July 3, 2009 at 3:20 am (Baha'i)
Yes, it’s true. I have a gurgly drain. Truthfully, I already knew this, I just never noticed that I could hear it IN THE BACKGROUND OF MY RECORDING!
The drain is the in the kitchen. I’m in the den. The door is closed. Apparently, it doesn’t matter. AAARGH!
At least now I have a good reason to nag my handyman to actually fix the gurgle. His preferred method of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” has gotten in the way of that before now.
Ahhhhhh~ the joys of recording audiobooks in your own home!
July 1, 2009 at 2:40 am (Baha'i)
One of the reasons I took this job on was so that I could take time off around my kids schedule. Well, school let out on May 21st, and we left on vacation on May 25th. I’ve been home for about a week and a half, but it took me a while to find my focus.
Actually, all it took was “So when do you think you’ll finish that first audiobook?” from my husband, and BING! everything became crystal clear!
So here I am, back at work.
In fact, I’d better stop blogging and get back to editing! More later…
May 18, 2009 at 4:49 am (Baha'i, Web Design, business)
The hardest thing about deciding to study something about which you know absolutely nothing, is knowing where to begin.
I wanted to learn something about designing websites. Not so much so I could build my own, but so I could have an intelligent conversation with the people who would be building it for me, namely my husband and my brother.
I checked out a dozen books from the library, but just narrowing down where to start was frustrating. Thankfully, with my husbands help (”Don’t read that one, it’s worthless. This one’s really good though,”) I finally honed in on a couple that I really liked. I thought I’d share them with you so in case any of you want start your education in web design, you – like Dorothy – will know where to look to find the beginning of the yellow brick road:
This is a great primer in HTML, CSS and XHTML. Most books I looked at excelled only as sleep aids. This one was different. It was actually fun, in a geeky kind of way. Very engaging.
This would be good to tackle after the Head First book, because it assumes basic knowledge of HTML. If you already know HTML, then this is a good one to check out because it helps you build sites with the minimum amount of coding.
This is a fabulous introduction to website usability. You’ll never surf the web the same way again.
This is an excellent all around training website. You can start your training with HTML, then continue with CSS, XHTML, Java, etc… It’s a pretty dry in its presentation, but effective, and very well organized. Plus, it’s free and that’s always a good thing, right?
Keep in mind that these are references for complete novices only. If you already have a working knowledge, then these might not work for you. Then again, they might. Either way, good luck!
May 14, 2009 at 4:27 am (Baha'i, Home studio, Recording, Verdanta, audiobooks)
I’ve made several changes to the way I record. Other than the headphones, everything is the same, I’ve just changed some of the settings.
1. Before: I had dropped the mic down below mouth level to try to eliminate plosives (hard B’s, P’s and T sounds). It had reduced the plosives, but hadn’t completely eliminated them. After: I raised the mic back up to mouth level but shifted it to the side, at a 45 degree angle. The plosives are still there (so Hans tells me) but to my ear, are much better.
2. Before: I didn’t know what those little switches on my microphone were for, so I simply didn’t use them. After: I looked up the specs on my Sterling Audio ST66 microphone and discovered that I had a 10dB attenuation pad and a Switchable 75Hz, 12dB/octave high-pass filter. Did that make any more sense to you than it did to me? I did a little digging, and figured out what those two terms meant. It turns out, an attenuation pad means I can put the mic in front of a REALLY loud sound source, like a drum, and it will be able to record the sound without distorting it. As a lowly little voiceover, this was NOT something I needed use, so I left it turned off. The other switch is called a high-pass filter, because it’s a filter that lets everything higher than it’s threshold pass, while everything below it gets rejected. In this case, anything below 75 Hz (somewhat lower than my voice can go) gets rejected. That sounded good to me! I switched that baby on, and on it’s going to stay!
3. Before: I tried to use the compression and eq on my audio interface. After: I realized that I really didn’t know what I was doing and decided it might be better not to mess with the recording up front, but rather to wait and do all my audio processing after the fact where it’s reversible, using software plugins. (Obviously, I also had to learn how to use software plugins, but that’s a discussion for another night.)
