If you’re here looking for internet nerdery, stick around. Amongst other things, I’ve got a massive project brewing at work that will be unveiled mid March.

Steps

1. Open the uncompressed version of your recording (try not to start with an mp3 or similar)
2. Select All (Ctrl/Cmd + A)
3. Effect > Normalize…
   1. Tick Remove any DC offset only.
   2. Press Enter
4. Effect > EQ…

   

   1. Add one point just before the 100Hz marker and one at the 100Hz marker. Drag the left-most point all the way down to -24dB.
   2. Add one point at 1000Hz, one at 2000Hz and one at 3000Hz. Drag the 2000Hz point up slightly.
   3. Add one point at the 10,000Hz marker and one just after. Drag the right-most point down to -24dB.
   4. Press Enter
5. Effect > Amplify…
   1. If the audio was recorded at a low volume, you will want to run the Amplify effect over it to bring up the overall volume.
   2. Set the New Peak Amplitude to -0.3dB and allow the Amplification slider to adjust itself automatically.
   3. Press Enter
6. Effect > Compressor…
   1. Threshold: -10dB
   2. ratio: 4:1
   3. attack and release times: 0.1s
   4. Press Enter

To provide an example, Stephanie was kind enough to send me a sample of a direct-to-PC recording she had made for her own podcast. Have a listen to the short before and after snippets to hear the difference for yourself.

0MB. Yes, none. I’m writing this from work and ripping CD’s to the HDD is against Australia’s antiquated ‘fair use’ provisions – therefore it is against company policy also. The situation at home is almost identical, as I prefer to listen to the stereo than to PC speakers or headphones.

Last CD I purchased

‘The Roots – Come Alive’ and ‘Talvin Singh – Back to Mine’. Both a little disappointing to be perfectly honest, but I’m a fan of both acts so I’ll get over it.

Playing right now

‘Cornelius – Smoke’ from the album, ‘Point’.

Five songs that mean a lot to me

• Stanley Clarke – ‘Life is just a game’ : from his phenomenal 1976 album School Days. This is without doubt my favourite composition of all time.
• Mr Bungle – ‘Ma Meeshka Mow Skowz’ from Disco Volante. Completely insane. Absolutely perfect. These guys will always be prominent figures in my ‘favourite live shows’ list and this song is one of the primary reasons.
• Aphex Twin – ‘Come to Daddy’. There are other Aphex tracks that I prefer, but this is the one that opened my eyes to the genre. Oh yeah, and that video clip is still scary as hell!
• Miles Davis – ‘All Blues’. I play guitar, and as a result I loath the battered ’12 bar blues’ format. While this track follows that structure, it’s so undeniably beautiful that I have to add it to this list. Have a listen.
• The Roots – ‘Swept Away’ from ‘Do you want more?’ One damn fine piece of atmospheric hip-hop.

Five people whose brains I would like to absorb to whom I am passing the musical baton

• Ryan Parman — Ryan seems to be a big fan of computer powered entertainment gadgets; so what’s he listening to?
• Brothercake — Bro’cake loves music. Whether or not he will divert from the usual work focus of his site to respond is yet to be seen.
• Anne Van Kesteren — Anne takes blogging too seriously, so let’s see if I can lead him off-topic
• Mark Wubben — Another code monkey extraordinaire. Much like Brothercake and Ryan, Mark is known primarily for his JS talents (sIFR).
• Jan Brasna D’oh! Not only has Jan already done this, but he passed me the baton too!
• Ben Buchanan a fellow Brisbanite, co-worker (cow-orker ) and standards junkie.