Aaron and I have been busy talking Adventure Hook, and working towards our goal of having everything ready to launch next month. Aaron‘s even been trying his hand at editing our recordings in Audacity and has done a pretty fine job with it. We now have a new version of the intro we plan to open each session with, and a good solid draft of the first (re-recorded) half of our first episode… The Rats in the Cellar.
On my end, I’ve been hard at work with more edits for all things Blackspire. I’ve managed to wrap up the edits on what will become Episode 7 (Saying Hello on Window Hook Row) which given how chaotic that session kinda was I think I still managed to turn it into something compelling… and now it’s set to music…
I’d also taken a stab at recording my recitation of the introductory information I’ll use to open Season 0 Episode 1 of the Blackspire RPG Campaign podcast. However, while my SnoBall mic is amazing at capturing the around-the-table aspects when we’re recording our gaming sessions, its omni-directional nature has the opposite effect when I’m only trying to capture my voice… and not pick up every stray noise in the room… or the neighborhood.
I ended up having to scrap the entire file.
So, I reached out to Bro Enlil (who is an incredible sound engineer) and he recommended an affordable, but still high quality mic that I could use for recording uni-directionally. And so this week I received my new Audio Technica mic, which I managed to secure, along with a boom stand, pop filter, and foam wind screen for about $85.
Audio Technica ATR2100-USB Cardioid Dynamic USB/XLR Microphone with Knox Studio Arm and Pop Filter
I set it up, gave it a test recording, and must say that the difference in quality is night and day. While I still have a bit to learn about the best techniques for capturing my voice, even before doing any tweaking to the audio tracks already it’s made me sound much, much more professional. I’ve since re-recorded the Season 0 Episode 1 stuff, and spend much of the past two days cleaning it up, second by second, and re-recording the bits that either didn’t come through right, or that I just didn’t like.
It takes a minimum of one hour to edit about ten minutes of audio straight through, and the raw file I have is about an hour and a half’s worth of material right now (though plenty of parts were flubbed and/or redone several times). And that’s just the first pass to get the spoken stuff right. I still need to go through it again to add music, and re-engineer the sound/do final clean ups, etc. My goal is to get the final episode to just under an hour if I can manage it… and I may have to make some tough choices about stuff to cut. Or… I may consider also having an extended edition as a Patreon exclusive. It’ll all depend on what the final ends up being… at this point I’m only about 45 minutes in through my first pass so there’s still plenty left to do…
But, on a semi-related not, Jim and I met up in Belvedere Square for drinks at Grand Cru and lunch at Clark Burger (which was a first for me). Their poutin left something to be desired, but their garlic frites were pretty epic. I haven’t had garlic fries as good since my old college days propping up the bar at Brewer’s Art. Hard to believe you can get their beer all over the state now… you used to have to go to the place itself to get a Resurrection…
Anyway, Jim and I had a great time hanging out, and naturally we ended up talking gaming, both the Blackspire stuff (I’ve got a new miniature I’m working on for him for next week’s session) and Laughfinder. The Brian Poesehn just did a recording with them this week, and that show should air next month sometime (good timing if all goes well). He only did one episode’s worth of content, but plans to promote his appearance so it should be a great boon for their show. I wonder if they talk about my miniatures… that could be huge for Blackspire Studios commission work, but regardless I’m just happy for the guys.
Brian Posehn and the Laughfinder crew
It’s the New Moon and the Moon and Mercury are both in Aries, it’s a good day to start something new… so today I changed a long standing habit. It’s a step on a long road that I’m way behind on, really. So much is building in a positive direction, but there’s always more work to be done on myself as well.
Sunday 4/15/18-
Sun: Aries–
Moon: Aries (NEW)
If you’d like to start from the “beginning” of all this… you can read from my first blog post.
For my disclosure on this or any of my posts or pages… please visit my Disclosure page.