Product: TASCAM iXZ Mic / Instrument input for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch

TASCAM iXZ Mic / Instrument input for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch

Want to turn your iPad or iPhone into a portable recording studio, the Tascam iXZ can do just that. This interface allows you to plug in standard XLR connector microphones, guitars or any other audio source and then record them using iPhone and iPad software of your choice. For those more advanced, it also provides Phantom power so you can use high-quality condenser miss, too.

Mat Langley of the Robot Underpants podcast (Content Advisory)  let me know about this device today after he picked one up for his iPad. Mat does a variety of shows and also uses his iPad to join Google+ hangouts and wanted/needed a way to get better audio into his iPad. I have asked for Mat to give us a review of this device sometime in the near future.

Filed under: Hardware, iPhone, New Media, Technology

Audio: New Media Presentation to UCLA Extension Voice over Class

On Thursday, January 26, 2012, NMI Founder, Douglas E. Welch spoke to Janet Wilcox’s UCLA Extension class, Pursuing a Career in Voice Overs.

He talked about New Media and the need for students to develop their voice over careers in non-traditional ways, as the industry changes.

71 Minutes

Listen to Douglas’s New Media Presentation to UCLA Extension Voice over Class

 

Sections of the talk:

• Being responsible for your own Production, Promotion and Proactivity in your own career
• Blogs and Blogging
• Web sites
• The 4 Pillars of New Media
  • Podcasting
  • Video Sharing sites
  • Live Streaming
  • Social Media – Facebok, Twitter, Google+, etc.
• How the entertainment industry is chaining
• Why you should be developing and producing your own shows

I also gave a short Garageband to show how easy it is to create your own audio programs. Due to the visual nature of the talk, it is not included in this audio program.

Filed under: Audio, Events, Live, New Media, Show

New Product: MicW iPhone/iPad Microphones

This post originally appeared in Careers in New Media by Douglas E. Welch

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MicW Professional Microphones

I had 2 separate friends mention these iPhone/iPad compatible microphones in the last several days. Both saw them at the manufacturers display at the MacWorld Expo that was held in San Francisco this week.

Portable devices are now capable of recording high quality audio, but sometimes you want a better mic, or more suitable microphone when out recording in the field.

I haven’t heard the quality of these mics, but my friends and the web site have certainly piqued my interest. I will see if I can get a demo model here at the Careers in New Media office so I can record some audio and share it with you.

For now, here is an audio sample using the i436 mic (picture below) from the company’s web site

Download  i436 Violin Sample

Other samples from MicW web site

Filed under: Elsewhere, Hardware, iPhone, New Media, News, Technology

Subscribe To A Newsapaper, Get An E-reader Free

It’s starting to happen. I was talking to someone just the other night about how such deals would greatly benefit mainstream media outlets. The price of the readers is falling very rapidly while their capabilities just keep growing.

Subscribe To A Newsapaper, Get An E-reader Free

Well, this was bound to happen. Barnes & Noble is offering big discounts on its Nook e-readers to people taking out subscriptions to digital editions of magazines and newspapers:

The Nook edition of People is $9.99 a month; with a one-year subscription, customers will receive a Nook Tablet, a color device with a 7-inch display, for $199, a discount from its regular price of $249. Customers who buy a one-year subscription for the Nook edition of The New York Times for $19.99 a month, which in…

Read the entire article

 

Filed under: Books, Elsewhere

New Media Challenge 2012-002 – Get close!

Are you ready for the next New Media Challenge? This time I want you to get close…really close!

This might take some doing depending on your camera, as they often don’t focus on very close objects, but I am sure you can work it out. Of course, getting close can mean something else entirely, too. Feel free to explore the theme in any way you wish.

Post  a link to your video, photos, writing or more here by Sunday, January 22, 2012.

Use the comments link (click the number next to the little text bubble above) to add a link to this post.

Note: If you simply paste a YouTube URL for your video, WordPress.com will embed the actual video in its place.

New Media Challenges are designed to give you an excuse to stretch your New Media muscles. You can use whatever media you like to complete the challenge including audio, video, photography, writing and more.

Filed under: Community, New Media, New Media Challenge

Voiceover class starts January 12, 2012 at UCLA Extension

NMI friend, Janet Wilcox, will be starting her UCLA Extension voiceover class again in just a week. If you are interested in getting started in the industry, this could be the class for you. Douglas E. Welch will be speaking to her class about New Media this session, as he has done in the past.

