Copyright 2008 Wanda Dann, Steve Cooper, Don Slater Alice Workshop Working with Sound.

Copyright 2008Wanda Dann, Steve Cooper, Don Slater

Alice Workshop

Working with Sound


Sound

The use of sound in an Alice project creates a far more interesting and dynamic presentation

Demo: Penguin Sound


Vista & Windows 7

•Windows Vista OS introduced significant technical changes to audio compared to previous versions of Windows.

•These changes carry over to Windows 7.

•On Vista systems it's especially important to have dedicated drivers for your computer's sound device which are both specific to your computer hardware and specifically meant for Vista.–Use Windows Device Manager to update your driver.

Copyright 2010Wanda Dann, Don Slater, Steve Cooper


Copyright Issues

•Audio files are frequently copyrighted•Anyone making decisions about using multimedia in a class project should first consult the usage policy of their school or institution.



US Copyright Act

•The US Copyright Act contains relevant but complex sections that can inform teachers and students about using media in the classroom.• Cornell’s Legal Information Institute hosts information on– 17 U.S.C. § 106: Exclusive rights in copyrighted works

– 17 U.S.C. § 107: Fair Use– 17 U.S.C. § 110: Limitations on Exclusive Rights



Fair Use Guidelines

•Purdue's OWL site:• Section 107 [US Copyright law] specifically distinguishes between commercial and educational use. Therefore, teachers and students are more protected when using copyrighted works for classroom assignments, lessons, or projects.–Purposes that are specifically mentioned in Section 107 include “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.”



Guidelines (continued)

•Fair use is more likely to apply when the use is available for a limited time to a small group of people.–Therefore, showing part of a movie in the classroom is more likely to be protected than posting the same clip to the internet.–Make the new use available for the shortest amount of time to the smallest group possible.–Prevent others from duplicating the work for further use. Keep copyrighted works off the internet, or place them behind password protection to avoid outside access.



Legal purchase

•When using a copyrighted work, get the original version legally. Buy the DVD, CD, or photo instead of pirating it off the internet.•Use a legally purchased film clip or song rather than one downloaded off YouTube or Limewire. Save your receipt, if possible.



Partial use

•Reproducing only a small part of a copyrighted work is more acceptable than using an entire work.•Try to use no more than 10% or 30 seconds, whichever is less.•We suggest editing sound clips to be within this partial use guideline, particularly for Alice worlds that might be posted to the internet is some way.



Questions

Questions students ask: Can more than 1 clip (from different sound files)

be used? Yes Can a 30 second clip be played again and

again? Yes How to get a 30 second sound clip?


Sound EditorAlice is not and does not have a

sound editorA sound editor is useful for

managing sound file size changing a sound file to an Alice

compatible format


Download Sound Editor

Many sound editors are available onlineObtain sound editor software

Example: Audacity Freeware from

audacity.sourceforge.net/download/


Sound File Size

Sound files are notoriously large Can be 20+ MB Takes time to load and play

• slows down or interrupts the animation• interferes with exporting a video


Digital Sound

Digital wave form

Each dot in the figure above represents one audio sample.


Sample RateSample rate is the rate at which samples are recorded, measured in Hertz (Hz).

Think of sample rate as the horizontal precision of the recorded sound. The higher the sample rate, the better the quality of the sound.


Audacity Sample Rate

Sample rate can be adjusted

For Alice, we often use a sample rate of 22500 Hz


File Formats

Uncompressed Each number in the file corresponds to one

sample Audacity supports WAV, AIFF, and others

Compressed Audacity supports MP3 and Ogg Vorbis Not WMA and MPEG4 (AAU)

Alice supports WAV and MP3


Learning Audacity Text Based Tutorials

Audacity Help Menu• Quick Start• Manual

Both web based

YouTube A wide variety of tutorials

• Many topics• Mixed quality

Search for “Audacity”


Launch Audacity

Original Song

Clip from Song


Penguin Sound

Has a 3+ minute sound trackModify to use a 30 second clip repeatedly


Skate Routine

SkateRoutine Grab a short (< 30 sec.) clip from a song Import it into an existing world Add it to the skating routine

Copyright 2008 Wanda Dann, Steve Cooper, Don Slater Alice Workshop Working with Sound.

Documents

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steve cooper slide

don slater us copyright

don slater sound

don slater guidelines

don slater vista windows

don slater legal purchase

don slater alice workshop