Pulled the trigger, now, to see where the rounds land.

I’ve already mentioned that I was getting a new ‘puter, and it is on its way.  Mentioned the urge to do a podcast thing, so pulled the trigger and bought a microphone, QUALITY microphone, so that my voice sounds better.  I played with the microphones on the laptops and phones, and I would need to play some serious games to be comfortable throwing those into the mix.   

So what do I sound like?

in Answer to Sammi: no, not Mike Rowe, I wish!  LOL.   But I have been told more times than not, my voice ‘carries weight’ and is always clear.   What can I say, the lessons of grands struck deep: Clarity, enunciation, sibilance.  Mumbling is anethema!!!

But un-interestingly enough, my voice carries ‘other’ traits as well: everyones does.  When I am talking to my kids, its a different timbre, when I am speaking at work, another timbre.  SO, what you will hear in my ‘cast’, may not be what you would hear when we were sharing a drink around a fire, and definitely NOT what you would hear if I were discussing with Mamakat why she isn’t permitted another helping of DedKow at 10:30pm.

I hate to tease, but its just something that you’ll have to wait for, since the gear isn’t in my hands, yet.   The New to me Lappy is languishing in USPS hands currently.  The mIcrophone is retained in a Zon warehouse, awaiting some small droid for fulfillment.

And I will need to play a bit.   No Pitch Correction, just EQ and some compression, maybe a little reverb to bring the room alive (my house is acoustically dead, for the very reason ‘I want to hear it unfiltered and unadulterated’, but that makes vocal recording ‘flat and lifeless’.)   

Yeah, I’ve done studio mixing as well as live.    I prefered live since it was like combat without the bullets: Exciting and you only get one shot: fuck it up and you were on a plane going home.    

and its been many a year since I have heard me own voice through a monitor,,,    (Studio monitors or ‘cans’, not the tinny little speakers on my lappy, and I can’t stand the way I sound through those. Never have.)

Heres something I learned about my hearing.  Its really not as much damage to the eardrum, as much as narrowing of the ear-canal.   They call it Surfers ear and it can be treated (Surgery to open the canal back up).  BUT, it makes my internal sensing of speaking sharper even though it makes hearing the world around me soft and fuzzy.

As a way of showing you what I mean, speak in a normal tone in a quiet room.    NOW, repeat what you just said, but with your ears covered.   Do you hear the difference?    The second exhibit is how I HEAR,,,, Unconsciously, I become more soft spoken (because I think I am yelling.).  That also causes me to speak differently than I did back when My Ears were good enough for my (then) Job.

I’ll be retraining myself in speaking again, as well as tweaking the knobs.

excuses?  Uh-uh, letting you know that I AM working on this but it may be a bit.    Fact is, I was rehearsing ‘my voice’ earlier today, and told myself “If you don’t do this now, you never will, and then you will always wonder’.    I don’t want that sort of regret in my life, and in one sense, this is an extenuation of a dream I had when I was touring (and radio was still a thing, Think Limbaugh and such.)  

Little story for ya:  I even went to a broadcasting school at one point, not as a student, but as a potential student, and was asked by the Dean “Why would you want to step back to learning when you already know all of this stuff?”   I knew the gear, I knew how to verbally read; not that deadpan ‘reading in front of the class’ that you recall as a kid, but putting emotion and drive behind the words AS I read them, without needing to rehearse!!!   

That one question cut the cord for broadcasting (you need a license.) and propelled me further into live audio.  Had I stuck to my guns, I could have aced that school, and had that license, and done ‘something’,

only, HINDSIGHT, right?    

Like the writing thing: Self Publishing will likely not pay off at the same rate as getting picked up by a major publisher could,    Self publshing music, SAME.   Podcasting,,,

Luck of the dice, place and persistence.  joe Rogan didn’t start as a Podcaster, but, how many millions was he paid recently on Spotify?   He persisted through several evolutions.   Mike Rowe started off selling geegaws on the Home Shopping Network (how many of us genX’ers recall that little tidbit from Cable TV?)    There are bands that have never signed contracts with the labels, making damned good money on their terms, and touring the world; all because they published on Utoob.   Writers that make decent livings, self-published on Zon or other avenues, yet never signed with a publisher and forced to write for the Editors personal leanings, or the publishers whim.

Time, Persistence, and maybe a toss of the dice,,,  

And PROMOTION.    thats the one area I have a knack at, FOR OTHERS, but rather suck at for myself.   Call it vestigial vanity fear or something.    I went into audio because I don’t like being on-stage, covered in the limelight, and EXPOSED,   I don’t like getting my pictures taken either.  Some people live for that: I cringe.    Putting my words out is different somehow, but I still recoil at SELF-PROMOTION.

I used to tell the bands I worked with (when I was mixing clubs still) that “there are 30000 damned good lead guitarists, for every ONE guitar god you know the name of.”   (choose your instrument, it still applies,,,,)  It all comes down to self promotion and a little bit of luck.

And yet, Here I am, getting prepared to jump in, and see what happens.    The big thing for me, is finding enough material to keep a monologue running for at least an hour.   Anything less seems pointless to me.    That was my reasoning for making this a once a week thing; Material.    That might will evolve as I learn and grow,   

And scrolling through podcasts on Spotify, I noted almost all of them are doing interviews, not just the big guys/gals.   Even the up-n-comers are doing it.   I may have to explore that option.  Not interviewing celebs or such, but Joey Normal from the street sort of things.    I think hearing from everyday Joe-blow about his feelings on the world at large might be more entertaining and impactful than me spouting at the mouth for an hour.  I’ll have to explore that and see what I can get rolling.  (fair warning to friends, I’m thinking you are my first guinea pigs for this,,,,)

I guess we all, you, me, my potential victims in interviews, get to see how this pans out.

More laters,,,, Hitting the lake since I can’t do much else on this idea just yet.   Keep working that voice, talking to the fish and other wildlife.  (Deer seem to like it when I talk to them, as long as I don’t get TOO close,,,,)

LIVE

LEARN

Laugh

Love

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