Class Description:

Pursuing a Career in Voice Overs

Do people say you have a wonderful voice? Gain a comprehensive understanding of the tools needed to excel in TV and radio commercials, animation, narration for documentaries, and other areas of voice over work. Instruction includes breath and microphone technique, script analysis, finding characters spontaneously, and how to keep it fun, even when the pressure’s on. Participants also learn how to pursue a career in voice over.

Janet Wilcox’s Bio

Writer, producer, and actor with extensive experience on both sides of the microphone. Ms. Wilcox has written and produced promos for HBO, ABC, and The History Channel, among others. As a voice over talent, she has been heard on Lifetime, HBO, E!, Cinemax, and AMC. She is the author of Voiceovers: Techniques and Tactics for Success.

 

Filed under: Elsewhere, New Media, News

Giveaway: Podcasting for Dummies Book

To start the podcasting New Year right, I am giving away a copy of Podcasting for Dummies (1st Edition), written by two of my podcast buddies, Evo Terra and Tee Morris.

This book is a great introduction into the world of podcasting and can get you up and running in just a couple of hours. Learn about recording your show, starting your blog, RSS feeds, the iTunes podcast directory and more.

There are several ways to enter. You can do one or more to gain extra entries.

Contest ends January 22, 2012

Click here to enter ‘Podcasting for Dummies” giveaway!

 

Filed under: Events, Giveaway

New Media Challenge 2012-001 – Nature

Let’s get the New Year started right with our first New Media Challenge of 2012!

New Media Challenge 2012-001 – Nature

Get outside and show us all some piece of nature in your area.

This could be your garden, a national park, or “weeds” growing in an urban vacant lot. You get to decide what to show and how to present it. Post  a link to your video, photos, writing or more here by Sunday, January 8, 2012.

Use the comments link (click the number next to the little text bubble above) to add a link to this post.

New Media Challenges are designed to give you an excuse to stretch your New Media muscles. You can use whatever media you like to complete the challenge including audio, video, photography, writing and more.

Filed under: New Media, New Media Challenge

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,200 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 37 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Filed under: Wordpress

Top New Media Interchange Posts for 2011

Here are the top posts on New Media Interchange for 2011

Elsewhere: Why is Video Hard? Five Shots and Patterns
Video: Crazy Downhill Urban Bike Race Caught On Helmet Cam
Interested in an Ojai New Media Retreat?
360 Panoramic Lens for iPhone – New Kickstarter Project
WordPress 2.9 upgrade fails on GoDaddy shared server(s)
Screencast: Forwarding GoDaddy Domain to WordPress.com Blog
How do you make a living in New Media?
Video: Palimpsests – Norman Klein – CalArts / Art Center
Upgrade WordPress to 2.9.2
News: YouTube Now Lets You Remove its Logo From Video Player – For Better or For Worse
New Media Gift Guide #10: Blue Microphones Yeti USB Microphone
Top New Media Interchange Posts for 2010
Book Reading: Mastering Monologues and Acting Sides: How to Audition Successfully for Both Traditional and New Media
Cokin MAGNE-FIX lens adapters for small cameras
Super Happy Vlog House – This Saturday – Ojai, CA
Elsewhere Online: Web Content Corner With Jenni Powell: 5 Things Not To Do On A Web Project Shoot…And What To Do Instead
Video: WGA “Tout your own horn” New Media Panel
[Tip] Record short audio and video tips…
[Tip] Before following people on Twitter fill out your profile info. Help people to follow you back, not ignore you!
Elsewhere Online: Vimeo Video School Offers Free Tutorials to Help Improve Your Video Skills [How To]
Promote your favorite podcasts and help other listen/watch
Podcast Highlight: Podcast Perspective with Steve Riekeberg

 

Filed under: News

Event: 6th Annual Live Reading of A Christmas Carol – Dec 18, 2011

Our 6th Annual LIVE Reading of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol will take place on Sunday, December 18, 2011 at 6pm EST/3pm PST.

Our annual holiday reading of this classic Dickens’ story. We bring together frends and family to read sections from a condensed version of the story — said to be made by Charles Dickens himself — for his own live, public readings. Follow Scrooge, Bob Crachit, Tiny Tim and all the familiar characters as they both teach and learn what Christmas is all about.

Tune in while you prepare your Christmas cookies or wrap your Christmas presents. Join the “spirits” of the season!

Click Here to Watch/Listen Live to A Christmas Carol

 

Consider having your own reading of A Christmas Carol, or other favorite story, as a way to gather friends together and share a unique experience. You don’t have to broadcast it like we do, but why not share it with the world!

