Briefing Document: How to create a showreel using Audacity A showreel is the music industry s name for a compilation CD. So if you like to create your own CDs with different tracks from different artists, that could be called a showreel. It s called a showreel because music agents use it to demonstrate the music acts on their books. They might send a radio station a showreel of acts whose music would be suitable for the station s playlists. You can create a showreel for your website. This would be an audio track featuring two or more music tracks from the artists you are featuring on your website. The easiest way to create a showreel is to use a sound editing package called Audacity. This is open source software which means anyone can download it and use it free of charge. Steps in using Audacity to create your showreel Step 1: Download Audacity Your school or college may well already have Audacity on the network. However, you might want to download it on to your home computer. Go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ and select the Stable version this means it has been well tested and is suitable for most users. The Beta version may have glitches in it and is usually only suitable for advanced users. Choose your platform this is probably Windows (Microsoft) but you might be a Mac OSX (Apple) user. For most versions of Windows (98, ME, 2000, XP and Vista) select the download hyperlink at the top of the next page. Sadly, this application won t work on Windows 95 or MT. Follow the instructions to open the installer. You should have a working version of Audacity installed within a few minutes. Step 2: Importing your music files You have access to a set of music files, taken from a range of different music genres, which you can use to create your audio content for the website. You can find these under Source files. Listen to each track by clicking on it it will open in QuickTime. You have probably already decided which genres of music acts you are going to feature on your website. The audio content can be music tracks taken from your chosen genres. Copyright e-skills UK Sector Skills Council Ltd 2000-2008 1
To import your music files, download them from the Source files page by right clicking on them and selecting save link as. A browse window will then open and you can create a new sounds folder for your music files. Click save and the sound will appear in your folder as an mp3 format sound file. Open Audacity and select the Project option from the top menu bar. A drop down menu will open. Select Import Audio. See figure 1. Figure 1: Importing audio Another window will open that allows you to browse through your documents to find your folder with the audio tracks already saved. I called my folder Music for website and I downloaded two heavy rock tracks. See figure 2. Figure 2: Selecting your track Clicking on HeavyRock1 will open that track in Audacity. It appears as a track immediately under the tool bars on the Audacity interface. See figure 3. Copyright e-skills UK Sector Skills Council Ltd 2000-2008 2
Figure 3: What one track looks like in Audacity You can listen to the track using the player functions on the top toolbar. The green arrow will play the track and you can pause, stop, rewind and fast forward it. When you import the second track, it will appear beneath the first. See figure 4. Figure 4: What two tracks look like in Audacity You can play each track separately by highlighting it. You can see from the screenshot above that the second (bottom) track is highlighted it is blue. When I click on play only this track will play. You can play both together by highlighting both of them but it doesn t sound very good! Copyright e-skills UK Sector Skills Council Ltd 2000-2008 3
Step 3: Shifting the tracks to play one after the other A showreel has tracks playing one after the other, not together! The next step is to make sure that track 2 plays after track 1. To do this, the second track needs to be shifted along the time line so that it begins when the first track ends. To do this, use the Time Shift tool, located in the top toolbar. This small set of tools also has the Envelope Tool that allows the volume of parts of tracks to be reduced so you can add a voiceover. The selection tool allows you to select pieces of audio from a longer track. This is useful for cutting out sections where there are background noises on a recording, or where a musician has made a mistake. To use the Time Shift tool, click on it so it turns grey. You will see the cursor turn into a double-headed arrow. Put the cursor at the beginning of the track you want to shift the second track and move it to the right. The track will slide along the timeline. Take it as far as you want, so that it begins after track 1 has ended. See figure 5. Figure 5: Shifting track 2 along the timeline Copyright e-skills UK Sector Skills Council Ltd 2000-2008 4
Step 4: Adding fades The tracks you have been given to work with already have some fading in and fading out at the beginning and end. However, you can add better fades so that your tracks gradually get louder at the beginning and fade away at the end. To do this, we use the Envelope Tool on the toolbar. Click on this tool until it goes grey. Your cursor will change to two small triangles one above the other (just like the Envelope Tool button). To fade in the first track, place the cursor at the point where you would like the track volume to be at a normal level let s say at 5.0 along the ruler at the top. Click once on that point. Take your cursor to the beginning of the track and drag it down from the top of the track to the centre. You will see the track change so that the opening section resembles a cone shape. See figure 6. Figure 6: Using the Envelope Tool to create a fade in When you play the track (green button), you will hear that the track fades in slowly, getting louder until it s at its loudest at point 5.0. Using the same technique, create a fade out at the end of the track. Select the point where you want the fade to start and then drag down the end of the track. You should have something that looks like figure 7. Copyright e-skills UK Sector Skills Council Ltd 2000-2008 5
Figure 7: Using the Envelope Tool to create a fade out Do the same with track 2, adding a fade in at the beginning and a fade out at the end. See figure 8. Figure 8: Fade out and fade in between tracks Play the two tracks by highlighting both of them (hold down the shift key and click on the second track), making sure you rewind back to the beginning (press the first purple button on the player). See how the fades work. If you think you need a longer gap between the tracks, use the Time Shift tool again to move track two along the timeline. Or if you want to change the fade effects, use the Envelope Tool. Copyright e-skills UK Sector Skills Council Ltd 2000-2008 6
Step 5: Saving your work To save your work, click on File > Save Project. This generates two files, one for the audio files and one for the project itself (which is the mixing of the two tracks). When you have finished working on the showreel and you feel it s ready to upload to your website, click on File > Export as MP3. You will get a message saying your project will be mixed down to two stereo channels this is fine. It is reducing the multiple tracks in your project down to one, playing as stereo. It s always better to save it in the project format in the first instance in case you want to do more work on it in the future. Step 6: Advanced use of Audacity Although you have been provided with tracks to use in this project, you might want to change these tracks a little to make them your own. Audacity allows you to do this. With your tracks highlighted, click on Effects on the top menu bar. A drop down menu with a long list of special effects is displayed. See figure 9. Figure 9: The special effects menu in Audacity The best thing to do with these effects is to try them out. Some ask you to specify time intervals and other parameters. Type some figures in and listen to the preview. See what you like. If you are not sure about any of the effects, go to the Help option on the top menu and search for that effect you will find a useful explanation provided. Copyright e-skills UK Sector Skills Council Ltd 2000-2008 7
Step 7: Adding voices to the tracks Many of the music tracks you have been given are instrumentals they don t have a singer on them. You can add your own voice to any of the tracks. You could rap, sing or speak over the tracks or between them. To do this, identify where in the track you want the voiceover to be. You can reduce the volume of the track using the Envelope Tool again in the place you want to sing or speak over. If it s the whole track, then just use the tool to bring the top and bottom of the track together a little. Add your voice by plugging a microphone into your PC. You can record directly into Audacity. Press the red button on the player at the top of the screen (next to the green play button) and start singing or speaking. Audacity will record your voice as a separate track below track 2. If you find your voice isn t quite in the right place, use the Time Shift tool to move it to where you want it to be. You can add effects to your voice as well to make it sound completely different. Step 8: Other useful functions in Audacity Audacity has an unlimited undo function on the top toolbar. This allows you to undo everything you ve done as far back as you want to go. This means it doesn t matter if you add an effect that you don t like just click on the back arrow and it will be removed. It also has a cut, copy and paste function. This allows you to remove sections of the tracks, or rearrange parts of the track. You can copy and paste to repeat sections too. Copyright e-skills UK Sector Skills Council Ltd 2000-2008 8