Is This Thing On?

Hello, and welcome to another episode of “Is This Thing On?”
(Download MP3)

For those of you cruising the InfoBahn, my name is Dan Shaurette. Welcome to my podcast.

I actually have a couple items I wanted to talk about today. The first of which is the fact that having a Blog pays off.

Just before I turned my unknown blog into an obscure podcast, I had written about this great new mystery novel I had started reading called The Daughters of Freya. I happened to mention that I would love to interview the authors, Michael Betcherman and David Diamond when I’m done.

The unique thing about this novel is its delivery, as emailed conversation between the characters. The reader actually receives about three emails a day in their inbox to read as if eavesdropping.

About a week into the story, I received an email that I thought at first was part of the story. It turned out that it was actually from one of the authors, Michael Betcherman himself!

I’m presuming that somehow in his efforts to get feedback on the novel, that he came across my blog. He introduced himself and said he and David would like the interview. I wrote back and asked him if he’d consider a phone interview that I could record for this podcast, and he agreed.

That’s assuming I can record the conversation, but even if not, the review and interview will appear in the Self-Published Authors newsletter among other sites.

So folks, I learned two lessons that day. One, never underestimate the power of the internet. Second, it’s a lot harder to record a phone conversation that’s audible than I first imagined.

So, I spent last weekend doing the research on some equipment and programs to get this going. Hence no podcast last week (yeah right). I’ve taken a great sweep at the different (cheap) approaches for this. I’ve got so many cables coming out of me I feel like a frickin’ cyborg.

Here’s what I’d found so far:
1) Use the voice modem in the computer to record the phone call, using software like ModemSpy or TRx Recorder.
2) Use an external telephone recording control to patch the phone line into the microphone jack of my computer.
3) Use SkypeOut or Net2Phone to place the phone call from my computer and record it online with software like HotRecorder.

First off, all three of these methods should work, with varying degrees of quality. If any of my faithful listeners (Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!) feel like giving this a go, I’d recommend you do try them all, if you can, to find what works best for you.

So, first I thought, how slick it would be to use my computer’s Fax/Voice/Speakerphone modem as a way of recording my calls. I did this once upon a time with a different computer and saw no reason why it shouldn’t work now. (Foolish boy.) I tried two programs out that claimed to record a phone call by tapping the voice modem.

Neither worked. ModemSpy didn’t even acknowledge my modem. TRx Recorder did connect, but kept clicking like it couldn’t open the line. I checked out their online help and did all the tricks they suggested, but to no avail. I confirmed my modem should have worked, even though it’s a SoftModem, and even upgraded the drivers. I even tried using Audacity, which is the sweet open source audio editing software I use, to record from the “Phone Line”. It too only clicked. So in the end, I gave up on this method.

Next I tried Telephone Recording Controls. The first one I bought was $30 at Fry’s Electronics and they had just the one kind. It was some no-name brand but looked simple enough to use. Indeed it’s very easy to use, simply connecting between the headset and the phone base itself and then plugs into a tape recorder, or in my case, my microphone jack of my PC’s sound card. I picked up the phone and dialed my cell phone as a test, and all I heard was BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Terrible, terrible RF noise. It was not possible to get far enough away, presumably from my PC, to reduce this. So I took it back and got a refund.

Then I went to Radio Shack’s website. I found three recorders there, the first of which was only $15 and was the same POS I bought from Fry’s. I discovered that model does not offer any UL or FCC compliance, which explains a lot. The other two did. One was $25 and the other was $30. The only real difference was where you could plug the controller in for maximum flexibility. One can plug between your outlet and your phone, the other can do that or plug into one extension jack and you can do the recording from a phone on another extension. I didn’t think I needed that extra level of versatility.

A friend of mine at work said he actually had one of these controls, as his wife recorded phone interviews once upon a time. They were knd enough to let me borrow their control, which was Radio Shack’s #2 model #42-228A. (Thanks Kim and Steve!)

With device in hand, I plugged the phone line into one end, the phone into the other, and the mic jack into the PC. I dialed up my cell phone, and the difference was world’s better. But still not what I’d like. There was still some background noise and the local voice was louder than the remote voice. So I did some research into ways to improve this. I came across a great article (”Uncle Doug’s Cheap Interview-Recording Technique“).

