Nick Kroll and Seth Macfarlane bring you "The Negotiating Table"

This is prolly NSFW...
Seth Macfarlane and Nick Kroll give us the inside scoop on the AMPTP/WGA negotiations.



Written by Seth Macfarlane; Directed by Bryan Carmel and Brendan Colthurst; Produced by Kat Foster and Nick Kroll; Edited by Bryan Carmel; Featuring Josh Radnor, Kat Foster, Nick Kroll, John Viener, Seth MacFarlane, and Erik Weiner (woot! I've worked with Erik!).

You know, there's a part of me that's REALLY going to miss the higher quality content being produced online when the strike is over.

700MHz Auction Starts Today!

Say "goodbye" to TV over the air, and hopefully "hello" to a faster, more competitive, easier to use data environment.
It all depends on who wins this auction, and the FCC will be posting info on their site.
With the USA falling farther and farther behind every other industrialized country in terms of broadband reach AND speed of our network (coupled with the fact that with no true competition in the ISP arena thanks to a collusive market, we pay more for less), it's getting more and more depressing to think that we invented the damn thing (the internet that is ... I know I know CERN and all that other mess... but come on).
This auction could be a watershed moment in the history of telecommunications. It could radically change how we consume data, how we pay for it. It could help spread fast cheap access to even the most disadvantaged or rural.

Or it could get gobbled up by some mega-corp and we'll continue to pay more for less, subsidizing these industries with tax dollars, paying for horrible service, and languishing behind the rest of the world.

I'll push it even farther. This could seal our irrelevance to the rest of the world. There, I said it.

Anywho, check out the auction at the FCC site, and if you really want to learn more about the players involved, and what impact this could have on us Amuricans, Gizmodo had a great write up that you should check out.

Free Prompter/Autocue Web App - Cueprompter

Hey all!
If you're anything like me, you probably watch a LOT of web content and public access TV. And, if you're anything like me, you probably think to yourself "I could so totally do that", before padding off to the kitchen for another diet Dr. Pepper.

If you would like to start hosting your own web show or just would like the practice, head on over to http://cueprompter.com/ where you'll find a free web teleprompting service. Perfect for helping you bone up on your reading skills.

It runs in a browser, and has variable speed control. There is a text limit to how much can be fed through, but it is quite large, like chapter of a book large. It says the service works best with Internet Explorer, but between IE7 and Firefox 2, it seemed FF was more stable for me. I did have one bug, that no matter what browser I used, I couldn't get the "Mirror" function to work. I guess this means I'll never be able to use this app professionally, but then again, why would I.

It was really just a lot of fun to turn on the webcam and watch how much I move my eyes around while reading. This is good as I really needed something else to be selfconscious about!

A little practice and I might be ready to take on Diggnation,TRS, WallStrip, RocketBoom, Tekzilla, and the West Hollywood Channel 10 Community access local news!

http://cueprompter.com/


I should SO start my own show....

Cloverfield is great! Go see it! It has Billy Brown (Voice Actor)!

I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about the movie. Other reviews will do that better.
I really enjoyed it. I thought it was brutal and harsh. The shakey-cam was a bit upsetting (I get crazy sea-sick), and there are a couple CG-y moments, but on the whole I was engaged the whole time. I was about half way through the credits before I let the muscles in back unclench.

I think the greatest strength of the film is it's brevity. They don't explain anything more than what the main characters get to see, and it leaves a lot of the tension up to you to create. At no time did this feel lazy or like a cop out. Walking out of the theater I felt that all of the choices of what to see or not, were very strategic.

The creature design was really cool. It wasn't the huge lumbering sprawling beast of concept art, and I like that the beast seemed massive, yet maneuverable.

I thought the story was set up well, getting us in and out with a minimum of effort, and I thought the ending was really sweet. Much in the same way that Spielberg's War of the Worlds was an intense film (but totally fumbles the end), Cloverfield doesn't ever give you a chance to rest, and I think the payoff at the end is great.


Ok, all the movie stuff aside, I was STOKED to see Billy Brown as Staff Sgt. Pryce. Billy is a great VO actor, having been in a ton of games (C&C3, KOTOR2, Path of Neo), has an awesome "trailer voice", and is currently the voice of the Marines. That last being so appropriate to see him as a soldier in this film. His part in the film wasn't huge, but he easily has the largest (and most important scene) with the main characters. I was really impressed with his performance as well. The setting is way over the top, and Billy plays his role very real and grounded. Excellent job Mr. Brown!

Directors and Producers make a deal, so why not the Writers?

LA Times is reporting that the DGA and the AMPTP have reached an agreement. It sounds like it was much more reasonable than what was offered the writers:

The contract covering 13,400 members guarantees directors a $1,260 fixed residual payment for one-hour TV dramas streamed over the Internet in the first year, compared with $250 the studios had offered writers. The studios also would be entitled to a 24-day promotional window in the first year, and a 17-day window in the second year. After the first year, writers would receive 2% of the distributor's gross revenue.

