The Motu Experiment - podcast episode cover

The Motu Experiment

Jul 27, 202533 minEp. 279
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Episode description

Thanks for listening!

There's a donation link on my homepage: https://redcircle.com/shows/a48341c0-b884-4c41-beb2-418786447214


TECH NEWS:

  • APPLE INTRODUCES CARE ONE
  • APPLE RELEASES PUBLIC BETAS FOR ALL OPERATING SYSTEMS
  • BLACKBERRY TO COME BACK?
  • RCS UPGRADES ITS BACKEND


TECH I'M USING:

  • MOSTLY QUIET


ENTERTAINMENT NEWS:

  • BALLARD ON PRIME VIDEO
  • DEATH OF A TRUE ROCK STAR


PODCAST NEWS:

  • FAILED EXPERIMENT AND A RESOLUTION
  • TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST PODCASTS LIST
  • AUDIO DRAMA VOICE ACTOR'S EQUIPMENT

email:ofntpodcast@gmail.com

socials: still a hard no

web: https://redcircle.com/shows/a48341c0-b884-4c41-beb2-418786447214

music and effects: purple-planet.com and pixabay.com



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Transcript

[SPEAKER_05]: a factual data creation facility production. [SPEAKER_04]: From the foothills of Tennessee to your listening device of choice, it's the OFNT podcast. [SPEAKER_04]: Now here's your host, who's still waiting for interesting tech news to materialize. [SPEAKER_04]: Jim Schaefer. [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to episode two, seventy nine, which I'm calling the Motu experiment. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm still struggling with my audio interface. [SPEAKER_01]: Details in the podcasting section.

[SPEAKER_04]: Great. [SPEAKER_04]: We can hardly wait. [SPEAKER_04]: Excitement is in the air, not. [SPEAKER_01]: Yet again, not much is happening within the world of tech. [SPEAKER_01]: A Google has an event slated for August, so there's that to look forward to. [SPEAKER_01]: Be prepared for yet another short tech news section. [SPEAKER_01]: Then, is usual. [SPEAKER_01]: But, it'll be a longer episode. [SPEAKER_01]: Yay! [SPEAKER_01]: Which will make some people happy?

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I'm pleased with that news. [SPEAKER_04]: Enough with this bantering with AI-generated voices. [SPEAKER_04]: Let's just get this show in motion. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, before I do that, I have a correction in the podcast section of the last episode. [SPEAKER_01]: I had a story about the British Broadcasting Corporation, the good old BBC. [SPEAKER_01]: I had stated that I started noticing a political slant reporting from the BBC around the time of the first call for.

[SPEAKER_01]: What I meant to say was around the time of the start of the Iraqi war. [SPEAKER_01]: Same goals with the BBC news reader pronouncing President Bush's name as Bush. [SPEAKER_00]: So that would mean that my comment about recalling that presenters' pronunciation at that time could also be considered gulp wrong? [SPEAKER_00]: Well yes, I'd say so. [SPEAKER_00]: The blame for this error lies squarely on you the host.

[SPEAKER_00]: With the accent that I possess and weld so eloquently I can't be held at fault. [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever helps you sleep at night or whatever it is that you do. [SPEAKER_01]: Technos! [SPEAKER_01]: Boy, those guys from Cupertino love to sit around and think of more ways to squeeze money from their customers. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes! [SPEAKER_01]: The Verge.com is reporting that Apple has launched a subscription service called Care One, not to be confused with Apple Care.

[SPEAKER_01]: Care One will cost one twenty dollars per month. [SPEAKER_01]: The service will cover up to three Apple products with the option of checking on more devices at a cost of five dollars and ninety five cents each. [SPEAKER_01]: This coverage includes all of the things that Apple Care Plus does, like batteries and limited repairs for accidental damage and twenty four-hour support.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can also add products that are up to four years old to your care once descriptions with the caveat that these products are in good condition. [SPEAKER_01]: Apple will know how good of condition these products are in because they'll run diagnostic checks on them before allowing you to add them to your plan. [SPEAKER_01]: Beften loss coverage is included for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. [SPEAKER_01]: Just what the world needs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another monthly subscription service. [SPEAKER_01]: I can see this appealing to people who spend most of their time out and about using their apple gear constantly, but for most people especially old farts like myself. [SPEAKER_00]: This service isn't a great deal. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you're worried about breaking any of your devices and not being able to afford the outer pocket costs for repair, this service may appeal to you. [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've never gotten an apple care on any of my devices. [SPEAKER_01]: Only once did I have an iPhone display crack on me. [SPEAKER_01]: It was an iPhone five, and I was prepared to shell out the money for repair at Apple. [SPEAKER_01]: The display had a small crack at the very top left of the screen. [SPEAKER_01]: While at the Apple store, the technician examined the phone and came to the conclusion that the damage was not caused by me and replaced the screen gratis.

