The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

Step by step guide:
Select fi le new.
Make sure the microphone is plugged in, headphones ready.
To record a new track, click the red record button and the 
recording
starts immediately.
Record, counting to 20, moving closer and further away from 
the microphone.
See the difference in the waveforms and hear the difference 
in quality.
Press playback to hear the recording.
Highlight your sound fi le with the selection tool and try some 
effects,
e.g. reverse or tempo.
Read the help fi les to see what else you can do.
For video editing you 
must
export your sound fi le as wav 
fi les!
Hints and tips:
Try not to record voices or sound for the entire animation sequence 
in a single take. Record one item at a time. It might help to have a 
‘rough edit’ to look at so you can prepare a wish list of sound effects, 
music or narration.
Keep all your fi les in one folder! Keep it tidy and organized.

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The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
Using a click track
Assuming that you already have some ideas for the music, and in 
particular its tempo, you need to create a click track.
Once the tempo of the music has been decided, Audacity can be 
used to generate the click track. Click Generate>Click track in the 
drop-down menu. The options will be given for the tempo, beats 
per measure and number of measures. Compound click tracks can 
be created by inserting additional tracks, for each of which you will 
generate a new click to match each tempo change. These can then 
be copied and pasted into the main click track.
Most commercially produced music, including fi lm music, uses 
a click track. The only exceptions to this tend to be on jazz and 
classical music recordings. The system is very simple and a way 
of coordinating, by means of a regular metronomic pulse, the 
performance of the musicians involved. The click is fed to the 
performers via headphones, and in the bigger fi lms, it is often the 
case that there may be as many as 100 sets of headphones in use 
at one time.
Once the click track has been prepared it can be saved as either a 
WAV or MP3 fi le for insertion into Windows Movie Maker.
The click track coordinates with the fi lm and runs at the tempo of the 
music. There will be a preparatory set of bars where only the click 
is heard and then the fi lm itself will kick in. Generally, music that 
is at a different tempo from the preceding section will be recorded 
separately, although it is sometimes the case that a compound click 
track is prepared in which the tempi may change. This was very 
much the case in the fi lm 
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
where the 
composer, Alan Silvestri, prepared a score much in the style of the 
old animation cartoons of Tom and Jerry, with many frequent tempo 
changes.
For recording compound click tracks with changes of tempi, fi rst 
add more tracks. Click Project>New audio track and for each track 
generate a new click corresponding to each change of tempo. Cut 
and paste these into the master click track. Ensure that you have 
included some free beats before the point where the music starts by 
way of a countdown–for example, two measures of four beats.

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Resources
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After all the adjustments have been made to the master track, delete 
the others.
Save the master click track as a WAV or MP3 fi le for importing into 
Windows Movie Maker or another editing package.
Sound editing

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