When movies are sold online, directors will receive the current DVD royalty, 0.36% on the first 50,000 downloads, and 0.65% thereafter. Directors would get a 0.36% residual for the first 100,000 downloads of their TV episodes, and 0.7% after that.

Directors received jurisdiction over Web episodes based on existing scripted shows and original Web shows above a certain budget threshold. For instance, Web series costing less than $500,000 would be exempted.

The deal contains a so-called revisit clause that allows contract provisions to be adjusted after the three-year term.

So why SO much better than what was offered writers?
I'm starting to think that there's something to those rumblings (practically conspiracy theories) of studios using the strike to "clean house"...

Story @ LA Times

Science Geek Alert: What does the planet Jupiter sound like?

So, maybe you don't have to listen to all ten minutes, but it is kinda cool to see (hear) what the electromagnetic vibrations of a planet traveling through space sound like...



You can hear other planets (even Earth) here.

"Poetry Girl" Interviewed, Reads Three pieces from "Univer-Soul Language"

Hey all!
This was originally supposed to be a monthly feature, finding authors to narrate their own work, interviewing them, talking about their influences, inspirations, etc.

Alas it was not to be.

Though before scrapping the idea, I did get this killer session with "Poetry Girl", one of the authors contributing to The Univer-Soul Language Vol 1. We spent an evening chatting art, inspiration, writing, and, well, poetry, and she was gracious enough to read three of her poems for us, very sweet and personal work.



That, and her voice is hella sexy...


The Univer-Soul Language @ Barnes and Noble

A Wild Night at Kirbys @ MySpace

The RIAA speaks -- and it gets worse

Kind of a rambly post from CNet, but I like it. With every label quickly turning out DRM-Free music, and at least one label getting ready to pull their funding for the RIAA, it'll be interesting to see what happens next. The RIAA has quickly become one of the most disliked organizations in the world. And now, they'll be liked even less.

read more | digg story

Mike Rock the new Announcer for the Chelsea Lately show on E!

Hey all!
Just a great little bit of news about a VO pal-o-mine.

Mike Rock (whom I've written about before), just booked the announcer gig for the Chelsea Lately show on E!

For those of you that haven't read up on him, he was the voice of the Kleenex "Monk" commercial, and also narrated the show Property Ladder on TLC.

What's also kind of exciting about this news is that Mike booked this gig on the road. Visiting his folks, he got the audition from Abram's through email, he punched his Sony ECM-MS907 microphone into his MacBook, jumped into a closet, sent off an mp3, and he became the voice of a show. Incredible!

Voice actors, it's becoming more and more necessary to have a basic understanding of digital audio! It's just too easy now, and it's a vital tool in getting yourself work.



Anywho, congrats Mike, and you've just given me a reason to catch the show!

S.A.G. to Dump AFTRA, says "It's not Me, It's You"...

Well, I can't say I'm that surprised.
Daily Variety (amongst EVERY other trade publication and news channel) is covering the probable end to Phase 1.

I'm really not trying to pick sides here, but when one guild has twice the members (more than twice when you factor out dual card members), and out earns the other guild by a factor of NINE to ONE, it only makes sense that at some point it'll start to flex some muscle.

As I've written before, I think having the two guilds fighting over the same space only serves to neuter the contracts that come out. The video game contract is a perfect example. Both guilds completely underestimated the potential earnings for video games, and now we're stuck with voice over contracts that actors will never be able to make a living off of. The producers will NEVER renegotiate this contract, as why would they pay more for the same service.
This is also a HUGE disservice to the 40,000 dual card holders that have to work twice as hard to keep up pension and benefits.

The radical in me says it's time for one union, but the realist in me says it's time for a hard-line stance. It's time the members stood up and fought for clear and decided boundaries on what the two guilds are allowed to negotiate.
Having both guilds negotiating 50-50 on everything has only benefited production so far, to the detriment of the 150,000 actors involved.

This is a huge deal for people working in VO. I would highly recommend reading up on Phase 1.
@ Daily Variety

WOOT! Netflix Watch It Now Goes UNLIMITED!!!

ALL RIGHT!
This is awesome folks! I'm a huge fan of Watch It Now!

Apparently to combat Apple's announcement that iTunes will become a video rental service (lame), Netflix is dropping the hammer.
For all customers on plans higher than the $4.99, there will no longer be any restriction on W.I.N. With over 6000 titles ready to stream, that's really sweet. Mrs. Audio Guy and I use it to crunch a ton of old TV shows. They've got a great little catalog of BBC TV up and ready, Faulty Towers anyone?

If you're running a PC with an S-Video port (or if your TV will handle a VGA or DVI connector), GO BUY A CABLE NOW. A $20 cable allowed us to watch streaming online video from the comfort of our couch, and now we'll pretty much never go back to a video rental place!


Anywho read up on the full announcement here (Yahoo Biz via AP).

Thanks for the heads up David!