[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciated this, and the incident made me stick with Apple. [SPEAKER_01]: Nine to five Mac.com, and of course, every Apple's central tech site is heralding the release of the public beta for iOS. [SPEAKER_01]: Twenty-six, iPad OS. [SPEAKER_01]: Twenty-six, and Mac OS. [SPEAKER_01]: Twenty-six, and all the rest of Apple's operating systems. [SPEAKER_01]: This is the version that features the new, liquid glass users interface. [SPEAKER_01]: It's gorgeous.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we've all been told. [SPEAKER_01]: This beta brings Mac like features to the iPad and iPad like features to the Mac. [SPEAKER_01]: Only I'd be all over this public beta, but times have changed. [SPEAKER_01]: These days I prefer stability over new features, well, so far. [SPEAKER_01]: The only feature I'm really looking forward to is from Mac OS. [SPEAKER_01]: Twenty-six. [SPEAKER_01]: Apple is adding the phone app to Macs, and this will be good for loopback recordings.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's something only podcasters and audio geeks will fully appreciate. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll be holding off from this beta until the late August, if I decide to participate at all. [SPEAKER_01]: Have you tried this new public beta yet? [SPEAKER_01]: If so, let me know what you think of it. [SPEAKER_01]: If you're of a certain age, then you'd remember when the Blackberry phone ruled the mobile communication world.

[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps Blackberry can be credited with revolutionizing it. [SPEAKER_01]: I know up in New York at the time of Blackberry's dominance, [SPEAKER_01]: more people were using it than the upstart iPhone. [SPEAKER_01]: The blackberry was popular because of mainly two things, a great hardware, quality keyboard, and blackberry messenger. [SPEAKER_01]: It was if you were in an exclusive club when you used a blackberry phone because that was the only way you could use blackberry messenger.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, for a brief time, you could get blackberry messenger on certain Nokia E-series phones, but that didn't last very long. [SPEAKER_01]: I bought a cheap blackberry for use at work because most of my co-workers use one and used BBM for communication. [SPEAKER_01]: This was after blackberry stopped charging extra to use the company servers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Apple took a cue from blackberry and introduced the version of BBM which was of course I message with the release of the iPhone X. [SPEAKER_01]: That's the phone that lured me into the famed old garden, which I still reside in to this day. [SPEAKER_01]: After the introduction of eye message, it was only a matter of time for Apple to dominate, challenged only by Android. [SPEAKER_01]: To be honest, besides BBM, I didn't use my blackberry for much else.

[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing that I liked about blackberry was the darn phone would be able to have a usable cellular signal just about anywhere. [SPEAKER_01]: Even in places where other phones were relegated to being nothing but paperwork. [SPEAKER_01]: Eventually my co-workers switched to iPhones when a sprinkling of android phones. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, that's a great story. [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for sharing it. [SPEAKER_03]: But I have to ask. [SPEAKER_03]: Is there a point to it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, yes, there is, and I'm getting to it. [SPEAKER_01]: According to an article from androidpolice.com, well, there's a plan to bring the blackberry phone back from the dead. [SPEAKER_01]: What? [SPEAKER_01]: Back during, and I guess after a blackberry's heyday, a website dedicated to it called Crackberry was the number one website for all things blackberry related.

[SPEAKER_01]: The site was held by Kevin Michalok, but are known as Crackberry Kevin, who never gave up on blackberry and has been advocating for his return ever since. [SPEAKER_01]: He's worked for Manufacture TCL, who've released Android-based Blackberry clones, while licensing the Blackberry name. [SPEAKER_01]: Mr. Mitch Locke was also responsible for the clip case. [SPEAKER_01]: That was a physical keyboard case for iPhones and select Android phones.

