Bahai Audiobook Publisher Performs Her First Sound Check

September 30, 2008 at 9:49 pm (Faith, Humanity, Verdanta, audiobooks)
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My husband finished the iso box for the computer, and it’s a huge, black behemoth!  There’s a slight low hum from it, which is caused not by the computer itself, but by the two cooling fans which prevent the computer from overheating.  I believe he used Silenx fans, which are supposed to be the quietest in the industry.  But while they are relatively quiet, I wouldn’t say they’re silent.  We could have gotten the sound down even more, but it would have required an even bigger box, and I don’t have unlimited space.   Besides, the big question isn’t whether it’s completely silent, but whether it’s quiet enough.

To that end, I set everything up yesterday and tried it out.  The preliminary results are VERY promising.  The amount of room noise (read: background) is visibly less.  When I say visibly, I’m looking at the sound wave as recorded in Cubase, the recording software I use.  I could hear it a little when I turned it up loud enough, but at that point it was uncomfortably loud. 

To get a little technical here, I am testing out two tracks: one unprocessed, direct from the mic, and one processed through hardware compression and EQ.  I am rough editing them, then I will dump them onto a CD and listen to them over whatever speakers I can find and see which sounds better.

I can’t remember whether I mentioned it yet, but a short while ago I went into a local professional recording studio and recorded the same text I recorded yesterday.  This recording is my primary baseline.  If I can get my home studio material to sound as good as the pro studio track, I’ll be golden!  If not, it just means I have a little more tweaking to do in my room.

Isn’t this exciting? 

By the way, the file I recorded is “Racism: America’s most challenging issue.”  I know it isn’t globally applicable, but it was short and sweet making it an affordable option when going in and recording in a pro studio.  If you’re interested in being one of my test listeners when the time comes, please email me at El.verdanta@gmail.com.

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The journey: setting up an audiobook recording studio

September 27, 2008 at 10:28 am (Baha'i, Entrepreneur, Verdanta, audiobooks, business)
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What started as a simple thought of “I can do this better…” has moved slowly and organically through initial, tentative actions - visiting SCORE, writing a business plan, sharing the idea to gage interest, and learning about audio recording equipment and processes – to concrete commitment, including the purchase of equipment and customization of the den where recording will take place. 

My handy mechanical engineer husband built me a custom teleprompter tower.  It holds a mic boom stand, monitor, and keyboard/mouse tray, all on an adjustable track so I can use it sitting or standing.  It’s also on wheels, making it easy to move it to where it needs to be.

The software has been installed and configured by my resident IT guy. (Thanks, Hon!)  Learning to use it has been a bit of a bear, but I can now do pretty much everything I want to with it.  Thankfully, what I want to do is pretty simple and basic.  I’m glad  I don’t have to figure out midi interfaces!

Next, we got the microphone setup and running (not as trivial as it sounds), but quickly discovered that the mic picked up the sound of the computer fans.  So the past few weeks have been spent learning about acoustics and sound treatment.  My husband is in the process of building a sound isolation box for the computer, to try to dampen the sound of all those fans.  We’ll finish it tomorrow and find out if it works. 

We still need to acoustically treat the space, so that means bass traps in the corners and sound absorption on the walls.  Did I mention how this venture has expanded my vocabulary?  Anyway, it turns out that our funny shaped, five sided little room is actually a pretty good setup acoustically, so treatment should be minimal. 

Whew, we’ve done a lot! No wonder we’re tired.  Looking back, I’m struck with how much time and effort my (non-Baha’i) husband has put into it, all after working his regular 45-50 hr/week job.  I’m grateful to him for his belief in me and in this project.  Without him, it never would have happened, and if Verdanta ever accomplishes its mission, the Baha’i community will owe him a big thanks!

Next up – a website!

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Email feed

September 27, 2008 at 10:28 am (Baha'i)

I had some trouble with the initial feed I set up.  I deleted it, and added an email feed, which seems to be working.  It’s on the left under my picture.  Please try it, and let me know if it works.  Unless someone specifically requests RSS feed capability, I may be leaving it at that.

