July 2, 2009
To start, let me say that eQuixotic is not a hardware/gadget review blog. That said, hardware is used in the creation of eLearning and presentations. Thus, people creating eLearning and presentations purchase hardware, and are often faced with hardware buying decisions. Me, I love to research every product I purchase. Unfortunately, most online reviews are found on retailer sites and consist of precious little substance, ranging from (5 stars) “I LOVE THIS, IT’S THE BEST EVAH!!!” to (1 star) “THIS IS JUNK AND IT SUCKS AND I HATE IT!!!” Sadly, reviews cannot be sorted or filtered by reviewer intelligence (or lack thereof). Thus I often rely on blogger reviews to help guide my purchasing decisions, as bloggers tend to throw some real meat into their reviews.
Unfortunately, I could not find any detailed reviews for the LaCie 2big Quadra external RAID hard drive, so I was forced to purchase on blind faith. To my peril. To spare others my fate, I thought I’d post my assessment.
Now having essentially given away the “ending” of my story, let’s back up and fill in the details, shall we?
The LaCie 2big Quadra is a two-disk external RAID hard drive enclosure. For those of you unfamiliar with RAID, it essentially gives you the option of mirroring your data on two (or more) drives, protecting you from data loss if one of those drives should fail. I like this idea, as I don’t have to rely on two separate external hard drive enclosures (and two FireWire cables, and two power cords) to accomplish the same task. I purchased this drive in the 2 TB configuration (two hard drives, each 1 TB in size) from Dell’s website.
The “Quadra” designation refers to the connectivity options, offering all four standard connections in a single box: eSATA, USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800. Choice is good, particularly when choice includes the fastest options available (eSATA and FireWire 800) as well as the reassurance of universality (USB 2.0 and FireWire 400). When I received the drive and began to unbox it, I realized, to my dismay, that I didn’t own a FireWire 800 cable and would have to rely on FireWire 400. But to my delight, LaCie included all four cable types in the box (USB, FireWire 400 and 800, and eSATA). Bravo, LaCie, Bravo! I was soon in business. Which is when the trouble began. But before I get to that, let’s lay this review out all official like.
When evaluating an item like this, I have three criteria to judge (aside from price, of course):
1. Functionality / Usability
2. Quality
3. Design
I’ll assess the 2big Quadra based on these three criteria. Ready? Let’s go!
1. Functionality / Usability
Um…err….let’s come back to this one.
2. Quality
To say this thing is built like a tank would be an understatement. It is substantially larger than most external hard drives, obviously, as it houses two drives. The body is solid aluminum and heavy. Not only would this thing likely survive a fall from the desk to the floor without a scratch, but it would probably do some serious damage to your floor in the process. I love stuff that feels indestructible, and the 2big Quadra delivers. My old external hard drives look (and feel) like cheap toys next to this thing.
5 stars for build quality. No question.
3. Design
In our modern world of space-sucking digital media, where many gigabytes of audio and video quickly fill our hard drives to capacity, external storage is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. So why is so little attention paid to the design of these devices that clutter our desks? I had four external hard drives on my desk, of varying sizes and design - and they all looked like cheesy afterthoughts. It was a silly looking mess. I spent extra money for a beautiful computer - I really wanted a beautiful external hard drive to compliment it. The 2big Quadra was the only drive I found that fit that criteria. Designed by Neil Poulton, the 2big has an industrial elegance and simplicity that compliments my aluminum iMac. If Apple were to design and build an external hard drive, it would probably look and feel a lot like this one. And that’s high praise indeed. This is a peripheral I am not ashamed to have on my desk. The ribbed aluminum not only looks great, but provides more surface area for heat dissipation, which should reduce the frequency of fan noise. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the 2big Quadra. More on that in a minute.
As beautiful as this drive is, I’m disappointed by Mr. Poulton’s decision to include the Great Blue Glowing Orb (see photo of drive at the top of this review). Sure, it looks cool. Until you turn it on. What is it about electronics designers/manufacturers that makes them think that we consumers like to be bathed in the cold blue light of our gadgets? The light on this thing, which glows whenever the drive is active, illuminates nearly my entire home office at night. Between my microphone, my printer’s illuminated control buttons, and my external hard drive, I don’t need any other office lighting. And that’s not good - particularly when you’re trying to scare yourself silly with a little late night gaming in Left 4 Dead. After awhile, I wanted to take a hammer and smash this cycloptic eye to smithereens. When it comes to superfluous lighting, Mr. Poulton, less is more. In the case of the 2big Quadra, much less. Please. At least give me an off switch for the light (or a convenient cable to cut).
4 stars for the beautiful design, knocked down from 5 stars only for the huge glowing orb.
Now for the really bad news.