These three changes have made a big difference on the noise floor of my recording, as well as on it’s overall quality.
Now my big dilemma: although better is good when it comes to short projects, better means different, and different is terrible for long audio narration. This probably mens I’ll be re-recording the beginning of Advent.
Ah well, that’s how it goes, doesn’t it? Three steps forward, two steps back. But in the end, all forward movement is a good thing, and I’ll just have to be satisfied with that.
May 10, 2009 at 4:03 am (Baha'i)
I have been working so hard lately, recording and editing, recording and editing. But as I mentioned in my last blog, something has changed: I now have an extra set of ears to bounce my results off of. Actually two new sets, in a manner of speaking.
My first new set of ears come with a plug. See, I’d decided that I needed a new pair of headphones. My original pair of semi-open AKG K-242 HD’s sounded great, and were super comfortable. But it turns out, you really need closed back headphones to monitor and edit, especially when you record and edit in the same room. Otherwise, when you listen to playback, you can’t tell if the noise you’re hearing is on the recording, or just in the room. On the recommendation of a friend (who shall remain nameless… at least until the next paragraph) I ended up buying a pair of Sennheiser HD280 Pro’s for $70 from Guitar Center. (I took advantage of their price matching policy.) They have made an ENORMOUS difference in the quality of my work. It turns out, my AKG’s were bad not just because they were “semi-open,” which simply means letting outside noise in through the headphones, but also because they weren’t completely flat. I couldn’t heard the difference when I bought them, but my ear has gotten “smarter” over the past couple months. BTW, “flat” just means that the headphones play back exactly what was recorded, without boosting any of the recorded frequencies. My AKG’s, it turns out, were boosting the bass. Which is why I liked the way I sounded when I used them. I didn’t like my voice at all when I first go the Senn’s, it sounded tinny, and well, flat. But it turns out, that was exactly what I needed.
Of course, the other set of ears belong to my new friend on the other side of the world, Hans Peterson of VoicesDivine. We’ve only just “met” (Thanks, Ellen!) but I think we’ve already made a huge impact on each others lives – just by knowing that the other person is out there. There’s more to it than that, of course. You know how some people in this world don’t know how to take constructive criticism? Not me! I love it, because that’s the only way I know how to improve. And I am so grateful to have someone who knows what he’s talking about, who isn’t afraid to tell me what he’s thinking, and who knows how to do it in a way that doesn’t make me defensive.
Thanks, Hans – I’m looking forward to working with you for a very long time to come!
May 9, 2009 at 3:55 am (Baha'i, Verdanta, audiobooks, business)
I was kind of feeling sorry for myself this afternoon. I had asked to be relieved of some (but not all) of my responsibilities in the teaching field so I could concentrate on Verdanta. But since then, I’ve received NO calls or emails regarding the target neighborhood I used to be the Neighborhood Coordinator of. Nothing. Nada. I was thinking “Gosh, I didn’t mean that I didn’t want anyone to call me ever again.” But then I realized it was probably just as well, since I have been putting so much time into Verdanta. (30+ hrs/week, on top of my full time Mommy gig!)
That’s when it hit me. Hans showed up about the same time as I handed over the Neighborhood Coordinator responsibilities to my replacement.
Do you remember when I blogged about feeling like the tortoise? When I prayed for guidance and my answer was “Be patient… It will become clear”?
Well, it just did.
Apparently, it’s time for the tortoise to take a break so the hare can get busy! The difference is that this time, I know what I need to be doing!
May 7, 2009 at 3:33 am (Baha'i, Verdanta, audiobooks, business)
I have a new cohort in crime!
It turns out, someone - in Budapest, Hungary of all places! - has simultaneously been doing what I’ve been blogging about for the past eight months. Who knew?
I was a little nervous when I first found out about him, as he was when he found out about me. Oh no! Competition! But I think it’s going to be all right. It was hard feeling like I was the only one in the world doing this, a sentiment that he shared as well. Having a partner of sorts feels… comforting. Especially when you consider that there’s a third partner in all this – the one who gave us the same idea, and then when the time was right, helped us find each other.
