Monday April 27th: a choice of technology

Greetings, fellow computer jocks,

Before we begin, I would like to inform you that the next time class is in session -- this Wed-- we will be upstairs in room A323. Please make a note of it.

For today -- and the rest of the week-- you will begin another round of program testing. You have a choice between sound editing and manipulation using a program called Goldwave or fractal design using a program called ChaosPro


Included with the Goldwave installation file is the following:
1) a collection of songs and sounds to manipulate


2) a dll file to copy to the Goldwave program folder (makes it work with mp3 files)


3) a set of basic instructions about cool stuff you can do with Goldwave


here are the instructions for Goldwave
OK, if your're reading this, I can assume three things:
1) You want to work with sound manipulation
2) you have already installed GoldWave and the "lame_enc.dll"
3) You have some sound files to work with
OK, let's get going!
A) start Goldwave, and get ready of all that "how you can pay" stuff. I've been using this program for years and I've yet to
pay anyone
B) Use the program to open either one of the sounds or one of the songs...right now, it doesn't matter which kind you choose
C) By default, the entire song or sound should be selected for use...if you're ever not sure of that you can right click
inside the sound, then click on "set start marker" then right click again and hit "Select All"
D) For today's first round of fun, we will work with the effects menu. Try applying each of these effects, one after the
other, to see what you get (these are pretty simple):
REVERSE -- useful for finding those hidden messages in Led Zeppelin songs
MECHANIZE -- cool way to make someone sound all droid like; even the presets are fun!
PITCH -- yup, you can make a song sound like its being sung by either Darth Vader or Alvin and the Chipmunks : your choice!
ECHO -- If you've ever wondered what your favorite band would sound like on location at the Grand Canyon, here's your
chance to find out!
REVERB -- similar to ECHO, but the idea is to amke the sound seem more "natural" -- you'll see !

OK, now some of the next effects are a little more complex, but still fun, and actually easy to use:
STEREO -- it has four choices, but the most fun is to use "reduce vocals" -- you can do a lot or a little, or even take
out the voices all together. Great for anyone planning an impromptu Karoake party
VOLUME -- you can use it to make simple volume changes, maximize the volume (in other words, make it real freakin' LOUD,
def. my favorite) or even do a "Fade In" or "Fade Out". These last two require that you be able to select part of a song or
sound....more on that later
DOPPLER -- that's the "train coming at you" sound effect list. there's a bunch in here that have to be heard to be
believed.
E) there are many other effects, and feel free to explore them to see what can be achieved. For today however, hee is what
you will need to do:
Apply at least one separate effect to at least eight different sounds.
Combine two or more effects on at least three or four ADDITIONAL sounds
Save all of these new sounds with their effects as mp3 files in a folder named after yourself, plus the phrase "April 27th
sound effects"
Also in that folder, type up a brief two paragraph description of what you did and why you chose those particular effects to
be used as you did
TIME PERMITTING, save one of the sounds as a "wav" file, and see if you can make a "MASH" character sing it for you




Included with ChaosPro is the following

1) instructions on how to create various different fractal designs

2) instructions on how to export them as picture files


Here are those instructions:
notes about using ChaosPro
ChaosPro is a cool free program that you can download at
It is used to make fractal patterns, which are pretty cool, really funky looking and yeah, psychedelic to look at. These patterns obey mathematical formulas, but you don't have to be a math genius to use this program: it makes the formulas for you. Here's what you want to do:
A) start the program. By default, a standard fractal pattern will appear.
B) You will see a bunch of detached open menus at the right. One of them should be for"fractal formulas". If you're not sure which one that is, you can go to the top of the program and click on the "WINDOWS" menu, then click on "Fractal Formulas"
C) In the Fractal Formulas box, there are several tabs at the top, including one called "Transformation". Underneath that, you will see two folders, each with a "+" sign next to it. Click on the "+" next to "Ultra Fractal"
D) In the big list that shows up, hit the plus sign next to any of the open books. A sub-list opens up, and you can double click on any of those to change what your fractal looks like, just by changing the formula. After all, these are NOT images, they are formulas.
E) Let's say you click the "+" sign next to "Jos.ctr" and then doubleclick on Ford Circles. This will cause a pretty neat design to show up. There are lots and lots of these designs right when the program starts. I haven't counted 'em all yet, but there's gotta be hundreds. But we're not done yet!
F) You can change color settings on any fractal design by clicking on the FRACTAL WINDOWS menu at the top of the program, then clicking on "pallette editor". The easiest way to use this part of the program is to click on the little color box next to the pointing hand: it brings up bunches of pre-sets which can be used to change the color scheme of your fractal. Try some, they're pretty cool!
G) another way of using this "palette editor" is by dragging the slider bar underneath the three color bands back and forth
H) You can also "fine tune" things by dragging the little teeny boxes around that are inside any of those three color bands. You can also create these little boxes by doubleclicking to set them
I) Yet another cool way to change the color scheme is to use another menu that should already be open at the right hand side of the screen; it's called "Color Cycling". If you don't see it there, it's undr the "WINDOWS" menu at the top of the screen. When you do see it, put a checkmark in the box next to the word "Color Cycling" and see what happens
J) OK, now that's cool and all, but what happens to your fractal if you close the program? Simple: it vanishes! It's only a formula after all, not an image.
BUT, since you may want one, here is how you save the fractal:
1) get your fractal the way you want it
2) click on the FILE menu at top left, then goto "EXPORT" then "AS Image"
3) Go to the folder where you want to save this thing
4) name it after the formula where you found this thing; for example, the one I just made is called JosCtrFordCircles
HERE IS WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO: please create at least seven different fractal designs using the steps I have outlined, and save them all as picture files in a folder named after yourself plus the word "fractals April 27" on your desktop. Use at least one of them to set your desktop background

Mr. L