Apr
4
(2006)
Samson USB Microphone
Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: audio, microphone, podcasting, samson. | 22 Comments
I ordered a Samson CO1U USB “podcasting” microphone to use for my upcoming podcasting workshop. Brian has one, and it’s a beauty. Nice and heavy, and seems to have really nice and rich audio quality. Better than my little USB headset, Powerbook built-in mic, or iSight camera offer, anyway. It was cheap, too - under $80.
After I opened the package, I plugged the USB cord into my G5. It was recognized right off the bat, and iChat and Garageband were able to use it with no additional installation. Then, I went ahead and installed the Samson “applet” to get additional tweakery and bitfiddlery.
Don’t install the applet. It also drops a kernel extension into your system, and requires a reboot. Sure, it gives you a cool-looking levels controller, but it also makes the microphone invisible to audio apps. I’d rather have a stock mic that works, thanks.
So, I uninstalled the .kext and rebooted to clear it out. The mic is visible again. But not to Audacity, for some reason. I’ll debug that tomorrow.
First reaction is: the mic (when it is recognized) sounds really nice. Is the flakeyness worth it? I’ll know more in a couple of days of playing…
Oct
22
(2005)
Stanford podcasts via iTunes
Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: audio, community, downloads, itunes, podcasting, stanford, university. | 5 Comments
via Josie Fraser at EdTechUK - This is one of the cooler things I’ve seen in a while. Stanford University is putting a bunch of audio content online, free, via the iTMS.
Stanford on iTunes will provide alumni—as well as the general public—with a new and versatile way of staying connected to the university through downloads of faculty lectures, campus events, performances, book readings, music recorded by Stanford students and even podcasts of Stanford football games. At launch, the service will contain close to 400 distinct audio programs, and the university will continue to add new content as it becomes available.
They’ve put up a page describing the effort, with a direct link to the Stanford section of the iTMS. I’m downloading a few things now (a session on Stress and Coping - ironically enough - and some live recordings of some concerts).
Very cool. Great to see a Big School “get it” that by sharing resources freely they are not shooting themselves in the foot. Every university should be doing this as part of their contribution back to the community.
ps. Yes, I know it’s not really podcasting, but close enough. The spirit is the same, and they provide some handy hooks to download all content at once. So it’s not fed to you via RSS. Whatever…