[SPEAKER_01]: Recently, Crackberry Kevin has started a petition for the return of Blackberry phones. [SPEAKER_01]: His justifications are a current nostalgia for phones with mechanical keyboards. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about that. [SPEAKER_01]: A desire to spend less time on a phone while also being less distracted by it. [SPEAKER_01]: Good motives indeed, but I have some questions. [SPEAKER_01]: What form factor will this new Blackberry take?

[SPEAKER_01]: What mobile operating system will it run? [SPEAKER_01]: An updated Blackberry OS or a skin-dandroid copy of it? [SPEAKER_01]: While nostalgia is a factor here, nostalgia also fades after a while. [SPEAKER_01]: Plus I'm very comfortable with the interoperability between my iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV box. [SPEAKER_01]: Blackberry never had it hardware ecosystem like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: The younger generations who preferred the large screen slabs we have today, either Braille to remember Blackberry or have absolutely no memory of the phone. [SPEAKER_01]: Or the company, [SPEAKER_01]: I'm of the opinion that this resurrection of the Blackberry won't get off the ground. [SPEAKER_01]: Mr. Mitchlock seems to be attempting to recapture his youth. [SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately for him, it's time to let the past go.

[SPEAKER_01]: The world has moved on, and I think he should too. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll finish this short tech news section with a modern communication method that being rich communication service known as RCS and its constant improvements. [SPEAKER_01]: The GSMA who oversee RCS standards has just released universal profile three dot one. [SPEAKER_01]: This new standard improves connectivity onboarding and notifications.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is accomplished by streamlining the way RCS clients connect to operator services and tighter integration within operating systems and push notifications services. [SPEAKER_01]: Audio Codex have also been upgraded. [SPEAKER_01]: All these improvements are to RCS's back end, but will contribute greatly to its performance. [SPEAKER_01]: I add in the recent approval of a standard for end encryption, and we finally have a contender for a secure, true universal messaging system.

[SPEAKER_01]: The problem for RCS, though, is twofold. [SPEAKER_01]: Carriers and phone manufacturers have to adopt these standards, and so do consumers. [SPEAKER_01]: Apple was basically forced to adopt RCS and many smaller manufacturers are yet to come on board. [SPEAKER_01]: Google has been the leading proponent of RCS and their version of it is completely different than the official standards, meaning that not all phones will be completely compatible.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not all cellular service carriers have implemented RCS yet either. [SPEAKER_01]: Mainly the small ones haven't done so yet. [SPEAKER_01]: When Apple first implemented RCS, I went through my contact list to see how many of my Android using friends had activated RCS on their phones. [SPEAKER_01]: The answer? [SPEAKER_01]: One of about twelve of them had. [SPEAKER_01]: Just before recording this episode, I checked again.

[SPEAKER_01]: About half of them had activated RCS and that was most likely upon buying a new phone. [SPEAKER_01]: So until these hurdles are cleared, RCS will remain in the background for most consumers. [SPEAKER_01]: It'll be up to the carriers, manufacturers, and the GSMA itself to get the word out about RCS. [SPEAKER_01]: And that's my opinion anyway. [SPEAKER_01]: Tech I'm using. [SPEAKER_01]: Like the tech industry, my tech I'm using situation seems to be on a summer hiatus.

[SPEAKER_01]: All the tech I have on hand is functioning properly and more importantly, reliably. [SPEAKER_01]: You can't ask more from tech than that. [SPEAKER_01]: That's the fact. [SPEAKER_01]: I still haven't gotten around with playing with Alexa Plus. [SPEAKER_01]: I would like to put the digital assistance conversationality if that's even a word to the test. [SPEAKER_01]: There's still something off putting about conversing with a non-living entity from me though.

[SPEAKER_01]: My cheap and comparison to other models, Owen and television sound bars performing well, and I'm enjoying it. [SPEAKER_01]: When I upgrade my current television, then I'll consider upgrading sound bars. [SPEAKER_01]: Speaking of which, I never received the return shipping label for my broken LG sound bar. [SPEAKER_01]: Now this marks the second time I've had a problem with LG.