1. Functionality / Usability
One would think an external hard drive’s functionality and usability would be a no-brainer. Plug it in, turn it on, and let Time Machine (on a Mac) or the bundled software that comes with the drive (on a Windows machine) do all your backup work for you automatically. Cake, right? Unfortunately, LaCie has seen fit to make this simple task as infuriatingly annoying to the user as possible with a power management and cooling system that seems designed by Satan himself. For an enclosure that is essentially one gigantic aluminum heat sink, you’d think cooling fans would be rarely needed. And you would be wrong. LaCie’s claim on its product page:
The sturdy, aluminum heat sink design—with 60% more surface area for heat dissipation—keeps it quiet and safe.
sounds scientifically rational, but LaCie and I clearly have differing opinions on the definition of the word quiet. The fans on this drive fire up the moment you flip the power switch and continue, vacillating in volume level, almost indefinitely. The power switch is a three-way affair: Off, On, and Auto. The implication of Auto is that the drive sleeps when you don’t need it and spools itself up automatically when you do. Which is how my other external hard drives have always worked. Unfortunately, the 2big Quadra assumes you need it about every, oh, two minutes or so. I have my Time Machine settings configured to back up my data every hour. So I should only be hearing this beast huff and puff every 60 minutes, giving me 59 minutes of peaceful tranquility. Not so. The drive “goes to sleep” (I use the phrase loosely) with a couple of loud clicks, and you think all is well. Two minutes later (not an exaggeration), the drive spools up again and the fans kick into action. Why? I don’t know. The computer isn’t feeding it any data - it has no reason to awake. Sometimes the drive (with noisy fans) spools itself up even if the computer is asleep. Since my office is next to the master bedroom, I have to turn this drive off before I go to bed. I’ve never had to do that with any external hard drive I’ve owned. So why is cooling fan action needed when 1) the surrounding air is a cool 70 degrees, and 2) the drives aren’t actively reading and writing data? I have no idea. They certainly aren’t heat activated, as the air that blows out of the unit is not noticeably warm. If only I were able to change the settings for the fan activation.
How loud is it? If you’ve heard an iMac under full load (say, in the aforementioned Left 4 Dead gaming event), it sounds a lot like that. Why should an inactive hard drive enclosure make as much noise as a 24″ all-in-one computer that has to cool a dual-core processor, LCD display, video card, and hard drive, crammed into the slimmest of spaces, all being pushed to their limits in a graphically-intensive 3D shooter? An explanation escapes me. At least when I’m gaming I have the sounds of shotgun blasts and screaming zombies to drown out the fan noise. But when I’m not gaming, this external hard drive is a noisy little companion that just won’t shut up. The iMac (under normal load) is the faintest whisper - the 2big Quadra is a stiff summer wind.
My good faith assumption would be that I simply have a defective unit. But LaCie’s failure to respond to my question (submitted via their website) about the power and fan cycling, while a previous question about RAID modes was answered promptly, leads me to fear the worst: this is just a bad design. And not just bad design, but unbearably bad design. If you are, like me, someone who needs computing silence (or near-silence), this little beast will drive you quite mad.
Forget narrating an eLearning course while this thing is powered on. I never had to power down my other external hard drives while I recorded narration. They quietly minded their own business. The 2big Quadra, on the other hand, just can’t bear not being the center of my attention.
To design and build such a beautiful peripheral and then destroy it with bad internals is like spiking the ball and doing a touchdown celebration dance on the 1 yard line. You were so close to greatness, LaCie, so close indeed. But the only applause I can offer is the sound of my hand smacking my forehead in utter disbelief.
1 star for Functionality / Usability. Yes, it backs up your data, and it does so quickly. But it makes so much noise while doing so (and while not doing so) that you’ll prefer to just turn the thing off entirely. This drive is going back to Dell post haste. And if they charge me a restocking feel, I’m going to be really upset.
If you detest gratuitous noise (and light) from your computing peripherals, my suggestion is to stay far, far away from the LaCie 2big Quadra. I’m disappointed to have to add this product to my eQuixotic Hall of Shame. If anyone has any suggestions for external hard drives that may meet my criteria, please let me know in the comments section. I doubt I’ll find anything as nice looking and solid as the 2big Quadra, but I certainly hope to find something quieter (and less, um, illuminating).
If the opinions in this review seem a little, er, extreme, realize that it’s due to my absolute loathing of noisy electronics and my frustration with great design that turns out to be only skin deep. I admit, I demand a lot from my stuff. If noisy electronics (and room-illuminating blue lights) don’t bother you, than the 2big Quadra may be a perfect storage solution for you.
Personally, I cannot recommend it.
NOTE: If anyone at LaCie is reading this, thinks I may have had a defective unit, and would like to loan me a review unit for a reevaluation, I would be happy to oblige.
