I'm Back With Tidings of Great Joy on This Christmas Night!

Merry Christmas my friends! I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post, and it saddens me deeply that I was unable to properly finish The 12 Days of Creative Cabana as I had originally planned to due to my move at home. Lesson learned: stay organized and plan ahead. Beyond that, I truly hope that Christmas has brought you all of the joy and happiness you deserve during this festive holiday season. Christmas is truly a time to celebrate and share blessings with friends, family, and those less fortunate. I can't begin to tell you how thankful I've been during this holiday season because of the many blessings and love that people share with me not just through The Creative Cabana, but also the people who know me personally. I can't thank them enough for their spirit and support, which truly demonstrates the meaning behind Christmas.

I won't make this post long because it is rather late and I like so many people have to return to work tomorrow, but since I have my internet working again I did not want to leave my 12 Days project unfinished, so I have posted my photos for Days 8 through 12 which show the projects I had planned to discuss with you. Many of them are self-explanatory just based on the subject and picture used, however I wanted to note that these jolly ideas should be kept handy for next Christmas when (hopefully) life will be less complicated on my end, and you'll have the free time to participate in these great Christmas fun projects.

One final note before I say goodnight, because of the long delay in internet access and the holiday, I will not be posting a Creative Mastermind for this week because I want you all to take the time to spend with your friends and family for the Christmas holiday. However, please check back for some great ideas on getting ready for your New's Year Eve celebration. Lets ring in 2014 with creativity and style! Have a wonderful evening everyone, Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

*All images used for the collage pictures were gathered from Google Images. These pictures were for the visual representations of creative ideas for the readers. I am not passing off these ideas or images as mine own, but are used only for inspiration and guidance. No Copyright Infringement Intended.

Which can be scarier, Sight or Sound?

Good Evening and Happy Friday everyone!

It has come to my attention that I haven't really addressed one of The Creative Cabana's focus areas of Audio Mixing. To be honest, I really haven't had an opportunity to do any kind of audio mixing. I don't possess some of the more advanced and sophisticated programming as I'd like to, but I have a few tools that I can play around with and hopefully I'll bring some of that work to you in the future. Right now, I'd like to talk to you today about the effect sound can have on a person. This idea came to me yesterday while I was decorating my home with Halloween decorations, at which time I was listening to Halloween music on my computer. Specifically, I was listening to the Halloween Show playlist I had created for my radio show I had in college. 

Every year  I would do a special Spooky show where I'd play music related to Halloween, Scary Stuff, etc. Anyway, while re-listening to my playlist yesterday I came across a sample of old-time radio shows that were focused on suspense, thriller, and supernatural entertainment. For my show I downloaded parts of radio broadcasts from the 1930s-1940s period and played parts of it on my own show to demonstrate what you might've been hearing on the radio at Halloween during that time. It got me thinking about how people, today, get a real thrill of being "scared" or "surprised". They go to Haunted Houses, watch Scary movies, or do something incredibly stupid to satisfy their need for terror. Well, what if I told you people would get scared just by hearing something on the radio?

Before television came along, most households, had a radio in their homes and could tune in for their entertainment. This would range from music, game shows, radio dramas, soap operas, and comedy hours- very much like TV only with no visuals. Of course the challenge here is with no visuals, how can you get people drawn into a story just with sounds? Here lies the answer of clever writing, production of sound effects, voice acting, and my personal favorite, background music. In this game, it's not about what you see, instead it's what you hear. Take a listen for yourself and see what you think of radio's best horror dramas:

See, the trick here is how it's all in the audio production. Because you can't "see" the action, it's up to the producers and actors to help visualize the scenes. The concept is that you'll rely on your imagination to complete the puzzle. For those of you who've seen Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" I think you know what I mean when I say use your imagination where you can't see what's happening. That alone can be twice as terrifying. It's definitely worthy of having a place in the Creative world because of the different elements that come together. Terrifying script-writing, excellent vocal actors, superior sound effects, and imaginative music settings all play a role in creating the perfect broadcast drama. 

That's all for now folks!!! Enjoy the rest of your Friday and have a great weekend!!! Don't forget to follow The Creative Cabana on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest

Introduction to the life of Creative Audio Mixing

Courtesy of Bitstrips via Facebook

This section is dedicated to unleashing my inner “DJ and Audio-Mixing Master”. Occasionally, I can be found at home taking songs from my MP3 collection and will mix them just to have some fun and practice on my audio editing software! This is also a great place where you can find some of my previous audio work from my college years. I will post some clips of my radio shows, interviews, PSAs/Promos, and any other goodies I can find, so check back for more content!