Or more like speaking of speakers. I stopped by my local Costco today to pick up a few things for my 40th H.S. reunion and my two upcoming conference trips. I’ve been using Logitech’s Pure-Fi Anywhere powered speaker system for presenting with my laptop the last couple of years. They are rechargeable battery powered and can fill a 100 seat meeting room decently. I jumped at the chance to get another set this spring when they went on sale for just $99. Hold the presses! Costco was selling them for $69 when I walked down the aisle today. So, if you’re looking for good speakers for presenting or for the classroom that can also double as your iPod/MP3 player hi-fi, give them a look. In the mean time, my newest set will be blaring the class of ’68’s playlist in the Saugatuck Dunes today, “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “We shall overcome…” Though I think the 60’s is taking on a whole new meaning for us grandpas (it was an all boys school).
If you have a DV camcorder that has a jack for an external microphone, you can’t go wrong with this $6.99 mic kit from Geeks.com. Being able to get up close by attaching it to the interviewee or putting it between two people who are talking makes a huge difference in the quality of your video. You could also hang it from a broomstick and use it as a boom microphone. The kit even comes with batteries and a case. The only criticism I have heard is that you might pay as much in S&H as you do for the mic.
And for tips on improving sound, we go to our intrepid film makers, Xander and Calvin on AFI’s ScreenNation:
I’m really embarrassed I almost missed Jennifer Gingerich’s Makin’ Movies Made Simple webinar last night and doubly embarrassed that I hadn’t picked up on it in time to plug it here. So let me try to make amends with this post.
Jennifer shared some great project ideas with practical tips for keeping it simple, keeping everyone together, and making the most of your “techsperts.” She showed some very creative projects from poetry to riddles and shares the how-to’s on this page of her site.
A few things that were discussed and sites to go with them…
Software:
iMovie on the Mac (free)
PhotoStory and MovieMaker for PC’s (free). You’ll have to search and download PhotoStory from the Microsoft site - XP and above.
PowerPoint, KidSpiration, HyperStudio (coming soon!), etc. are also good for visual storytelling.
Adobe Premiere Elements (very affordable), ULead, Pinnacle Studio, Final Cut Pro or Express, etc. are big steps up in price and power.
M-Audio has bundled a PC software program called Session with some of their music peripherals. It seems a lot like Garage Band: with keyboard or as a separate package
Cameras:
You can do a lot with digital still pictures and the movies that they make.
FlipCam doesn’t use tape and is very affordable (~$100).
Resources:
Use “kits” to save time and keeps students focused.
http://www.kitzu.com
http://schoolhousevideo.org
Library of Congress
National Archives
http://pics4learning.com (for teachers by teachers)
David Jakes has tutorials and solid color slides at http://jakesonline.org
Find picture sets on Flickr and Picasa. Look/search for Creative Commons licensed pix that you can use freely.
“Free” music isn’t free outside the classroom (even at board meetings!):
http://www.freeplaymusic.com
http://www.findsounds.com
Internet citations:
Come with Discovery streaming stills.
http://pics4learning.com
David Warlick’s http://citationmachine.net
http://bibme.com
Thoughts:
Use external and headset mics for the best sound when narrating. Usually in the $15-20 range. Mac users can’t just plug into the line in jack. Mics on a Mac need to go through USB to have enough power.
Keep it simple and focused - limit special effects and transitions
Preparation, research, writing, storyboards are key. The technology is secondary and can’t rescue a poor foundation.
Here is the DEN’s webinar schedule for the whole rest of the school year.
The last external microphone I’d like to explore is the “shotgun” or “boom” mic. This is a good device for recording in a group or picking up the surrounding/ambient noise. This soccer game clip (Download ShotBoom.mov) really doesn’t do it justice, but hopefully you’ll get the idea. The first time I ever used one was for an independent movie my son acted in. The mic was on the end of a pole and dangled just over the heads of the actors who were talking. They even recruited me at one point to follow my son through a field and pick up the sound of his footsteps because I had the longest stride and arms. This mic has a lot of surface area to pick up sound through and therefore needs a windscreen more so than the others to dampen that unwanted white noise. Surprisingly, the built-in mic did about just as well at my daughter’s soccer game and actually sounded better when it was protected from the wind. Since there was a steady breeze and the shotgun mic was exposed on top of the camera, it picked up a lot of wind in spite of its foam covering.