Posted in Hardware, Rants, eLearning Hall of Shame 
No Comments »
June 29, 2009
First, allow me to apologize to any readers for my 3 month unintended hiatus. I’ve been stretching my creative wings with some eLearning development side work, and what I can say - there are only so many hours in the day. My “hobby” time used to accommodate my blogging. Now my “hobby” time has become “more work” time. Not sure how I’m feeling about that. I am learning that “moonlighting” means “less sleep.” Ah, I was so naive…
A couple of weeks ago I attended eLearning DevCon 2009 in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah (the state I am proud to call home). This yearly conference is organized and hosted by Garin Hess and the fine folks at Rapid Intake. Hopefully some of you attended as well. I know one eQuixotic reader did - I know because she “outed” me as a blogger in front of my coworkers. So much for the ability to criticize one’s organization in anonymity. (I forgive you, Tamara!) That said, it’s thrilling to meet a reader at all. Blogging can give you the feeling of talking to oneself alone in the wilderness. It’s nice to know someone out there actually reads your words and can relate to you, if only in distant silence.
Typically the weather in Utah is hot by the end of June. Not so this year. It was beautiful. And the setting is my favorite of any conference I’ve ever attended: historic Fort Douglas on the gorgeous University of Utah campus.
Ambling between buildings on a college campus for workshops is far more enjoyable than shuffling from meeting room to meeting room in some bland hotel or conference center. And being on-campus during the summer, we found ourselves surrounded by kids attending football, basketball and soccer camps. Another refreshing change from the typical professional conference. Ah, the energy of youth! Truly invigorating.
This conference provides all meals onsite. Sure, it’s typical university cafeteria fare, but at least we didn’t have to scurry offsite to find places to eat. The catered dinner the first night was excellent and the keynote speakers were superb. No, they didn’t have David Pogue (ASTD TechKnowledge 2008), but then David Pogue didn’t really have anything to say about eLearning.
The development-centric approach of eLearning DevCon really appeals to me. I personally have little patience for highbrow abstract academic talk about eLearning (and buzzword gobbledegook) that plagues many conferences of this nature. It’s one thing to talk about good eLearning, it’s another thing entirely to actually create it. And from my perspective, many of those who like to talk about it aren’t typically very good at creating it. Me, I want to create good eLearning. So this conference’s concentration on development works for me.
The quality of the sessions was hit and miss, as it always is at conferences of this nature. That said, I was pleased with all but a couple of my sessions. In contrast, at some other conferences I’ve attended I was lucky to get a couple of good sessions - the rest seemed a terrible waste of time.
I would recommend that the eLearning DevCon folks (as well as folks coordinating other conferences) do a better job of screening their presenters. In my view a presenter can’t be poor, mediocre, or even competent at the topics they are presenting. They must be exceptional. Otherwise they have nothing of value to share. If you are, say, presenting on eLearning visual design and the quality of your own visual design is…ahem…questionable, you’ve wasted my time (and money). I want to be inspired.
The presentation skills also varied wildly, from one presenter who read the presentation in its entirety from a script (Ugh!) to a presenter who had no idea what to say at all and leaned on the audience to do the talking. But those were the outliers. Most of the presenters in my sessions were excellent. A couple really stood out.
Sarah Williams (of inContact) presented a session entitled The Missing Link: Rehumanizing eLearning. Sharp, engaging, with a razor wit and a beautiful PowerPoint presentation - Sarah demonstrated exactly what a workshop should be. In fact, this is what eLearning should be. We would do very well indeed to emulate Sarah Williams in our eLearning courses. Her presentation was so good that I’ll forgive her for mentioning text-to-speech tools (Ack!) and, even worse, those horrific 3D human avatars that try (and fail) to mouth your written words. There’s nothing “human” about either of those tools and both should be shunned with extreme prejudice. Those two missteps aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this session.
I attended several sessions by Nick Floro of Sealworks Interactive Studios. I had the pleasure of hearing Nick at the last eLearning DevCon and he was fantastic at both events. His eLearning work is beautiful, as I mentioned in an earlier post.
The folks at Rapid Intake would be wise to give full tenure to Sarah Williams and Nick Floro for future events.
I also really enjoyed the session by Tamara Barbosa (esteemed eQuixotic reader - shout out!) of Ideas Designed Group on using Captivate for simulations in synchronous training events. I only wish we were using Adobe Connect for our synchronous training so we could incorporate Captivate in the way she demonstrated.
I attended several other excellent sessions as well. If only the participants had equaled that level of excellence.
It is always disheartening to see that we, as a community of training professionals, display the same frustrating behaviors as our oft-maligned learners. You know, the behaviors we’re always complaining about and endlessly seeking to stamp out? Wandering into sessions late and leaving early. Sitting in the back row of a half-empty room, forcing the presenter to shout and killing any hope of worthwhile dialog. Working email on laptops and Blackberrys. A guy in front of me in one session actually watched fullscreen ESPN on his laptop during the presentation! Try paying attention to the topic at hand when you have a live TV directly in your field of view. I’m sure his employer would have been impressed (unless his employer was ESPN, in which case they probably would have been impressed).
