There are over 130 students who submitted their e-portfolio. I only listed those students whose last name starts with the letter A and letter D. I decided to choose those students’ submissions because I, too, have family names that begin with both A, for Apolinario, and D, for Dictado. I only managed to listen to twenty-three (23) blog posts because some of my classmates have yet to submit their e-portfolio or Assignment 1a by 8:00 PM on June 25, 2024. I also decided to categorize my classmates’ works in groups that I labeled—"Wow”, “Good”, “Better”, and “Not So Good”—subjectively. Eleven (11) of the outputs I thought were Good; six (6) I am confident to say were Better; one (1) I thought stood out the most and made me say “Wow!” when I first listened to it; and lastly, five (5) sets of clips from my classmates I thought were not so good. A major factor in my rating might have something to do with the equipment I am using. I only currently have my laptop (2020 Lenovo IdeaPad 3) and it does not have the best speakers for music and sound listening. I listened to the clips with a 66% volume so the sound would not be boomy (or “sabog” as how it is called in Tagalog). Although, I would like to say that you guys should not worry, and just be patient with me. I am currently waiting for my Samson SR950 monitoring headphones to arrive. I just ordered it online this Sunday (June 23, 2024). I would also like to add that, although I want to refrain from accusing my classmates, I think some submitted clips were edited or manipulated. As I listen to some clips, I can recognize that some still used a background noise reduction/removal of some sort. I will not identify the clips that I think used an editing tool because I do not have any evidence. All I can say is, as someone who used background noise removers from the past, some clips resemble those distinctions of an audio piece manipulated by a tool. It was mainly parts of the speech or vocals where syllables or words were suddenly disappearing or distorting. Overall, I think most of the students enrolled in this trimester’s MMS 172 have decent enough equipment, capable of producing good-quality audio for the entirety of the course.
MY TOP FIVE!
As mentioned above, I made a tier list of the clips I listened to for this activity. The top Five (5) ones I thought were great (WoW) were the sound clips of Trixia Daquil, followed by clips of Jhulia Dela Cruz, Luisa Dela Cruz, Faith Delos Reyes, and Denise Alata. I thought their outputs were the top five best of my tier list. All of them were clear audio pieces accompanied by little to no capture of any background noise. Their outputs also had the best balance of Pitch and Loudness compared to the others. I also noticed that three (3) of the top five used a condenser microphone with their recordings, and Trixia has the clearest output using a dynamic microphone. MAONO also seemed like a popular brand among my fellow students. I was also surprised that Denise used an IEM’s built-in microphone to record which produced a couple of clear and clean audio clips
SELF-REFLECTION FROM ACTIVITY 1A & 1B
Honestly speaking, I think my output sits in the “Not So Good” category of my tier list. Even though I thought my audio clips were clear and good enough, compared to my classmates who had dedicated audio recording equipment my output is determinable as a low-quality recording. The pitch was inconsistent and the loudness was all over the place for my clip number 1. Although I was not surprised about it, I just thought that my Samsung Galaxy A14 would be good enough for recording since I never had a problem with it in my past projects. I also never had a problem with my device during phone calls through SMS and Online Networks. It might also be because I rushed myself from recording the night I decided to do the activity. It only took me three attempts to be contended with my output. I could have used some more time to experiment in achieving a better record. For now, I honestly think that I first need to obtain proper audio recording equipment. As I said earlier, I already have studio monitoring headphones on the way. I also have a dynamic microphone I ordered on the same day I did my headphones. I kind of went over budget with my choices, since I also ordered an audio interface because the ports on my laptop are not as reliable as I would like them to be. For the microphone, I decided to buy Audio Technica’s ATR2100X. At first, I thought the Samson Q2U dynamic microphone would be a good choice, but reviews say that the ATR2100X sounds more balanced and not as warm as the Q2U. I am excited to do more activities in this course with my new equipment. I might just do the webcam exercise later this week to test out my equipment once they arrive (but I am not 100% sure about it yet, I might get too shy doing it since it requires facing a camera). This blogging style activity also makes it fun to do—it is quite motivating for someone who does not have any concerns about audio most of the time.