Aztec Media

Several listeners of the www.chvrchespodcast.com have said they have audio playback issues with some of the podcasts.  After several weeks of testing, I was able to get the weird sound issue to happen on my Apple iPod Touch.

So I created several example files to post to see if others can reproduce consistently. These are recorded originals from my Marantz (one in MP3 format and one in WAV):

• Download Marantz MP3 44.1 (Original).MP3 (235.9K) [Original]
• Download Marantz WAV PCM 44.1 (Original).WAV (2594.6K) [not expected to play on an iDevice because it is WAV format]
• Download Marantz WAV PCM 44.1 (Exported as WAV 16-bit PCM).wav (1243.4K)  [not expected to play on an iDevice because it is WAV format]

The following were imported into Audacity 2.1.2 on Windows and exported out:

• Download Marantz WAV PCM 44.1 (Exported as MP2 160kbps then to MP3).mp3 (113.5K) [Export #1]
• Download Marantz WAV PCM 44.1 (Exported as WAV 16-bit PCM then to MP3).mp3 (113.9K) [Export #2]
• Download Marantz WAV PCM 44.1 (Exported MP3 Constant-128kbps-JointStereo).mp3 (113.9K) [Export #3]

If any of these MP3s don't sound right [Original or Export #1, #2, #3] on your computer or iDevice, then can you please let me know at: [email protected].  Thanks!

Update #1 (9/30/2016 11:15 AM PT) - My friend Victor was not able to find any sound quality playback issues on his iPhone 7 or iPad Pro.  Neither could play the WAV file but that is expected.  The WAV file sounded fine on his Mac.

Update #2 (9/30/2016 11:15 AM PT) - These MP3s all sound AOK to me on my iPad Air 2 in the Chrome browser.

Update #3 (10/2/2016 1:45 PM PT) - The first original MP3 and Export #2 and Export #3 make no sound on my iPod Touch running iOS 10 using Safari browser. Export #1 sounds like high-pitched clicks and beeps.

Update #4 (10/14/2016 - 9:11 AM PT) - These seem to play find on multiple Android devices, Windows PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, and Linux Desktop OS via multiple browsers.  I verified the podcasts play via iTunes also on various platforms other than iPhone 6 devices.

Update #5 (10/14/2016 - 11:43 AM PT) - These are two new test files after swapping all the cables I am using in my recording study.  RAW MP3 directory from Marantz and then an output of the Marantz MP3 from Audacity:

• #A.) Download Swapped-Cables-Marantz-MP3-Original.MP3 (280.0K)
• #B.) Download Swapped-Cables-Audacity-MP3-Output.mp3 (112.7K)

There is reportedly a piece of malware out there called 'Aztec Media'.  We have nothing to do with this software.

You should be able to use Malwarebytes to remove it. Another great option is to try Windows Defender Offline from Microsoft.

Updated: 3/10/2014

The San Diego Union-Tribune had an interesting article on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 entitled "How Can I Preserve My Family's Memories?" by Jennifer Davies.  The article has practical tips on how to capture the message, timing, location, preparation work, and other great suggestions related to recording audio memories.

On the technology side, Jennifer recommended the following potentially helpful resources:

• Voice and Video in San Diego
• StoreCorps
• Digital Story Station

Other technology options that I might consider recommending is a good USB microphone connected to a computer or if you wanted a hand held unit, I've read good reviews about Zoom H2 Handy Portable Stereo Recorder (but I've not used one).  

Since I have a Marantz 660, I'd use that or maybe my older iRiver IFP-799.  If you have any suggestions, then drop me an email at: [email protected] .

I started a new media/advertising tracking side project over on Twitter with a new account called adwatch.

I'm going to tweet references to content providers and their advertisements that I find interesting from the media that gets into my attention stream. 

If you want to participate you can send me a link @adwatch, RT a post you find interesting, or you can just add your own by tagging #adwatch in your related tweets.  The search stream for  #adwatch is the feed I'm going to be interested in.

I've had this idea for a while to see where and how advertisers and new media content creators are coming together, and this seemed like the easiest way to get started.  Plus, it is as open as possible and not something that is closed like other services.

If you have any other thoughts or ideas, please either add a comment to this post or drop me a message via adwatch @ Twitter.

Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott have a great Windows Weekly interview with Rob Greenlee from Microsoft. 