He had a great tip that helped with the problem of the voice levels being different. The suggestion was to do the interview as a three-way call. Use the local phone with the controller as a switchboard of sorts, and call one phone you have (my cell phone) and the party you want to interview (I tested with my work voice mail) then mute the local phone (I did this by disconnecting the handset!) What this achieved was making my cell and the voice mail, ie. both remote phones, the same level of volume. This solves one problem, but now both are mired in a faint white noise wash that has been rather hard to remove, especially when amplifying the recording. I probably would still have chosen this if I did not have a third option.

Good thing I do: Voice Chat. My initial option for this was Yahoo Messenger, especially since they just released a new version which touts better voice integration. (Right, they just want to compete aganist Skype and others.) Again, you’d think it would be easy to record a voice chat, but you still either need to fool your sound card or you need a program to record the chat.

First I went with testing the software solutions, and I tried both MPLAT Recorder and HotRecorder. By far the better of the two was HotRecorder. MPLAT was giving me trouble because I had to use the “Mono Mix” setting for the audio mixer in order to blend the sources. But the audio was too choppy from the remote end.

HotRecorder didn’t recognize my Yahoo Messenger, even though it says it can use it. Maybe it’s incompatible with the new version. However it works perfectly with Skype and gave an excellent balance of the audio sources. So what’s the catch with HotRecorder? It’s free to use to record your conversations, but you have to pay if you want to convert their proprietary format from ELP to MP3 for outside use. It’s $15, which in the end is an excellent price for the software. But I um, just had to try a cheaper way.

I decided to try to fool the sound card. The trick is to get the speaker output from the sound card to mix in with the microphone input, giving me both sides of the conversation. Then I should be able to record this with Audacity, which is the audio editor I use. MPLAT’s Mix idea left me cold, so I thought if I could use a splitter jack I could feed both the mic and speaker out into my mic jack. With enough digging in my Never-Ending-Blue-Tub-of-Crap, I finally found a splitter and a cable to loop the speaker to the mic. Once again the Tub saved the day.

Sure enough, this trick worked like a charm, for Skype. For Yahoo… I ended up sounding like a Munchkin on Helium. Why this is the case, I have no idea. So what’s the verdict?

I plan to use Audacity to do my recordings as I have been. I will use Skype to handle the voice chat, and if the people I wish to interview do not use Skype (say because they don’t have a microphone, or don’t like voice chat) then I can just use SkypeOut, which is a VoIP solution to call a telephone using Skype. Michael, I hope you like Skype. It’s Free. :D I should do a test SkypeOut call to hear the quality too. But that’s another PodCast.

If you have any comments about this blog, feel free to drop a note here. Thanks for visiting.

This Blog and PodCast are © Copyright 2005 by Dan Shaurette, under the Creative Commons “Attribution with No Derivatives” License. Some Rights Reserved.

The music came from the royalty-free collection at http://www.musicloops.com.

Hello, and welcome to the first episode of “Is This Thing On?”
(Download MP3)

For those of you that stumbled upon my podcast, my name is Dan Shaurette. As I was deciding what I was going to talk about in my podcast I realized that some of you might not know who I am. First and foremost, I am not a speaker. I prefer writing to talking. I’m shy and I tend to think I have a rather less than masculine voice. I’d claim that puberty had not been kind to me, but in fact, my childhood voice was much higher.I am a 33-year-old Aquarius living in Scottsdale, Arizona. I am a separated father of four, and I am a writer. Software mostly, but that’s my profession. I’m a freelance writer, which is more like a side job. In 1993, I wrote a novel and eventually took the route of self-publishing it. I get a royalty check about once a year after a couple copies sell. Next to that, the closest I’ve come was getting paid was for articles that I wrote for Acrimony magazine.

I’ve also written some short stories as well as some poetry and lyrics. I have every intention to publish a book of these as well. But then, I have every intention of writing sequels to my novel. Which I have every intention of updating drafts for. These all require the recognition of deadlines which I find most distasteful.