Top Striking Writers to Launch Online Video Company

Hmmm sounds a bit more like a manifesto than it does a business plan...

“We are a coalition of top film and television writers and top tech innovators who are dedicated to creating and delivering professionally made content directly to the end user, and who believe in the model of freedom and inclusiveness over the model of control that has been employed by the big media conglomerates for the past 100 years”

The point though, is that online, content is king. It'll be interesting to see if they pull this off.

read more | digg story

Anti-Piracy Voice-Overs to Prevent CDs Leaking

Recently, more and more CDs are being protected by voice-overs to prevent these albums from leaking to the public before the official release date. The voice-overs are pretty effective, but there is a downside, they start to annoy reviewers and even start to affect album ratings.

read more | digg story

Some Audio Guy reads you a story, A SILLY story...

Last month I had the opportunity to crash a studio for a couple days, and just for kicks, recorded a bunch of silly stuff.
I might get more of it up, but I was sick as a dog, so my voice kept jumping back and forth from "cool guy gritty" to "just hacked phlegm can't breathe".


Anywho, that nastiness aside, here's "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen:

You can also Download it by clicking on the title in the player.

Enjoy!

Lifehacker Drops the BOMB on free MP3's

Holy cow!
This has to be one of the most comprehensive articles I've ever read on where to find free music.
Search engines, streaming sites, automation for importing, even tools to "broadcast" your own collection, and what the article lacks, is MORE than made up for in the comments.



It's a good time to be a music fan...

Check it out @ Lifehacker

Revision3 Gazette - Tour of the Revision3 Studio

WOW!
I've got some mad gear lust going on.
If you're interested at all in how content is produced, I would highly recommend checking this vid out.
Revision3 Studio Engineer David Randolph gives an amazingly in depth look at the studios which create shows like Tekzilla and The Totally Rad Show (my two faves right now). He also talks about some of the challenges he went through, and how everyone arrived at a cutting edge (bleeding edge?) $500,00 studio which can rival some of the content produced in multi-million dollar setups.



Fascinating...

Speechless with Justine and Jason Bateman

So, no writers huh?




There's more where that came from!

Bob Bergen - "All characters have a voice, but not all voices have character"

Talk about a kick in the pants!

While I was at the agency I had the opportunity to direct Bob Bergen a couple times (i think quite literally twice), and I can easily say they were some of the most fun sessions I had ever recorded. Playful, imaginative, and very open to suggestions and direction, but I really respected that while I could tell he really was playing, really having fun, he was also very efficient. He had a goal, and he attacked it almost tactically.
As the booth director, a busy day could mean pushing record over 200 times. The actors who come in READY to play are refreshing, a breath of fresh air, and really help move the day along. They're the ones I have the most fun with, and are the most creatively satisfying both artistically (directing) and technically. If I remember correctly, Bob's second read with me was for a neebish character, and I had a blast simply setting his mics up to accentuate the work he was doing (416 set high to capture his sinus cavity).

Soon after I left the agency, Bob invited me to sit in on one of his animation classes, and I jumped at the chance. The first class of 2008 was last night at Voicetrax West (Artt was the engineer WOOT!), and about 13 of us (4 auditors and 9 students I think) were in attendance.

It was a great night.

This first three hour class was an introduction night, class expectations, introduction to the business, voice health and maintenance, homework, and a little time left at the end for a primer on character creation and sound effects. Bob's manner is gracious and self-effacing, instantly engaging. His craft and advice is honest and practical, and I found my neck was sore after the first hour from agreeing with him so much.
Towards the end of the evening it was time to start playing, and we jumped in immediately with sound effects. Within minutes the room was full of dogs, dinosaurs, vultures, seals, and more. Bob easily broke down how these sounds were created, and just as easily broke down student's resistances and stripped away self-consciousness.
I watched several times as students would exclaim "Oh, I can't do that", only to have Bob walk them through step by step, and BAM, a minute later a pterodactyl was born! Also it was interesting watching the differences in gender. I think boys have a slight edge, as growing up our toys need sound effects (I played with Transformer, which need to drive and fly around, shoot lasers, and blow things up, all the while speaking with big robot voices), so it's not that silly an idea for us, but the women held their own just fine.
True to form, everyone who was there participated, so even though I hadn't payed a dime to observe, I was working toe to toe with everyone else. I thought I had an edge, as my Velociraptor is formidable, but Bob threw me a curve with "Crying Baby". Sure enough, in under a minute, with a couple quick tactical tips, I was shocked as the very realistic sound of a crying infant was screaming out of my face.
It was a magic kinda moment for me, as it's rare in life that someone can say "Oh, do this" and not only does it just simply work, but you find yourself creating something you never would've thought yourself capable. It's something so small and simple, but it opens up all these possibilities in your head.

I can't thank Bob enough for letting me sit in, and If you (the reader) are interested in the business and performance of animation, I would HIGHLY recommend Bob's class. After just one session I was energized, motivated, and I'm seriously considering jumping out from behind my mixer, and stepping up to the mic again.