They cover the latest in Microsoft Zune news, update folks on the state of podcasting, and outline a lot of opportunities in new media like download, streaming, live video, etc.

If you have a Windows PC you should take a moment and download the latest Zune client.  I have it running on all my PCs (XP, Vista, Win7beta) and I find it to be a great content player.

There is a new version of Audacity v1.3.7 (beta) and I've loaded it up on my Mac Book Pro. I used it to mix down the Jersey Boys Podcast #66 without any issues.  I've been using the previous version - v1.3.6 (beta) - without any major problems, and I consider this release to be production quality.

Some of what I think are the most important fixes and updates include:

• Fixed periodic exported stereo files issues
• Fixes for Nyquist effects, Compressor and Noise Removal
• Fixed WAV corrupted issue related toi overwriting the same file
• MP3 and WMA now export correctly with all supported metadata
• Platform-specific bugs for: Vista, Windows, Mac, Linux
• Improved F11 Full Screen mode
• Improved Windows DirectSound API support
• Improved latency correction using fixed correction value

Another Audacity related item of potential interest, is that the audio for my presentation at the New Media Expo 2007 has been posted to the Podcast Academy site.  Here is a link to the PDF slides and a screencast QuickTime movie of the slides.

You might have a pretty good online training experience listening to the audio from the Podcast Academy site and watching the QuickTime Movie at the same time.

I will be presenting at the New Media Expo 2008 (August 14-16, 2008) a "Getting Started With Audio Editing" session using Audacity from 2:00-3:00 p.m. in room N245 on August 14, 2008.

I have created a set of WAV files that will make up my examples and demos that folks who are attending might want to download if they plan to try to follow along during the presentation.  The link is here (34-MBs .zip file).

I also have posted a copy of my Audacity 101 DAU eLearning 2008 workshop slides in PDF format, and a link to a Blip.TV movie that includes the screencasts that are embedded in the presentation. Unfortunately the movie is not sync'd with audio so you have to work your way through them without narration.

NOTE: I will be doing my demos at PME 2008 using the Audacity v1.3.5 (beta) release.

There was a question the other day on the New Media Expo Pathable Community mailing list about how to record phone conversations via POTS connections. 

I use a Telos-One-R (R = rack mountable) that I picked up on eBay and this is a diagram of my setup:

The Telos One comes highly recommended from two very smart audio gurus at IT Conversations: Doug Kaye and Paul Figgiani. 

Paul has posted some great resources about the topic over at Podcast Rigs especially this post "Telos One, Talkshoe and Skype." There is also a great podcast with Doug Kaye (MP3) over at Podcast Academy that covers this topic.

Both Paul and Victor Cajiao at the Typical Mac User Podcast helped me setup the configuration of my unit - which is done manually with a small screw driver. I also borrowed Paul's unit diagram of a Telos One for my picture.  Thanks Paul!

I am pretty happy with how this is working now, but I would recommend doing some post production processing on the phone track (usually your guest) with something like SoundSoap.

The very long running "audacity-users" mailing list has migrated over to a forum. 

You can learn more via this link: http://www.nabble.com/audacity-users-f472.html.

If you have a question about Audacity, this looks like a great place to post the question.

Online registration is now available for the 4th annual New Media Expo 2008 in Las Vegas, NV from Thursday, August 14 through Saturday, August 16, 2008.

I will be presenting an updated version of my "Getting Started With Audio Editing - Hands-on With Audacity" interactive session at this conference.  This presentation is in the "Track 1: Audio and Video Creation 101" series, and will be held Thursday, August 14, 2008 from 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm.

If you are new to podcasting, audio editing, or to the open source multi-platform Audacity audio editing and production tool, then this will be a great session for you to attend.  This year's expo looks to be as good or better than previous years. 

If you can't wait for New Media Expo 2008, here are some references that I've done on the topic of audio editing with Audacity:

• PNME 2007 - Audacity Presentation In QuickTime Format
• PNME 2007 - Getting Started With Audacity Slides
• Podcast Academy 3 - Audacity 101 Slides (June 2006)
• Blog Post "What Gear Do You Need To Podcast" (January 2005)

The audio for my PNME 2007 presentation is available via Podcast Academy.

NOTE: There is an audio version of my Podcast Academy 3 presentation in the archives of Podcast Academy, but those are being transferred from GigaVox Media at this time and are offline.  As soon as link becomes available, I'll post it.