Focusing in on Beatlesarama

Every morning an affirmation pops up on my Dell Axim PDA screen. Today's says, "I am focused and persistent." It's what I strive for in my business. It's definitely what Pat Matthews has done at Beatlesarama. He's been broadcasting Beatles music online everyday for several years now. I know from my days as owner and operator of Instant Radio that it's not easy launching and maintaining an Internet radio station. We stopped creating Instant Radio shows when we got too busy with our podcast imaging services at Audiobag (http://audiobag.com/).

We created Beatlesarama's station sweepers. You'll hear Cathy (my wife) and me sandwiched in between songs. You'll also hear Pat Matthews' voice. He's a radio guy like me and loves what he's doing. If you're in the mood for the Beatles, browse over to Beatlearama. It's a great way to start your day. And when you're listening to Pat's station, remember this is what it means to stay focused and persistent. Great job, Pat!

Something to listen to today while you work

If you're a work today and want to listen to something a little different online, check out The Capital Rock Show ("CRS"). CRS is a weekly (okay, sometimes weekly --- hey, it's podcasting -- and we can create a podcast whenever we damn well please) show from Ottawa, Ontario that highlights various musicians with four of their tunes. Jason, or "Bucket" as he calls himself, had us create his podcast intro for him a couple of years ago. In fact, Bucket was one of our first podcast customers. He has hung in there and created 137 podcasts. We salute you, man!

Although CRS usually plays hard rock, show number 137 is the folk music of Ken Tizzard. If you like Bob Dylan, you'll really like Ken Tizzard. Hear the Capital Rock Show at http://capitalrockshow.ca/.

How to turn your room into a makeshift studio

Here's the scenario. Just as your voice over business starts to pick up or your podcast starts picking up subscribers, you've got to go out of town. You don't want to shut down your studio or stop podcasting. So what do you do?

Grab your best microphone and cable, portable recording device (we use a PreSonus Firebox), and laptop computer. Okay, now for the fun part. You're going to build a tent on the side of your bed farthest away from a window. Create a three-sided structure of pillows and cover them with the bedspread. You might want to top it off with a pillow on top for good measure. Be sure to turn off the air conditioner and unplug the mini refrigerator in the room. You're ready to record now with minimal (if any) reverberation from nearby walls and you've managed to reduce outside noise. Oh yeah, take a small flashlight along to see your script inside the tent. Now get down on your knees (and pray they don't start vacuuming in the hallway), pop your head inside your temporary sound booth, and start recording. Your customers will never know you left town.

The microphone tent works great at home, too. It's a fast and easy way to create a sound booth that dampens reverberation. It won't eliminate all noise, but it should help you sound like you're in an actual sound booth.

Living on the edge

I just showed my wife a live satellite picture (in motion) of Hurricane Ike skirting the edge of our town here in central Texas. She looked at it and said, "Living on the edge." Yes, we're living on the edge of something very powerful and scarey. Luckily, it is moving northeastward -- away from us.

Everywhere we went in Austin last night -- first to the Mexican restaurant and then to a couple of night clubs downtown -- there was a huge television screen showing Hurricane Ike moving onshore into Galveston. We ate our fajitas and watched with apprehension. People stood behind us at the bar where we were eating (we didn't want to wait an hour for a table) with their mouths open in amazement at the size of the hurricane (or perhaps at how much I could stuff into my tortilla). It appeared to fill up the entire Gulf of Mexico ... the hurricane, not my tortilla.

Living on the edge can be exciting. In business, living on the edge means sticking your neck out every now and then and trying something new. It means offering a new product like Dell's Mini 9 computer for $350, or Tata Motors' (India) Air Car that gets over 100 MPG. What product or service is your company offering that is a good example of living on the edge? What's your Air Car?

We're using a new Audio-Technica 4060 tube microphone

We purchased a new tube microphone, the Audio-Technica 4060, a couple of weeks ago after reading reviews and critiques of various microphones and listening to other voiceover talents' demos. We wanted a warmer sound that tube mics provide. However, we didn't want the new microphone to give us a radically different sound.

We decided on the Audio-Technica 4060 because 1) we already own the Audio-Technica 4033a -- a decent studio microphone that requires some EQ'ing but still gives us a good sound, and 2) the other tube microphones we were considering in our price range ($1000 to $1500) seemed to give too much of the "warm" sound ... to the point of sounding bassy and muddy.

The Audio-Technica 4060 requires about a 15-minute warm-up each morning. After that is seems to be stable with no pops or crackles. Well, the truth is we don't even listen to it while it warms up. We're too busy drinking coffee and trying to pry open our eyes. Nevertheless, we're happy with the sound we're getting from the 4060. It's more authentic. It's as if our real voices were being filtered by our older AT4033a and the new AT4060 has revealed to us what we were missing all this time.

If you're looking for a tube microphone, the Audio-Technica 4060 is worth considering.