For more info check out Bob Bergen's web site.



And if you happen to read this Bob, I'm down any time for Vox on the Rocks!

Zombie '90 - Dubbing so bad it's good?

OK, so we all know I'm a huge sucker for zombie flicks. I love them! They're now pretty much my fave monster movies. Sometimes scary, sometimes funny, sometimes intentionally funny, often gross, the premise is just so ridiculous it's hard not to have fun with them.

I got all inspired by a story on zombie origins written up over at IO9, that I felt like watching a zombie movie. I've had a copy of German film Zombie '90: Extreme Pestilence, largely known as one of the worst movies ever made zombie or otherwise, kicking around for a while, so I figured now was as good a time as any other.

It's bad. Really bad. It's literally two guys driving around killing zombies, and zombies eating humans. That's about it. English speaking audiences get a rare treat though. The English dub is SO AWFUL it's actually really funny. The casting is bad (big ole black dude voice for skinny white German scientist, WTF?), the recording is bad (mic pops, breathing and mouth noises, no effort to blend sounds, I think it's in mono now that I think about it), and at some point they just give up and let the voice actors come up with witty lines REGARDLESS IF ANY CHARACTERS ON SCREEN ARE SPEAKING!

Across the board this movie is so horrendous ... you might actually enjoy it, if you're into that Mystery Science Theater 3000 kinda thing...



I found a clip on Youtube. Check it out:



Picture courtesy of Zombie Eat Brains.

Stephen Colbert feuding with Venture Bros?

This would make me really sad if it were true, so I'm hoping this is just a bunch of fan bois taking things out of context and blowing them out of proportion.

Pop Candy has the scoop on this potential Adult Swim scandal (I'll call it "Venture Gate").

Stephen Colbert is receiving a lot of love today since his Comedy Central show returns tonight. But some folks who may not be sending good vibes his way are those involved with Adult Swim's The Venture Bros.

Then Quoted from the Jackson Publick Blog:

One sour note from the past month (aside from my car getting hit yet again) is that Mr. Stephen Colbert has decided not to reprise his role as Professor Impossible this season, for reasons which probably have something to do with him being all super-famous, super-busy, and no longer in need of a few hundred bucks here and there. We figured this would happen eventually, considering his monumental success in the years since our first season, but we held out hope that the WGA strike would leave him with enough bored free time on his hands that he'd have a go at it. But after getting shuffled around from his assistant to his assistant's assistant to his agent to his manager, one of them finally shot us an email saying: "Stephen has neither the time nor the interest in participating in your project."

Was the "nor the interest" really necessary? I would have bought the "time" part without question, but man...you gotta kick a guy when he's down like that? Well maybe I'm not interested in your ice cream, mister! Or your book. Unless someone buys it for me for Christmas.

Here's PopCandy's write up.

Here's Publick Nuisance.


I wonder what Warburton has to say about this...

Many of Bob Marley's Original Recordings Stolen

I don't have any thing witty or funny to say. This is just really sad. A huge collection of 1970s music has turned up missing from the archives from the former Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation. Authorities say among the music that has "walked" from the archive are recordings by reggae legends Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.

read more | digg story

News Sound Bites - Napster, Sony, Golden Globes and More!

CorePlayer (a play anything media player Windows Mobile users have been using for a while) comes to the iPhone. Play any file, not just what Apple wants you to play!

Sony's plans for DRM-Free Music are retarded! I mean this in the truest sense of the word, as in "to retard progress".

In other DRM news, Napster is going DRM free, likely give up on subscription service?

NO GOLDEN GLOBES FOR YOU! ONE YEAR!!!

Your iPhone can now be used to help you figure out what that song on the radio is...

Sierra Entertainment touting Prototype as the first Video Game to feature 7.1 THX surround sound audio. Sounds good to me.

Odeo relaunching, to become relevant again?

MetaFilter users wax philosophical on the Death of High Fidelity (not the movie), and I agree.

Pickup lines for married people. A new music video from Riegel & Blatt.

You know the feeling.
You're not old, but you're younger friends are running circles around you.
You and the missus will watch an entire season of The Simpsons on a Saturday night.
You're looking for another couple to play board games with.
This video is for you.



WWW.RiegelAndBlatt.com



Woot for the Dallas Raines shoutout! LULZ!

Mad TV spoofs Feist 1234, Apple

Quite possible the funniest thing I've ever seen on Mad TV.

Jay Leno could face disciplinary action from WGA

"Tonight Show" host Jay Leno could face disciplinary action from the Writers Guild of America for writing his monologue while the nearly 2-month-old writers strike continues. Leno, a member of the guild, met recently with WGA West President Patric Verrone to discuss his decision to pen his opening segment.

read more | digg story

Jurassic Park turns 15, looks better than most movies made today...

Why is that?

Now bear with me here. I am an audio guy, and really have no business talking crap about visual effects, so I'm kinda just rambling on as a movie fan, not an authority, but JP still looks awesome.



