| Halloween
is almost upon us! If you are getting sick of the standard
freaky Halloween sound effect CDs, you could make your own!
OK, you could do it the lazy way and download or rip some Halloween
tunes...but you could be creative. Why not customize a CD for your town or your block. If you are feeling creative, scrounge up
that microphone that came with your computer. For this
project, you'll want the Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer, Acoustica CD
Label Maker and Acoustica MP3 CD Burner.
Step
1: Get your sound effects + music
You can download them off the net or Kazaa. Search on 'halloween
sounds' or 'scary sounds'. Usually sound effects are in the
WAV format.
http://users.erols.com/mwrenn/
(EXCELLENT SITE for sounds)
http://www.acoustica.com/mp3-audio-mixer/sounds.htm
(We have a few that might be useful for Halloween.)
Usually,
just right click on the sound and select "Save Target
As..", choose a directory, and *remember* the directory you save it to.
If
you have a sound effects CD, you can put it into MP3 CD Burner and
rip the tracks you like. By default, the software will place
them under /My Documents/My Music/
Step
2: Bring up the mixer and have some fun
Launch Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer and drag in some of the sounds you
have collected.
 |
After
dragging in some sounds, you should definitely experiment
with the "Rate" control which affects pitch.
On the toolbar, switch the drop down from "Volume"
to "Rate". You can then click the pencil on
the sound to create new 'pivot points' and then click them
again to move them around. You can move the points
down low |
| for
an effect that makes almost any spoken audio or music sound
like a deranged monster.
In
my case, I decide to record myself moaning "I've lost my
head on the hangin' tree" over and over again. Of
course, you need to really get into it. Imagine that
you have lost your head. It will require some
acting and you'll need to invoke the actor within you.
Also, for those that are going to get technical with me...of
course, it would probably be "I've lost my body hanging
on the hanging tree." The talking head would
know. :) All-righty then. |
Step
3: Mix it down to a .WAV or .MP3 file
Preferably you've made a Halloween recording that is at least 10
minutes long...to keep it fresh. Here's what I did. My
coworkers thought I had gone temporarily insane...and maybe I did.
;-) Click to download and
listen. (7 MB file, ie: big download) Feel free to use it
on your own Halloween sound effect CDs, if you'd like.
If
you would like to download the Acoustica
MP3 Audio Mixer SoundGroup file and all the sound effects I
used, grab the WHOLE
.SGP
project here (11 MB, ie: big download for a 56k modem.)
Step
4: Burn it to a CD
Load it into Acoustica MP3 CD Burner or your own CD burner software
and burn it. You might want to copy the track multiple times
to fill up the CD using Ctrl+C to copy the track and Ctrl+V to paste
it. Alternatively, you could make a longer recording or add
other scary songs/sounds, etc.
Step
5: Make a freaky CD label
Grab
Travis Leonard's Monster Art Pack and install Acoustica
CD Label Maker if you haven't already. Select from various
freaked out art, perfect for Halloween. For some free
Halloween fonts to use with the CD Label Maker, check out http://www.halloween.it/free/fonts.htm
Step
6: Play your CD and have some fun.
Play it loud and freak 'em out. Have some fun. As if
you needed instructions to play a CD...sorry! :)
|
