NevOn Experimental

Podcasting with an Alesis mixer

I bought a mixer on my trip to London a few days ago - an Alesis Multimix8 USB.

Among its many features are 8-channel mixing, 4 microphone/line inputs, a load of special effects as well as phantom power for a condenser microphone. Full specs here. Bundled with it is Cubase LE recording software. That's primarily intended for music mixing and I'll probably stick with Audacity for podcast voice recording.

I bought the Alesis at Maplin Electronics in Bayswater for just under 130 quid, along with a Shure C606 dynamic cardioid microphone. It all looks to be more than ample for what I want to do with audio recording for podcasting, at least at this point - an affordable hardware-based recording and mixing system that's easy to install and set up and isn't too complicated to figure out and use.

Installation was very easy - turn it on, plug the USB cable into the PC, turn on the PC and that was basically it. Windows XP saw it immediately and, after changing the default recording/playback settings in the control panel audio setup, I was good to go.

So I've been experimenting a bit today, and learning (or trying to at least) some new things. I'm sure I don't yet have the optimum settings for standard voice recording - this 5-minute test recording (MP3, 2Mb) might indicate that - so more trial-and-error testing ahead. I plan to use it when Shel and I record Monday's edition of For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report.

One issue I may encounter - echo when recording over Skype. Shel and I have had this problem for a while in our twice-weekly shows. The echo doesn't record but I certainly hear it. We think it's a mixer issue. So I wonder what will happen on Monday when I'm using this mixer and Shel's using his and we're recording over Skype...

New Dell rig in place

Finally able to spend a little time with my new desktop PC - a Dell Dimension XPS Gen 5. Pretty good-looking, don't you think?

It arrived at the beginning of last week and I've now got everything unpacked, sitting on my desk and in use, sort of. Key apps like Microsoft Office, FeedDemon RSS reader, etc, installed. Most docs transferred from my laptop although still loads more to do. But at least I can use the new PC from now onwards for day-to-day business.

I must say that I'm very pleased with it. I didn't order the most top-of-the-range model (no Intel Pentium D processor, for instance, just the regular 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 processor supporting Hyper-Threading Technology) as the budget didn't quite go that far. Instead I settled on a mid-range customization that provides a great balance between price and performance.

I did go for additional RAM and a great 5-speaker sound system, and I did splash out on a gorgeous 19-inch flat panel monitor - the thing you stare at all day is worth that extra investment.

Some initial impressions:

All set for podcasting on the move

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a Packard Bell AudioDream digital MP3 music player/recorder.

While Packard Bell is not a brand I have a load of confidence in, to be frank (a view based on very poor experiences some years ago with a desktop PC), they have a potential winner with this little gadget.

The impressive spec includes 1Gb of flash memory, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, colour LCD display, plays WMA and MP3 files, supports ID3 tags, has voice recording capability in WAV file format and a line-in socket for a microphone. The whole thing is about a third smaller in size than a credit card (thicker, of course: it's about a quarter-inch thick) and weighs just 30 grams.

What I wanted such a device for was to record conversations for the podcasts Shel and I do in For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report. There are a few conferences coming up during the next few months that I'll be presenting at or otherwise participating in, with opportunities for conversations with some interesting people.

Today, I bought an external microphone, and a very neat one at that. It's an Eagle G157B clip-on (or desktop standing) stereo mike that comes with a powered sound amplifier (which is actually bigger than the AudioDream), that uses one AA battery, to help capture the best-quality sound. I think it does that - check the short test recording I made (MP3, 03:33, 1.5Mb). Note: this isn't a podcast, just an MP3 file. It would be a podcast if it were available via RSS, but it's not.

Now, voice recording on the AudioDream is in WAV format only, so how did I get an MP3 file? Quite easy, actually, using a method that's simple and straightforward.

Once I'd done the test recording, I connected the AudioDream to the PC via the supplied USB cable to copy the WAV file to the PC. Then I opened that file in Audacity, the free cross-platform sound editor (I have the Windows version) which enables me to save the WAV file in MP3 format.

I could also have manipulated the WAV file if I'd wanted to. Perhaps enhance the quality, or strip out any extraneous noise, add a fade, etc. But for this test, I just saved it as an MP3.

While this certainly isn't a studio-quality or professional sound recording, I think this set up will do just fine for recording conversations for our podcasts.

Incidentally, the AudioDream makes an excellent backup device for files. It's one-gig capacity is pretty huge, really. It's by no means the simplest device to use for managing music files - no simple synchronization here with iTunes, for example, which automatically updates a device as it does with an iPod.

No, with the AudioDream, you get the device and a USB cable (plus headphones, carry case, etc). When you connect it to your PC, Windows see it straightaway as an external drive. So you'd access it to copy and delete files just as you would with any drive. Getting music on to it means manually copying the music files.

I'll likely be using it more for file storage. I don't need this to play music as I have my iPod Mini!