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The beginning

September 22, 2008 at 5:13 am (Baha'i, Career, Entrepreneur, Faith, Humanity, Mystery, Religion, Ruhi, Work, spirituality)

As difficult as it is to identify a beginning in the middle of a spiderweb, I’m going to try.

A few years ago, I started taking Ruhi Book 1.  (It’s the first class in a series designed to help anyone interested – Baha’i or not – to learn about the Baha’i Faith.)  I had been wanting to for a long time, and the manifestation of that desire was everything I wanted it to be:  A weekly dip in the ocean of God’s grace, fertilizer to grow the spiritual connections among members of my community, and a spiritual fix to help me make it through days weighed down by materialsm and ego.  

I loved it so much, I looked for other ways to increase my spiritual connection to the Word.  I looked for Baha’i Audiobooks, but found none.  Then one day, a substitute tutor happened to mention some recorded lectures by Adib Tahirzadeh on CD.  That was all I needed to know.  I looked them up as soon as I arrived home and ordered a set.  They were wonderful!  I could (and did) listen to each of the 11 CD’s several times over, learning something new each time I did. 

When I finally finished them, I looked for more.  This time, I found the website that contained all the books on tape recorded many years ago by Services for the Blind, available for free download.  I thought I had found heaven!  I loaded Paris Talks onto my iPod and went for a long walk.  

It was intensely anticlimactic. 

I like to think that I’m a tolerant person, especially when it comes to individual efforts within the Baha’i Faith.  It turns out that when it comes to audiobooks, I am very intolerant.  

The problem with the tapes were that:

  1. Each track was 45 minutes long, based on the length of the side of a cassette tape
  2. The readers occasionally turned their head away from the mic making it impossible to hear
  3. When a reader stumbled on a passage, they didn’t delete and do a retake, they just kept going.
  4. Page numbers were read aloud
  5. The table of contents was read aloud
  6. The sound was muffled sounding

For me, that was too many strikes.  Every time I tried to listen, I’d find myself chanting “I could do this better.  I could do this better.  I could do this so much better.” 

Then one day, the chant of “I could really do this better” was answered with ”Well, why not try?”  Of course, that first thought was immediately followed with “Yeah right!”  But over the course of several more walks on several more days, the same sequence repeated itself.  Then one day, I stopped walking, looked at the sky and asked flat out, “Wait, are you saying you want me to try to do this?”  I was immediately filled with such an overwhelming feeling of joy that I fairly floated home. 

And that was the very beginning.  Or one of them.  So once again, Darrel was correct.  Verdanta was created for one purpose: to create professional quality recordings of the Baha’i writings and make them available to as many people throughout the world as is possible. 

It’s been an exciting journey so far, but lonely at times.   I created this blog so I wouldn’t have to walk that journey alone.   If you are, like me, always searching for more ways to incorporate the Word into your life, then perhaps you will accompany me, and together we can administer the healing prescription of Baha’u'llah throughout the world.

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Mystery revealed

September 18, 2008 at 5:45 am (Baha'i, Career, Mystery, audiobooks, life balance)

Well folks, it’s true.  Darrell wins the prize!  He figured out that I’m going to produce audiobooks.  I’m still waiting for someone to guess what kind of audiobooks I’m going to produce, but that can wait.

Now I can FINALLY start talking about what I’m actually doing!

The question is, should I start with the beginning and walk through each step?  Or just catch everyone up on where I am today?

Choices, choices, choices. 

The beginning it is!  I’ve left a trail of breadcrumbs; now I’ll draw you a map. 

It all started… well… hmmm…  I guess you could say it was…  When did it start? It could have been this spring, it could have been last fall, or it could have been back in 1997 when I decided to get a Master’s in something other than engineering. 

It’s funny, when you stand still in the present and look out towards the future, it’s a murky, somewhat scary proposition.  What will I do? Where will I go?  Who will I go with?  Nothing but questions, leading into an enormous labyrinth of possibilities.

