georgestarcher.randomlings

Random ramblings from my personal side.

iPhone HDR test two

Here is another. See how in the base shot the sky is blown out. But in the second which is the HDR shot the color blue is preserved.

   
Click here to download:
iPhone_HDR_test_two.zip (2994 KB)

Iphone4 HDR test

I was taking shots at the Murfreesboro greenway today with my new canon sx20. I decided to take a shot with the iPhone4 to test it's HDR function they have added. You can tell the normal shot by where the low grass is blown out. The second shot you can see all the detail. I have tested a number of shots and becoming more tempted to turn off the option to retain the original shot and just shoot the hdr as a rule on the iphone4. I think this makes it an even better on hand on demand point and shoot camera with quality results.

   
Click here to download:
Iphone4_HDR_test.zip (3376 KB)

iPhone4 Microphone Input Adapter

I recently got this adapter from
Kvconnection.com. Tested and works great. I still have to use a mono to stereo adapter for my mono lapel mic. But it works. http://www.kvconnection.com/product-p/km-iphone-mic.htm

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Apple iDevices and Audio Recording - Pulling out what is left of my hair out.

Ever since I got my first iPhone, the 3GS, I have wanted to use it to record audio.  I have been in podcasting since it started.  Six years ago.  Not the five Apple tried to claim in iTunes.  Five is how long they have had it in iTunes.

I also had gotten an Owle Bubo (http://www.wantowle.com/) for Christmas last year.  It is a great camera grip and comes with the Veracorder mic to better aim your audio when making video.  The veracorder mic is below.  It's short and can be bent to angle toward your source.  It works on the iPhone3GS but has been broken on the iPhone4.  

Combined with the FiRE field recorder app (http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/) it makes a great hand recorder for questions, notes etc.  Especially since the FiRe app supports the Izotope (http://www.izotope.com/) audio processing plugins like Noise Gate, Hiss Reducer.  Sure you can only use one at a time but its cool for field use.  Even better is you can turn on pass through audio.  Where I am going is I wanted to be able to use my iPhone or now iPad as an inline noise gate for my sound board.  Why not?  I have it so why not use it?

To this end I needed a way to split audio in and out.  So I originally picked up a splitter cable from http://www.kvconnection.com/  This was made to work with the iPhone.  But it never would override the internal mic.  Now I find it works on the iPad.  I tried it again with the iPhone4 with little joy.

Next I go for the Griffin iMic.  The device itself works on the iPad and briefly FiRe recognized it fully and pass through audio worked. Then it quit.  Recording then playback can be heard through the output.  But the live pass through quit for a reason I cannot explain.  I have emailed the developer of FiRe.  I also find I cannot try it on iPhone 3GS or 4.  Because those reject the camera connector kit plug.  This is really irritating since I know that the iPhone4 changed the audio on the dock connector to be usb audio device.  So if Apple would just let the camera kit usb plug work I am betting the griffin imic will work fine.  All avoiding the inconsistent nightmare that is the headphone jack.  

In a nutshell which is appropriate since the changes and inconsistency are driving me nuts, get your act together Apple.  PLEASE!

Reminiscence - My grandfather's recordings - Part One

My dad was cleaning up some things to prepare to sell his house.  He found an old audio cassette tape that my grandfather recorded with reminiscence from growing up.  I cleaned up the levels and noise otherwise it is unedited.  So I have posted it here for those interested in historical commentary from someone who was around.  My granddad was a real well rounded guy.  He even hung out with George Washington Carver for a bit in his younger days.  To give the recording context he was born in 1913.
 
I will get part two cleaned up and posted sometime soon.
 
If you want to read a little more about my grandparents check out the flickr post that goes with this photo.  Just click on the photo to go there. 
 
Here is the audio from his recording side one.

Offline Backups

A week ago we had an electrical event take out some hardware in our home. I suspect lightning. The list of damage was slight as I have almost everything on a ups. But if too close a hit even those won't save everything from lightning.  

For this discussion I lost a hard drive that was attached to a pogo plug.   Thankfully that was a extra backup and scratch drive location. 
I have time machine backup of my imac to an external USB drive. I also have chronosync running across my network to a 1TB drive. A large amount of my data is on a raid mirror FireWire drive unit. 
Let's talk about data for a minute.  My iMac internal drive is 230GB. My documents, photos and code projects live here. My iTunes library is 310GB which sits on the raid drive. My audio projects folder for all my editing also resides on the raid and is 300GB. Both the iTunes and audio projects get backed up to the 1TB network drive via chronosync. 

Anyone see a flaw?  Yup risk of electrical damage. Had the event taken out more than the one scratch drive I could have lost the bulk of my data. Everything is plugged in and on. That makes it vulnerable. Now I use chronosync to backup my documents folder to my iDisk.  My email is all backed up because I use imap with MobileMe and gmail.  So those have some offsite protection.  

The morale is make an offline copy of all your data at regular intervals. Monthly is good. That covers the bulk of your data. Use cloud based storage like MobileMe, dropbox, back blaze etc for your more critical recently changed files. 

The important thing to check is how amount of your data. Compare it to your backup drives. My iTunes alone is now 310GB. Just enough to fit on a 320GB sata drive I have on the shelf.  

I recommend as a rule of thumb. Two online backups and one offline at all times.  Drive clones, time machine or whatever combination of backup methods suit you.

Zenith Trans-Oceanic Radio

My dad bought this radio when I was a small kid. I remember it being the center piece of his big radio rig setup. It is still in pristine shape and works like a champ. It still has the original box and manuals. I think I might make a project to scan in the manuals. Maybe even try and get them into ePub for my iPad. Then I will likely post them to this blog for anyone else interested in them. Also below is a sample audio clip from the radio piped into my sound board.

(download)