This year’s show is sponsored by WelchWrite.com, Eclipse-1 Media and New Media Interchange.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Enjoy more Christmas Carol in your own home!

Free download of “A Christmas Carol” – Text/ePub/HTML/Kindle versions available

Free download of our reading script of “A Christmas Carol” – PDF format

More “A Christmas Carol” on Amazon.com

Filed under: Audio, News, Video

Join the New Media Interchange Mailing List today!

Keep in touch with everything happening at New Media Interchange. Join our mailing list!

Subscribe to the New Media Interchange mailing list

Filed under: News

New G+ for NMI

For those of you who are finding Google+ more of their home base these days, I set up a New Media Interchange page for discussion and posting of hints, tips and other items.

Filed under: New Media, News, Social

New Media Tips – Recent Items

Here is a collection of New Media Tips recently published on the @newmediatips Twitter feed.

• [Tip] Take every opportunity to prune people you follow. Follow those who bring value into your life in some way. Unfollow the rest.
• [Tip] For best video results, record separate close-up audio and sync in post production. Greatly improves overall production
• [Tip] What are you an expert in? Everyone with one more piece of knowledge or one more experience than others IS an expert. Use it!
• Want to know what’s “new” about New Media. It’s you! You control media and not vice versa. We have been given power. Time to use it!
• [Tip] Sometimes the best “show” is simply talking with someone who has something important or interesting to say. Need not be big, just cool
• [Tip] The longer pictures or video stay in your camera, the less likely you are to ever doing something with them. Share it or lose it!
• Booklet: Social Media Self Preservation by Douglas E. Welch -http://amzn.to/q18mhD – Kindle format for any Win/Mac/Android/iPhone/iPad
• [Tip] Short videos, long videos, whatever. Shows and segments find their own length. Don’t lock in to 15/30/60 limits. Think 3/6/22 or diff
• [Tip] Lots to think about when shooting video – light, sound, camera, words, noise – Take them one by one before you start to do well.
• [Tip] Looking for great topics to blog/video blog about. Propogate Google Reader, check out Pinterest.com, gather input from from all over
• [Tip] Great content comes from great conversations. Cultivate them. Seek them out. Capture them. Write them down. Record them.
• [Tip] Every person you follow on social media sites needs to provide value in the form of entertainment, information or enlightenment.
• [Tip] Placing your new media show on mainstream media might not be the best goal for you or your show. Maintain control and direct income.
• [Tip] Make a show you would be interested in watching and the audience will find you. Chasing a “market” is riskier and less rewarding
• [Tip] Zoom H1 is an affordable, yet highly effective New Media recording tool. Use built-in or external mics. - http://amzn.to/nHiUkA
• [Tip] Shooting video of yourself, by yourself? Make sure video camera has reversible screen to monitor framing and angle.
• [Tip] Turn a camera on the world so that others cannot deny the reality that exists. A mirror reflects, but a camera delves.
• [Tip] Smartphones are excellent New Media “studios”. Carry yours always…and use it a lot. You never know what you might capture.
• [TIp] Lavaliere mics – wired or wireless – can improve your audio recording dramatically – Examples from Amazon -http://amzn.to/sSH2BX
• [Tip] I probably wouldn’t solely use YouTube’s new editing features, but they are certainly worth checking out. Try out on your videos
• [Tip] Tonight (Halloween) is a great night for experimenting with your New Media tools. Don’t need an excuse be take photos or shoot video
• [Tip] Timelapse photography can illustrate projects and events in a fun and interesting way. Use it in your next project.
• [Tip] Cultivate a spouse or friend to help you shoot by being the “camera operator.” It makes a world of difference.
• [Tip] Look at something really closely — now closer — what does it reveal to you that you don’t see further away? – No record that feeling
• [Tip] Video compression can have trouble dealing with complex backgrounds i.e moving leaves. Try a simpler background for better results.

Filed under: New Media Tips

Audio: Ghosts of the Internet 2011

Looking for a little Halloween-appropriate listening for tonight? Listen to Ghosts of the Internet 2011!

Listen to Ghosts of the Internet 2011!

More photos from the event

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615

 

The whole family participated in this annual live reading yesterday and here is the recording of that event. We had a great time, as always, reading, noshing, joshing and laughing.

