Talking Instead of Writing

"SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
10/10/2014 at 16:37 • Filed to: None

Sometimes all this reading stuff kind of sucks, right? For those of you who wish you could just close your eyes and have the language climb into your head, I have recorded a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . It's 18 minutes of your life that you cannot get back BUT if you have the time, can you give it a listen and let me know your thoughts? You can comment below, email me Lehto@kennon.com or Tweet @stevelehto.

Think of it as a pilot. For example, if the cast is not quite right, we can add a sassy housekeeper or maybe a precocious child.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

DISCUSSION (11)

505Turbeaux > SteveLehto
10/10/2014 at 16:42

How about I can just record a track of me heckling you in the background. I am pretty good at it.

Haha just kidding. I am wondering if you posted an 18 minte podcast at 4:42 to entice people into wasting the rest of the work day before beer o'clock with a podcast!

SteveLehto > 505Turbeaux
10/10/2014 at 16:46

You figured it out!

Yes, if the podcast is to follow the form of these posts, I will need to have some people yelling at me that I am wrong, don't know what I am talking about, and that the cast was "Too Long; Didn't Listen BUT I can explain why you are wrong now . . . ."

505Turbeaux > SteveLehto
10/10/2014 at 16:48

haha I think we both have it figured out then

JGrabowMSt > SteveLehto
10/10/2014 at 17:05

I'm about halfway through, and I'm liking it so far. For the past just about 10 years I've done radio production work, so with that in mind, I'm liking it.

It's not overwhelming, and it's pretty easy to follow along with. You've managed to break it down very easily.

My suggestions would be to have a closing statement that's scripted, with your work history and qualifications. You can briefly mention it beforehand, but as you continue to make more, people will recognize you, and not need to hear it in the beginning so much, it can exist at the end. It seems that you've mentioned it a couple times in the middle, which makes up for some time, but breaks things up a little bit, which is good and bad. It gives the listener some time to let things sink in, but I think you could just as easily include a re-cap of the important stuff you just went over before moving onto the next section of content. It would just structure it more, but it wasn't hard to follow as is.

It's a great start, absolutely. Everything you mentioned, from storing paperwork to the hard facts of what you need to look out for, like 4 times in 2 years, or 30 days in the first year. It was repeated enough to make me remember, but not so much that it was subtracting from other points.

It also sounded like your iPotato went off towards the end, and just two things about that from my perspective, 1) you absolutely did the right thing by continuing uninterrupted, and without distraction and 2) I would just stick it on silent next time. No big deal, live radio has plenty of flubs, as I'm sure you've seen and experienced.

Otherwise, really good stuff. You've got a really good voice for it, it isn't monotonous or droney, so I didn't find myself very distracted from what you were saying, which is a good thing!

SteveLehto > JGrabowMSt
10/10/2014 at 17:09

That was the crunching of my chair! I had my phone off, I promise. I worked in radio quite a bit but have been off the air for a while so this was a warm up. I didn't use a script or notes. I wanted to experiment with how it sounded and then I figured I'd post it here and get some feedback.

I could also probably use an intro and close but as you know I need to get some original music if I want to do that.

I was just happy the dogs didn't bark! Thanks for the note. I appreciate the feedback.

JGrabowMSt > SteveLehto
10/10/2014 at 17:13

Even without music, I think it worked really well. A little intro jingle never hurts, but I don't know, I kind of liked that it didn't have music. It was a lot easier to focus on what you were saying.

You could look at free stock music, I've used that for a lot of projects.

What were you using for recording as far as equipment? It sounded very good to me, much better than anything a laptop alone could do.

SteveLehto > JGrabowMSt
10/10/2014 at 17:16

Blue Nessie Mic straight into the desktop, recording on Reaper. Then rendered into a wave file. Nothing fancy but I did use the "Voice" setting on the mic and not the flat setting. Makes it sound warmer. I have a pop filter but didn't use it. I tend to wear my headphones loud and that makes me hypersensitive to pops and so on (but I wasn't sure if my creaking chair would get picked up - which it did).

Thanks again. Do you work for a particular station or chain or do you freelance?

JGrabowMSt > SteveLehto
10/10/2014 at 17:27

It was all educational work, so WJSV in Morristown, NJ and then WMSC at Montclair State University. I'm one of the few people in their early 20s that has a really strong grasp on the LPFM Educational Station nuances from the FCC. I do mostly radio engineering, but at this point, it's all freelance. I had one "Engineer in Charge" butt heads with me until I dropped the LFPM handbook in front of him at a meeting with his boss, and then I walked out. Pro Tip #472: Don't let a TV engineer claim he knows radio.

Reaper is a great program, I actually do a lot of work and am pretty active on their forums. I used to do tech support for M-Audio through Avid, so along with Radio Engineering, I know the techy end of audio workstations (I currently work in a computer shop).

From a technical aspect, I wouldn't change a thing. It sounded great, and that's what matters. From a file size perspective, you could just as easily render to mp3, and 99% of people listening will never know the difference, while you don't have to worry about hard drive space, or upload times nearly as much.

SteveLehto > JGrabowMSt
10/10/2014 at 17:32

I worked in radio mostly before the computer days so I am kind of new to the digital stuff. I know the basic edits and so on but I know I am only using 1% of Reaper's capabilities.

Thanks for the other notes. I'm basically doing it so I can add to the media I have out there which, for the most part, is written. Since this kind of recording is so easy for me and the uploading etc is also easy, I may as well do it and see if it helps.

JGrabowMSt > SteveLehto
10/10/2014 at 17:41

Reaper is easily the most advanced DAW software for the money. If you ever need help, either drop a line on their forums, or you can hit me up, and I'll be glad to help you out.

Good luck with everything, consider me subscribed for more!

Hahayoustupidludditeshutupandgohandcrankyourmodeltalready > SteveLehto
10/13/2014 at 11:12

I like all this reading stuff.