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Cloud Storage

April 20, 2011 By 3 Comments

The response to Andy Boyns’ FaceBook post yesterday about DropBox surprised me.

I thought EVERYONE had heard of that service by now.

2Gigs of free storage in the cloud…but the best part is the unbelievable ease-of-use with which DropBox has designed their product.  It appears as just another file folder on your desktop or in your Documents directory.  You treat it like any other folder…make subfolders…copy & paste stuff in and out…add subfolders…all that.  But wherever else you have DropBox installed, all that “stuff” magically appears there as well.  Other computers, other states, other countries, favorite clients, iPads…everywhere you have an account installed.

Even more handy is that fact that you can be invited, or invite others to “share” folders with your DropBox.  This means that clients can put you in their account (with your permission),  and you can copy & paste sound files there as if it were another folder in your directory, and wondrously, on the other end, your client finds it in THEIR folder.

This makes YouSendIt, or DropSend seem almost archaic.  FTP?  Forget it!…too complicated.

Some find that the free 2Gig account gets filled pretty fast, and upgrading means paying a monthly or yearly fee.  Visit their site for details.

Here’s a great blog article on How to Use DropBox as a Killer Collaborative Work Tool.

Other contenders:  Box.net, Amazon, and Microsoft SkyDrive.

Box.net is almost as easy as DropBox, but unless they’ve stepped up lately with a drop-dead-easy DropBox functionality, you still have to log onto the Box.net site to share files.  They have a similar free/pay-to-upgrade structure.

One good thing about DropBox and Box.net is that virtually every file-sharing iPad or iPhone app you can find has DropBox and Box.net compatibility built-in.   You’ll find that VERY handy.

Amazon is a real heavyweight in cloud storage for companies, but individual consumers can get lost in the esoteric and arcane functionality…in fact, I’ve never been able to figure it out…until now.

Here’s a website that explains how to turn the Amazon Cloud Drive into desktop-accessible storage.

Finally, for sheer size of cloud storage, Microsoft’s SKYDRIVE system can’t be beat.  MS offers 25 Gigs of free storage space online!  You need a Windows LIVE ID to get on, but the sign-up is easy, and the online interface is also pretty intuitive.  I’ve used this service to send major big files to clients.  I store it on my SkyDrive account…assign private status to the file, so only parties I designate can see it, then I send my client the URL.  That file is the only thing they see on my SkyDrive account…and they do not have access to the other stuff I have stored there.

I’m sure there are other similar services.  Zoho comes to mind….  but I think hands-down, the above lead the field.

CourVO

(Author adds 4-21-11 the worthy alternative of SugarSync…my thanks to John McClain for that suggestion).

Filed Under: iPad, iPhone, Software, The Cloud Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Another VO Mobile Solution?

April 13, 2011 By 7 Comments

We keep running across all sorts of possibilities for people trying to make their iPhones, iPads, and smartphones function as legitimate quality recording devices.

I’ve been blogging about this for more than a year, and the march of technology is relentless.  Not that long ago, I blogged about the  Blue Mikey, then the iRig, Lexicon, Apogee Duet², Pocket SoundBooth, OMG the list goes on and on.

The iPad, it seems, has been especially the target for Voice Talent hoping to adopt the tablet as a mobile studio, but you’ve gotta translate through an Apple camera USB adapter, it doesn’t seem to want to accept the MicPortPro, yada yada yada.

Then, roaming the exhibit hall at NAB in Las Vegas today, I find the Vericorder XLR Adapter Cable.  Perfect!  $60 buys you the convenience of  using any XLR mic with your iPhone or iPad.  I like the design, but I have no idea if it works, or works well with the iPhone or iPad.  I WANT it to…’cause that would justify the pricetag…but I’m not ready to pop for it yet, after my budget suffered from the same cost for the iRig, and it seemed a dubious solution.

Here’s what their website says:  “…Connect a professional XLR microphone to the headset jack of the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or other compatible smart phones. Provides separate headphone output for monitoring the playback levels of the recording, use will recording on 1st Video or VC Audio Pro. Our XLR Adapter includes a pre-amp that provides a Flat, 6.1dB Gain, from 20Hz to 20,000Hz. It is powered completely by the iPhone headset jack circuitry…”

OK, who wants to be the guinea pig and spring for this?  Or maybe you already have.  If so…puh-leez, let us know how well it works!

CourVO

Filed Under: iPad, iPad, iPhone, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Blue Mic & iPad

March 30, 2011 By 3 Comments

Blue Microphones was an early adopter of using smart phone technology to augment quality mobile microphone potential.  See my blog on using the Blue Mikey with the iPhone 3Gs.
Then the iPhone changed their circuitry with the “4″, and Blue Mikey alla sudden doesn’t work. (anybody wanna buy my Blue Mikey?  I’m serious…’make you a good deal).

That’s OK, ’cause much of the attention for quality mobile recording has now switched attention to the iPad.  I’ve written extensively on that, here on this blog too.

But Blue Mikey is back.  Their BlueFIRe and FIRe apps are pretty slick interfaces for recording on iPhone and iPad, and now there’s a new .pdf you can view that explains how to get CD quality recording on your iPad using the Blue Yeti Mircophone.  Read the brief article on Blue Yeti with iPad.

Thanks to Benita Ellena for posting this on my FaceBook Group:  Voice-Over Friends page.

CourVO

Filed Under: iPad, iPad, iPhone, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

iRig Mic Evaluation

March 14, 2011 By 16 Comments

Back in January, I blogged about the iRig Mic with anticipation.  I love the idea of being able to turn around a quality audition or sound-file from one of the popular mobile devices now available — like the iPad, iPhone, Android, or some of the newer tablets coming out.

