My audio recording experience to date includes a background with using Voice Memo on iPhone, some music dubbing on GoPro and video interview/essays via YouTube; and by far, my experience with this exercise was the worst.
I can appreciate the intention of this exercise to familiarize ourselves with various mediums and tools to communicate or disseminate information; however, my overall dissent with this exercise is rooted in the fact that I abhor setting up multiple accounts in order to compare and contrast one with the other. My only constructive criticism of this exercise is that TWU promotes one audio application for students to use, rather than “experimenting” with multiple ones. We live in an age of trying to remember, access and manage multiple user names and passwords for endless “accounts”, let alone spending precious time to “unsubscribe” from constant emails from these application organizations.
Apart from my rant (thank you for obliging me), I felt that Anchor was much easier to use than SoundCloud. My main issue with Soundcloud is that you can no longer record from the application directly on your smart phone (see below).
After establishing an account on the web, it took some time to figure out how to even record with Soundcloud and after 15 minutes navigating through how to build my music library, I eventually just used QuickTime as a means to record, then uploaded the file to my Soundcloud account on their website. This took far too long and was an overly cumbersome process, so maybe it will take more practice on my part in order to enjoy all the options available. Conversely, even though the prompt states that Anchor is limited in terms of having flexible options to edit/cut/paste audio records, I found it very easy to use since I merely recorded through my iPhone Voice Memo application, then uploaded it directly to my Anchor account, just as I would normally do to text or e-mail,
I read my audio file from a book which I am currently challenged with and found that both applications sufficed as it relates to audio quality. Without further practice, I cannot say at this time what I would do differently, but when I am tasked to include these mediums within a project, blog, post or essay, I will endeavour to begin work with these tools as early as possible to overcome the curve. The files (below), were easy to share within the blog, but until I actually publish this draft post, I won’t know if I embedded the Soundcloud file correctly or not.
https://soundcloud.com/user-575326749/the-solution-part-2/s-qJb3v
https://anchor.fm/matt-squirell/episodes/Chapter-7—The-Solution-e26joo/a-a58i5e
Ultimately, we need to use all tools available to focus, clarify and express ourselves and our ideas for maximum impact; therefore apart from my criticism as it relates to increasing the demands upon managing our growing digital storehouse, I am excited to learn.
Matt
Hi Matt,
I read your blog post before getting started on my own. Thanks for the tips! I listened to both tracks and found that the clarity and volume was better on the anchor post. Sound cloud was somewhat more muffled. I look forward to tackling this assignment tomorrow.
Ryan! Thanks for the feedback. All the best to you along this journey!