Me, I was not very impressed at all with the majority of my fellow participants. Frankly, I’ve seen more enthusiastic participation in high school classes than I saw in most of my sessions. Yet we wonder why we can’t get our learners to focus on our eLearning courses? Really???
Gripes aside, this was the best eLearning conference I’ve yet attended, and a big improvement over eLearning DevCon 2007 (I did not attend in 2008). I also preferred this conference to ASTD TechKnowledge, despite the lack of industry “big names” that conferences like TechKnowledge provide.
I hope to attend DevCon 2010. I highly suggest you check this conference out. Maybe I’ll see you there next year! Utah would love to have you!
Posted in eLearning Design No Comments »
March 18, 2009
I’m excited to be writing what is my first hardware review here on eQuixotic. My thanks to Mike Descher of the MXL Technology Division of Marshall Electronics for providing test units of three USB microphones for my review: the Studio 1 USB, the USB.008, and the USB.009. The USB.009 is the mic I used to record the narration for my Evernote tour, which was honored with a silver in the 2009 Articulate Guru Awards. The Articulate staff had high praise for the “excellent” sound quality of my narration, hence they had high praise for the sound quality of the USB.009. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
First, it’s important to note that these are USB microphones, allowing you to plug them directly into your computer for audio recording - no breakout box required. Audio pros may scoff at USB microphones, preferring their expensive XLR mics and breakout boxes or mixing boards - and probably rightly so. But I’m no audio pro. I just want to plug in and go. I don’t want my desk covered up with more junk than needed. Nor do I want to have to fiddle with dozens of knobs and switches. So a USB microphone fits my needs perfectly. Sometimes it’s nice to be a simple man with simple needs.
The biggest complaint I’ve read about USB microphones is that the sound level afforded by the amount of power that can be provided via a USB connection can be low. In which case, why don’t we see Firewire microphones instead of USB? But I digress.
For a couple of years I’ve been using the Blue Snowball microphone, which is also a plug-and-play USB mic.
At the time I bought the Snowball, there were only two desktop USB mics on the market. Now there are many to choose from. And while my Snowball has served me well (and looks super cool), I suspect it may have a hard time holding its own against its younger competitors. We shall soon find out.
MXL is kind enough to include a case and a stand for each of these microphones, neither of which was included with my Snowball at the time of purchase (though Blue now includes a desktop stand with the Snowball, and they were gracious enough to send me one free of charge once they started bundling them with the mics). The cases are a nicety but not a necessity to me, as my mic remains in permanent residence on my desktop. Each mic also conveniently includes a 10′ USB cable, so you won’t have to boost a cable from, say, your printer every time you want to record some audio. (Now if only printer manufacturers would get a clue and include a USB cable with their printers…)
As you can probably imagine, these three models are at different levels of the microphone food chain, and their prices reflect that reality. Let’s jump into the nitty gritty of each, shall we?
Disclaimer: as I mentioned above, I’m no audio pro. I don’t pretend to be an audio pro. I have no idea what audio pros know. So I’m not going to get into things like frequency response, sampling rates, A/D converters, and whatnot. If you’re serious about such things (and I’m not saying you shouldn’t be), check the MXL website for the detailed specs. Me, I’m just looking for “Plug in, sound good.” *grunt*
Also, I’m not going to opine on the sound quality of each mic. Sound is, after all, one of those highly subjective things. And I’d just sound like a fool if I tried to pontificate about honey-smooth midranges and tinkling highs. I’ll let you be your own judge via some audio samples I’ll provide at the end of the review. Logic would dictate that the more expensive mic would sound better than the model below it, and that logic would probably be correct. Whether that amount of “better” justifies the upcharge between models…well, that will have to be up to you.
At the entry level, we have the Studio 1 USB.
Street price on this mic is only around $100, so you have no excuse to keep using that cheapo USB headset mic for your eLearning narration. The Studio 1 USB has a headphone jack for monitoring, but nothing else. No on-mic gain control, no sound settings. Plug it in, fire up your audio recording app of choice (mine is Apple’s GarageBand), and start recording. The headphone jack is a nice feature, as it provides low latency monitoring, i.e. you don’t get the annoying sound delay you may get when outputting your monitor audio from your computer. My gripe with the Studio 1 USB mic is the worthless stand that it’s bundled with. It’s tipsy and too small to accommodate a gooseneck pop filter (at least the pop filter I use, anyway). For my sample recordings I had to hold my pop filter by hand. Not good. And I may be an audio neophyte, but I do know one thing: a pop filter is a must. Notable plosives simply scream amateur hour. So tack on the price of a decent desktop mic stand to the Studio 1 USB.
And to any of these mics, tack on the price of a pop filter. Mine is a metal model I picked up at my local Guitar Center for around $50. This is money well spent. Trust me.
Moving along to our next mic, the USB.008 mic goes midtown, with a street price of around $170.
