PIXIES PODCAST promo perfection?

see below for more

USEFUL TECHNOLOGIES Soundcloud Divshare + embedding podcasts/MP3s

See this post for a guide on getting an embed code for audio uploads, and on resizing that embedded player.

Divshare alternative: SoundCloud

Haven't signed up to try it out myself, but I did note the neat way comments appear as you play uploaded MP3s, which could be a useful feature; have a look at http://soundcloud.com/ as an alternative for uploading podcasts.

Here's an example: http://soundcloud.com/leonardcohen/leonard-cohen-darkness

Leonard Cohen - Darkness

Feedback on blogs so far

I've been adding plenty of comments and talking to each group (shall see all today), but here's a few points that keep coming up:

• PODCASTS: keep up with the weekly podcast; don't ignore these because you're doing vids/vodcasts. A simple weekly update/what's next is fine for a podcast, where a vid/vodcast will be focussed on a specific issue
• LINKS LISTS: also to highlight multimedia, provide several links lists
• RESEARCH: some of you have done highly detailed posts on certain aspects; few are providing clear summaries. Its key you show you've researched the band and their vids plus the genre and its conventions. Overall, that should be 5 vids individually plus 5 vids as a group, so totalling 15 as a pair or 20 as a trio. Don't go OTT on individual vids, but do provide a clear summary of the codes + conventions you've observed AND ...
• INFLUENCES: be explicit on how research has influenced your idea - DO LOOK AHEAD TO THE EVAL Qs!
• VODCASTS: genre/band conventions are key; this makes for an ideal vodcast. Aim for 3+ vodcasts as a group, most likely band/genre, audience, casting
• AUDIENCE: any media work that fails to address audience specifically and precisely is seriously flawed! Emmie/Megan have an excellent eg of practical aud research to back up their target aud. So long as you're clear on your genre and target aud each group could/should do something similar, having created questions and stimulus material (might be vid clip; pics; the track itself - perhaps using mobiles)
• EARLIER WORK: many of you haven't utilised the earlier work from lessons on music vid; Elizabeth's is a good example of a blog which does! This still needs an overall summary of conventions observed and influences on production, but the Lady Gaga post is a good example

Remember, the fundamental principle is that your research influences your planning; keep evidencing and making explicit how this is so.

Adding audio to your blog

I'm reposting this from the AS coursework blog
Basically, you need to create an MP3 file, upload this to a site which will give you an embed code- I suggest www.divshare.com - and then copy/paste in the embed code.

The two screenshots show you how this works; as with Scribd the upload is very simple; you now click on more options and  you'll see the box in the 2nd screen shot appear - now just copy the embed code.

I'll test this out with a random music track...[14th Feb: changed this; must have mistyped the email adrs on the account sign up]






As you may well be using a video camera to record your audio, an alternative to extracting the audio track and putting it through GarageBand/iTunes is to add some relevant stills to the imported track within Final Cut (preferrably - try to start using this!), upload it to YouTube and use the embed code it generates. You're also then using additional new media for your project.

How to convert your audio file to mp3

You can import your file into iTunes where you can convert it ... but you have to change some settings to do this.
Open iTunes
Click 'iTunes' on the top menu
Click 'Preferences' from the drop-down list
Look under the General tab for 'import settings'
By default, iTunes will convert files to the aac format ... no good ...
So change this to mp3 from the drop-down menu

Quicker still, import an audio file into iTunes, click ADVANCED and select CONVERT TO MP3

UPDATE 18TH JAN 2011: Blogger provides a guide to audio/podcasting, including a set of links to several audio hosting/upload sites: http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=80259

PROBLEMS WITH GETTING AN EMBED CODE - OR GETTING THE EMBED CODE TO WORK?

If you're struggling to generate an embed code its very likely because the file you've uploaded isn't an MP3! ALWAYS EXPORT AND USE MP3 FILES FOR PODCASTS!
Also, if you copy a post from a group colleague you may find that the embedded audio in their post doesn't appear in yours - you simply need to copy/paste in the actual embed code again - to repost this post across 3 blogs, I had to go into the EDIT HTML tab, find that code and copy it.