[SPEAKER_01]: The first being the television taking over thirty days to ship from a mere sixty miles away, [SPEAKER_01]: When I do upgrade my television, I'm considering a Vizio OLED, along with one of the company's higher-end sound bars. [SPEAKER_01]: As far as future tech, doing things on the horizon for me is a new iPhone, and now I still haven't decided which model I want to get yet, and maybe a pair of upcoming AirPods Pro.

[SPEAKER_01]: My lovely wife still uses the first version of them, so she'll be inheriting my current second generation AirPods Pros. [SPEAKER_01]: Other than those two things, there's nothing tech related I'm really looking forward to. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh wait. [SPEAKER_01]: Where's my Tesla self-driving car that was promised for this year? [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_01]: And to tame it news.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last week I mentioned watching the first episode of the new Prime Video Series Ballard. [SPEAKER_01]: The show's a spin-off of the very successful series Bosch. [SPEAKER_01]: It stars Maggie Q, who you might remember from the Nikita series from years ago. [SPEAKER_01]: I had only watched the first episode of Ballard, which was basically a set-up episode, reserved judgment of the series until I had at least a couple of episodes more under my belt.

[SPEAKER_01]: While I managed to make it the episode four, despite passive interference from the one whom must be obeyed, who doesn't care for police Bay shows. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I can say that I enjoy Ballard, though it doesn't bring anything new to the old police procedural genre. [SPEAKER_01]: Unlike Bosch, Ballard does introduce some subtle virtue signaling into the episodes, but does attempt to make this virtue signaling gentle. [SPEAKER_01]: Part of the plot in most cases.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, viewers are not hit over the head with the so-called message. [SPEAKER_05]: Well, thank goodness for that. [SPEAKER_01]: It was fun seeing some of the characters from the Boss series make appearances in Ballard. [SPEAKER_01]: MegaQ is in fine form, both physically and in acting skill, and carries the show well. [SPEAKER_01]: So if you're in a mood for a decent, mostly not offensive police procedure type television show, what Ballard is a safe pick.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last week, I, like everyone else, receive news of the passing of Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer of the band that is credited for inventing heavy metal music, the legendary Black Sabbath. [SPEAKER_01]: I knew Ozzy wasn't in the best of health, but this news still shocked me. [SPEAKER_01]: A little over two weeks before his passing, he reunited with the band for one last performance. [SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps he knew his time was almost up.

[SPEAKER_01]: At least he got his wish of performing one last time with his band. [SPEAKER_01]: I had always assumed that Bill Ward, the drummer of Black Sabbath, would be the first to go. [SPEAKER_01]: Old Bill has been in ill health for many years now. [SPEAKER_01]: The news of Aussie's death hit me hard as Black Sabbath was my, or is my all-time favorite band. [SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't to Black Sabbath before it was considered cool to be into Black Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I was a young teenager, Bled Zeppelin and Deep Purple ruled the hard rock scene. [SPEAKER_01]: But most of my fellow teenagers at the least of moons that I knew were into country rock, you know, like the Dooby Brothers and the Outlaws. [SPEAKER_01]: I despise this music genre so needless to say, I was an outsider when it came to musical taste. [SPEAKER_01]: The problem for black Sabbath was that the band received absolutely no radio play.

[SPEAKER_01]: You couldn't even find black Sabbath records in stores. [SPEAKER_01]: With no such thing as the internet yet, the only way I knew of black Sabbath was from magazines that covered the hard rock music scene. [SPEAKER_01]: These magazines would often describe Sabbath as demonic and devil worshiping, which somehow appealed to the young me, probably because it was different. [SPEAKER_01]: Black Sabbath had a sort of mystique for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, the band was neither demonic nor were they devil worshiping. [SPEAKER_01]: First time I ever heard the band came when I was staying over at my friend Tom's house once Saturday. [SPEAKER_01]: His house had a finished basement, complete with cool lighting, a bar, a television, and a pretty good stereo for the time. [SPEAKER_01]: Tom's older sister had a large collection of music on the A-Track format. [SPEAKER_05]: What is this A-Track that you speak of?

[SPEAKER_01]: I recommend you go to your favorite search engine if you want to find out what an ATRAC cassette was. [SPEAKER_01]: Anyhow, Tom had fallen asleep in me being a night owl. [SPEAKER_01]: Search through a box of these ATRAC tapes that was just laying around. [SPEAKER_01]: Finding a bright colored one, sporting the now famous cover for the paranoid album, I was finally going to hear Black Sabbath instead of just hearing about them.