Sadly, the USB.008 comes with the same pointless mic stand as the Studio 1 USB, so again, factor in the price of a better stand. The USB.008 does provide you with a 3-way gain control switch to tweak your input levels, but oddly does away with the headphone jack for on-mic monitoring. A curious choice by MXL - you hate to see an upscale model lacking a feature found on its budget-priced little brother. And the USB.008 also has a cheesier case then the Studio 1 USB - it’s just a zippered soft case, unlike the plastic, compartmentalized case of the Studio 1 USB:
Curiouser and curiouser.
The Studio 1 USB and USB.008 are small compared to my Blue Snowball, with its tall stand and Ringer shockmount.
The USB.009 takes us uptown (way uptown compared to the prices of the other mics), with a street price around $400.
But this is MXL’s flagship USB mic, and it shows (sounds). First, this thing is built like a tank. I have no doubt it would survive an errant topple from the desktop with aplomb (I will not, however, confirm this via testing). The headphone monitoring jack is back (this time with its own volume control knob), with the addition of mix and gain control knobs. The mix knob controls the live mic and computer playback volume during monitoring. A nice touch. The USB.009 also comes with a nice aluminum case:
And, ta-da - a usable desktop mic stand! This is a heavy, solid piece of work that won’t be teetering over every time you bump your desk leg with your foot - and it ably accommodates a gooseneck pop filter.
MXL claims the USB.009 is the first plug-and-play USB mic to record at 24-bit/96kHz, though I don’t know if that spec is of the utmost importance for doing eLearning narration work. Nonetheless, the components in the USB.009 are a big step up from the other two mics in this review. And like my dad always said, in the long run you never regret spending extra money for quality (and I’ve learned the hard way that he was right).
I assume the USB.009 is also a better fit for instrument recording, so if you’re going to work on that acoustic new age guitar album after you finish your eLearning course, you’re good to go. And can you really put a price on versatility?
Size-wise, the USB.009 goes toe-to-toe with my Blue Snowball:
I have only two gripes about the USB.009. The first is the glowing blue light (!) that emanates from its core.
I don’t know about you, but glowing blue lights are one of those things that are kinda cool the first time you see them but very much uncool thereafter. It got annoying during a narration recording session. I wish the mic had a switch to turn off the light. I doubt Bob Dylan sings into a glowing blue mic…
My second gripe is the lack of indicator markings on the gain, mix and headphone volume knobs. It’s frustrating to have to turn a knob to its stop point to know where you are within the range.
So if I were MXL king for a day, I’d drop the blue light and add a marking to each knob. Easy fixes.
Also, my unfortunate test unit was afflicted with a short in the headphone volume knob, which would cause the sound to vacillate between stereo and left-channel-only, depending on the position of the knob. This became an annoyance during headphone monitoring. Were this a mic I had purchased, I assume MXL would replace the mic or repair the defect promptly.
But now I’m just picking nits. My clear favorite of the trio, blue light and all, is the USB.009. Big surprise. But is it worth the extra money? My dad says “absolutely.” And I’d have to agree. You’ll certainly get many years of high-quality narration recording out of this mic. But if your budget absolutely, positively can’t accommodate a $400 microphone, the USB.008 and Studio 1 USB should serve you ably. Once you buy a decent mic stand.
I’ll conclude this review with recording samples from each mic. These samples were recorded using Apple’s GarageBand, with the Narrator setting applied, as that’s the sound setting I use and I want these samples to reflect real world use. These are uncompressed WAV files.
I’ll also include a reference recording from my Blue Snowball mic, as well as a recording from a Plantronics USB headset mic, which many eLearning developers inexplicably find adequate. Zing!
The first sample includes a recording from each mic. But I’m not going to tell you which is which mic is which when you listen to them. Pick your favorite, then scroll to the end of the review to see which mic it is. I used a snippet of narration from my Evernote tour for my source material. NOTE: the links as shown below are not my ideal format - if anyone knows how to add a “Play” button for a WAV file in a WordPress post, please let me know. I found plugins for audio players, but they don’t handle WAV - and I don’t want to give you compressed MP3 versions of the mic samples.
Samples from all mics together.
Below are individual sample recordings from each mic.
Plantronics .Audio DSP-400
Blue Snowball
MXL Studio 1 USB
MXL USB.008
MXL USB.009
And this is the order of the microphones as they appeared in the all-mics sample:
Blue Snowball
MXL USB.008
MXL Studio 1 USB
MXL USB.009
Plantronics .Audio DSP-400
Addendum: in response to DesignerDad’s comment (below), here’s a photo of my “homebrewed” sound booth. Ugly but cheap - and functional. I thought others might be interested in my setup as well. You can read about it in more detail in my October post on narration recording.
Posted in Audio, Narration, eLearning Development Tools 6 Comments »
March 13, 2009
TechSmith is looking for a few good men (and women) - 50 to 100, actually - to beta test Camtasia for Mac.
