Terra Incognita (and the years) rolls ever onwards

Okay, so I haven't got as many episodes done this weekend as I'd intended! Episode 22 and 23 have been uploaded to Podiobooks.com and await the tender mercies of the guys to massage them both onto the Terra Incognita title page.

There's also a new page been added to my Web Site that links to Variant Frequencies' The Failed Cities Monologues: Hath A Darkness.

Also been listening to some new music (well new for me anyway)

John Barrowman portrays Captain Jack Harkness in both Doctor Who and Torchwood.

His latest album - Another Side - has recently been released and from the brief excerpts available to listen to at his web site it sounds like a very good piece of work.

Admittedly John Barrowman isn't my regular 'kind' of music (Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Coldplay), but the man has one hell of a voice and I have to say that this is worth a look.







I've also been listening to Rogue Traders. They are an Australian band who I've recently become aware of through Doctor Who - strange how that program seems to link to other things...

For those who watch The Doctor, the song used as the Toclafane descend from the rift in the sky is Voodoo Child from the album Here Come The Drums. Drums being something of a constant torment for The Master since childhood...























This weekend I'd intended to complete the long job of cutting Praedari, the sequel to Terra Incognita, into dialogue sections ready for recording next year. Didn't get that finished, although I did manage to do five chapters, leaving seven to do.

Another job I wanted to get done was producing the audio files (mp3, stereo, 256Kbps @ 44.1Khz) for Terra Incognita. Podiobooks.com requires 128Kbps @ 44.1Khz Joint Stereo and as I'm creating a complete set of audio CDs for everyone who leant their voice to a character, I want to do a high quality version ;-) Unfortunately, I only got seven episodes of that done :-(

Most of this has been the result of watching Doctor Who Series Three and 2/3 of Torchwood series One. Although I have found time to listen to the StarShip Sofa Spider Robinson interview - very good. If you've not come across StarShip Sofa and like science fiction, I'd highly recommend checking the Podcast out!

And finally... Battlestar Galactica: RAZOR is due to air on Tuesday. It's a bit of a tough one that as I really do want to watch it, but to see it all in one go - on air - will mean that my other half will have to wait at the airport until it's finished. Somehow, I suspect she won't be pleased with that. So it'll be recorded and we'll have to watch it later off air.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Cheers,

Gary

Too much coffee, audio editing, Terra Incognita, Praedari and Christmas

I've managed to drink too much coffee today whilst editing the narrative for episodes/chapters 21, 22, 23 and 24 of Terra Incognita. The practical upshot of that is that whilst I feel tired, I know I can't sleep (perhaps that's self fulfilling?) But, such is life! Episode/chapter 21 of TI has been uploaded to Podiobooks.com and should be live on the site in the next couple of days. I've also uploaded it to Podshow.com, as with all the other episodes, and it can be downloaded from there - each of the episode/chapter pages on my web site has a link at the bottom to the mp3 for that episode/chapter hosted on Podshow.com.

I'm hoping to get at least another three chapters edited together this week, and Kevin has reiterated his desire to complete the narrative recording before Christmas. With any luck, and a following wind, all thirty-six chapters will be complete by 31st December 2007 and released on an unsuspecting audience... That means a fun schedule to complete fifteen chapters in twenty-one days. Not too bad, editing the narrative for each chapter takes around forty minutes and editing that together with the dialogue and sound effects takes another three to four hours for each episode/chapter :-D


When TI is complete, I'll be taking a break from audio editing for a couple of month - I could do with a bit of a break from constantly thinking ahead to the next episode/chapter and the one after that and the one after that and... This will also give Kevin a fairly good chance of getting a fair chunk of the narrative pre-recorded for Praedari, although it will mean I'll have a bit of catching up to do. Thus far, everyone who's voiced one of the major characters has agreed to reprise their roles for the sequel. I've also had a few offers of extra voices, which will help a great deal.

I'm also going to be investing in a new bit of kit for the PC...