AMC is touting the 15th anniversary of Jurassic Park (though it's technically not til June), and Mrs Audio Guy, Biggelow, and I are watching it now. It's a great monster movie. Great jump moments, incredible creatures, fantastic music, dismemberment without being too icky, watered down plot, it's pretty much everything you could hope for in a family friendly creature feature.



When it came out I was entranced. I was already a HUGE dinosaur nut, and had read the book twice before the film was released. I blew my allowance on seeing this movie over 10 times in theaters (maybe even more after it hit the $1 theater). It made a huge impact on movie special effects, and along with T2, ushered in the CG era of film making.



So why don't movies look any better today?



OK sure, looking back there are some flaws and we have improved animation since then. The lighting and shadows don't always look quite right. Often the dinosaurs have a slight "green screened" look to them. The gallimimus look a little cartoony, but those points aside, I think the dinos look far better than anything we've done recently. They react properly to gravity. Their movement doesn't suffer from that weird CG wiggle (where muscle and skin seem to get WAY over animated). They impact their environment well. Just great work, still a high water mark for animation.



I mean comparing JP to Peter Jackson's King Kong is almost no contest. The textures and lighting are better in KK, but the dinos, well, not as good. The "brontos" look cartoon, every piece of the raptor moves independently of every other piece, the T-Rex looks great, but moves kinda goofy. Whenever I would complain, people would explain that the dinos were supposed to be "stylized", but I don't buy it, what with the level of detail that went into Kong himself (which does look REALLY good).



JP T-Rex















KK T-Rex





















JP Raptors



















KK Raptor (best shot I could find that wasn't a mess of motion blur)

















Also, why doesn't anyone use puppets anymore? The Nedry scene is classic, and is accomplished without a single CG shot. I can just imagine if the same scene had been done today, or Dr. Grant lying on the Triceratops. I get really frustrated watching CG elements thrust front and center. We're not there yet. We're still smack dab in the middle of the "Uncanny Valley". We rely on this stuff more and more, but it almost always lets us down.











I just wish sometimes we could take a step back and realize that maybe CG Neo's and Jabba's aren't such a good idea, and that sometimes the T-1000 just needs to be a dude wrapped up in tin foil...





Anywho, Happy Birthday Jurassic Park! Here's to hoping that the plans to make Jurassic Park 4 fall apart!



;-)





Oh, and the JP T-Rex roar is one of the coolest sound effects ever produced. There's my audio tie in...

Have you purchased your copy of Niggy Tardust yet? Why not?

I just slapped down my $5 for an FLAC copy, and I'm really enjoying it. Dark, edgy, I just really dig Reznor as a producer.

Saul Williams, a champion of DRM free content, brings a powerful performance to the table. At times vulnerable, at times invoking a raw, explosive energy that stabs you between the eyes, a Lenny Kravitz meets Jimmie Hendrix meets Seal...

on PCP...

The constant genre mashing can be a little exhausting, but in a good way. It's like the first time I heard Downward Spiral from beginning to end. I really felt like I had accomplished something. There are influences aplenty...

The cover of Bloody Sunday is a stand out single that really moved me, almost as much as when I heard the original. This track needs to be on the radio NOW. Another standout for me was the raw nakedness of No One Ever Does, a gorgeously simple/sweet ballad, amid the chaos/frenzy/hunger of the rest of the album.

There's just so much to hear in Reznor's mix, and in Williams' words, it's unlikely that I'll pull it off the ipod anytime soon.

Just like my posts on Radiohead's release of In Rainbows, this is another grand experiment. The album is being released for Free (MP3 @ 192Kbps) or for $5 (FLAC or 320Kbps MP3). So far the numbers are ... interesting? Out of 150,000 downloads almost 30,000 have paid for it. That's one in five, 20%. Is that success? No one really knows yet...

Ars Technica has a pretty good write up explaining the details behind the distribution, and Reznor himself offers up a fairly in depth look at the experiment so far.

You can download the album here.

Napster Raising Prices. Is it Going Out of Business?

It's really to bad. If someone had slapped a price tag on the ORIGINAL Napster, I think everyone would be making a lot more money now.With free competition in the streaming music space from companies like Imeem who are forging revenue-share deals with the labels, Napster’s latest business model may also die, much like the original p2p service.

read more | digg story

3D Sound Illusion - The Barber Shop

I SWEAR I heard something like this at Disneyland or Disneyworld or someplace that might not have been Disney affiliated.

Anywho, this is some CRAZY panning, foley, and sound design work. Take a listen with a decent set of headphones and close your eyes. It's almost unsettling how good some of this work is!

Antitrust lawsuit against Apple?

Well, when one company occupies such a large percentage of the online audio/video market and hardware market, it's bound to come up eventually...

Information Week is reporting on Plaintiff Stacie Somers who filed suit on Dec 31 (Happy New Year?), claiming Apple maintains an illegal monopoly on the digital music market.

Apparently the major point of contention is Apple's unwillingness to support protected media from sources other than iTunes.

