Technology – Page 4 – Connie Terwilliger

Source-Connect Ports are in Order

Forgot to update the Source-Connect saga. Followed the detailed instructions on the Source-Connect website about how to configure the ports and “voila” so simple even a cave man could do it.

Now I am going through the Source-Connect data base to say hello to folks who might be interested in knowing that it is up and running.

Most of the people who have it are either talent or audio studios – neither of which are the best for pin-point marketing, but certainly the contacts are great networking – which ultimately pays off.

Connie Terwilliger2010-03-03T17:07:20+00:00March 3rd, 2010|Categories: Marketing, Technology|Tags: Marketing, networking, Source Connect|

iLok Unlocked and Source Connect Installed

The iLok folks tried to reach the official “owner” (well, perhaps we should call that the unofficial owner) of the iLok I bought at Guitar Center last week. After waiting a couple of days I decided to just return that one and get a new one.

Victory! The installation went smoothly and quickly. Source Connect is up and running. I will do some tests with other SC users as soon as I can work it in, but I had audio going both directions with the Source Connect folks.

The only part left to do is figure out the “port” configuration. It seems to be working, but my router needs to be officially configured to help stabilize the connection – at least that is what I was told. So, IF I get a chance this week, I will try to follow the breadcrumbs […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:43+00:00February 7th, 2010|Categories: Technology|Tags: iLok, Source Connect|

Someone Else’s Dongle?

So the iLok folks tell me that someone else owns my dongle. How that could happen is a complete mystery. The iLok was in a sealed package.

They have sent that person a note asking to transfer ownership to me, but if I don’t hear something in a day or two, I will take it back to Guitar Center and get a new one (at least what I HOPE is a new one).

All of this puts the actual downloading of Source Connect on the back burner.

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:51+00:00February 1st, 2010|Categories: Technology|Tags: Guitar Center, iLok, Source Connect|

A dongle gone wrong

I decided to beat the price hike and install Source Connect today. This meant a trip to Guitar Center out in La Mesa to buy an iLok dongle to start the process. That in itself was a trip. I usually buy all my audio gear and supplies at Pro Sound and Music, just down the hill from where I live. It is a well lived-in store run by an insanely intelligent guy named Mike Krewitsky. Shane helps me find what I need. It is laid back and quiet.

Guitar Center is not. But they knew what I wanted and pointed me toward the Pro Audio part of the store. After the clerk pulled an iLok off the wall, I asked about a replacement cable for my dbx mini-pre and was immediately told that the mini-plug to the mic input was so 2009 and tried to upsell me […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:51+00:00January 31st, 2010|Categories: Musings, Technology|Tags: iLok, Pro Sound and Music, Source Connect|

Read the Manual

My inclination – when faced with a new piece of software (or pretty much anything) – is to install it and start using it. Read the manual? Not me. There are menus and a help button! (In the case of my cell phone, there is 611.)

Manuals usually have pages and pages of information that I already know and to find the bit of information I don’t know would require formulating a question that the Table of Contents understands.

However, in the case of Word 2 Wav, the manual is simple and short. Had I read the manual, I would have been able to save myself even MORE time this past year. Thank goodness Herve reads the forums.

W2W is a wonderful piece of software that I use at the beginning of my recording process for long form narration and IVR files. Although it is not a finishing program […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:51+00:00January 30th, 2010|Categories: Business, Recording, Technology|Tags: Adobe Audition, Excel spreadsheet, Technology, telephony, Vox Studio, Word2Wav|

Virtual Talent Agency or P2P (Pay to Play)?

With automated online casting now moving past walking and starting to run (it is about 5 years old now?), there is still a lot of controversy about the concept.

Without a doubt some sort of online casting will be with us as long as we have the Internet, but how will these sites evolve? That is the question some voice talent are bantering about in a couple of forums as a result of a post that Cairo based voice talent Mahmoud Taji added to his Voiceover Emporium site.

http://www.voiceemporium.com/archives/01/tajis-frankenstein-monster/

Read the discussions, follow the links. Educate yourself. See if you can come up with the ideal online automated casting entity.

Connie Terwilliger2010-01-28T18:43:42+00:00January 28th, 2010|Categories: Auditioning, Business, Technology|Tags: online casting, p2p, virtual talent agency, voiceover casting|

Lots of mu-law / u-law questions

There has been an uptick in posts to various groups recently about a very standard telephony format called mu-law or u-law.

This is one of the most common telephony formats and there are several tools that can be used to convert to this format – PC and Mac.

If you are on a PC, then most of the audio recording software that professionals are using will do the job – I personally use Adobe Audition.

For Mac, Switch from NCH works well and is pretty easy.

If you are new to telephony – here are a couple of caveats:

The sound files use a low sample and bit rate in order to play them back over the phone – they will NOT sound good to your ears when compared to a regular file
Always capture at a regular sample and bit rate of at least 44.1 and 16 bit.
Downsample to 8K
Do NOT change […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:52+00:00January 22nd, 2010|Categories: Business, Recording, Technology|Tags: mu-law, Switch, telephony, u-law, Vox Studio|

Evolve or Die…

Yes – it’s true – we must evolve or we will go out of business. I’ve used that phrase before (Evolve or Die) when discussing the changes that the performer’s unions need to make in order to survive, but it is also the premise of today’s Voice Over Today electronic newsletter published by Edge Studio.

TO SUBSCRIBE: send a blank email to: VoiceOverToday-on@edgestudio.com

They highlighted four areas that will cause you to lose clients. This is a message every voice talent (beginner or pro) should think about. Most of the folks I know do think about these Four Points, but it never hurts to have a reminder. So see below for the article – written by Edge Studio.

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**Vocal Delivery: ARE YOU NO LONGER TRAINING?

Story: A while ago, one of our clients hired a student we had just trained to narrate a large series of videos. They loved his voice. Recently we hired him back to […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:55+00:00September 30th, 2009|Categories: Business, Marketing, Teaching, Technology|Tags: Business, Marketing, professionalism, Technology, training, voiceover|

Time and Technology

This goes back to an earlier post talking about being addicted to the computer and email. I have a serious habit. From the moment my little eyes pop open in the morning to just before I shut them again in the evening, I am jonesing for email.

If it doesn’t come into my Inbox in a steady stream, I start to click that Send/Receive icon – sometimes repeatedly…thinking that I must have just missed downloading something important.

The BlackBerry was supposed to help me get away from my office and in a way it has. I can go to coffee in the morning or run over to my mom’s or out to the store and not feel like I am going to miss an important email. But I do constantly look at it to see if the little red light is flashing.

Yesterday my email host was having problems and I didn’t receive […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:57+00:00July 30th, 2009|Categories: Technology|Tags: email, Technology, time|

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