But when you stand and look back toward the past, you can see how all the crazy twists and turns that your life took now appear to be laid out in a perfectly straight path leading you inevitably to the exact spot on which you stand.  It makes perfect sense.  For example, if I hadn’t joined Toastmasters, I wouldn’t have developed leadership skills, which helped me build my skills and self-confidence.  WIthout Toastmasters, I never would have met DK, MA or RK, all of whom have helped me plant and nurture this seedling called Verdanta.   Without self-confidence and a network of supportive friends, I never would have thought “Yeah, sure, I can start a business.”  Do you see what I’m getting at?  How do you jump into the middle of a life journey and call it the beginning? 

I’m going to have to give this some thought and get back to you…

Stay tuned!

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Mystery Job: Clues to date

September 9, 2008 at 12:34 am (Baha'i, Bliss, Career, Entrepreneur, Faith, Humanity, Mystery, Prayer, Reading, Religion, Service, audiobooks, business, life balance, spirituality, work as worship)

I thought I would summarize the breadcrumbs (aka “clues”) I have dropped so far, so you could see the trail of where I’ve already been laid out more clearly.  There have been a few hints I’ve dropped without labeling them as such, so we’ll see if you were paying attention!

  1. I’m a Baha’i
  2. I love to learn
  3. I love to read
  4. This new career involves at least one activity that requires “mushin”
  5. It allows me total freedom to set my schedule
  6. It lets me use my unique talents (public speaking, organization, leadership and communication) 
  7. It lets me serve humanity through the Baha’i Faith
  8. Books on CD
  9. It fills a need which I have identified in the world
  10. My mission through Verdanta is to “be always occupied with the mention of Baha’u'llah.”
  11. It involves building a business that aligns with the teachings of the Baha’i Faith
  12. My success depends on persistent, consistent, constant action.
  13. I have used the five steps described in “The Power of Prayer” to get where I am today.

That’s it so far.  I’ll even toss out one more:

  14.  It requires the purchase of quite a bit of equipment that must be installed, configured, and learned.

Has anyone figured it out yet?  Drop me a comment and let me know your guess!

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Five Easy Steps for Powerful, Effective Prayer

September 5, 2008 at 2:00 am (Baha'i, Faith, Prayer, Religion)
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How do you know what the “right” thing to do is?  How do you know if you’re doing what God wants you to do?  When faced with a decision, how do you choose?  I have mentioned several times my efforts to “walk the path” or “choose God’s Will over mine.”  All these, to me, are more or less the same thing.  And the answer to all of them is: prayer.

I’ve been a Baha’i all my life, so I’m not sure how other religions think about prayer, but for me, prayer is a very direct, personal, and practical thing.  It helps me figure out what I’m supposed to do. 

Shoghi Effendi, who was the great grand-son of Baha’u'llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, shared with us “a most concise, complete and effective formula for the Dynamics of Prayer.”  I think this approach to prayer is somewhat different than how many religious approach prayer, so I thought I would share it.  Here it is, in its entirety:

If we have a problem of any kind for which we desire a solution or wish help, we should use these five steps:

1. Pray and meditate about it.  Use the prayers of the Manifestations as they have the greatest power.  Learn to remain in the silence of contemplation for a few moments.  During this deepest Communion take the following step

2. Arrive at a decision and hold to this.  This decision is usually born in a flash at the close or during the contemplation.  It may seem almost impossible of accomplishment, but if it seems to be an answer to prayer or a way of solving the problem, then immediately take the next step. 

3.  Have determination to carry the decision through.  Many fail here. The decision, budding into determination, is blighted and instead becomes a wish or a vague longing.  When determination is born immediately take the next step.

4.  Have faith and confidence, that the Power of the Holy Spirit will flow though you, the right way will appear, the door will open, the right thought, the right message, the right principle or the right book will be given to you.  Have confidence, and the right thing will come to meet your need.   Then as you rise from prayer take immediately the fifth step.

5.  Act as though it had all been answered.  Then act with tireless, ceaseless energy.  And, as you act, you, yourself will become a magnet which will attract more power to your being, until you become an unobstructed channel for the Divine Power to flow through you.  Many pray, but do not remain for the last half of the first step.  Some who meditate arrive at a decision, but fail to hold it.  Few have the determination to carry the decision through, and still fewer have the confidence that the right thing will come to their need.  But how many remember to act as though it had all been answered?  How true are those words – Greater than the prayer is the spirit in which it is uttered, but greater than the manner in which it is uttered is the spirit in which it is carried out.

