Sunday, September 12, 2010

CodeRage - Audio/Recording Equipment

I was just accepted to do two CodeRage Sessions, I am excited about both of them.
  • Building Robust Applications with Customized Exception Management
  • Continuous Integration with DUnit and FinalBuilder
I hope everyone gets a chance to attend some of the sessions, the exact dates and times of my sessions are not known yet. The conference is scheduled for October 4-8, 2010.

What I used in the past and will still
use to monitor broadcast audio
Right after I graduated from high school, I attended university as a theater major. That lasted about 2 years before dropping out to become a full time Delphi programmer. :-) But my love for Theater is still in my life. I volunteer at our local theater, building sets, running shows, and many other things.  As such, I developed an appreciation for quality sound.

One of the things I observed in my past recordings was my audio quality was not what I wanted it to be.     I also don't have a huge budget to turn my office office into a studio, but I did make some investments to try to improve the quality of the sound.  About $280 later this this is what i have:
The New setup

I have now done some test recordings, and I really pleased with the quality of my voice.  If I were only doing an audio podcast I would have a near perfect setup. But with a good microphone comes some problems, related to the acoustics of the room,  I now can hear the keyboard, mouse, the squeaky chair, the fan on the computer, and a slight echo.  I also can hear the kids if they are talking in the room next door.  To get the audio in my office where I would want it would be another $400-$700 not something I am going to spend any time soon.

So some tricks I have learned:   A laptop keyboard is much quieter than my desktop keyboard so I most likely will be presenting on it instead of my desktop.   Strategic placement of hung blankets helps with the Echo of room which reduces other noises.    I suspect some WD-40 on the chair will help with the squeak or I will just switch chairs.     If I am recording noise reduction will remove most of the noise from the computer fan.  This but it won't help with the live presentations, so I might pull out the longer cables I have. to isolate the computer, as I still need it even if I am not typing 100% of the time on it.

Overall I hope that future live and recorded sessions of mine will have better audio for everyone.    Even if I am the only one that may notice the difference in the end .

5 comments:

  1. When are you going to stop all this airy fairy programming malarky and go back to university so you can get a real job in the theatre? ;-)

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  2. Note that getting rid of all these background noises, also takes away a lot of the "atmosphere" that set IT-sessions apart.

    I probably would get seriously bored when all CodeRage sessions were becoming studio quality audio.

    --jeroen

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  3. LachlanG: I am back at university but for Programming this time :-)

    Jeroen:
    That is a good point, I am quiet typing long enough many times that the keyboard sound is needed. But right now, the keyboard is loud enough to be down right annoying.

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  4. No sample audio posting? #disappointed! :) Looks like some good setup. Do you pass your old equipment to guests on the show or does that create an uneven audio quality?

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  5. If someone was in my office with me I have other Mics I could run through the board. If they are remote (Skype) they could send them through the mixer to keep levels good, and maybe adjust a little EQ if really needed.

    But most of the time the audio of guests is controlled by GotoMeeting/LiveMeeting and I don't get to control any of it.

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