Let's Talk Tech
Saramonic Blink Me review!
A new wireless microphone is available from Saramonic! The Blink Me bring some great features and simple setup! Great audio quality, great battery life, and a SOLID price tag. Let’s take a listen!
More info on Saramonic mics http://www.saramonicusa.com/ Continue reading “Saramonic Blink Me Wireless Microphones: Magnetic Mount, Touch Screen Control, EPIC Battery Life!”
Podcast on your phone!
Recording and editing audio is a LOT easier today, and even inexpensive phones are PLENTY powerful to get the job done! Here are some tips and tricks to get you started. When you want to take your show on the road, you don’t NEED to carry a laptop!
Let’s go!
Continue reading “Podcasting on Your Phone! A Starter Guide on Mobile Recording!”
Samson Q9U review!
It looks the part. It won’t break the bank. Can it compete against the classic options we like to hear for radio and podcasting?
Let’s take a listen to this new hybrid pro-sumer microphone! Continue reading “Samson Q9U Broadcast Microphone: Classic Sound, Low Price!”
Can you really capture “studio grade” recordings on the go? MikMe aims to deliver extremely high quality recordings, with wireless capabilities, in a rugged shell. Is it the ultimate portable microphone? Will it find a home in your travel pack or home studio? Let’s take a listen!
More info https://www.mikme.com/
Shop MikMe https://amzn.to/2HUGX58
Continue reading “MikMe Review: Studio Grade Audio in the Palm of Your Hand?”
Our phones are incredible content creation machines, but audio is still a pain point for producers on the go. Samson’s wireless receiver is one of the first to deliver near professional capabilities at consumer friendly prices. Inexpensive and wire free, how do these microphones sound? What compromises were made to hit a lower price point? Let’s take a listen!
Shop Go Mic Mobile.
Samson site for more info.
Continue reading “Samson Go Mic Mobile Review: Wireless Microphones for All!”
Pretty video isn’t much fun to watch if your audio is terrible. Sennheiser has partnered with Apogee to bring their popular professional ME2 Lav Microphone to iOS devices. How does it sound? Let’s take a listen!
Shop the ClipMic on Amazon.
More info on Sennheiser products.
I work in voice over and spoken word recording, and it’s kinda killing me how many people are still pumping out bad audio for their podcasts.
With all of the radical improvements in our technology, it really does drive home the point that nicer equipment doesn’t guarantee better results. If you’re wanting to produce more professional sounding audio, you’re still going to have to learn the basics of how recording works.
So, in true internet geek fashion, allow me to insult you for a bit while we take a look at some tips to improve your home recording.
Disclaimer: My primary job when I’m not tech blogging is commercial, animation, and video game voice over casting in Hollywood.
One interesting side discussion during this year’s Developer Summit was the utilization of new speech API’s from AT&T. It’s based on the Watson engine, which you heard as the HAL-like voice which spanked a couple of flesh bags on Jeopardy back in 2011. It’s an alpha API, but is already light years ahead of the basic Text to Speech engines in use for audiobooks.
As a voice over director and producer, I completely understand some of the challenges in recording with people. It’s an endurance match recording a 30 second TV spot, let alone a whole book. I’ve always been shocked by people who listen to the books recorded by artificial voices, devoid of any performance, and with tragically awful emphasis. Those older speech engines will say all the words in the right order, but they can’t tell you a story.
This new speech engine is working to change that. It’s still wholly artificial, but it can now represent several different characters instead of just one voice type. Plus it can be programmed to follow punctuation and energy levels for urgency and emphasis. It makes the act of listening to an audiobook a lot easier when there’s some sense of through line or narrative.
It’s obviously years away from replacing the terrific actors whole labor over these kinds of projects, but computer voices are improving rapidly. We all make jokes about Siri, but Google and Apple have delivered mobile data assistants with voices we would’ve thought impossible at the consumer level even just five years ago. And then there’s Watson, which can even learn the nuance of language well enough to pick up on swearing and other colorful metaphors.
Seth Stell from Smashing Ideas was on hand to demo some of the work they’re doing with Random House to replace humans. I shot video of the demonstration, but unfortunately the Galaxy S4 Zoom I used ate the audio, which is like the most important part of demoing a speech engine. Thankfully there’s a Livestream of the event embedded below.
Skip to 22 minutes to begin the piece on Speech hosted by Random House.