[SPEAKER_01]: I put on some headphones and slid the A-track tape into the socket on the stereo player, pushed a play button and turned up the volume. [SPEAKER_01]: The first song that played was Ferry's Wear Boots. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I had never heard anything like it before, especially the bass playing. [SPEAKER_01]: I listened to the entire paranoid album more than a few times at evening. [SPEAKER_01]: The first black Sabbath album I purchased for myself was a technical ecstasy.

[SPEAKER_01]: On the day I enlisted in the military, I went and saw a black Sabbath and concert for the first time at medicine square garden. [SPEAKER_01]: That was in December of nineteen seventy six. [SPEAKER_01]: I had no split seats, but I was excited to be there. [SPEAKER_01]: Ted Nugent was the opening act and I couldn't wait for him to be finished. [SPEAKER_01]: Eventually he did finish and I waited for black Sabbath and I waited and I waited and I waited.

[SPEAKER_01]: The crowd was becoming restless and no other than Frank Zappa came out to calm the crowd down. [SPEAKER_01]: I remember the guy sitting next to me exclaiming, what is he doing here upon seeing Zappa? [SPEAKER_01]: Many years later, I learned that Zappa was supposed to play a couple of songs with Sabbath. [SPEAKER_01]: It never happened because Tony Ayomu's guitar had to be re-strong, hence the delay, and time just ran out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Black Sabbath's fondly took the stage and while I enjoyed the set, I could tell something was off, and it wasn't a band's best performance. [SPEAKER_01]: A few years later, I got to see Sabbath again this time at the Oxford New Theatre in the UK. [SPEAKER_01]: A new band from California called Van Halen opened for Sabbath, and my friend Rick was pretty impressed with him. [SPEAKER_01]: Me, not so much. [SPEAKER_01]: I never became a fan of Van Halen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Black Sabbath performance was much better than the one I saw at Medicine Square Garden. [SPEAKER_01]: And yes, they played fairies where boots and most of my favorite songs during that show. [SPEAKER_01]: The band was kicking off there and never say die tour, but the only song from the album that they played was Junior's Eyes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember Rick turning to me after the final encore and saying, you know, Ozzy Osborn has the weirdest singing voice I've ever heard before turning his head back towards the stage where the band was lined up taking a bow. [SPEAKER_01]: Bill Ward suddenly started vomiting in the other members quickly disengaged and left to stage, leaving Bill, now collapsed, all alone on that stage.

[SPEAKER_01]: A year or so later upon my return to the state, I was visiting my family, and when going to the local shopping center, a place I'd hung around during my misplaced youth. [SPEAKER_01]: I eyed a store's outside back wall covered with graffiti that red black Sabbath in very large lettering, which took up most of the store's wall. [SPEAKER_01]: My contemporaries had finally cut up to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, Aussie went on to have a solo career, which I wasn't a huge fan of, and then the Osborne's reality show hit big. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I still follow Black Sabbath, but the band just wasn't the same without Aussie. [SPEAKER_01]: When Aussie joined the band for the thirteen album in tour, I tried to purchase tickets for the concert, but they were sold out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ticket scalpers wanted over five hundred dollars for a limited view seats, and I just couldn't justify that. [SPEAKER_01]: I did watch Sabbath's final set from the back to the beginning show a few weeks ago. [SPEAKER_01]: But unlike many, I felt that both Aussies and drummer Bill Ward's performances were just not up to par. [SPEAKER_01]: I son agreed, but gave them props for daring to perform at their advanced age.

[SPEAKER_01]: Though my good friend Rick thought Aussie's voice was weird, I was thought it was unique. [SPEAKER_01]: a unique one-of-a-kind voice that we will never hear live again. [SPEAKER_01]: That audio interface was given to me as a Christmas present some years ago by my son, and replaced a Scarlet II II interface I'd been using since the first episode of this podcast. [SPEAKER_01]: The MoII was quite a leap over the Scarlet product I was using.

