Final Project

For my final project I wanted to do something that I would most likely use again and get more familiar with. After debating what to do I decided to do a imovie. I have only used imovie once and that was for this class.  Since my mac is still pretty new I decided I can always use more practice with using imovie, and hopefully I will be using it in the future!  I also have always wanted to try and use idvd, but I never had any motivation to use it.  So I decided to do a imovie of my college graduation from Montclair State University and when I was done with that I wanted to use idvd.  I imported all of my pictures from graduation into imovie and then I decided to put transitions between each picture. I had also cropped some pictures so they would fit the screen better. I also added a first page where my name scrolls to the top of the page which I thought was a pretty fun feature!!!!  After doing all of that I was able to go to my itunes and add music. I decided to add Mahlers 5th symphony in C# Minor 4th movement- the Adiagietto.  That is one of my favorite pieces and I have had the pleasure to players 5th symphony twice.  (Although the 4th movement is only strings...I absolutely love that movement)  After finishing my project I then uploaded it to my website under movies and posted it on my webpage.

One of my main goals for this project was to also use idvd. I then imported my movie into idvd. It was my first time using idvd and then have already made templates to use for the dvd.  After going through some of them I picked one and was able to make my movie a dvd.

I think both of these tools are very useful for a music educator.  They are so easy to use and free and you can make your own dvd from your school concert and not have to pay anyone.  I think if you have a mac you should take full advantage of it!

Flash Assignment

I did have a little trouble at first with my flash assignment but after meeting with Dr. GIlbert he helped me figure out my mistakes.  After downloading the free trial of Adobe Flash CS4 I took the first layer of my assignment and imported a flute. I really did know what images to use so I thought since I am a flute player I can't go wrong with using a flute.   I also added in the beginning of my project some texts that says: My First Flash Animation.   After moving the flute around the screen and going into insert-timeline-key frame  I then published my flute flash page.   

Dr. Gilbert helped me with putting the flash on my webpage.  I was having a lot of trouble with that and I could not figure out what I was doing wrong.  He then told me that I needed to save the flash with .html AND .swf and them import both of them into my directory. I think that was my biggest problem, at first I did not have both of them in my directory and that's why it was not playing.  After importing both of them it worked!!! So simple but so frustrating since I did not know what I was doing wrong.  I did enjoy using the Adobe Flash..I did have many unsuccessful  attempts but after learning what I did wrong I was able to fix my mistake and post it on my webpage. 

Music Concrete........Take 2

As it turns out my first attempt to do my music concrete turned out awful.  I thought it would be fun to do animal sounds..and I first decided to do cow sounds. I found a free site and downloaded free cow sounds.  I then imported all my sounds into audacity.  I inserted some space in the beginning so I would only have one cow sound playing at first then I slowly added more and more cow sounds.  After doing everything and finalizing my project....it sounded AWFUL!!!!   I thought I would be able to fix it up and change some sounds but I think no matter what I did the project would sounds awful. I feel the cow sounds by themselves were pretty bad so I thought it would be really hard to make a success project. 

So.....I decided to delete the whole project and start from scratch again. I found some kitchen sounds.  I decided to give these sounds a shot. I found so frying sounds, boiling sounds and chopping sounds. After importing my free sounds into audacity I decided my project would start with a boiling sound and added silence to my other sounds.   I then added another boiling sound and continued with the silence with my other sounds.   Then I added the chopping into my project.   Towards the end of the chopping I added frying into my project.  I also used two frying sounds.  Towards the end of the project I had all three boiling, frying and chopping happening at once. 

I think this one turned out much better then the cow project.  Also, doing it a second time I feel like I got more comfortable using audacity and I feel it is a wonderful tool to know how to use correctly!