The eagle has landed

Like most of the interns in 1.3 I have struggled with my audio settings, wrestled with my microphones and tried to rewire my virtual audio cables. All this to be met with consistent failure sprinkled with a healthy dose of encouragement along the way. Enough with the history lesson let me get to the good news! I did it! Last night I was testing my new R1-edirol digital recorder. I was very happy because I was able to use the headphone jack out from the computer and the line-in into my device. I attached my basic headset to the recorder to see if it was picking up anything. Affirmative. I tried a skype call and entered a skypecast. Fine. The only difficulty arose when I tried to join the skypecast. Hmmm, the desktop mic was in the USB but even with some selection adjustments no-go. Ah ha! Why not open the VAC. Yes! The key was in the order I opened the utilities. (Jeff has said this before, I bow down to the great and powerful wizard) I had my R1 attached, the desktop mic plugged in,then I opened and started VAC. Finally I opened and launched the skypecast. I listened through my headphones attached to the R1 and spoke through the desktop mic plugged into the USB. Success! I'm ready to try streaming. I know, I know. When is it available you ask? I don't know but I plan to find out soon. Would any interns like to join me for this exciting first? Let me know. I'm just alittle happy, can you tell?

What? No R1? Do you have an ipod? If the answer is yes then you may be in luck! My ipod video recorder attachment has a line-in, if I remove the mic. I have a feeling that this will record just as well as the R1. If this turns out to be true, save the money you'd spend on the R1 and just buy the mic attachment for the ipod. You can find the video ipod mic at http://extrememac.com

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Congrats

Submitted by sharonbetts on Fri, 2006-12-15 00:27.
Success is sweet - I have not had any time to work on the Academy other than to read your successes every couple of evenings. I am going to listen to last Sunday's session tonight or tomorrow. I may find an hour or so to try to at least record a Skype call using Audacity and vac tomorrow. Again - good work.

Sharon, what are your plans this Saturday?

Submitted by sendkathy on Fri, 2006-12-15 02:57.
Sharon, I know how you feel. What are you doing Saturday morning? I would like to book the sandbox to test my streaming abilities. I keep watching Jeff's tutorial over and over, pausing to make sure I understand. He makes it sound sooo simple. The trouble is all this week I listened in on Skypecasts from EdTech, Women of Web2 and Teachers Teaching Teachers and they all had trouble and had to drop the skypecast component. All of the participants were very flexible because they were experienced and new how to open the stream to listen and how to make comments in the chat. I just wonder how 'regular' people handle this kind of stress? I can only imagine the stress on the part of the person setting it all up! Back to my original request. Would you like to play in the sandbox with me? Jen Wagner is also game. You may have heard or met her on a webcast. She's just a great ed tech person to talk to so it would be fun and low stress. You could practice recording, so could I and I could practice streaming. Just let me know what time you have available and I will make the request for this Saturday. I figure if we allow an hour and a half from set up to clean up we'll be fine. I'm in Georgia so EST. Jen is flexible but in California so too early wouldn't be kind to her. Let me know. Thanks, Kathy

Obviously not there

Submitted by sharonbetts on Mon, 2006-12-18 16:58.
Kathy, Thanks for the invite - this weekend was completely tied up with family. I am just at a complete loss for some of this stuff. I really think that things are going to get easier for recording and casting in the near future. I am pretty much game for a challenge - I just can't take hours to try to figure out how to start with each new thing - different mics, different recording programs, ugly sound levels, etc. I have basically put everything on hold (except listening to the Sunday webcasts and ready the blogs) until January. Sharon

Follow up after the ipod experiment

Submitted by sendkathy on Tue, 2006-12-12 02:46.
Ok, so you will need a headphone splitter because you can't hear from the ipod while you are recording unlike the R1. You may also want to get an a/c jack just in case your battery fizzles during the recording. No one can tell you are recording them so I think it would be a good idea to include a disclaimer on the skypecast that if a person decides to participate in the audio they will be recorded and are agreeing to allow their comments to become a public podcast. My experiment took me into an interesting array of conversations from evolution to chinese music, the roadrace group is very enthusiastic and I couldn't pick up any sound from the women for world peace! I just audited the conversations and recorded snippets to check the sound quality. Because whether you are using the R1 or the ipod you will not have the advantage of visual audio input waves, your only clue to the volume is your headset and your only control is the Volume Control slide bar from your little speaker icon. KDShields
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