[SPEAKER_01]: Back then, I had the Motu running through a DBX-TwayD-S-S analog channel strip, which gave me a noise gate and other features I had lacked in my previous setup, along with some much-needed pre-empt game for my microphones. [SPEAKER_01]: Heck, I even tested off that Motu setup and used it for the recording of the from the kitchen episode last June down here in Tennessee. [SPEAKER_01]: If I'm not mistaken, the from the kitchen episode.

[SPEAKER_04]: was the first to be recorded from the new place. [SPEAKER_01]: You took the time saying that, but you're correct. [SPEAKER_01]: I hadn't yet taken delivery of my computer desk, or in fact any other furniture yet, and set up my gear on the kitchen island counter and recorded while seated in a lawn chair. [SPEAKER_01]: Wow. [SPEAKER_01]: It was very uncomfortable to say at least, and I had incorrectly set the DSR so I sent like I had a lips on the recording.

[SPEAKER_01]: My more modern setup was still in New York being that I was still spending more time up there at that point. [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, last week I set the Motu Up Sans DBX channel strip to test out the use of a software noise gate. [SPEAKER_01]: All in an effort to see if I could use a modern audio interface which didn't include any digital signal processing. [SPEAKER_02]: Now, what was the purpose of this experiment if I might ask?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if successful, I could save myself some money on the purchase of a new audio interface, which doesn't have DSP included, skin-flint. [SPEAKER_01]: The first thing I noticed using the Moto without the DBX unit was that the pre-amps of the device couldn't properly drive my electric voice or a re-tony microphone. [SPEAKER_01]: This was the problem of the not so long ago era of consumer audio interfaces, like the Moto M II when it was released.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Moto and its contemporaries were willfully underpowered when it came to their preamps. [SPEAKER_01]: The second thing I noticed was that the headphone amp couldn't properly drive my headphones to a usable volume without introducing distortion. [SPEAKER_01]: Yet another problem of consumer audio interfaces of that time period.

[SPEAKER_01]: Back then, in order to try a microphone like the R-E-Tone, especially the Sure SM-S-M-S-M-B, you either had to have a channel strip like the DBX or a signal booster like a fedhead or cloud lifter in order to use mics such as Z's. [SPEAKER_01]: Also, though the Moto has two microphone inputs, only one had jack was supplied with that unit. [SPEAKER_01]: Another characteristic of consumer audio interfaces of that time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Up in New York, I really need to have a noise gate in order to filter out aircraft, passing semi-trucks and trains, loud neighbors and mother sounds of the noisy area I resided in at the time. [SPEAKER_01]: Here in Tennessee, the central air unit in the next door neighbor's dog are the chief concerns as far as noise goes. [SPEAKER_01]: I downloaded a free and simple noise gate from Nebrini for this experiment, cheap skate.

[SPEAKER_01]: Using the plugins presets, I found that the gate was either too strong, which cut off some of the words I spoke, or too weak, which led in noise mainly from the central A unit into my recordings. [SPEAKER_01]: Even while attempting to manually dial in the noise gate settings, I got the same results. [SPEAKER_01]: I even tried using various noise reduction plugins in tandem with noise gate plugin, but this just added digital artifacts to my recordings.

[SPEAKER_01]: The fluid connects six interface I use now is perfect, except for the USB input for a mobile device which, no matter what I've tried, refuses to work properly. [SPEAKER_01]: I tried using loopback, which should allow you to record sounds from your computer. [SPEAKER_01]: While this works for pre-recorded media, some reason the levels are too low when recording live phone calls to be usable.

[SPEAKER_01]: The way I was using loopback was to send the phone calls audio to my computer via Apple's AirDrop. [SPEAKER_05]: So, I guess you can call your experiment a failure then. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, overall it was a failure. [SPEAKER_01]: I do have hope, though. [SPEAKER_01]: The Connect Six also features a three-point-five millimeter input connector, so I ordered a three-point-five millimeter TRS to USB-C cable from Amazon, which will be here on Monday.

[SPEAKER_01]: If that doesn't work, Mac OS twenty six adds the phone app to the operating system, so you can make and receive calls from your computer via Wi-Fi. [SPEAKER_01]: This may alleviate the problem I'm having with loopback, because I won't have to use airplane in order to get the phone's audio onto my computer. [SPEAKER_01]: The current addition of Mac OS does have a FaceTime app. [SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps I'll give that a shot and see what happens.