This is a XENYX 1204FX Premium 12-Input 2/2-Bus Mixer with XENYX Mic Preamps, British EQs, 24-Bit Multi-FX Processor and USB/Audio Interface and it is what I would have bought this year for recording TI, if only I'd known it existed... The major advantage (for me at least with this bit of kit) is that it has XLR connectors for microphone input and the output is a standard computer USB - so no more line noise. Although I suspect I'll be needing some new XLR audio cables as well :-( This is a Behringer bit of kit and more details are here.

So come February if anyone reading this wants the 4 channel mono mixer I have and can give it a good home...

This isn't a bad bit of kit by any means, I'm simply looking for an upgrade ;-) and will pass this one along to a good home. I bought it from Maplin here in Ireland and it works nicely - line noise being a function of cables without enough shielding!

The page on the Maplin web site for the mixer is here...




Praedari picks up the story started in Terra Incognita a couple of months later, I'm hoping that I'll be able to release it through Podiobooks.com under the Creative Commons License (as with TI). I'm also going to be having the manuscript for TI professionally edited and reviewed by John Jarrold. It's kind of a deeply seated hope that John will be interested enough in TI to consider it for representation... But that is in the future and as we all know, there are no guarantees in life!

I should mention that both of the images used for Terra Incognita and Praedari are the work of Peter Sharpe who is an exceptional digital artist. His web site is full of examples of his work and it may be found here.




I'm now officially excited about Christmas, all the money is spent, the cats are enjoying redecorating the front room with the Christmas tree as well as the wrapping paper that was until recently securely around presents... As a result, I'm starting to get into the spirit of things ;-)

I read on the BSG Wiki the other day that the intention is to finish the series at the end of season 4. A great shame, but infinitely better than continuing and being axed before the end of the story may be told to everyones' satisfaction (Farscape and Firefly are two that spring readily yo mind). Still there's always Tony and Ciaran at Starship Sofa to roll out the science fiction in the weekly Podcast. The Geordie Duo have a couple of stories by Michael Moorcock for download (mp3 format) and they are both pretty good to listen too ;-)

I finished Eifelheim by Michael Flynn the other day, very good read and an intriguing idea. Really enjoyed the book, although I was a little miffed at first with the alternating to present day, until that plot thread began to link in a more defined fashion with the core of the story. I'd highly recommend it as worth reading; although I do have to say that it comes (for me at least) a very good second to Blindsight by Peter Watts. I've now moved onto Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5. I've not read any of Mr Vonnegut's work before so it promises to be an interesting experience!

Best get on and get some sleep, the working week is fast approaching!

Cheers,

Gary

They Came, They Saw, They Conquered

Victorious South Africa start celebrations as they win the 2007 Rugby World Cup. England beaten 15-6 a few short weeks after the worst defeat in English International history; at the hands of South Africa.

RSA have played well and deserved the win, having set themselves as The team to beat. And so the Web Ellis Cup returns to South Africa after an absence of twelve years, when South Africa won the RWC for the first time in 1995.

That's it for another four years :-( Well until the 6 Nations start next year, I've heard rumours that Argentina may be invited to join the 6 Nations - making it the 7 Nations - if they are able to secure grounds in Spain to use for home games.

I've been working on tightening Terra Incognita up and am looking at self publishing it; either through Lulu.com or possibly setting up as a publisher myself and taking the Lightning Source route - daunting stuff! On the subjest of TI, there has been a considerable delay in episodes for the Podiobook, as Kevin (The Narrator) has been out of the country for the last three weeks being indoctrinated with the Microsoft Way - congrats on the MCSE!

Anyway with Kevin now back, he has promised to get back to recording as soon as possible; that should (hopefully) mean that at least chapter 16 will be available on Podiobooks.com before the week is out. I've also been working on Praedari, the sequel to Terra Incognita, and getting that into a format for everyone to reprise their roles from TI.


Cheers,

Gary