Jason K Myatt

Archive for August, 2010

This has actually been a long time coming… some months ago, I decided to write a series of very short blog posts reviewing microphones that could possibly be suitable for VOICEOVERS.  Thanks to some very generous suppliers, I have been testing some pretty darn impressive microphones.

This week, we take a look at the PELUSO Vacuum Tube Ribbon Microphone.

Here’s a little blurb from the website:

“This is the Vacuum Tube version of the R 14 Ribbon Microphone. It offers enhanced output level and a stunning response due to the perfect impedence match with the amplifier. The design of this microphone is inspired by classic ribbon microphones with the addition of a tube stage to provide added gain. It has a natural rich and silky sound with additional harmonic complexity provided by the tube stage. It is the perfect complement to your microphone collection, offering a distinct color difference from condenser microphones.
The microphone comes as a complete system, with Microphone in Wood Box, and Shock Mount, Power Supply, 7-Pin Cable packed in an attractive Flight Case.
Made in the USA.”

As stated, this unit comes with it’s own power supply/preamp. My testing method was to record a similar script for each mic, in the same booth and with no processing.

I actually don’t want to say much about the unit – I’d prefer you to hear and decide for yourself. (Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section) For the money, this mic didn’t cut it for me personally, but in saying that everyones voice is different and the same mic does NOT suit everyone.

Soon, another mic to listen to – that you’ll be able to compare with this one.

Those who know me well enough, know I love new gadgets – I’ve owned all kinds of PDA’s and Smartphones, every incarnation of iPhone (including the 2G not released in Australia), and now the iPad & iPhone 4 too.  I simply dig this type of technology and particularly Apple products – (some would call me an Apple Fanboy – a title I hate, but begrudgingly fit into).  But as you may or may not know, most portable devices (like the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) do not support FLASH. This can be problematic for those of us who want to run things like audio and video on our webpages. Times really have changed, once upon a time there were so few website that included audio let alone video – but now, it’s rare not to have this sort of material on a site.  For #VoiceActors it’s even more important to have this stuff on your site to promote yourself – and with the onset of mobile applications like “Talent Please” (mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago) where prospective employers can find a #VoiceActor via their iPhone, having “working” audio and video players is imperative!

With all this in mind, and in an effort to make my webpage viewable on ANY device – I’ve been researching how to get around the problem. Steve Jobs would say the way around this is “HTML5” – yep that is true – I’m not going to argue with Steve! …but how do I implement HTML5 within this WORDPRESS environment? After some very defined searching, I’ve found there are already a number of Plugins emerging that meet this issue headon. As I just mentioned, I use a WORDPRESS environment for most of my web presences, so which plugins am I using? Let me say this, my primary goal is to have my audio and video play happily on iPhone and iPad, and ALL desktop browsers too – so I’ve tested a bunch of plugins with differing success, but for mp3’s I’m using Degradable HTML5 audio and video & for video I’m using Stream Video Player. For video I’m uploading FLV and MP4, depending on what type of browser you’re visiting from Stream Video Player will either use a flash player or Quicktime player.

I’m not going to say these are perfect, but so far they have done the trick for me and my site.  Gone are the days where I had endless hours available to be writing everything in code and re-uploading a page. That’s why I’m using WordPress, and now with wonderful folks freely developing tools like the afore mentioned plugins – my site is looking neat, tidy and easily viewable on ANY device.

Please feel free to leave comments and thoughts – if you’re having issues viewing anything on my site – please comment with details – I need the feedback 🙂

Standby, next week I’ll start the Microphone review series !

I may have been away from blogging over the last few months… but NOT away from the studio, or the MIC – it’s been fun, as always! A while back I posted “nice tvc…but worst – sean – ever..“? It was quite a popular post, feel free to read that post and it’s comments before reading on…it may just be worth it!

Anyway, as I mentioned in that post, I felt Kris produced a great TVC – well, it’s way past time to congratulate Kris Woldt and Keleigh Newman for winning “BEST COMMERICAL UNDER $3000” award at the Queensland MultiMedia Awards.