Filed under: Audio, Elsewhere, New Media, Show

Video from remote controlled helicopter

Cool example of what can be done with high-end cameras and remote control helicopters

Filed under: Elsewhere, New Media, Technology, Video

Elsewhere: Why is Video Hard? Five Shots and Patterns

Never heard of this method before, but it sounds liks something that could jumpstart a lot of beginning new media people. Give it a read! — Douglas

Why is Video Hard? Five Shots and Patterns

[…]

“One of the most famous, and useful of these, is Michael Rosenblum’s “five shot” method that he developed training journalists from the NY Times to the BBC. It’s actually something he’s preached since the late 1990s, and those who are fortunate enough to learn it get an insight into shooting better video, immediately.

I’ve successfully used this in the classroom to teach visual literacy, because it hones in immediately on what’s important. The five shot method always prescribes these, shot in this exact order (my handout here):

1. A closeup on the hands of a subject – showing WHAT is happening
2. A closeup on the face – WHO is doing it
3. A wide shot – WHERE its happening
4. An over the shoulder shot (OTS) – linking together the previous three concepts
5. An unusual, or side/low shot – providing story-specific context”

Read the entire article

Filed under: Elsewhere, In The Field, New Media, Tips

Book Reading: Mastering Monologues and Acting Sides: How to Audition Successfully for Both Traditional and New Media

Douglas E. Welch here.

My wife, Rosanne Welch, will be attending a book signing on Thursday, October 13 at 7pm at Book Soup on Sunset Blvd for this book by Janet Wilcox that includes a chunk of scenes from one of her unproduced pilots. There will also be a reading held in New York City.

Rosanne and I met Janet while teaching at UCLA Extension and she asked if Rosanne had any unproduced work she could consider – and ended up really liking the one she sent.  So though Rosanne never saw the piece performed on film, she now knows tons of aspiring actors are using her words to polish their craft. Kind of fun.

I have also been a guest speaker on new media and podcasting at Janet’s UCLA Extension Voiceover class for the last 2 years.

Working voice actors, some our friends, will be reading scenes included in the book for a live demonstration of voice acting.

According to Amazon.com “Mastering Monologues and Acting Sides: How to Audition Successfully for Both Traditional and New Media” by Janet Wilcox teaches actors how to audition for anything from webisodes to Shakespeare. Scripts, acting technique tips, and exercises keep a performer toned and ready, while industry experts give advice on how to audition professionally.

Book Soup

October  13th - 7PM-9PM

1818 Sunset Blvd.W. Hollywood, CA 90069

 

Actors Connection

Sat. Oct. 22nd – 2:30-4:30

630 Ninth Avenue, Suite 1410(between 44th & 45th)New York, NY 10036

Filed under: Books, Events, New Media

What I’m Reading…Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas

Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas

by Dan Zarrella

Want to learn how to maximize social media? When to do it, what words to use, who to tweet at? Look no further than Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design and Engineering of Contagious Ideas. Social media master Dan Zarrella has amassed years of experience helping people negotiate the often mystical place of social media marketing. Now, he has condensed those well-tried ideas into this concise and conversational book. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness demystifies and deconstructs how social media works, who it benefits and why we all depend upon it to help our good ideas spread.

Find more information on this book on GoodReads.com

Follow me on GoodReads.com

Filed under: Books, New Media, Social

Douglas is moderating a panel at TECHmunch Food Blogger Conference

NMI Founder, Douglas E. Welch here…I  have just been asked to moderate at panel discussion at the TECHmunch Food Blogger Conference being held in Santa Monica, California on Friday, September 23, 2011.

TECHmunch is a series of conferences in cities across the U.S. designed to help food bloggers gain the hands-on digital media, marketing and business skills they need to make their blogs more personally and financially rewarding. Each conference features leading experts in a range of disciplines — from digital publishing and search engine optimization to public relations and online advertising. TECHmunch was created by BakeSpace.com Founder Babette Pepaj, who serves as its producer and host.

I will be moderating the session titled, “Tips on Creating and Distributing Mouthwatering Multimedia Content” with panel members Sara O’Donnell (@averagebetty), Producer and Host of AverageBetty.comDiane Cu (@whiteonrice), Photographer and Publisher of White on Rice Couple.comSandi McKenna (@McMedia), Host of Midlife Roadtrip.comJohn Trefry Video Producer, Docstoc.com (formerly Video Producer Mahalo.com creating videos for Recipe.com).

If you are a food blogger, or just thinking of becoming one, TECHmunch could be a great way to jumpstart your knowledge and connections. Join me on September 23, 2011!

Register for TECHmunch

TECHMunch Web Site

Filed under: Events, New Media