The iRig Microphone is touted as being the first hand-held mic for the iPhone.  That’d be nice, ’cause Apple changed the wiring when they made the iPhone4, and my Blue Mikey no longer works.  The internal mic that comes with the iPhone is actually not too bad, but we geeks and gearheads are always searching for the promised land when it comes to this stuff…never content to sit with status-quo.

I ordered the iRig Mic back in January, even though they said it was not being distributed yet, and even though there were no believable reviews out.

Well, this weekend, FedEx brought me my new iRig Mic.

The packaging is simple… you get the mic, a leather pouch, a plastic mic holder (sleeve-style) and a simple User’s Guide. The quality of the workmanship on the mic is above average, and it has a fairly hefty feel to it.  The mic has a condenser-electret unidirectional capsule.  As the User’s Guide explains, the mic is designed to primarily pick up the sounds that are arriving at the front of the microphone, minimizing sound arriving from the sides or behind.

iRig recommends you download the free version of VocaLive and AmpliTube from the app store.  Both of those apps come with a pricier full-featured version, too.  The User’s  Guide also mentions the “iRig Recorder” app, but a lengthy search of the app store didn’t turn up anything by that name.

The iRig Mic works with other smartphone audio recording apps, though, and I tried it with Poddio and Twisted Wave, too, as you’ll see below.

The mic plugs into the earphone jack at the “top” of the iPhone, and that plug has an external stereo headphone jack itself.  The mic has a 3-position sensitivity switch on the side.

I’m posting two audio files using the iRig Mic.  One is recorded through the iRig-recommended VocaLive app, and the other is recorded through the Twisted Wave app.

Both apps enable emailing of the recording.  VocaLive sends it as an .m4a file, and Twisted Wave defaults to .wav.  I can’t honestly say I had the mic’s three-position switch in the same setting for both.  Indeed, the VocaLive recording seems over-modulated, so this is by no means a very concise comparison…just a quick test.  I converted the .m4a file to an .mp3 using the AVS audio converter software.

iRig Mic  Test from VocaLive by CourVO

iRig Mic  Test from Twisted Wave by CourVO

Let me know what you think by commenting below.

CourVO

Filed Under: Hardware, iPhone, Mics, Software Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Rehearsal for iPad/Phone is Ready

February 21, 2011 By 1 Comment

David H Lawrence XVII hardly needs an introduction.  Look up DHLXVII on IMDb.  Look up DHLXVII on Wikipedia. Look up DHLXVII on the Heroes Wiki.

He’s on film, radio, TV, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube…even the Davids.com website…and yes, he’s a voice-actor, too.

He also just finished sprucing up a snazzy little iPhone/iPad app for actors called REHEARSAL 2.

I blogged about Rehearsal in April of 2010, noting that the developers were finishing up some tweaks to take out early glitches.

Pleasantly enough, over the weekend…I got a comment to that blog FROM the developer…David H. Lawrence XVII.

In his comment to the April 2010 blog, David says: “…I added the ability to send recordings back to the requesting party (VO casting, agents, etc) as MP3s. The mic on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch are remarkably good. You can’t edit with Rehearsal, so you’ll have to do one great take, but in a pinch, it’s a nice little feature.   And since most of us in LA that are active VO talent are also active on-camera talent, Rehearsal serves as a one-stop shop for both script rehearsal and VO audition creation…”

The app IS intuitively easy to use.  Upload your scripts, mark-up your scripts, hilite your copy, and…yes…for VO auditions, a impressively brainless way to record and send off your voice recording. You can also open PDF or Word scripts directly from the emails in which they arrive, and you can drag forwards and backwards in your recorded scenes.

After experimenting with other fee scales, David and his team have landed on a one-time $20 unlimited usage charge.  There’s an iPhone and an iPad version.

Download Rehearsal 2.

David welcomes any feedback or suggestions…any app is usually a work in progress.

CourVO

P.S.  Please note David’s comment below about the “universal” nature of this app across all the Apple platforms.

Filed Under: iPhone, Software Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apple Puts The Screws To iPhone Users. Got a screwdriver?

January 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

….not just any screwdriver…a pentalobular screwdriver. If you own the iPad or iPhone, why shouldn’t you be able to take it apart if you want? Most understand that invalidates the warranty, but still want to tinker…they should have that right!

CourVO

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/dUHSYp
Filed Under: iPhone Tagged With: , , , ,

Poddio Update

April 21, 2010 By 1 Comment

You might remember my writing about using the iPhone as a rudimentary auditioning device if you were in a pinch on the road (Previous Blog article HERE).

The whole scheme depended on having an installed app on your iPhone that would let you do some basic editing of the sound file.  I recommended Poddio, an incredibly powerful full-featured sound wave editor.  Unfortunately, the price was also a little too powerful for some.

Now, Vericorder, the maker of Poddio has a new approach.

I was contacted first on Twitter, then through email by Gary Symon, the President and CEO of Vericorder with a quick mention of the latest from his company, and many who were put off by Poddio’s cost will find this welcome news.

Here’s the essence of his email to me:

“…(our  new) app is just on the app store. It’s called VC Audio Pro. Costs $5.99, and you can also get the even cooler version called ShowCase for $7.99. ShowCase lets you do all the audio editing, and you can then create narrated videos and send them by email.

I would suggest our sending you the free beta version, but frankly, for 5.99 you’ll get all the updates, and there is a very important update coming down in the next couple of weeks that you’re definitely going to want.”

Thanks for the update, Gary…

Uh, s’cuse me, I was gonna write more, but my iPhone “App” icon beckons.

CourVO

Filed Under: iPhone, Software, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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