Yes, I originally posted about a Camtasia beta test over a year ago. Yikes! But hey, they’re new to the Mac biz, so they deserve a little slack. As long as Camtasia for Mac turns out brilliantly, that is. I was starting to think Camtasia for Mac was to be the Duke Nukem Forever of screen capture software. But it sounds like TechSmith is actually going to deliver.
Interested? Here you go.
Now, TechSmith, how about Snagit?
Posted in Apple, eLearning Development Tools 8 Comments »
March 12, 2009
Sorry to all for my recent lack of writing. Aside from the ever-crazy “life in general,” I was scrambling to finish my submission for the Articulate Guru Awards 2009 - a project I put together in my so-called “spare time” (much to the dismay of my wife and children), independent of my employer. Sadly, there are only so many hours in the day. I need to overcome this pesky need for sleep. But I digress…
I was thrilled to see my work, a visual tour of Evernote desktop and iPhone software (which I love), honored with a Silver award!
In an industry that often seems obsessed with buzzwords du jour, abstract theory and academic gobbledygook, I often wonder if anyone else cares about what I care about: designing visually engaging eLearning that people actually want to pay attention to. This focus typically makes me feel like the odd man out among my peers.
So I was elated to be given some measure of vindication with the award. You can have a look at my entry, along with those of the other winners (to whom I offer my hearty congratulations), if you feel so inclined.
I was particularly surprised when the Articulate staff praised my narration work. Like any other normal human, I hate the sound of my own voice and often wonder how it is perceived by others. I’m a big fan of a casual narration style (save the drama for movie trailers and audiobooks, please) - hence my own guerilla narration work. If you want something done your way, do it yourself, right? The narration was done with a review unit of the Marshall MXL USB.009 microphone (a special thanks to Mike Descher of Marshall for that). I’ll post a detailed review of that microphone, and two other MXL mics, shortly, but the conclusion is obvious: the USB.009 is a great mic for eLearning narration work.
I’ll also be detailing some of the tricks I used to create my Evernote tour. Much to do, much to do! Hopefully we’ll get some new readers as well - the bigger the collaborative pool, the better.
My thanks go to Articulate for their fantastic products and their wonderful staff support.
Posted in Audio, eLearning Design, eLearning Development Tools, eLearning Hall of Fame 5 Comments »
February 25, 2009
I’ve posted a couple of times on Bee Docs’ beautiful app, Timeline. I bought a copy of the app a while back, and was pleasantly surprised when I recently received a handwritten thank you card from the developer. It’s significant to note that Adam has no idea that the Chris of eQuixotic is the same Chris that he emailed this thank you card to (as I blog in anonymity (and, in fact, near-utter obscurity)), so this couldn’t have been his way of saying “Thanks for mentioning Bee Docs on your blog.” No, he was simply thanking me for being a customer.
I can’t remember the last time I got a thank you card from Adobe, Microsoft, or Apple. Probably because it was…never ?
I’m a huge fan of indie software developers, particularly on the Mac side of the fence, where their offerings are often of the highest quality, have innovative features not seen in software from the “big guys,” and have surprisingly low price tags.
Pixelmator, VectorDesigner, Amadeus Pro, Layers - these are wonderful, affordable apps that see frequent use in my eLearning and presentation development work. Oh, and of course I can’t forget my blogging tool of choice: MarsEdit.
Many of these developers are dedicated to the point of obsession about updating their apps - and not just fixing bugs, but adding completely new features - without any upgrade charge. It seems every time I launch VectorDesigner, for example, there’s an automated (and free!) update waiting for me. It feels like Christmas each time I click an application icon to launch it.
And the level of personal attention some indie software developers provide is phenomenal. When Layers was released recently, I had an extensive email exchange with the developer regarding a glitch in the software and some feature enhancements I’d like to see. Not only did he immediately confirm the glitch through testing, but he provided me a link to download an updated version of the app within a day or so. Simply stellar.
I’ve had similar online conversations with other developers as well. Enjoyable - and incredibly refreshing.
So before you pull the trigger on your next multi-hundred-dollar software purchase from some faceless megacorp who couldn’t care less who you are, give your indie software developer a good once-over. You may be pleasantly surprised with what you find. I’ll be blogging in more detail on many of these tools in the future.
And Adam, I haven’t had the opportunity to play with Timeline much yet, as I haven’t had a project that required its use. But rest assured there will be a need, probably soon. And Timeline sits in my quiver, at the ready, to wow my customers and make me look like a genius.
And thank you for the thank you.
Posted in Things I Love, eLearning Development Tools 1 Comment »
February 11, 2009
I’ve written at some length about the importance of fonts in visual design, mainly because so many eLearning developers and presentation designers fail to grasp it - to the great detriment of their products. My rule: use Comic Sans and instantly lose all credibility. But I digress…
I have no doubt that font selection has a tremendous impact on how your content (or product) is perceived by your audience. Believe it or not, the way letters look can often be just as important (if not more so) than what they say. It’s just human psychology. Good marketing folks know this. Good Web designers know this. Good print designers know this. Good eLearning and presentation designers should know this.
