recorder (that saves as .wav, .wma or .mp3 format)

•Headphones

•Microphone

•Cables

•Backup batteries

Getting Started with Recorder

1. Turn it on.

2. Find record, stop, playback, files etc.

3. Plug in headphones and microphone.

4. Press record.

5. Listening on your headphones.

6. Start talking. Listen for sound quality. Reposition mic.

Tips for Interviewing

•Find a quiet place.

•Encourage the subject to answer in complete sentences by keeping your questions short and open ended.

•Avoid “yes” or “no” questions.

Tips for Interviewing•Do not move your hand or shake the device.

•Do not say “uh huh” or talk while you interview. Listen.

•Maintain eye contact. Listen. Nod.

•Get an ID: Name, age, occupation, location.

Collect Other Sound

Ambient Sound

The background sound of the room. Turn on your recorder and let it run

For 2 minutes.

Use it to loop under your interview later.

Collect Other Sound

Sound Effects

Car doors slamming. Eggs frying. Dogs barking. Birds chirping. Gavel pounding.

Dentist drilling. Etc.

Editing Audio

Audio Editing Programs

GarageBand (for Macs)

Audacity (for PCs and Macs) – Free download

Editing Audio

Common Types of Audio Files You Should Be Able to Recognize

.wma (windows media audio)

.wav (uncompressed windows file)

.mp3 (most universal audio format – the Soundslides format)

.aiff (Mac and standard podcasting format)

Editing Audio

1. Plug your recorder into the USB.

2. Drag your audio file(s) onto your desktop.

3. Make a copy. Ctrl and Click. Duplicate.

4. Edit the copy, NOT the original.

Editing Audio

Switch Audio Converter

A free download

Works on both Macs and PC

Editing Audio

Switch Audio Converter

1. Go>Applications>Switch

2. Drag file in.

3. Set Output to .aiff for Garageband or .wav for Audacity.

4. Hit “Convert” button

Editing Audio

•Audio length = slide show length.

•General rule is one photo for every five seconds of audio (ie 90 sec = 18 photos)

Editing Audio

•Don’t start with an ID…but if you have one it should be in the beginning third.

•Weave natural sound and interview.

•Export as .mp3 – High Quality

Photos•Take a lot of photos

•You need one image for every five seconds of edited audio. (i.e. 90 sec = 18 images)

•Wide, medium, close-ups.

•People. Action. Telling details.

Preparing Photos

•Select only the photos you want to use•Crop•Rotate•Color Correction•Make sure they are saved as .jpg “High Quality”•Put them in a folder

Soundslides

•Made by journalists for journalists

•Application for creating slide shows and audio slide shows for the Web

•The standard at many online news publications

Soundslides Plus

• Easy to Use

• Works on both MACs and PCs

• Cost $69.95. But you download free

version. It will display “Demo” at beginning,

• Can only be purchased from website.

Soundslides

Soundslides will:

•resize all of your images for you

•allow you to order them any way you wish

•take care of file name and linking

•retrieve any embedded caption information

Soundslides

Soundslides will NOT:

•rotate your images

•allow color correction

•crop or allow you to crop

•allow editing of audio files

Soundslides

1. Open Sound Slides program (Go>Applications>Sound Slides Plus)

2. Upload Photos (JPG button and select entire folder).

3. Upload Audio (SND button).

Soundslides

Edit your slide show.

Adjust the timing for each image, drag the ends in the timeline at the bottom.

Click the play button to preview the audio track and adjust the timing of the images.

Save every time you make a change.

Soundslides

Save.

Export. It will create a folder called publish_to_web.

Save that entire folder as well as your original files.

Soundslides

Publish_To_Web folder contains all of the

information for your slide show:

• images of different sizes

• audio file

• HTML code

• Flash code (.swf)

Soundslides

Important: The entire contents of the

Publish_To_Web folder must be put on

your Web site in order for the slide show

to work properly.

Think Story First

What do you want to

communicate?

Think Story First

Think of your story as “someone does

something

because”