The complaint takes issue with Apple's refusal to support the Windows Media Audio format. "Apple's iPod is alone among mass-market Digital Music Players in not supporting the WMA format," it states, noting that America Online, Wal-Mart, Napster, MusicMatch, Best Buy, Yahoo Music, FYE Download Zone, and Virgin Digital all support protected WMA files.

The suit goes on to claim that even though the iPod is physically capable of playing protected media from sources other than iTunes, this feature is deliberately crippled in the player's software.

What I'm unclear on, and what the article doesn't really elaborate on, is the injury to the consumer.

As for the injury to consumers, the complaint says that Apple's pricing is "monopolistic, excessive, and arbitrary," citing how a wholesale $5.52 price difference between 1-Gbyte ($4.15) and 4-Gbyte ($9.67) NAND flash memory modules results in a $100 retail price difference between 1-Gbyte iPod Nano and a 4-Gbyte Nano.
If the complaint is with the software, I don't understand what the price inflation of the hardware has to do with that, other than the obvious claim of collusion with memory makers.

Another interesting point (briefly touched on) is the recent popularity of DRM free music (Sony recently caving for example), and it's unclear what impact that might have on the suit.

Apple of course has no comment.

Read the whole article here @ Information Week

News Sound Bites

Blu-Ray BD profile 1.1, any good? Only two players can use it right now anyway...

Sony sees the light, and drops DRM, is the last major label to do so!

Sirius denied merger, in the red $1.3 billion, subscribers up 38%, good year?

Chuck D wants Def Jam, has 4 point plan to fix it!

Variety: Hollywood discovers Voice Acting more than just "talking"...

CNet slams Washington Post for not correcting RIAA story.

Guardian delivers HUGE collection of niche music sites!

Upgrading your computer monitor might cause DRM conflict in Vista, block Netflix, invalidate other legitimate purchases, only bother paying customers...

Deaf Porn? (via Wired, links on following site might be NSFW)

Avoid "Red Sauce" on your iTunes, buy the real thing instead...

Olympus Releases LS-10 PCM Stereo Recorder

Gizmodo got the scoop!

Olympus is taking all of their experience in making PCM recorders, and delivering a fairly impressive pocket sized stereo recorder.It even looks cool!

The feature set is pretty impressive, boasting 24bit/96kHz PCM recording, wav/mp3/wma support, 12 hour recording life on 2 AA's, built in stereo mics with a line in, 2GB of built in storage with an SDHC card slot for additional storage, and support for both Mac and PC.

Great sign me up, so what's the down side?

Well it's currently being priced out at $399. That's a lil steep. I can only hope it's sold for less when I look them up on Zzounds. At $399 it's hard not to compare this recorder to kit like the Zoom H4 or Microtrack II (each easily found online for $299).
While the LS-10 handily trumps the Zoom and MT in storage and battery life, it doesn't offer Phantom Power, so no powered mics without a separate 48v power supply.

Sound quality had better be top notch to warrant the premium (I will gladly test this if Olympus would like to send me one, *wink*nudge*wink*)...



Olympus Official Site

***UPDATE 8/19/08***

New Media Gear has a great review of the Olympus LS-10.

Traverso Free Audio Recording/Editing Software - Simplicity = Virtue?

A week ago I wrote about Open Source Living, a site dedicated to cataloging open source/free software, and was really excited about their audio page. One particular program caught my eye, and I've finally had a chance to try it out.

Traverso is a multi-platform, multi-track audio recording and editing program that boasts a simple and clean user interface. It's still technically a Beta (I downloaded v.42), but it's fully functional. Best of all, it's totally free!

Right from installing, driver support is great with Traverso instantly picking up my 410, and setting up 2 stereo recording tracks for me to play with. I have to say the interface is a little off-putting at first. It's very stark. There are NO bells or whistles on installation. It does have support for skins (and I don't know how that would affect functionality), but I'll only be dealing with the default.

What's good about this minimalist approach?

Well, this program is tiny (about 35MB full install), and snappy. There was no lagging, stuttering, weird pauses, nuthin. It launches up and is ready to go. Recording and playback are accompanied with a very smooth screen slide , which is very pleasing to watch as you play through longer files. Simple. Clean.
This approach is also very low impact on the computer. Along with having a small install footprint, CPU and RAM use is also extremely low. I don't think I ever got above 5% CPU recording 2 Mono and 1 Stereo tracks, and Memory usage stayed between 15-20MB. Those are Audacity numbers for true multi-track recording (though Audacity does have better editing features). By comparison, to accomplish the same recording in Acid6Pro I'll hit 20% CPU usage and upwards of 90MB of RAM use. This is great news for people who haven't built bleeding edge quad core monster workstations. Add in very good exporting and burning. ogg/flac/mp3 support, unlimited undos, non-destructive editing, and it adds up to a pretty substantial package.

What didn't I like about Traverso?