I recently had a debate with a good friend of mine regarding the importance of fonts. He, frankly, didn’t see the point - claiming that all fonts ultimately look the same. “Not true” I wailed, aghast at his failure to comprehend such a simple visual design concept. He actually called me a “freak” because I knew the now-famous font Obama used (with great success, obviously) in his presidential campaign (it was Gotham by Hoefler & Frere-Jones, by the way - but of course you knew that).
Fortunately, my friend is not involved in eLearning or visual design in any way, shape or form. Unfortunately, many eLearning and presentation designers share his “who cares” attitude about fonts. And that simply must change.
So, how to get started? Well, you might begin your path to font enlightenment by conscientiously looking for fonts that appeal to you - and learning what those fonts are. Some typographic designer put many long days (months, years) of sweat and tears into those letters you’re looking at. It’s true!
Back in June I mentioned the WhatTheFont?! website, where you can identify (and buy) fonts that catch your fancy. I use this site frequently.
And now MyFonts has increased my love for them by releasing the free WhatTheFont font identification app for the iPhone.
The cool thing about WhatTheFont is you can take a photo of text you like, say a sign on a storefront or the cover of a restaurant menu, and WhatTheFont will try to identify it right on your iPhone. Brilliant!
Get font savvy. Please. And if you own an iPhone, give WhatTheFont a look.
Posted in Apple, eLearning Design, eLearning Development Tools, iPhone 3 Comments »
February 11, 2009
I use Apple GarageBand to do my narration recording. No, it’s not a high-end pro audio editor (nor am I a high-end pro narrator). But for narration recording, I find GarageBand offers a great blend of functionality and ease of use. And you can’t beat the price (free with any Mac). I plan to post a detailed walkthrough of my narration recording and editing process in GarageBand in the near future.
There are areas in which GarageBand falls short, however. Converting my AIFF files to WAV (for importing into Articulate), for example. Enter Amadeus Pro by HairerSoft, which steps in to fill the void with panache. I don’t use Amadeus Pro for recording or editing - I use it for its excellent batch processing features for post-production of my GarageBand-output audio files. Let me give you an example by showing you how Amadeus Pro saved my bacon today.
I was finishing a course for a customer in Articulate Presenter. Since this course was being delivered in a classroom in a presentation-style format, I wanted the course to auto-advance from screen to screen. When I edit my audio files I typically leave no “dead air” at the beginning or end - I like things concise. The resulting problem with this particular course was the advancement from screen to screen was too fast - there wasn’t any pause in the audio to let the information sink in with the learner.
The customer requested a 3-second pause between each screen. Unfortunately, Articulate Presenter does not allow you to set a delay when auto-advancing slides. The only solution I could come up with was to add 3 seconds of silence to the end of each of my audio files. All 100+ of them. Now that sounded like an awfully tedious task. And I loathe tedious tasks. There had to be an easier way.
And there was. With Amadeus Pro (for the Mac). I simply created a new Batch Processor:
Then I added a new action. The first action I needed was Set Selection - meaning, I needed to identify where in the audio track I wanted to insert some silence.
I wanted to insert my silence exactly at the end of the track. So I selected 0.00 seconds and clicked the Select from end radio button.
Now I needed to add a second action to insert some silence:
3 seconds, to be exact:
And my Batch Processor is now complete. Amadeus Pro will select the end of my track and insert 3 seconds of silence at that point. I’m going to save this Batch Processor and name it Insert 3 Seconds Silence at End:
My Batch Processor now appears as an icon on my desktop (or anywhere else I want to save it):
I open the Batch Processor by double-clicking the icon, then I select all my audio files and drag and drop them on the window well (highlighted below in blue):
And voila, Amadeus Pro now happily goes about its business adding 3 seconds of silence to the end of each one of my 100+ audio files. While I kick back and play a little Rolando on my iPhone. Ain’t technology grand?
I have another Batch Processor I use to normalize my audio files, convert them to mono, and then convert them from AIFF (GarageBand’s native export format) to WAV format (for importing into Articulate). All with a couple of quick mouse clicks.
You can spend a pretty penny for an audio app that does batch processing. Or you can spend a mere $40 on Amadeus Pro.
$40 (Amadeus Pro) plus free (GarageBand) = a pretty good little audio recording, editing, and processing setup for guerilla eLearning narrators for mere peanuts. Sounds like a steal to me.
Note: yes, Audacity (free) has some rudimentary batch processing functionality too, but I’ve found it far more limited than what I get in Amadeus Pro, which dwarfs Audacity in the number of automated actions it can perform. And frankly I’m no big fan of the primitive, open source interface of Audacity. Despite the tempting price tag.
