Tools for the Trade


cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Marshed

Must Haves for ds106

Below are things you should have packed and prepared for your ds106 experience. A sturdy duffle bag is not required, nor is a shiny briefcase. But if you have one… For more details, see our Getting Started Guide

  • Blog / RSS Feed UMW enrolled students will need to choose their own web domain name, so start looking for one that is available and works for you (we will provide instructions for setting up your domain and site). Try namecheck to see what domains as well as social media user names are possible.

    Open participants can use any blogging platform as long as it provides an RSS feed (we nearly always recommend WordPress ;-). You will need to figure out if you will provide a feed for all your ds106 content or by identify your ds106 work by category/tag within your blog (see info for ds106 open participants).

Suggested platforms include:

  • AvatarAs you are creating numerous accounts for this class we recommend that you use the same image file and username to represent you on all social media sites. This typically is a file with square dimensions, at least 100px by 100px. Once you choose an image, please register it with the gravatar site http://gravatar.com/ using the email address you will use for this course (this is a service that uses this avatar on many sites without you needing to upload it).
  • Sign Up For ds106 If you have not been a part of ds106 before, we need you to sign up at the main web site to add your blog feed to the system.

The Toolbox

For the work we do in visual, audio, and video editing, we do not specify software or tools you must use. Instead, you should try software you have, or some of the open source / trial versions listed below.

Great Guides

Multipurpose Tools

Finding Media

Images

Image Editing

Commercial

  • Photoshop (30 day trials available)
  • Photoshop Elements (cheaper)

Open Source/Free

Web Based

Drawing

Commercial

Open Source

Web Based

Audio

General/Interesting info

General Tools

  • The Levelator http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator A powerful tool for improving audio recordings, especially when voices have dramatically different audio levels ” It’s software that runs on Windows, OS X (universal binary), or Linux (Ubuntu) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It’s not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It’s much more than those tools, and it’s much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler’s application window, and a few moments later you’ll find a new version which just sounds better.”
  • eCamm Movie Tools (OS X) free, handy drag and drop audio tools to convert to MP3 or AIFF http://www.ecamm.com/mac/free/
  • ID3 Tag Editor (Windows, free) http://id3tageditor.com/
  • ID3 Editor (Mac, Free) http://id3-editor.en.softonic.com/mac
  • Vocaroo – Web based audio recorder, record, embed, share http://vocaroo.com/

Mobile Recording/Broadcasting

collected by Christina Hendricks see also the extensive collection of mobile audio apps published by SoundCloud

  • Soundcloud app (free): allows you to record and then upload directly to Soundcloud (which is a fine place to post your audio when it’s done–you get a fair bit of time for a free account) https://soundcloud.com/mobile
  • Audioboo (free): Works on many platforms. Don’t know much about this one—both a recorder and a site to upload sounds to (like Soundcloud, I guess). But you get very little time with a free account to the site. I think you can use the app to record sounds that you could upload elsewhere. http://audioboo.fm/
  • iTalk (free and paid versions): I think this one is only available on iOS devices. Allows you to choose between different quality recordings, and allows emailing files from the app. Paid version integrated with Dropbox, I believe. http://italksync.com/
  • Recordium (paid, but sometimes on special offer for free): also only for iOS, this one allows you to annotate recordings, and you can grab your recordings from the web with wifi sync to an IP address that has just your recordings. http://recordiumapp.com/
  • Smart Voice Recorder (free): for Android only. I know nothing about this one, as I don’t have an Android device. But it has good reviews. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andrwq.recorder&hl=en
  • Easy Voice Recorder Free (can pay for Pro version). Android. Simple to use, records in .wav format. Can use standard ‘Share’ dialogue to transfer files off phone or USB connect to a computer. (@easegill)
  • iPadio somewhat like audioboo, you can record and upload from iPhone and Android. You get a channel and an rss feed of you phlogs. Seems to work well, but I’ve not used as much as audioboo (@johnjohnston)

For broadcasting to ds106 Radio

  • Papaya was an iphone app to broadcast to an icecast server (ds106 radio), now discontinued. The developer now produces KoalaSan which I’ve not tried/bought yet (reading the forums, it looks like KoalaSan does not support mp3 only ogg– note ds106 does work with this app @cogdog ). ScottLo has replaced Papaya with another icecast app iCast Pro I just tested it briefly, more later, but worth checking Scottlo’s post for a gotcha (@johnjohnston)
  • Broadcast Myself is an Android app that can send a stream to Icecast servers like ds106radio

Audio Microphones

Commercial Editing

Open Source Editing

Web Based Editing

  • Soundation http://soundation.com/ a powerful online music studio with recording, effects, virtual instruments and over 700 free loops and sounds.

Audio Content

Screen Recording

Software for recording screen action to publish as a video, useful for tutorials.

Commercial

Open Source / Free

Video Editing

Commercial

Open Source / Free

Web Based

3D

Open Source / Free

Comments

  1. Reply  

    john

    September 16, 2013

    A good audio tool is
    http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator
    levelator
    So what is The Levelator®? It’s software that runs on Windows, OS X (universal binary), or Linux (Ubuntu) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It’s not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It’s much more than those tools, and it’s much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler’s application window, and a few moments later you’ll find a new version which just sounds better.

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