Music is not the only sound that resonates within us and creates atmosphere. Subtle sounds all around create an environment of storytelling. The sound of rain, of footsteps, of cars driving down the highway… they all create elements to a story.

Monday we put the idea into action in class when Prof. Levine had us ad-lib sounds to a Charlie Chaplin movie. Creating everyday sounds is not as easy as you may think! It’s one thing to make sounds with your mouth, hands, or feet, but some require some serious props.

Wednesday night we took it a step further by creating a sound story. Using just four sound effects from freesounds.org, we had to tell a story. The story I chose was childbirth. Surprisingly, this was a difficult subject to find sounds for. Once I finally found them, I downloaded them as either WAV or mp3 files. Using a free audio editing software, Audacity 1.3, I opened a new file. I then imported each audio track and trimmed them as necessary. I did this by using my cursor and deleting sections I didn’t want (just like text) and then selecting, cutting, and pasting the tracks to the right position. I saved as an Audacity project (in case I wanted to go back and edit later) but then exported the file as an mp3 so that I could upload it to my SoundCloud account.

Here is my sound story I call “Baby Story”:

If you want to know more about this assignment or to hear other students’ submissions, go to http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/sound-effects-story/.