Posted in Audio, Narration, eLearning Development Tools No Comments »
February 5, 2009
I’ve talked plenty on this blog (and on other blogs and online forums) about doing your own narration work for your eLearning projects. And I will continue to do so. Sure, most of us don’t have the golden “Voice of God” (heaven knows I don’t) and weren’t really born to do voiceover work, and yes, using a professional voiceover specialist for your project will almost certainly result in a higher quality product (though I’ve argued that hiring the wrong voiceover person will give your project a cheesy “over-produced” vibe), but if you’re doing guerilla work in the trenches without a ton of money to throw around, doing your own narration work may be a necessity.
So let’s assume you’re like me and you’re doing your own narration. Does that mean strapping on a cheap headset microphone and popping and heavy breathing your way through your course? I certainly hope not (though I’ve been subjected to courses where the narrator did exactly that). You do need to invest some money in decent equipment. Decent, of course, being highly subjective - most real voiceover pros would laugh at my pitiable little setup (and my voiceover work, for that matter). That said, there have been great strides made in recent years with products geared to podcasters (and, consequently, DIY eLearning course narrators). Selection is way up, prices are down - people are cutting entire albums in their own homes, on a tight budget, with a level of quality The Beatles would have killed for.
A big issue that remains for us guerilla narrators is sound isolation. We don’t have foam-enveloped sound booths in which to record. So we have to improvise. I did it with under $50 worth of foam core and acoustical foam tiles. The problem is the whole thing is very rickety, it’s a pain to set up, and frankly, it looks third-rate (which has the unfortunate effect of making me feel third-rate about the work). And my sound is probably too “dead” with this setup anyway.
When I get serious about this narrating thing (read: when I get some extra cash), I plan to look for something better, both for my microphone and for my home-based sound booth. A new microphone will come first (my review of 3 Marshall MXL mics will be posted soon).
For a portable sound booth for the discriminating narrator, perhaps the Sound Engineering Reflexion Filter best fits the bill. Five layers of sound-aborbing materials, wrapped in an I-mean-business-looking punched (for sound diffusion) aluminum shell.
(Note to Sound Engineering: shrinking that enormous logo would provide an instant uptick in classiness.)
Not only should the Reflexion Filter help keep the sound bouncing off your walls from wrecking your recording - even more importantly it should also do a good job blocking out the hum of your computer fans (as you’re likely recording directly to a PC).
I say should because I haven’t tested one - nor am I any type of audio recording expert. But I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.
(Actually I lie - I don’t even have the Holiday Inn Express thing going for me…*sigh*)
The bad news? The Reflexion Filter sells for about $300 (street price). Cheap for real audio professionals. Not cheap for eLearning guerilla narrators.
That said, I may be saving my pennies for the Reflexion Filter. Frankly, I’m tired of inadvertently knocking my teetering foam tiles over.
I wouldn’t mind trying out a Sound Engineering USB2200a USB microphone either (it’s probably time to retire the Snowball). Another $400 for that - not including shock mount or stand. Ouch. But perhaps money well-spent if you’re going to be doing a lot of your own narrating. Hey, you’ll still end up saving money in the long run over hiring the work out…
Posted in Audio, Narration 9 Comments »
January 26, 2009
Now this is, as the British say, bloody brilliant. A screen capture utility that snags everything on your screen (even the stuff that’s hidden behind other stuff!) and saves it as a layered Photoshop file (which can also be opened with, ahem, less expensive apps, like Pixelmator). So you can easily move things around (or delete them entirely) without having to create a new screenshot. Sounds like a tasty proposition.
It’s called Layers, it’s $15, and it’s Mac-only. Sadly, the free evaluation version intentionally downgrades the quality of the captures, so I guess I’ll have to risk my $15 to see how good this thing really works. I sacrifice for you, my loyal readers.
I don’t think even the mighty SnagIt for Windows can do this. Though I haven’t played around much with the latest version to be sure. (I can say I’m not much of a fan of the newest SnagIt interface - is anyone else with me on that?)
Now, could someone please combine the best of Skitch (eternal beta), Snapz Pro (was showing its age years ago), LittleSnapper, and Layers into a single, do-it-all and do-it-well screen capture utility for Mac? My overladen screen capture tool belt is starting to pull my pants down. Not good.
Perhaps the often-rumored but never-confirmed SnagIt for Mac will do it all and more?
I hear Sasquatch is coding SnagIt for Mac as we speak. At its secret Area 51 software development lab.
I want to believe.
More thoughts after further experimentation: each of your menu bar task icons, as well as every folder/file on your desktop, are also saved as separate layers. So now you can take screenshots with reckless abandon - there’s no need to clean all the junk off your desktop and close (or hide) applications you don’t want appearing in your screenshot (or “paint” them out manually) - just turn off their layers. Why didn’t anyone think of this before???
Posted in Apple, eLearning Development Tools 3 Comments »
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I'm an eLearning developer and presentation designer looking for (and striving to create) eLearning and presentations that delight as well as educate and inform. Please join me.