This different approach to a trial has left me without too much to discuss today in terms of tangible progress, but it’s been an enjoyable process over the past few days. Setting up and testing has been the theme of this week. It’s also given me a chance to reflect on the other half of balancing adding a new habit, routine or project, which is to no longer do an old activity.
Luckily, some of my existing activities made setting up my “recording studio” extremely easy. The only thing I had to set up was a sound mixer that I’ve had sitting in its box, only briefly removed to play around with before. About a year ago, when this podcast idea first dawned on me, I bought a bunch of hardware for recording. After having it sit in a box in a closet, then a box under my bed, moved to the closet again, it has finally become time to actually use the mixer I bought a while back. While definitely unnecessary at this point in production, it feels nice to actually use it.
Practicing the use of the hardware has probably been the biggest item on my to-do list this week. Trying to find a way to sound alive when talking only to yourself is more difficult than I really expected. I think I’ll try recording actual conversation sometime soon, and see how that is different. Luckily, the plan for the show encourages engagement and dialogue which should help with energy levels of recording.
Overall, this week has me thinking a lot about what it takes to add new things to our lives. There are only so many hours in the day, days in the week and weeks in the year, and so forth. Adding new tasks, habits, etc. means we need to make space for those new things by dropping some of the old. Even just a few months ago, I would spend hours every week playing video games or watching TV (which was Netflix or some other streaming service, do people still watch actual television these days?). Lately, I feel like I am trying to cook up some project in one way or another. I still spend time gaming or relaxing with a familiar show, but I just don’t feel I have the time to commit like I used to.
Stay tuned, next week, I’ll try to have at least a sample of the podcast. My plan is to record the first episode this weekend. How long that sample is will depend on how editing goes. My idea from about a year ago was to not edit this at all, but I’m sure the first time around is going to require some digital surgery in order to be tolerable.
Trying Out Before Buying In 