[SPEAKER_01]: I also thought about just buying another connect six. [SPEAKER_01]: The one I currently use was an open box return. [SPEAKER_01]: That may have been the reason for that return. [SPEAKER_01]: The USB-C input connector just wasn't working. [SPEAKER_01]: While recently you're reading reviews of the connect six on Amazon, I found that the leading complaint about it was that the USB-C cell phone input was not working. [SPEAKER_01]: To be fair, those reviews weren't in English.

[SPEAKER_01]: Only when I translated them, did I see those complaints? [SPEAKER_01]: When I bought the Connect Sixies we've used had yet to be posted. [SPEAKER_01]: If all of this fails, it looks like I'll have to purchase a Roadcaster Duo. [SPEAKER_01]: It's the only audio interface on the market that has all the features I need. [SPEAKER_01]: All of the other affordable audio interfaces I've been looking at, either don't have DSP or an input for a mobile device.

[SPEAKER_01]: If and when I'm able to connect a phone to my interface, I can start having guests on the show. [SPEAKER_01]: And who knows, perhaps a co-host? [SPEAKER_00]: Hang on, you already have a bevy of co-hosts. [SPEAKER_01]: Some even have the same glorious accent as I. And no offense, but I'm talking a real life co-host here. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I see. [SPEAKER_01]: Time magazine, which used to be a thing, Beckin, what many believe to be?

[SPEAKER_01]: The day, police lists called the one hundred best podcasts of all time. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_01]: Noticebly absent from this list with the Joe Rogan Experience, Podsafe America, the no agenda podcast and others. [SPEAKER_01]: Instead, podcasts like Call Her Daddy, making Oprah and many other unknown podcasts made the list. [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, the usual favorites of a certain political bent were present.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why I don't understand why podcasts of America didn't make the list. [SPEAKER_01]: I guess that show was in far enough to the left for the author to include in that show. [SPEAKER_01]: Also, missing as far as I can tell, was any independent podcasts, but you know, that's to be expected these days. [SPEAKER_01]: I do understand that not every podcast can make the list, but call her daddy. [SPEAKER_01]: Give me a break.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's you probably know I'm a big fan of audio dramas, especially those dealing with the paranormal or a dystopian future. [SPEAKER_01]: My current favorites are the roads to shadows, haunted the audio drama and the strata. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, out of curiosity, I decided to prove the show notes of the latest episode of Road to Shadows, which included links to the Voice Actors website. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's websites listed the equipment these actors used.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was expecting to see mostly UA Apollo audio interfaces paired with Neumann TLM-NO-IIIs being used in the majority by them. [SPEAKER_01]: But instead, I found many to be using inexpensive gear like the Road NT-One mics and SSL consumer interfaces. [SPEAKER_01]: Heck, even the Moto M-II which I own and just talked about was listed by a couple of them. [SPEAKER_01]: One piece of equipment that's common with all these voice actors is a dedicated recording booth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Most professionally built with a few homemade ones listed. [SPEAKER_01]: This is something I wish I had, but I can't afford a professionally installed one, and haven't had time to look into what goes into making a homemade version. [SPEAKER_01]: Then again for what I produce it probably wouldn't be worth my time or effort, but it would be nice. [SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps one day I will build a recording booth for myself. [SPEAKER_01]: Keep dreaming sport. [SPEAKER_01]: Keep dreaming.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will. [SPEAKER_01]: The music is playing in this episode is almost done and dusted. [SPEAKER_01]: Hope you enjoyed this episode. [SPEAKER_01]: I enjoyed making it for you. [SPEAKER_01]: If you like what you heard, you can make a donation using the link in the show notes. [SPEAKER_01]: Any and all donations will be greatly appreciated. [SPEAKER_01]: We can always reach me at ofntpodcast at gmail.com and that's only if you're so inclined. [SPEAKER_01]: I'd enjoy hearing from you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, don't listen to what they say. [SPEAKER_01]: Watch what they do. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, our fence is going up on Wednesday, so enjoy milling about here while you can. [SPEAKER_01]: But in the meantime, get off my lawn. [SPEAKER_01]: Stay skeptical. [SPEAKER_01]: Ah, I'm out. [SPEAKER_01]: See you. [SPEAKER_00]: And that folks is the end of the show.

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