Referenced in Episode 91, this is Brett Byers’ KLR amidst the Montana backdrop.
Excellent pic, Brett. Thanks so much!
Brett Byers' KLR 650
Show Updates
It’s contest time again!
We were recently honored with a guest appearance by motorcyclist, author and riding safety expert David Hough. After a great discussion (and an open invitation to return), Mr. Hough gave us a couple of signed copies of his book Proficient Motorcycling to give away to the listeners. This book, updated with new content in the book and on disc, is among the best known and most well regarded on the subject of safe and quality operation of a motorcycle.
So, how can you score one of these signed copies of Proficient Motorcycling? Well, one of two ways.
First, we’re looking for a newer rider to tell us your story of how you got started in motorcycling, some mistakes you might have made, some problems you might have encountered, and of course help and guidance you have received since starting out. Everyone has a beginning story, and we want to hear yours, now, as it’s happening.
Second, we’d like to hear the same kind of stuff from ‘seasoned’ riders. Tell us about how your riding and outlook, and your “toolbox of skills” have matured over the years and miles. Talk to us about how something you see happen now that you just deal with, might have been a ride stopper or bigger problem in your younger, greener years.
The best story – as judged by James and Chris – from each category will win a signed book. “Best” can be the most engaging narrative, it could be an example of the toughest learning curve, it could mean the most experience in the shortest time, or anything else. There’s no real hard definition for this. Just tell us your stories, share with the community and let’s all learn something.
The contest will run for a little over two weeks, ending on April 16, 2011. You can email your entry to feedback@thepacepodcast.com with “contest” in the subject line. Also, if you would prefer to send us an audio file that we can include in a future episode, you can send an MP3 as an attachment to the same email. Our voicemail is limited to three minutes, but if you think you can tell your story in that time, then by all means, call 484-748-0042.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Organizing my Mac
Hey guys, Chris here.
For the time being, my personal & work-from-home laptop is also my main recording and post-production computer for the podcast. Since this is my do-everything system, my desktop and my application dock get pretty crowded and busy.
This computer is a 2nd(?) generation MacBook with an intel processor running Mac OS/X 10.6, aka “Snow Leopard”. Being a Mac, you have to think differently about organizing your apps than you might if you were using a Windows system; there is no Start menu/button.
Rather than continue crowding my dock with audio and video production app icons, I decided I would actually take them all out of the dock and move them to a fly-out menu on the ride side of the dock, using the alias metaphor. The folders and fly-outs on the right side of the dock are a fairly recent addition to Mac OS/X (I believe) and it becomes a very powerful mechanism for grouping and organizing.
Quick note: Application icons in Mac OS/X are actually representative of the application folder on disc, and are generally not alias or shortcut icons. Because of this, you want to be very careful about just dragging application icons around. You might end up dragging hundreds of megs of application files to a different location, and you run the risk of making the application no longer run. The good news is, most of the time if you do accidentally move an app icon to a location other than the Applications folder, you haven’t really broken anything. Dragging it back is a non-issue.
So, without further ado… adeau… adieu… without further delay, here are the steps and the results of those efforts.
Step 1 - Navigate to your Applications folder (hit Shift-Apple-A)
Step 2 - create a new folder to hold your alias icons. I called mine "AV Processing". Any name will suffice; make it descriptive.
Step 3 - Create alias icons for your apps. Single click the app and press Apple-L to create the alias. This is akin to a "shortcut" in Windows.
Step 4 - I like to remove the word "alias" from the end of the new alias icon's caption. The small arrow on the icon indicates it's an alias. Edit the name of the alias icon to your choosing.
Step 5 - Drag the new alias icon into your new folder. Repeat this for each application you want to include in the fly-out folder on the dock.
Step 6 - When you've added all the alias icons you wish to the folder, then drag the folder to the right side of the dock. Be sure that the folder lands on the dock, and to the right of the control zone of the dock.
Step 7 - The new folder will display in the dock bar usually using the icon from the first app found in the folder by default. The fly-out is now ready to use.
Step 8 - Click the new icon and the contents will be displayed in a clickable flyout. Settings can be tuned to alter how the icons are displayed.
The right kind of noises
Thursday night James and I and our two guests recorded a show at my house. The rig we used consisted of my Macbook for recording, my Blue Yeti for ambient sound, two Shure Sm58 and two Radio Shack dynamic mics, Yamaha mixer and XLR connections for all mics. With the understanding that there’s a bit of a noise floor from the USB mic that in comparison to the regular levels was very low, I’m very pleased with the sound.
Any real “noise” in the recording you’ll hear are just the sounds of four people having pizza and beer and sitting around a table together talking about bikes. Sometimes Todd’s or Jeff’s mic was a little hot while they really got in there to make a point, but I tried to keep on the levels and keep everything leveled.
I’m happy with it, and of course the content was a lot of fun, visiting with the guys was great and hey… we got to sit around BSing all evening about riding.
So what could be bad about that?
Cause & effect, Affect & fix
I noticed over the last year that no matter what mic I was using I was getting an increasing amount of noise in my side of the show’s recordings. Some times it’s less noticeable in terms of relative noise levels and volumes, but there was a constant hiss. The commonality was using the USB interface on my Macbook. That was the common part whether I was using my pro-level M-Audio audio interface, a direct USB mic or a gaming headset. The noise was there and at times, very distracting (at least to me in post production editing).
My Logitech headset is pretty cheap and low-end, so I expected it to by noisy and sloppy. My microphones, however, are both decent quality units – a Samson C01-U and a Blue Yeti. Part of the problem is that using good quality condenser microphones is a sure way to highlight and exacerbate any noise floors you have. Over the past few shows I was recording in a newly-emptied bedroom and between the condenser mic’s ability to pick up room noise, echo and the omnipresent noise on the interface, I nearly trashed the whole recording for a couple of shows and went without.
