Embedding PowerPoint presentations and MP3 problems

This week we had a number of presentations on sound pioneers. I suggested to the students that they upload their presentations and embed them on their blogs. Richard set to immediately after the session. You can see his presentation on Brian Eno on his blog.


In order to do this he used slideshare net. You don't need to join up. Go to the home page - Select UPLOAD. Select the file you want to embed on your blog. Just upload your .ppt file. It uploads quickly - but without audio files etc. You then complete this form. Click PUBLISH and its done. You may have to wait a few minutes as its processed. You should be able to see the uploaded files by selecting My slidespace.

Some of the students have been using the free audio editor Audacity to do some prep editing before working with Soundtrack Pro. There is an issue with exporting the edited files as an .mp3 file - for sharing with Divshare for example. James has posted instructions to get around this. Thanks James.

Problems with Soundtrack Pro

In class we have been using Apples Soundtrack Pro to do audio work. On a recent editing exercise we had problems exporting from Soundtrack as an .mp3 file. Naturally the solution is simple but not, I think, obvious. When exporting from a multi track project there's no problem. If you try to export from the Wave Editor you can't export to .mp3. This was what we were trying to do. Instead you have to import it to an empty multi track project THEN the export option allows you to export as .mp3 as long as you have selected master mix! Phew!

Getting the most from Firefox

One of the advantages of using Firefox is that there are many 'add ons' or 'extensions' that you can download and add to your version of the browser. I have experiments with a number but a good place to start is with a couple. I'd suggest Foxmarks and hyperwords.

One of the advantages of using a USB stick and running a portable version of Firefox is that you can TOTALLY customise it. It will then present a consistent 'desktop' for you. What Foxmarks allows you to do is to add bookmarks to a browser (your portable one or your 'work machine') and it will sync your bookmarks with other copies of Firefox (your home, other or spare machine). Google used to make an extension to Firefox that synced ALL the customisation, bookmarks and passwords. This was well handy. Sadly its not longer being developed and Firefox 3.0 is not supported. However seeing a chance and gap in the market Foxmarks have now included password syncing. Hurrah!

Hyperwords adds an amazing search feature to the tool bar. It allows you to customise the way you lool for things and expands on the selection of locations that you can easily click to. For example you enter 'rebel without a crew' in the search box. By hitting the return key a list of choices is presented to you (all customiable) you then select to look up the item under Google, IMDB shopping, wikipedia etc etc. You can change all the setting to use shops you want ie based in the UK. Once you get the hang of it it makes researching a lot faster.

With Firefox open, under TOOLS select ADD-ONS. There is a search box and a variety of extensions to choose from. You will also see the extensions you already have.

Enjoy, Mike J

Interesting ideas

Reading through all the post the Fd students have been doing recently. I saw particularly struck by one video on jessies blog. Stop motion animation is relatively straight forward - we did some in the induction week for fun. But they take time - and they are fairly familiar to us. Jess found one that takes the idea and technique further. Goodness know HOW long this must have taken!


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

The future shorts website and Youtube channel are great. They showed an excellent selection of short films at the Little theatre this week in Bath. One film - made in Bristol also uses stop motion. Again the idea and technique have been taken further than usual.



Lastly I have been interested in 'light writing' for a while. The technique relies on long exposures from a locked off camera with someone drawing with a bright light or touch etc. If offers an inoffensive way of adding graffiti to a building! There are plenty of great examples with this effect but this movie adds the technique of stop motion too. Stunning.



Keep blogging, Mike J