Area 51, a very, very slick comedy podcast (#34 on Podcast Alley) put together by a group of top-notch professionals who probably lost their jobs when Clear Channel pillaged and burned their former places of work, mentioned Herro Flom Japan on their March 24 podcast.
Dude, I know the levels were off. It was my 2nd podcast. Ever. In my whole life. Come to think of it, I’ll fix the levels tonight and re-upload it.
It seems like quite a few people are curious about the setup I’m using to record binaural soundseeing tours. Actually, I wouldn’t recommend using the rig I hobbled together because it picks up the sounds inside my mouth and upper digestive tract. Check out the binaural mics at soundprofessionals.com instead.
But, since you asked…
There’s picture of the monstrosity here.
At home I use a Plantronics DSP-400 headset and Audacity. The noise canceling mic works great. If I were using an el cheapo mic, the racket my PC makes would practically drown out my voice. And the headset came with a CD full of excellent software, which I unfortunately lost long ago.
Yesterday at work I listened to the recordings I made about a week ago while walking through Kabukicho. (“Kabukicho is to sex what Akihabara is to electronics.”) I got some really good audio. You can hear me buy a bottle of green tea from a vending machine. A guy standing next to it is talking on his cell phone. Then about 10 seconds later you can hear me take a drink and swallow. Those earbud mics pick up everything. I talk with a few hawkers, some in English (the Nigerians) and some in Japanese. Then towards the end a motorcycle goes by on the left, and if you’re listening to it on headphones you’d absolutely swear the thing is real. At work the window is to my left and the first time I heard it I thought it was outside.
What prevented me from putting the podcast together was a technical problem. I upgraded my computer the other day with 256MB more RAM and a USB 2.0/Firewire card, and since then it’s been really, really slllllloooooow. I just figured out it was the card, not the RAM or my massively fragmented HD. So maybe my next soundseeing tour will be of me trying to take the damn card back. Not easy here. FYI, Bic Camera won’t take back DIY PC parts but SofMap will.
Sorry ’bout that. Something somewhere decided to break.