Pod people
Feb. 22nd, 2008 04:46 pmHee. How long has it been, since I picked up the phone and heard "Chaz! It's Tony!!"
Answer, about twelve years, we think. He hasn't changed, except that he's no longer the outrageously young pup that he was. Now, indeed, he is leading light and onlie begetter of StarShipSofa.com, podcasting SF stories into your computer since ... well, however long it's been since he began.
I've said already, he wants to podcast my BSFA-shortlisted story "Terminal" (and all the other shortlistees, if he can; I think this is v cool). So of course the notion of my reading it myself came up, and of course I leaped at it, because I do love to read aloud, even though in the classic way I hate to listen to myself.
First time we talked about it, though, I got scared and ran away; because of course the easiest way to do this is via a computer. Which means spending money on a good USB mike [I am, by the way, constitutionally incapable of employing the contemporary abbreviation 'mic' - I know it looks right, but it sounds wrong; you cannot pronounce that spelling as 'mike', it's orthographic nonsense] and then spending time hunting down Linux software and getting it all to run (on a machine that currently has no sound capability at all), and then learning how to use it, and then learning to edit the results, and - well, no. It would no doubt be a good thing to do, as leaving me then capable of making my own podcasts etc; but I don't have the money and I don't have the time to play.
So instead, Tony came by and left me a mike-stand with a Strange Device. If the cats don't knock it over and break it in the meantime, I will stand there late tonight (to minimise traffic noise; I'm on a main road, and there are ten-minutely buses) and read my story into the dark, all on my ownsome. And feel utterly weird, I expect, but hey. This is where the future brings us.
Answer, about twelve years, we think. He hasn't changed, except that he's no longer the outrageously young pup that he was. Now, indeed, he is leading light and onlie begetter of StarShipSofa.com, podcasting SF stories into your computer since ... well, however long it's been since he began.
I've said already, he wants to podcast my BSFA-shortlisted story "Terminal" (and all the other shortlistees, if he can; I think this is v cool). So of course the notion of my reading it myself came up, and of course I leaped at it, because I do love to read aloud, even though in the classic way I hate to listen to myself.
First time we talked about it, though, I got scared and ran away; because of course the easiest way to do this is via a computer. Which means spending money on a good USB mike [I am, by the way, constitutionally incapable of employing the contemporary abbreviation 'mic' - I know it looks right, but it sounds wrong; you cannot pronounce that spelling as 'mike', it's orthographic nonsense] and then spending time hunting down Linux software and getting it all to run (on a machine that currently has no sound capability at all), and then learning how to use it, and then learning to edit the results, and - well, no. It would no doubt be a good thing to do, as leaving me then capable of making my own podcasts etc; but I don't have the money and I don't have the time to play.
So instead, Tony came by and left me a mike-stand with a Strange Device. If the cats don't knock it over and break it in the meantime, I will stand there late tonight (to minimise traffic noise; I'm on a main road, and there are ten-minutely buses) and read my story into the dark, all on my ownsome. And feel utterly weird, I expect, but hey. This is where the future brings us.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-22 07:34 pm (UTC)Ditto. I've recorded on reel-to-reel, never mind how long ago; of *course* it's "mike."
Also with you on "not happy how my voice sounds though others like it" - was involved with radio reader service for the blind, among other projects, and never could stand to listen to my own recordings.
Edited to finish thought. More caffeine definitely needed.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-23 01:47 am (UTC)Excelsior!