Well not a lot. With such a stark interface, it can be a little frustrating digging through menus to get to the features you want to use. None of the keyboard commands are anything like any other DAW I've ever used, so be ready to hunt through right click menus when you start. Along with that note, the cursor is frustrating to use. I spent 5 minutes alone just trying to playback something I had recorded. The selection and playback cursors are different cursors, and to move the playback cursor you have to hit the shift key. This is a bad decision. I got myself into a little trouble trying to rapidly make some quick edits. I ended up hitting the shift key so quickly that Windows tried to enable sticky shift, which is a major pain.
Also I had a small bug where I couldn't see waveforms while recording, but I'm pretty sure that's a me thing.

All in all I'm VERY impressed with the functionality and stability of Traverso. If you need recording on the cheap (heck on the Free) this is an excellent DAW, and one you should totally check out. Using this program with Audacity, was very much like working between Soundforge and Acid. It's a great unofficial software suite, and you wont spend a penny!

Traverso can be downloaded for Mac or Windows.

Traverso

Open Source Living: Audio Page

Audacity Development for the Mac - A Call for Help?

Recently I posted on Audacity's update to 1.3.4, well I didn't notice at the time, but that update was for Linux and Windows only (the two OS's I primarily use at home) not OSX. Apparently OSX has STILL not received the update as there are no Mac users working on Audacity anymore.

TUAW links to the Audacity forums, where recently a call for developer help just went out. I was happy to see that it was answered pretty quickly on both the forum AND TUAW. With that I thought I would second the call, help put out the word, as Audacity is a fantastic audio editor, and it's never good to let a platform lag too far behind. To my knowledge it's still the only Open Editor that plays across all three major PC platforms.

I still find it odd though, that with the Mac becoming a more and more attractive solution (thanks Vista), and has always been known as a "creative friendly" platform, that there isn't more development of this kind of software.

I don't normally write about this (I only made it through one semester of CS), but if anyone out there develops for Mac, and has some time to throw in for a GREAT piece of software, I'm sure it would be appreciated!

TUAW

Audacity Forum

Music for a phone keypad

LOL, I remember doing this as a kid! Play songs such as Funkytown, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Ten Little Indians and much more by using your phone.

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Super Cheap Condenser or Mid Range Dynamic? MXL 990 vs SM57

I've gotten this question a couple times now:
Should you use a cheap condenser or an established dynamic mic for voice over?

It's a tricky question to answer.
There are pros and cons to each approach, and largely I think it still comes down to budget and experience. This seems a little bit cop out, as ideally we would make audio decisions with our ears alone, but there are several "bang for buck" points that need to be addressed.



Since this question is so tricky to answer, I thought I'd throw down some equipment to see if it helps. I recorded myself on a Marshal MXL 990 and a Shure SM57. The MXL is largely known as one of the cheapest budget condenser mics you can find, often retailing for just under $60. The SM57 is the gold standard of studio dynamic mics, and retails for about $100.
I recorded myself on each, plugged directly into my FW410 at matched gain. I was about 7 inches from the 990, and about 1 inch from the SM57. No editing was done other than to Normalize volume (second batch of recordings), and to mix down to 320Kbps MP3. These are really raw and noisey! Yay!



Which one sounds "better"? Let's take a listen!
Here's my (awful) reading of Shakespeare's Sonnet 17 (Mrs. Audio Guy picked it out for me, woot).

SM57 Raw Output:

MXL990 Raw Output:


OK, so the SM57 is audible, but I can't hear it as well as the 990. To get a better listen at whats going on, let's boost both samples and match the output volume (peak normalized to 90%).

SM57 Normalized:

MXL990 Normalized:


Alright that's better. I think the 990 is a little bright, maybe even a tad harsh, but it definitely sounds clearer and more present than the SM57. Where the SM57 succeeds is in lower noise, higher tolerance for peaking, and a richer tone for vocals, but out of the box (and plugged directly into a Soundcard without any other gear) I'd have to say I'd prefer the sound of the budget condenser.

Would you really use a mic this way though? Well. not really. The SM57 really needs to be driven by a dedicated preamp, so since we're comparing budget gear, I dug up my old Behringer T1953, which at $150, is about as budget as you can get. Plugging the SM57 into this gives us a nice little 20dB gain boost.



SM57 on Preamp:


Now listening to that, I'd much rather use the 57. The tube adds a ton of hiss (which after listening back I should've tried a little harder to clean out...), but I sound richer and fuller.

So what can we conclude?

It all comes down to budget and experience.

*To use a budget condenser, you need a soundcard with Phantom Power (at least $150), to use a dynamic you should really drive the mic with a dedicated preamp (at least $150) into a decent sound card (at least $50).
M-Audio FireWire 410 4-In / 10-Out FireWire Mobile Recording Interface

*Out of the box the condenser will have a slightly lower learning curve (plugging directly into soundcard) and give you slightly clearer recordings, but will sound brighter (or harsher) and thinner. The dynamic will have a slightly steeper learning curve (mic into preamp into soundcard), but will be more tolerant of peaking or clipping, more directional (wont pic up as much room noise), and will probably sound richer.

