Friday, September 22, 2017

Getting Ready for an Event

I had a web conference for an I2 working group this morning and those are much nicer to do in my office than at home. One of the many advantages of still being able to use my office. Also, quite a few Apple and app updates were released starting last Tuesday and I was able to take advantage of the fast Internet.

The conferences (Thursday and Friday) are partly preparation for an upcoming Internet2 meeting in October. I will be recording audio and video of one of the workshops. After I offered to do this, I realized that my Macbook Pro no longer has any analog audio inputs. Just four USB-C ports. I had picked up the Focusrite Solo earlier but haven't needed it. Basically it's a two port mixer with a USB interface that will link in with audio editing software. I only plan to use two microphones, a lav for the speaker/presenter and a roaming wireless mic for questions. The mixer only has one XLR input with a microphone amp but since I'm using wireless mics, I have the option of using a line level input.

So far, I've tried Apple's Garageband and Pro Tools First and both work flawlessly. For this upcoming event, I'll probably just use Garageband as I don't have to figure out how to add the EQ and compressor plugins within Pro Tools First. The Pro Tools First app is way more flexible but is also much more complicated. Basically the same as the full app except you are limited to only sixteen mono or stereo tracks. I only need three. Two input and one output. Video will be done with three cameras. One of the presenter, one for the participants plus one more wide shot just in case. I won't be relying on the audio from any of the cameras.

Saturday Afternoon Update - After a couple of days of playing around with Pro Tools First, I've discovered some "limitations". There is no local storage of your projects as it has to be stored in the Avid Cloud to force compliance to their "no more than three projects" rule. This means that Internet access is required. Also, export to MP3 is not supported. But I really do like the flexibility and options for both live and post processing so I'll be keeping the software installed but probably won't use it for this event. 
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5 comments:

  1. redlegsridesSeptember 23, 2017 at 10:33 AM

    That's really nice of the university to not have given your office to someone else....of course, you do still do some work for them part time so....

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    1. RichardMSeptember 25, 2017 at 12:49 PM

      I don't do a much for the university directly. Though they do collect indirect from the funding agency. Essentially, overhead.

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  2. Learning to GolfSeptember 24, 2017 at 4:32 AM

    In my fifth year of retirement, Already?, and the last year of eligibility to sub for insurance I am more than ready to be completely retired. Your continued work seems more interesting than being in a classroom, but still work is work and interferes with the important aspects of retirement....only doing what is fun!

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    1. RichardMSeptember 25, 2017 at 12:54 PM

      I'm not sure that some of these things qualify as "work". I continue with the Internet2 stuff because I want to and it's interesting. And I've been able to work with a lot of people over the years. Especially from leading the workshops.

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  3. Lynne GoebelerNovember 17, 2017 at 6:03 AM

    It sounds like your post-retirement duties are fun, although the A/V stuff in this post sounded a bit like blah, blah, blah to me 😁 Very cool that you still have use of your office and super fast internet! Slowly trying to catch up reading while posting occasionally...

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