1. Apply Vocal Enhancer: Default effect.

2. Normalize process

3. Apply Reduce Noise process:
– Reduction: 25%
– Reduce by: 15%

4. Apply Compressor: For Voice: Subtle
5. Apply EQ Graphic: Bass Management:
– Low: 0
– Low-Mid: -3
– High-Mid: 0
– High: 8
6. Apply *another* EQ Graphic effect, just like above, only this time with the High setting back at 0.

What I found was that I had to always click ‘apply’ for effects before moving on to the next one. In other words, don’t get cute and just load up the ‘effect stack’ and then apply them all – in my case it didn’t sound good if I did it that way.

Unfortunately, Soundbooth does not offer a ‘batch processing’ feature for these effects, so for the 27 or so wav files I had I had to do each individually, which took some time.

Lastly, once I did the above for each of the wav files, I then used Soundbooth’s “Volume Match” batch feature to match the volume of all of the tracks of the first wav file in the group.

The result is not a perfectly clean set of audio and it’s definitely not ‘pro’ level but it’s a heck of a lot better than the source wav files were.

Keep in mind also that the EQ and Compression settings will probably need to be tweaked depending on the type of voice(s) audio you have. In this case, the majority of the voiceover audio was a female with a medium to upper-medium, sorta ‘nasally’ vocal sound. These settings took the ‘nasaly’ out and definitely helped.

Do you have a preferred set of audio processing steps? Also – I’d prefer to just do everything in Audacity. Any plugins that you have found that do a good job cleaning up voiceover audio? What I’ve found is that ’stock’ effects intended to do this just don’t help much or make it worse. Like Soundbooth’s ‘Vocal Enhancer’ – it’s not very good by itself, in my opinion. I’m amazed that there isn’t a simple tool built to do this. But I guess with everyone’s voices sounding different it’s impossible to get right.

And the one non-elearning topic that I’ve written about (and has garnered a lot of site visits, thanks to T-Mobile linking to my site when they first unveiled the @Home service), well, there’s not very much to write about a land-line replacement phone service. It either works or it doesn’t, and most people’s phone service is working by now. That said, last month was the end of my 2-year @Home service commitment/contract. I’m keeping the service as it’s just too inexpensive and it mostly works without hassle for me. Eventually I expect T-mobile to send me a notice telling me that the cheap ride is all over – they’re stopping the service – but for now I’ll keep it.

So now the problem is……what the hell do I do with this blog? I earn approximately $1 a day from Google AdSense (and THANK YOU to those who do click on the ads). I’m sure I could easily triple that if I wrote more, and I plan to, but the things I now find myself wanting to write about: guitar, fishing, my kids, tech in general, etc., are outside of the scope of a blog with an ‘elearninglive.com’ domain.

Hmmm….time to research. What do people do under these circumstances? Any advice?

Here’s how to get the basic tracking working:

1. In Quizmaker, setup your quiz and insert it into the slide deck.

2. On the Reporting tab, add the URL that the course (not the content!) will be accessed via in ACP. I’m not sure if this is really required, but in other LMSs I know it is so I just did it. Then, you’ll need to decide how you want the actual complete/incomplete/pass/fail reporting to work. There are a bunch of different combinations and you’ll need to decide what you want to do. Just beware that, if you choose ‘Passed/Incomplete’ or ‘Completed/Incompleted’, that if the user fails the quiz their status will remain ‘incomplete’.

3. Now click on the Tracking tab:

You’ll most likely just want to track the quiz and not force them to view every slide. That’s what’s demonstrated in this screenshot. Note that the 80% was what I set the passing score in the Quizmaker Quiz when I created it. You can’t edit it here but you could go back and edit it there if needed.

4. Publish the Articulate course.

Select LMS. Fill in the obvious info and select AICC for the LMS, then click on the Reporting and Tracking button.

5. Go to the folder that you published the course to and rename the file ‘index_lms.html’ to ‘index.html’. Connect looks for this file to start the course.

4. Zip up all of the files/folders (NOT in a root/parent folder though!), and upload to ACP as content, then wrap in a course.

That’s it. Keep in mind that the result will be just BASIC tracking. It doesn’t track the question/answer text, and the MAX_SCORE doesn’t ever display in the Connect reports.

Hope this helps others. If it does help, or if you have any suggestions/tips/ideas to enhance this process please leave a comment!

The article reads like it’s a done deal, and sure enough it is. Further research confirms that T-Mobile is stopping sales of the @Home service once the inventory of equipment runs out. I’d hate to be that guy that buys it now. T-Mobile claims they will continue to offer the service to existing customers.

My advice (for what it’s worth)

If you already have the service…then start looking for another service and/or consider using your mobile phones 100% and dropping landline altogether. That said, if you are not experiencing any problems with your @Home service then you should be fine keeping it. But make no mistake – they will eventually shut the service down. They, like many other companies, are striving to put out a femtocell product/service onto the market. I knew this up-front (not about the femtocell technology but about the short-lived nature of VOIP in general). I just figured it’d be 4 or 5 years. I was wrong.