If you’ve read some of my other posts, you know that this is a process I apply to my life constantly.  It is precisely how this venture turned from a nagging gripe of “I could do this better!” into a confident assertion that ”I am going to do this better!”  I have already mentioned several of the elements in other blogs: using faith to overcome fear and doubt, exerting effort ceaselessly, and having determination.  I speak from experience when I say this process works. 

It really is that easy. 
Try it and let me know how it turns out.

Peace.

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Slowing Life Down: Learning to Appreciate the Tortoise

September 4, 2008 at 8:01 pm (Baha'i, Career, Entrepreneur, Faith, Reading, Religion, Work, business, livelihood, work as worship)

You’ve heard the story of the tortoise and the hare?  In the past, I’ve always been the hare.  I’d get excited about something I’d read, and dive in.  The smell of burning rubber hung in the air as I hurled myself into a furious, frantic frenzy of activity.  The problem was, as soon as my momentum petered out, I had nothing left.  I’d quit with nothing to show for it. 

Eventually, a wise man (my husband) pointed out that it’s never as easy as the books say, and if I wanted to pursue something new, great, but I had to do my homework.  I had to ask hard questions of lots of people, including myself.  That is when I began to learn the wisdom of the tortoise.

The tortoise plods along, with patience and persistence, passing each milestone in turn, without rushing, without panicking, without stopping.  When the idea first came to me to start this business, I was at a complete loss.  I had never started a business or worked anywhere except corporate America.  I was the anti-entrepreneur.  And there were a lot of new skills I needed, skills I had never even contemplated acquiring.  It was very intimidating.  I had no reason to believe I could do it.  I only knew I had a very strong feeling that it needed to be done, and that I ought to try to do it. 

So I did. 

I started to do research on the Internet.  I started checking books out from the library.  I began talking to people.  I began (shudder) networking.  When I started, I knew nothing about anything,  but I kept on reading and talking and listening.  Slowly, ploddingly, I have learned many many new things.  I have also found many wonderful (human) resources along the way.  (My thanks to all of you – you are a gift and a treasure to me!)

One resource I found available to anyone in the United States is an organization called SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives).  It is a volunteer agency within the Small Business Administration.  They offer free counseling services to anyone wanting to start a business.  They have given me a much needed reality check, helped me write a business plan, and given me a lot of encouragement along the way.  Writing a business plan is not for the feint of heart!  It’s a long, drawn out process requiring much patience, and if you’re wise, much help. 

Throughout this journey, I have learned the importance of not rushing things.  If it’s a good idea today, it will be a good idea tomorrow.  If it is God’s Will that I do this thing, then it will happen.  All I have to do is keep moving forward, keep exerting effort, keep identifying the next thing that could/should be done, and doing it.  If I get stalled on one front, then I start chipping away at a different front.  All things happen in God’s time, not ours, so we must patiently wait for Him to bring to us that which we need.  And we must be detached enough to recognize it when it appears. 

(Of course, if it is not God’s Will that I do this thing, then I don’t want to do it anyway, and I trust that He will block the way forward, pushing me in a different direction.)

Life in general is so much more pleasant as a tortoise.  I’m more relaxed and forgiving with everyone, particularly my children.  The truth is, patience comes more easily when you realize there is no need to rush. 

If nothing else comes of this venture, I am grateful for what I have already gained from it.  Thank goodness I’ve discovered the joys of being a tortoise!

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Housekeeping

September 1, 2008 at 5:53 am (Baha'i)

Apparently, my little blog is making ripples in the big pond!  Someone has asked me to make it available through email.  It’s taken me all night, but I think I figured it out.  I have added a link at the bottom of my sidebar labelled “Subscribe in a reader.”  It should allow you to link to either your email or a website of your choice.  I set it up so my latest blog titles show up in a box on my iGoogle page. 

Thank you, friends!

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