Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Thing 16-Audio!

For Thing 16 we are discussing apps that record audio!  The timing for this Thing was almost too perfect.  I have always disliked the sound of my own voice.  Recently, I started visiting a new chiropractor, who mentioned that I should consider a second career in voice over acting, as I have one of the most beautiful voices she's ever heard.  Wha?  The comment caught me so off guard!  Then this Thing rolled around and presented the perfect opportunity to record my voice and check out my future possibilities as voice over actor! ;-)

The first app I tried out was Audioboo, available for Apple and Android.  Audioboo lets you record up to ten minutes of audio that can then be 'published' to a variety of social media outlets such as Facebook, Audioboo, Twitter, etc.  The app required creation of an account to get started, which makes sense since publication of audio files is one of the key features of this app.  Once you log in, there isn't really a tutorial but using the app is pretty simple.  You can record audio (there are a few simple editing tools as well), or browse things others have published on Audioboo to see how everyone else is using it.  Once you've recorded your audio, you can also add an image, a text description and tags to make it searchable on Audioboo.  Much of what I listened to seems to be podcast-y in nature, if you're at all familiar with podcasts.  The first thing that came to mind regarding this app and libraries was using it to record booktalks!  If you're not familiar with Reader's Advisory, a booktalk is a short blurb ('speech' seems too formal-they are often just a minute or two, though they could be longer) a librarian (or someone else) might come up with that gives an audience just a little bit of info about a book (plot, setting, characters), without providing a synopsis or reviewing the book.  Just enough info and intrigue to make them want to go out and pick up a copy for themselves!  This app would be great for recording and sharing booktalks, which in turn could help boost circulation and also acts as a bit of free marketing for the library!  Overall a very easy to use app that could definitely have multiple applications in the library!

The next app I tried is SoundCloud (available for Apple and Android), which seems to have an even more social focus than Audioboo.  Once again, you have to sign up to use it.  Once you've signed up, you're presented with a list of music genres (and representative artists) as well as audio styles (news, sports, religion, comedy, etc.) for audio broadcasts and asked to mark your favorites.  This becomes a list of people and/or genres you follow on SoundCloud, meaning they go into your stream of audio (your personal SoundCloud, filled with audio you like to hear).  The stream essentially works like a newsfeed in many social media applications, except that instead of your friend's latest news and images, SoundCloud lists audio files from the people/entities you follow that you can then click into and listen to.  Of course you can edit your stream, search for new material and so on.  It reminded me of Pandora, only with more variety as Pandora is pretty much just for music.  And while you can record audio, it seems like listening to/discovering other audio is really the main function of this app.  I personally don't see as much application/use for this app within my libraries. but I did enjoy playing around with it and seeing what it found for me to listen to.  It did find quite a bit more variety than I would normally hear on the radio or via other apps like Pandora, so I will probably keep it for that reason. 


In the end, I'm not convinced of my future career in voice over acting (let's just say I didn't share any of my audio bits...haha!), but I guess I won't completely ignore the possibility.  As they say, beauty is in the eye (or ear, in this case) of the beholder, right?  

That's all for now; look forward to Thing 17- C0nnecting to Community, which will immediately follow this posting!

No comments:

Post a Comment