To review, check out an enhanced podcast by Marco Torres and the students of the San Fernando Technology Team. Their FlickSchool page is a great resource for tips on photography and making movies to tell good stories.
A lavalier microphone is a great way to zero in and pick up the sound from one person. It’s also a good way to “eavesdrop” if you want to keep the camera at a distance. The picture at left and the accompanying video (Download Lavalier2.mov) attempt to show this by recording a pre-game talk from the opposite side of the field and slowly moving in. Despite the shakey camera work, the sound remains consistent. The lav could also double as a hand-held. At the end of the video you’ll see that it picks up some of the players’ voices and another coach pretty well. If you unclipped the mic and put it close to each speaker as they offered their advice, you’d get the same sort of “man on the street” interview as you do with the hand-held option. Again, please make sure your camcorder has an input jack for an external microphone before investing in any remote sound devices.
In my rush to show off my collection of remote microphones, I skipped a very basic step. If you’re going to upgrade your sound capability, the easiest and cheapest solution is to get a couple of external, noise-cancelling microphones for your computers/labs. My recommendation is to get a headphone/mic combination. Why? Because none of us likes the sound of our own voice and we like it even less when we are recording in public. We also want to avoid any background noise that may make it sound like those marketing calls we all receive. In a lab-like situation, the mic/headphone affords some semblance of privacy, both speaking and listening, AND returns a much higher quality sound. However, an e
xternal mic by itself can be just as good and less expensive. PC users can usually plug a mic right in to the mic/sound in jack. Mac users need a powered device. That power is usually via USB. In the picture at the top left, the mic on the left is 100% USB. The mic on the right has both the direct mini-pin option or connecting via USB. Digitales has a page full of advice and even some directions on making a spit guard to get the most out of your voice.
I took a variety of remote microphones out to my daughter’s last soccer game of the season last Sunday and tried to get some representative footage of what situations they might be good in. Today we’ll zero on the traditional handheld mic. With a long enough wire, it could be connected directly to the mic input on your camcorder (WARNING - not all camcorders have a separate mic input, check before investing in an external mic!) In this video we are using the handheld plugged in to a remote transmitter. The clip is a “man on the street” type interview. But by placing the mic in a holder on a table, it just as well could be used by two news anchors or a group discussion. Whether in the field or in the studio, wireless or connected, this type of microphone lets you get up close and personal sound from a number voices. 
(Purchasing note: I bought the handheld packaged with a lavalier microphone, a transmitter that connects with either mic, and a receiver that sits on the camera and connects to its mic import for about $139.)
Click the link below for the interview.
Download HandHeld2.mov
Since I’m just polishing up some things about recording sound that I will be adding to my “Digital Storytelling: Makin’ Movies” presentation on Friday, sound might be a good topic for the rest of the week. Now, my bold advice: get Audacity!
It’s free. It’s powerful. It doesn’t cost anything. It works on Macs and PC’s. And you won’t be spending any money. Oh, yeah. You will need the LAME plug-in to export as MP3, but that’s free too. Go ahead. Go download it if you haven’t already. I’ll wait.
Good, you’re back. Now, what can you do with this program? Steve Dembo will tell you that you can record and assemble voice and sounds for a podcast. And I will venture into podcasting as storytelling one of these days, but not right now. You certainly can record and you can edit the sound too, just like it’s a sentence in a word processor. But like that sentence, I’d rather you have some fun with the “fonts and color.” If you look back two posts, I mentioned Audacity as a way to get the mysterious voice of the future like the students from El Paso did in their T+L entry, “Today’s Generation.” First, you need to either separate the voice from the video in your editing software or record a separate voice track in Audacity. Once you have the sound in Audacity (you might want to save a copy of the original just in case), highlight it, go to the Effects menu, and play around. With the attached files, you have my untouched original, the pitch kicked up an octave in the Chipmunk version, and the pitch dropped and then the bass altered a bit in the Bass version. Import back into your video for a dynamic change in a character’s voice.
Just one more piece of free advice, check out the Audacity Wiki for more ideas and help.
Download DENtest.mp3
Download DENtestChipmunk.mp3
Download DENtestBass.mp3
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