Tuesday, 22 June 2010

Arghh! What now?

This is my workstation. A laptop computer, stereo speakers, and a USB microphone. It's how I've recorded all the on-location interviews I have done since signing on with CFMU.


I use a free recording program called Audacity.


I really like how easy this program is to use. You can layer multiple tracks and you can amplify and change the volume of sections.

I can fit all of my recording materials into my backpack and can do radio interviews pretty much wherever I want.

This weekend, I went to a small venue in London, Ontario to interview D-sisive. I then went to Toronto the next night to interview Eternia. The following day, I went to Toronto with the rest of the DOPEfm team so we could cover the Much Music Video Awards.

And last but not least, last night, I went to the Olympic Celebration held at the JLC to honour London's Olympic Athletes. I was able to get interviews with Gold Medalists Christine Nesbitt, Tessa Virtue, and Scott Moir.

I can't wait to share all of these interviews with you. I have a lot of work to do in the editing and piecing together of these radio shows.

The only problem is that my laptop seems to be slowly dying.

First off, two of the three USB ports stopped working. The headphone jack now produces a strange ticking sound that fortunately isn't showing up on the recordings. And the latest problem, is that the keys aren't working right.

I tried to save the show last night as "JLC" and I when I typed in those three letters this is what I got, "13c"

The "m" doesn't seem to work at all any more. Some letter keys produce numbers now but then again, so do the number keys. I pretty much can't spell or type up anything on it now.

So all of my saved files have some really weird file names now. I can work with that as long as I can continue to run Audacity just fine. I really can't afford to buy a new computer right now. I just hope that I can continue to produce these segments for you before it dies on me.

Stay tuned for some great content.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Chase .. I sure hope things get fixed .. being unable to just go and sort things out is so frustrating ..

    Thinking of you - I hate techie challenges!

    Good luck .. and I'm looking forward to the Olympic dancers' interview .. Hilary

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  2. Hi Braveheart,

    Thanks for the comment. I really don't know what I'll do if my laptop dies. I'd like to buy a digital recorder like we have at the radio station because it's in high demand and we can't get it all the time. I think they are expensive though. I'll have to look into it.

    Hi Hilary,

    It's just a good thing that I still have a desktop computer as well. If I couldn't type up blog posts, emails, and my fiction, I'd sure be in trouble.

    Hopefully my laptop continues to work for the interviews though. I put together the Olympic coverage last night but still have two rap interviews and a concert review podcast I want to put together.

    I can't wait to share that Olympic coverage with you. I'm still hyped that I talked to ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and speed skater Christine Nesbitt.

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  3. Do you play lotto?
    I started to play more regularly, but am affraid to sum up how much I spend on it, at least not until I win:)

    I used to call myself BraveHeart and then decided to be me, but I after a while I find out that this nickname give me a thicker skin or a double skin.

    Have a great day.

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  4. Hi Braveheart,

    I don't play the lotto often. Maybe about three times a year. I always think the third ticket will be the lucky one because of the phrase "third time's the charm" but it hasn't worked for me yet.

    It's okay that you're using an alias. I think it does give you more freedom online and sometimes it can be a good thing to adopt a new persona / avatar.

    Take care!

    ReplyDelete