| Sounds can add information and realism to activities and books created in such applications as IntelliTools Classroom Suite® and My Own Bookshelf®. A good sound editor can help you prepare sounds to use in your creations. |
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| Even when an application has built-in recording options, some of the more extensive options of such an editor may be very handy. We've found a freeware editor that seems to function well on both Mac OSX and Windows XP.
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| The editor is called Audacity, and it is simple enough that people without a lot of background in sound can use it. Among the tasks you might use it for are the following: |
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| 1. Cut off the little "pop" that often occurs at the end of a recording, and any "dead air" at the beginning or end. |
| 2. String two sounds together, to join up that ticking clock to an alarm sound. |
| 3. Layer one sound over another. Here's a chance to do voice-overs! |
| 4. Shorten a sound you've found on the internet, that is the right sound but longer than you need for your activity. |
| 5. Raise or lower the pitch of your voice, so that you can have many voices in your activity. Make your voice sound like a man, a woman, or a child. |
| 6. Load and then save a sound in MP3 format, to keep your total file size smaller by far. |
| 7. Add special effects such as an echo. |
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| The list could go on forever, but you get the idea. Download a PDF file that will tell you how to get Audacity up and running, and some first experiments you might make. |
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| Then, for a good library of sounds, try the web site I Love WAVs at http://www.ilovewavs.com/. Here is a super source for all kinds of both sound effects and short bits of music. The files are free to use and this site has them all organized by theme, including by holiday.
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| In addition, there are links to other good sites to find sounds. This is a very good resource and will save you time! From this site, I linked to this one, which has a good collection of nature sounds:
http://www.wavplanet.com/effects.php?title2=Natural+Sounds |
