Beware the attack of the anachronisms!

During a recent translation/localization project for a major NLE manufacturer, my friend Rubén Abruña and I ran into a conundrum when debating with our client about how a few words should be translated. Among them was the word Slate, which Rubén and I (and everyone else we personally know in Spain and Latin America) had called Pizarra. We were quite shocked when our client told us that they wanted to use the word Claqueta, which actually corresponds with the word Clapstick. For us, the difference between a Slate and a Clapstick were clear: A Slate just shows information. While a Clapstick may show information, it always has a sound-producing “clapper” which was created to facilitate synchronizing audio and video in post. In fact, as far as we are concerned, both Clapstick and Claqueta are onomatopoeia, or words that were created to imitate the sound created by the device. For that reason, Rubén and I were quite clear about why we called a Slate as a Pizarra, and a Clapstick as a Claqueta. However, I began to discuss this with industry colleagues in Latin America/Spain, delve into the etymologies of each term, and discovered that —whether we like it or not, even Slate (Pizarra) is an anachronism.

Audio options for hybrid cameras: a study by P3Pictures

Jon Fairhurst of P3Pictures has done quite a study on audio options for hybrid cameras. Although P3Pictures uses a Canon 5D Mark II for its testing, at least some of their conclusions could apply to other hybrid cameras, including the Canon 7D, Panasonic Lumix GH1, and others yet to be released. P3Pictures’ goal with these scientific tests is to find the most professional quality sound, with mid-priced equipment. In all tests, P3Pictures uses the M-Audio Microtrack II, Zoom H4n, BeachTek DXA-5D, and the juicedLink CX 231. The first test is done with a closely placed shotgun mic. The second test uses a camera-mounted shotgun. The third test is with a wireless lavaliere microphone. Part 4 is foley recording, and Part 5 explores the noise floor of each option. Part 6 are P3Pictures’ conclusions. Here come the videos…

Professional Audio Podcasting seminar, April 14th in Miami

Now is your chance to attend a seminar about professional audio podcast production. You will learn the fundamental differences between tradtional radio broadcasts, live Internet radio, and audio podcasts… and the advantages of the latter; how to design your audio podcast format; the standard elements (intros, outros, bumpers, etc.); hardware and software to produce your audio podcast; how to conduct high-quality telephone interviews; audio editing of your podcast; compression versus normalization; how to add chapters and graphics to your enhanced audio podcast; how to upload your podcast; and how to create an RSS feed which is compatible with iTunes and other podcast aggregators.

The date is April 14th, and the place is Miami, Florida. Although there is a charge of US$100 per person, attendees will receive a coupon good for a 40% discount off of the recommended audio podcast production software for Mac. Click here for more information, or to register.

Toast 10 Titanium Pro package: a great upgrade

With version 10, Roxio (now a division of Sonic Solutions) offers a Pro bundle of Toast, which includes a total of 12 applications, most of which are multilingual. As many veteran Mac users know, the Toast application was born way before MacOS X (10.0). Back then, Toast was necessary to do something as simple as burning a CD, since before 10.0, the MacOS didn’t include onboard CD burning. Although CD and DVD burning capability is now part of the MacOS X (with much less depth than with Toast), the Toast application has grown quite a bit to cover many other tasks. Without even going into the bundled applications yet, you may know that Toast 10 can now burn data CDs, data DVDs, and data Blu-rays, and span data over more than one disk. Toast 10 can also do simple authoring of video DVDs and Blu-rays, as well as create “AVCHD disks”, which is HD material burned on a standard single or dual-layer DVD, and is playable on some Blu-ray players, and on the Sony PS3. But I’m only beginning to describe what the base Toast 10 application can do!

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