As I don’t write for money professionally, it doesn’t bother me that I don’t make much money. I write what moves me and if folks feel moved enough to pay me as a result, I’m moved enough to accept the payment. By no means should you take this to mean that I would never sell out. Au contraire, mon amie. I’m just happy to have a job that pays the bills so I can write what I like. If I had to, I’d pimp my pen out to the highest bidder. I admire those authors who have been successful at this, because they have the talent, and they also have the drive to achieve that goal. My fellow untraditionally-published authors are no less talented or driven, they just must keep trying. Their muses will accept no less.

It is my admiration for my fellow self-published authors and their goals to either be successful in that path, or in becoming traditionally published, that brought me to write articles for a newsletter for self-published authors. About two years ago I was offered the chance to be the editor of the newsletter and have enjoyed that ever since.

What I also enjoy is that landscape where my programming skills and my penchant for writing merge, as web pages. I have quite a few, all of them linked to my home page, Shaurette.net. One of my favorites is my website for the discussion of all things religious, called Theo. In 2001, I became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, and created my own which I called the Aquarius Church of Enlightenment.

The ULC will ordain anyone for free no matter what their religious beliefs are. Some call it a sham, I call it a great liberator and equalizer of religious freedom. My ordination grants me the power to perform weddings, among other ministerial duties, and I have actually performed one wedding ceremony. I had the pleasure of uniting my best friends John and Glenda in June 2002.

I consider myself an ecclectic agnostic as I admire and respect many relgions. I do not share all beliefs as I feel it is impossible to believe everything. I simply grow tired of religious intolerance around the world, and indeed in my own country which is supposed to cherish religious freedom. This is why I created my church, for lack of a better term, which is really just a website dedicated to discussing religion.

Another website I run, The Lurkers’ Domain, is for telling stories and enjoying role-playing games. I visit a lot of other websites, my favorite being VampireRave, which is dedicated to one of my favorite things: vampires. Vampires are the main characters in my novel, and I just really enjoy books, movies, music and TV shows about vampires.

In general, I like good books, good music, good food, good company, and a good laugh. A like a good debate, until it becomes mud-slinging. What I don’t like is anyone who thinks they’re better than anyone else, for any reason. You can like what you want, believe what you want, say what you want, do what you want. Just don’t tell me you are better than someone else because of what you believe.

That’s what I believe and I think I’ve rambled enough for now. If you’ve got any comments about this blog, feel free to leave a note here. Maybe give me some ideas for what I could discuss next time. Thanks for visiting.

This Blog and PodCast are © Copyright 2005 by Dan Shaurette, under the Creative Commons Attribution with No Derivatives License. Some Rights Reserved.

The music came from the royalty-free collection at http://www.musicloops.com.

I've got a microphone now, so the process is underway to make my soft-spoken pandering available for mass-consumption. Until then, I wanted to let you all know about a really cool site. For those of you who don't know, I'm a writer. Not only am I a self-published author, but I am the newsletter editor for SelfPublishedAuthors.com. It's published on the first day of every other month. Today being August 1, was the deadline for publishing it. As usual, I was running late, but it's a labor of love to cull together so I don't bitch about it. As I was trolling for links and resources, I stumbled upon The Daughters of Freya, an email mystery. This is a mystery novel that has been published in a quite remarkable, non-traditional way. The novel is a collection of email exchanges between the main characters of the story. But instead of buying the book as a whole, the readers subscribes to the novel and receives the emails in their inbox. This gives the reader a more intimate focus on the story, as if being CC'd by the characters themselves. The emails are received over a three week period, in real time. So, on average, the reader may receive 3 to 5 messages a day throughout the day. Part of the suspense is in waiting for the next piece. The current cycle of the story started today, and cost only $4.99 to subscribe. You can also preview the first three emails for free. Also, subscribers have the chance to discuss the story with fellow readers in a private forum. We'll be able to discuss clues and share our theories along the way. I read the preview emails and decided to spring for the fiver to track this story down. (Finally a novel at MY speed!) I plan to write a review when it's done and would love to interview the authors, Michael Betcherman and David Diamond when I'm done. Check it out. This has potential, especially if you're a fan of mysteries like I am. It also stands to add a new spin to the "promise of the internet". (A cynic can hope.)