So I know that's a cop out, but it really will come down to which one you sound better on, versus how much you're able to spend to get there. Hope that helps, and comments/questions always welcome!

Spawn: The Animation released this year?

Rumors are creeping up again that Spawn: The Animation (teased here at the 2005 Comic-Con) could be released this year.
I really hope so, as I'm not only a Spawn fan, but the IMDB page shows a dream cast for the project: Mark Hamill, Michael Jai White, Keith David, Clancy Brown, Phil LaMarr, Bruce Boxleitner, Jon Polito, Carl Weathers and Peter Jessop (the last two I've worked with, woot).

With the Spawn 2 film perpetually stalled, this could be just the fix I need...

News Sound Bites - First Batch of 2008

IGN gives Dragon Ball Z: Budokai for the Wii an A+ for voice and sound, about a C- overall. I'm currently watching the Frieza Saga just for kicks...

Voices.com has released an incredible "State of the Business" for Voice acting. Read it. Learn it. Live it.

CNet (via Reuters) wants you to host your own talk radio show, over the internet.

The voting is in, and Idolator has finally delivered us their worst album art of 2007.

Gamasutra has a great article on the challenges getting artists and coders to communicate when producing videogames.

The Voice of the London Tubes, Emma Clarke (known for telling passengers to "mind the gap"), was dropped after satirizing her Tube gig. The press surrounding the incident has boosted her profile, and she can now be heard on a popular Sat-Nav.

Yeah I decided to make the entire last story a link. What wanna fight about it?

Celebs give voice to the People - Free Show in Boston! Star Studded reading of 'A People's History of the United States'!

Are you going to be in Boston on January 8th or 9th?
Do you enjoy political history?
Do you ever wish a group of celebrities would read a book for you, so you don't have to use your own eyes like a sucker?

Then, boy do I have a show for you!

Celebrities will be reading A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn at the Cutler Majestic at Emerson College. The show will be recorded, and divided into four, one hour episodes. No network has picked up the show yet, but with the current political climate being what it is, and the list of talent is actually pretty cool. I'm sure there wont be any issues selling the show.

Tickets are free, and they need a live audience, so I would HIGHLY recommend checking it out.
From the Majestic website:

Big names, and the rest is history

At long last, Howard Zinn's influential 1980 book "A People's History of the United States" is being turned into a TV miniseries called "The People Speak," and it'll be shot here in Boston next month. The series will star several Hollywood heavies, including Matt Damon, Marisa Tomei, Viggo Mortensen, Danny Glover, Josh Brolin, and David Strathairn, as well as actresses Kerry Washington and Q'Orianka Kilcher, and singer Allison Moorer.

...

And how about this? The music will be performed by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and perhaps Bruce Springsteen, who's a big fan of Zinn's book. "I think there's a good chance Bruce will do a song," said Zinn. "This is exciting."

I'm super jealous. I would totally get a kick out of this! Someone needs to go and let me know how it was!

Cutler Majestic's web site for more info and (free) tickets!

Write up from the Boston Herald!

Wow, worst blog post title EVAR!

How to sound like Led Zeppelin, impress friends, profit

Just in from a reader.

Wired's Listening Post is linking out to a GuitarPlayer article about how Jimmy Page was able to create the band's iconic sound.

“I had been on sessions with other drummers,” he once explained, “who, while they played pretty well, sounded like they were just hitting a cardboard box. The whole reason for that was they were sitting in a little drum booth, which just sucked the sound out of the drums. So right from the first album, I insisted that the drums were going to breathe, and that we were going to get a proper tone on them. Of course, given that set of circumstances, you couldn’t get a better drummer than John Bonham. He knew how to tune his drums.”

Check it out, it's a great read.

Thanks J.!!!

Top 10 Most Pirated Movies and TV Shows of 2007

TV-shows are by far the most popular files on BitTorrent sites. On Mininova alone, some episodes are downloaded more than 2 million times. Movies are a good second, with over 500.000 downloads for the most popular titles.

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Sony to license Beatles for use in music, commercials, films

Not sure how I feel about this.

It’s perfectly legal, but it will still seem to some listeners like the sound of someone making off with England’s crown jewels.
Forty years and more after the Beatles changed rock music forever, their songs have truly arrived in the 21st century as part of the rap/hip-hop art form — with the express permission of their publishers. Although there are hundreds of covers of ”Yesterday,” “Something” and the rest, this approach of ”interpolation” — essentially rerecording a portion of a song — of the Beatles’ compositions represents new access to the most famous catalogue in the world. These developments may ultimately signal a fresh attitude toward Beatles masters appearing in everything from commercials to movies.

That's not true. I don't like this idea.

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MSN via AP, Thanks Mrs. Audio Guy!!!

Happy New Year!

PARTY TIME SPIDER-MAN WISHES YOU A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS 2008!!!

DO WHAT SPIDEY TELLS YOU TO DO!!!