Ultimately, I didn’t and was happy that we got the shows out, but even a guest spot that James and I did on the Rant-Fu podcast made me sound like a rank amateur with the crappy sound quality. This was all doubly frustrating as I’m not a newcomer to audio engineering; back in high school I spent some time working at a recording studio, and I was involved in the A/V at school and with the bands for which I was playing. I generally know my way around equipment. But hey… “it’s just a hobby podcast, so who cares, right?”
Uh… no. That mindset only carries you so far, especially since, for me, this isn’t just a hobby podcast. This is something about which I’m pretty passionate and I truly love doing. So… it’s time to step up my audio quality.
First things first, I unpacked my used Shure SM58 dynamic mic, I found a used but good Yamaha 10-channel mixer on eBay (as well as a used and dirt-cheap Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer that’s still in the shipping box) and I wired it up. I tinkered around with the settings and figured out how to set up the mixer for one and several mics and other line-level inputs. I got it all wired up so I can do Skype mix-minus recordings on the computer or, eventually, perhaps to some external digital recorder.
Once I figured out that the mixer I have will do what I need, I sold my M-Audio pro interface. It’s entirely overkill for our needs and for 1/5th the price of the M-Audio, the Yamaha mixer is perfect for my needs. I have several other dynamic mics for when I host guests here at the house, and frankly doing multiple mics on the M-Audio was never just as simple as it could (should?) have been. The Yamaha is much simpler and more intuitive. Plus, the extra money is nice.
Now, for most of the shows, even the mixer is overkill. Most of the time, all that’s necessary is the mic, the computer and me, as James and I record the shows over Skype from our respective homes. With that in mind, I also found an ART tube mic pre-amp on Amazon for crazy cheap. This will allow me an even simpler interface – nearly as simple as using the USB mics – for most of the shows, but without the increased noise of the condenser mics and USB interface. Win.
And yes, Mr. Ravenscraft, I *do* record into a computer. I don’t have a spare $200-$400 laying around for the Edirol. Yet! 
So, this is a long-winded way of saying I’m sorry about the recent crappy sound quality and starting with our first show of 2011, my end of the recordings should sound much, much better in terms of noise and general sound quality. I can’t do anything about my crappy voice, other than suggest you buy ear plugs. 
Happy New Year everyone, and we look forward to more great shows and community interaction in the Near Year.
A forum no more…
It has become apparent that the listeners choose to interact with the show’s hosts and guests via Email, blog comments and, most notably, on the show’s Facebook page at http://facebook.com/ThePacePodcast.
In light of this, The Pace Podcast has chosen to no longer participate in, nor support, the online forums at http://thepacepodcast.com/forums, and will be taking down the forum software some time in the next few weeks.
A redirect page will be posted in place of the forums to direct traffic to the show’s Facebook page. Some of the information will be pulled from the forums and posted on the show blog for the sake of archiving.
If you have a specific topic or discussion thread on the forums you would like to see archived, please contact the show hosts at feedback@thepacepodcast.com with a link to the thread in question. If possible, the thread’s contents will be posted and archived.
This should not be perceived as any sort of problem with the show. This is simply a matter of concentrating the attention and interaction with the listeners where it makes the most sense, and where the listeners choose to interact most.
As always, thank you for listening and supporting the show.
Chris & James
The Pace Podcast
Regarding Ep37 – The little corrupted file that wasn’t…
So, you may have found an issue downloading Episode 37 – “The file might be corrupted, or a file type that iTunes cannot play.”
After a few complaints about this late last night, we are investigating. This appears to be completely at iTunes / Apple, or with the feed index itself – the file on the site downloads fine, imports into iTunes and plays just fine.
Please rest assured we’re working on and should have it taken care of shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Backstage updates
Coming up here in the next few weeks I’m going to be getting some equipment for portable / mobile podcast recording. First on the list will be a multi-mic mixer and maybe a 1/2 dozen mid-range dynamic microphones. There are some on-location events in 2010 (and hopefully beyond) were we’ll be setting up a “round table” discussion on the podcast. I’d like to think that a decent-enough mixer, a 2-channel audio interface for the laptop and a 1/2 dozen mics should cost me only a few hundred bucks.
Originally I had grand plans to get a higher-tier mixer/interface and some top-shelf mics, but the more I learn and look into it, and the more I play with various equipment, and taken into consideration this is spoken-word stuff and not audiophile quality recording, I’ll be fine with retail store stuff.
I’m thinking the Radio Shack mic mixer (maybe 2) and one of the umpteen USB 2.0 audio interfaces, or stepping up to the Alesis Multimix/8 USB 2.0 mixer/interface. Best Buy has several different Dynamic mics ranging from $20 – $60.
In addition, I’d like to get a pair of mobile digital recorders like perhaps the Olympus WS-400S handheld units; 
one for James and one for me when we’re on-location where a sit-down session isn’t possible. I’d like to get these in time for the IMS show in NYC that we’re planning on attending and covering. We’ll see.
As for the home recording setup, I have a good microphone ( the Samson CO1U ) that I can plug in directly or I can go through the mixer/interface when I host guests; all I need is a quiet room to use it. Failing that, I use my Logitech headset.
James is already using his very nice-sounding Blue Snowball mic.
So, we’ve got plans… We can expand our toolbox without spending thousands of dollars and we can make everything more convenient, and in some cases – possible, on a decent budget and continue doing a free show with no worries over big budget issues.
Here’s hoping.