Beyond Alaska Photo
Multimedia journalism in the Last Frontier

I don’t know why it took me so long to figure this out, but activating the G9 mute function to silence the enormously irritating ‘operation sound’ also silences the playback of audio files.

So to enable audio playback without enabling the operation sound:

Enter play mode and hit the menu button

Select the Theme tab

Disable ‘Operation Sound’ (it give you a little menu of sounds — all terrible)

Select the Tools tab

Turn Mute Off

You can now go to ‘Sound Recorder’ under the Play tab and listen to the tracks you’ve recorded.

{pictures TK}

I frequently complain about commuting to Anchorage from the valley but I doubt there’s a more beautiful drive anywhere. I shot this picture of Pioneer Peak last night from the shoulder of the Glenn Highway about four miles from my house.

I created this is short handout to address some of the technical issues we’ve been seeing with reporter-collected audio in the Anchorage Daily News newsroom.

Before you get started
You can improve the sound quality collected by the Olympus DS-30 recorders if you use an external mic. Remove the microphone on top of the unit to reveal the mini-jack. Connect the XLR-to-mini-jack cord to one of our Beyerdynamics mic. Use headphones! Record.

What kind of file did you record?

.wma :: Windows Media Audio. Used by the DS-30 Olympus recorders. This file type needs to be converted before you can work with it.

.wav :: Microsoft audio file. A lossless file format.

.aiff :: A lossless file format. Required format for Final Cut Express.

.mp3 :: Compressed audio file. Required format for Soundslides.

Conversion programs:

EasyWMA

Switch

iTunes :: mp3, aiff, wav (I haven’t figured out a way to convert WMA)

OK. You’re converted. Now what?
Open Soundtrack (if you’re using Audacity, Mindy McAdams at at Teaching Online Journalism has a good how-to here).

You can find your raw tracks with the Soundtrack browser, which is located to the left of the main editing screen.

The Soundtrack controls are simple: there’s a selection tool (quick key A) and a blade tool (quick key B). Like Final Cut, Soundtrack allows you to grab and move the ends of a clip to remove or add material.

Overlapping two tracks creates an automatic crossfade.

Stacking tracks layers the sound. Rename tracks by clicking to the title. Selecting the speaker button to the right of the track name will mute the track.

Click the triangle located left of the track name to display the volume envelope.

Double click on the volume levels to create an audio key frame. Click, hold and drag the key frame to adjust audio levels.

When finished editing use the “set end of song” marker (under Mark > set end of song).

When you’re ready to move on, export your final track: File > Export > Export Mix.

Putting it together in Soundslides
Open soundslides on one of the photo mac computers.

First step is to hit the “New - Create a project” button and follow the instructions.

The program itself is very easy to use. Simply drag the pictures to arrange them. Moving the bars on the timeline adjusts the timing of the pictures.

Under the Template tab, make sure the ‘show header’ box is unchecked and the ‘play automatically’ box is checked. The other boxes are optional, though I like to add captions and credits if I can.

The TEST box will open your soundslide in your web browser.

Hit EXPORT when you’re finished. A folder called ‘publish to web’ will open on your desktop. You need to rename the entire folder with a descriptive project name (you can find the publish to web folder inside your project folder).

All things Palin are of intense interest right now and on Saturday morning the editors assigned me to be the multimedia guy at her “Welcome Home/Goodbye Rally” in Anchorage (she arrived in Alaska on Wednesday, then hopped a plane of Nevada right after the event ended on Saturday). Bob Hallinen, the Daily News photographer assigned to cover her appearances in Fairbanks, reported restricted press access so I decided to skip the press line and go in as a member of the public and cover the rally with my G9.

Turns out access in Anchorage was not a problem (our adn.com gallery is here) but it was an interesting exercise to see what I could capture with my point-and-shoot. All the files (audio, video and still) that went into the video came from the G9 — and I even managed to shoot a protester getting (gently) hauled away, so I had the spot news covered as well.

Wish the stage lights didn’t blast the video but all-in-all I think it was a success.

And much easier on my back.

I watched the governor’s acceptance speech last night with several hundred rowdy locals at Tailgaters Sports Bar and Grill in Wasilla. I was surprised by the number of media, not the size of the crowd.

I counted more than 25 media types (a conservative estimate), including photojournalists (5, including me), videographers, reporters, producers, video sound techs. Publications from around the world were represented, including the New York Times and the London Times, and while I saw a couple of reporters snapping pictures, and more than a few hand-held recorders, I don’t think too many journalists were working the multimedia angle.

Not that I was either, really. I just plugged a mic into my M-Audio and let it run for an hour to capture the noise of the room. While there was cheering, some of the biggest lines played referenced Wasilla like this one about her early career:

“And when I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters and I knew their families, too.”

I think of that line and the reaction as the heart of the very quick audio slide show I produced later Wednesday night. The room’s reaction wasn’t partisan but personal and I felt like it gave my audio track sense of place.

There was so much build to the speech I thought there would be some return to normalcy when it was over. No chance. Gov. Palin’s speech was like a false summit on a long hike: you get to the top only to realize just how much more there is to go.

Early November at least, in this case.