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Dann Wants to Expand IT Conversations Dann Sheridan asks, "Hey, Doug, do you want to expand the content coverage of IT Conversations? It would be great to have subject matter experts arrange conversations in their field and begin expanding IT Conversations to other topics such as storage, security, networking, wi-fi, etc. What do you think?"
Funny you should mention this, Dann. I've been thinking about the same thing for the past two or three months. As you suggested, getting a high-quality recording from phone lines ain't cheap, so I've been thinking of how to do it on a shoestring. Let's say, for example, that you wanted to produce and host a conversation about storage. We could arrange a standard conference call (AT&T, Sprint, etc.) and record the call here in the IT Conversations studio. We would then do the post-production here, and post the results to the site.
I probably can't handle editing more than the current one show per week that I already produce (besides, I may not be sufficiently knowledgeable about the material), but if you wanted to take on the editing, we could email the audio files back and forth. You'd only need a $69 audio package: n-Track Studio (www.n-track.com). Otherwise, the interviews would be posted with little editing other than credits, intro and exit music, etc.
If someone wants to build their own studio, it can be done for as little as $1,500 plus telco. I've spent about $6,000, but some of that went to equipment for remote recording, some for high-end audio software, and some for equipment I no longer use. (The cost of learning and experimentation.) The minimum is probably an ISDN terminal adapter ($100 on eBay), a telephone "hybrid" ($600-$2,500), a good studio microphone and stand ($300-$600), a mixer/preamp ($100-$200), a digital-audio interface to a PC or MAC ($200-$600), good headphones ($75), basic audio-capture software ($100) and about $50 in cables. That assumes no backup recorder, no analog compressor, noise-gate, etc., and that a good and quiet PC or Mac is available. Also, if you live fairly close to the telco central office and have a good, clean analog line, you can skip the ISDN line and TA. But those digial lines sure are clean! (BTW, a VoIP line from the local cable company is also of excellent quality. We've got a Comcast line here in the studio, and it's almost as good as ISDN.)
Posted Wednesday, January 07, 2004 11:27:52 PM 
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