PLANS AND SCHEMES

Money's tight this week, but my intention for the near future is to obtain the last 
few pieces that I need to for my **NEW, IMPROVED, RECORDING SETUP (SETUP!  Setup!  
setup...)**.  This includes that microphone and cable that I purchased a while 
back, and which I believe I phlogged about; as well as the M-Audio USB soundcard.  
After consulting with a person far more knowledgeable than myself, I learned that I 
likely needed external power for this mic, since USB just wasn't gonna cut it.  In 
retrospect, of course, this seems obvious, but recording or amplifying equipment 
has never been my specialty.  Though I have a background in live performance, it 
was in theater, where we rarely needed amplification.  I did some rinky-dink t.v., 
too, but the equipment was radically different from this stuff.  Anyway, yes, maybe 
I should have known that there was a power issue with this microphone/soundcard, 
but I didn't.  But now I do.  That learning curve is like the shape of a cutlass, 
and can cut just as deep, but I think I'm holding the handle at last

With luck, I'll have the external power source and extra cables that I need to make 
it all work in the coming weeks, and then I can start testing sound.  My goal here 
is to record and release some of my fiction as audiobooks/podcast novels.  The 
exact form or format for all this is TBD, but I'm leaning towards a regular podcast 
of released audio content, with an accompanying link for the content in written 
form.  For audio, the formats might include OGG, SPEEX, and FLAC.  For the written 
versions, it might be TEXT, DOCBOOK, TEX, and maybe ODF.  I'll have a 
permissive-enough license on this stuff so that other people can transcode/convert 
anything they want into any format of their own choice and redistribute it.  So, if 
somebody wants an MP3, they can make one and put it out there on the 
Interwebcloudnets, if they want, provided the other aspects of the Creative Commons 
License I'll be using (which, also, is to be decided) are respected.  That's the 
plan, anyway.  By default, I want only open formats in use here.  Yes, I know that 
limits me greatly when it comes to distribution, since I cannot place anything on 
iTunes and/or a lot of other podcast aggregation sites, who are MP3 and/or 
proprietary format happy.  That's a little sad, maybe, because in such a scenario, 
my work isn't likely to ever find a large audience.  Then again, since I'm not 
likely to ever make money off of this, I can't see a reason why it matters 
overmuch.  I mean, the Free Culture Movement is important.  Very important, in 
fact.  Even so, I'm the first person to whore himself out if there's a dollar to be 
had -- I'm the original Cheap Yankee, after all -- but I just don't think there 
will be any fortune rolling in over what amounts to my avocation.  I might be wrong 
about that someday, but it's a problem I wouldn't mind having.

I imagine I'll have another scimitar to swallow, trying to get my sound and editing 
skills up to snuff.  But if I can release some of my stuff, without going through 
the usual send-it-off-to-a-publisher-and-then-pray routine, which I've always been 
horrible at, then I've accomplished something.  This might be just the thing for 
me.  Time will tell, and this phlog is the place I'll be talking about it, so, I'll 
see ya when I see ya.