On the road again
Today I'm leaving in a few minutes to drive down to Atlanta (actually to Lula which is 50 or 60 miles north of Atlanta) to visit briefly with Jeff and his family. The reason for my trip is to pick up some of my recording equipment that I had loaned him a couple of years ago so that I can use it in producing my podcasts. My experiments up to this point with MixCast Live have shown that the mic I am using for recording has the disadvantage that it introduces a lot of hiss into the mix. Because I already own a Shure 58 microphone, a Yamaha R100 digital effects processor, a Boss 16 channel mixer, and some other associated equipment, I plan to bring all that back here and integrate it into my computer system in the hope that it will improve the quality of the MP3 files I create for my podcast.

While I'm speaking about MixCast Live, I must mention that I've really enjoyed developing a close relationship with James Prudente, its author, and having the opportunity to discuss the development of the program with him and to feel his jubilation and enthusiasm for what he is doing. And, folks, I have to tell you that this program, which is already quite innovative, is only getting better with every iteration.

For instance, the other night he and I spent about a half hour working on "perfecting" the ability to record a Skype conversation. He was doing the recording using the latest incarnation of the program (MCL), and in the end we came up with a very clean recording of our conversation without any of the artifacts, such as echoing either end of the conversation to the other person, that have plagued my previous attempts to record from Skype. Though I don't understand all the "under the hood" changes he has made to the program to permit this kind of recording (he's calling them patch cables), it is a major leap forward and one that I personally see a lot of value in. I'm confident that once the initial release of version 1.0 of that program hits the market, anybody who is interested in podcasting on a PC will want a copy.

I have friends who still don't "get" why I would want to do a podcast. And I can understand their confusion. However, just as some of them don't get why I blog, I'm sure they will understand better once they get to hear some examples of what I want to do. Or maybe they won't, but that's alright. As with everything else, those who are interested will follow what is being done, while those who don't find it of value can find other ways to use their time. I've learned in my time on earth that there are a lot of people in the world and not all of us have to agree. I want to do it to prove that I can, and after I've leapt that hurdle then I can concentrate on making the podcasts something that I find interesting. One use of them that I'll mention is that my grandchildren and my children will have a "permanent" audio recording of some of my thoughts that they may appreciate at some future date when I'm no longer around.

So it's off to Atlanta now to get some more tools, and soon, you'll be able to listen to my ramblings rather than just read them.
- posted by Perry @ 7:39 AM