Money's tight this week, but my intention for the near future is to obtain the last
few pieces that I need to for my **NEW, IMPROVED, RECORDING SETUP (SETUP! Setup!
setup...)**. This includes that microphone and cable that I purchased a while
back, and which I believe I phlogged about; as well as the M-Audio USB soundcard.
After consulting with a person far more knowledgeable than myself, I learned that I
likely needed external power for this mic, since USB just wasn't gonna cut it. In
retrospect, of course, this seems obvious, but recording or amplifying equipment
has never been my specialty. Though I have a background in live performance, it
was in theater, where we rarely needed amplification. I did some rinky-dink t.v.,
too, but the equipment was radically different from this stuff. Anyway, yes, maybe
I should have known that there was a power issue with this microphone/soundcard,
but I didn't. But now I do. That learning curve is like the shape of a cutlass,
and can cut just as deep, but I think I'm holding the handle at last
With luck, I'll have the external power source and extra cables that I need to make
it all work in the coming weeks, and then I can start testing sound. My goal here
is to record and release some of my fiction as audiobooks/podcast novels. The
exact form or format for all this is TBD, but I'm leaning towards a regular podcast
of released audio content, with an accompanying link for the content in written
form. For audio, the formats might include OGG, SPEEX, and FLAC. For the written
versions, it might be TEXT, DOCBOOK, TEX, and maybe ODF. I'll have a
permissive-enough license on this stuff so that other people can transcode/convert
anything they want into any format of their own choice and redistribute it. So, if
somebody wants an MP3, they can make one and put it out there on the
Interwebcloudnets, if they want, provided the other aspects of the Creative Commons
License I'll be using (which, also, is to be decided) are respected. That's the
plan, anyway. By default, I want only open formats in use here. Yes, I know that
limits me greatly when it comes to distribution, since I cannot place anything on
iTunes and/or a lot of other podcast aggregation sites, who are MP3 and/or
proprietary format happy. That's a little sad, maybe, because in such a scenario,
my work isn't likely to ever find a large audience. Then again, since I'm not
likely to ever make money off of this, I can't see a reason why it matters
overmuch. I mean, the Free Culture Movement is important. Very important, in
fact. Even so, I'm the first person to whore himself out if there's a dollar to be
had -- I'm the original Cheap Yankee, after all -- but I just don't think there
will be any fortune rolling in over what amounts to my avocation. I might be wrong
about that someday, but it's a problem I wouldn't mind having.
I imagine I'll have another scimitar to swallow, trying to get my sound and editing
skills up to snuff. But if I can release some of my stuff, without going through
the usual send-it-off-to-a-publisher-and-then-pray routine, which I've always been
horrible at, then I've accomplished something. This might be just the thing for
me. Time will tell, and this phlog is the place I'll be talking about it, so, I'll
see ya when I see ya.