His name is Hans Peterson, and he actually has a year head start on me. He already has an active website, and has been producing and publishing podcasts to get experience. Check out his site, it’s called Voices Divine.
You may be hearing my voice on there soon as well. Remember when I said it didn’t look like Baha’u'llah wanted me to get distracted by podcasting? Good thing I listened. I would have wasted a lot of time trying to get the website part up and running – and now I don’t have to! Providing podcast material will be good practice for me, in much smaller, more manageable bites. But you’ll hear more about that later!
April 26, 2009 at 5:53 am (Baha'i, Entrepreneur, Mother, Verdanta, business, life balance, livelihood)
You’d think that working for yourself would make you extra motivated to get to work. Turns out, that’s by no means a given!
Recently, my business partner (aka, my husband) and I had a discussion wherein we discussed the amount of time I was putting into Verdanta. Specifically, he was questioning how serious I was. I assured him that I was VERY serious, but admitted that I was having difficulty prioritizing my time. Part of the problem was, I still identified myself as a “stay-at-home mom.” The very term implies lots of leisure time, so how could I say no to friends who wanted to meet me for coffee, or talk on the phone, or have me attend just one short meeting?
After our little chat, I decided it was time to start thinking of myself, calling myself, and acting like a working woman. It was a lot harder than I would have thought.
Then a couple weeks ago, my husband was working on the taxes. It was the first time he’s had to deal with a small business tax return, so it was extra painful this year. Afterwards, he mentioned that he wasn’t sure if there was a minimum number of hours you had to put into a business to call it a business. Just to be sure, he suggested I start keeping a work log.
I started to write down each day the different activities I worked on, and the amount of time I spend doing them. Then I calculated a daily as well as a weekly average. I’ve been keeping the log for a little over two weeks now, and I’m averaging over 30 hours per week! That’s pretty darn respectable, considering my full time job as Mom still comes first. It turns out, for a compulsive list maker like myself, if I have a choice between watching TV, and reading a book about web design, I’m going to choose the activity that I can write down in my log. There’s no doubt that I put in an extra 10 hours each week just by choosing log-worthy activities over pure leisure.
This was just what I needed to kick my butt into gear!
April 10, 2009 at 11:15 pm (Baha'i, Verdanta, audiobooks, business)
After I received the feedback from the recording engineer, I made some adjustments, and started over. To date, I’ve recorded and edited the first 30 pages of Advent of Divine Justice.
Last week, I asked my toughest critic to take a listen to my latest recording. I got a call from him later that morning. He said, “It sounded really good. The pacing was good, there was no background noise in the silences, and you didn’t over-emote, ” which was something he had pointed out in a much earlier version.
I then sent if off to the recording engineer again, who said that from a recording standpoint, it was good.
So. Now that recording engineer has OK’d it, and my husband has put his stamp of approval on it, 
I’m wondering if there’s anyone else out there who would like to be a test subject and take a listen? I’ll take the first five people who are willing to listen carefully to what I’ve done and offer their honest, carefully thought out opinion. (Specific likes, specific dislikes, suggestions…)
If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, don’t delay! Contact me today!
April 8, 2009 at 5:23 am (Baha'i, Career, Faith, Service, Verdanta, audiobooks, business, life balance, volunteering)
In a recent blog, I was conflicted because I felt like one area of service in my life was competing with another. It didn’t help when my beloved ABM (Auxiliary Board Member) reminded me that the 4 core activities are THE most important thing we should be working on right now.
Well, as of today, with the help of my ATC (Area Teaching Committee) Secretary, I’ve offloaded a significant portion of my responsibility. I will continue to support the core activities through tutoring, teaching, etc…, but I will do it within clearly defined time slots. (A discipline issue on my part.)
But the biggest update for me is that I’ve finally uncovered the one detail that I missed when I originally wrote this blog entry: if I weren’t working on Verdanta, I would be working somewhere else, and it probably wouldn’t have ANYTHING to do with the Baha’i Faith, nor would it be as flexible or fulfilling as Verdanta.
It’s all going to work out just fine. I knew it would. Didn’t you?