T-Mobile *is* still selling new @Home subscriptions. But claim they are no longer putting any money into it. So if you’re happy with the service, then I suggest sticking with it until a better deal/technology comes along, or until T-Mobile forces you off it, or if the service starts getting flakey. But have an exit strategy in mind now…

If you do not have the service…then I wouldn’t buy it. Look for alternatives. If you have Verizon FIOS, I hear the phone service is very good. I’ve had FIOS TV and Internet for about 5 months and, while I feel the TV service is sub-par compared to Comcast’s, the internet is awesome.

As for me…About 6 months ago I moved to a new “dream home” that, unfortunately, has turned out to be a nightmare (well, not that bad – the house itself is fine, but the neighborhood is just not to my wife’s tastes). So my place is up for sale (please, hold the condolences!). Our plan is to move back to our previous neighborhood and if they have FIOS service there (they didn’t 6 months ago) then I’ll look into adding the phone service. But I will first seriously consider just dropping landline service completely. No need for it anymore.

For those of you who need a landline because you’re still sticking to those old fax machines, good luck!

If, like me, you’ve had the service for a while (I’ve had it since June 2008), then we can at least rejoice in how much we’ve saved. I used to pay about $45 per month solely for basic home landline service. So, $45 * ~19 months = $855. Deduct the cost of the new DECT 6.0 phones ($99 – I went deluxe!) and router ($50) and it’s still a substantial savings. And that is as of today. I expect to probably have my service at least until the contract runs out in June.

If anyone tries getting out of their contract with T-Mobile early, I’d like to hear what happens (i.e., do they let you out or are you stuck paying the early termination fee). Please let us know if you give them a call.

Some additional links announcing T-Mobile@Home’s demise:

http://voip-phone-systems.tmcnet.com/topics/voip-phone-systems/articles/72203-t-mobiles-monthly-home-phone-service-bites-dust.htm
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/12/11/t-mobile-discontinuing-home-landline-service/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBoyGeniusReport+%28Boy+Genius+Report%29
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/01/07/t-mobile-to-discontinue-home-service/

I moved this past July to a new house that previously had FIOS installed. I was pretty thrilled with the prospect of getting off of Comcast and moving to Verizon FIOS.

It’s been almost 4 months now since first switching to FIOS for my internet and TV, and as much as it pains me to say it….I would switch back to Comcast if I could.

First off, let me say this: Comcast’s broadband internet service is unstable, has a very poor Quality of Service (QOS) level – so poor that it makes 3rd-party VOIP services, like T-Mobile@Home, more trouble than it’s worth. But, and this is a big BUT, the TV services, while not great and filled with its own set of issues, is so much better than FIOS’s TV service that I’d switch back in a heartbeat.

TV Video Quality

The video quality is probably a bit better with FIOS. Of course, there’s NO WAY anyone can really compare that with any real measure unless they subscribed to both services at the same time and had two different televisions side-by-side. FIOS seems to have more HD channels and an overall nicer picture. Some things are clearly superior, like HBO. On Comcast, I had 11 channels of HBO, and only one came in in HD. The rest was SD. On FIOS, all 11 channels are in HD.

User Interface/Menu System

The biggest problem with FIOS is the TERRIBLE user interface/menu system. I can’t say enough just how horrible it is. Comcast’s was WAY better. From the goofy categorizations of channels that FIOS has, to the slow response of the box, it is just horrible compared to Comcast. And let’s face it, the user interface is a big part of the service. My wife still hasn’t figured out how to use the damn thing, but she has trouble working the toaster too…

Remote Control

The Comcast remotes suck. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse….Verizon outdoes them with the suckiest remote of all time! The remote is very ‘mushy’ in feel and the box is just slow to respond. It’s just flat-out annoying. And that along with the horrible menu system makes it just annoying at best.

Example: a couple of weeks ago I was on the internet when I got word that the remake of The Prisoner was finally coming on TV. So I go to my TV and make sure to schedule the series to record (more on the shitty DVR later). Problem is, there’s no way that I can find to jump from day to day, to record a future show. You have to manually keep pushing the right-arrow button on the remote and go through every half-hour increment between the present time and when the first instance of the show starts. It’s horrible! On Comcast’s remote there were DAY+ and DAY- buttons, so if a show was 7 days away I just had to hit it 7 times and bam, I’m there. Comcastic! : )

DVR

The DVR has, at best, only half of the capacity that the Comcast one had. Before, we’d never run out of space. Now, we have to clean it out fairly often. Other than that, the DVR works for the most part.

Customer Service

Yeah, this is what I hated most about Comcast. I am definitely not ‘Comcastic!’ about their customer service. And, like the remote controls, just when I thought customer service couldn’t get worse, Verizon gives Comcast a run for the money! Analyzing/discussing the quality level between Comcast and Verizon’s customer service is like debating morality amongst prostitutes, so I’ll leave it at that. They both suck. Of course, I had some extra holes in my basement walls from the moron that FIOS sent out to install the service and run the cables. They at least eventually made it somewhat right and patched it. They had to come back multiple times to get it done, and I’ll have to touch-up paint it. Morons.

Cost

They both charge way too much.

Internet

The Comcast internet service is laggy at times, which is a big problem if you play Battlefield Heroes like me, the QOS is bad, which is a big problem if you have a 3rd-party VOIP service like I have, and the speed is not what they claim it to be. Verizon FIOS kicks ass in the internet department. I’ve not had a single outage, have not had to reboot a router once, have never experienced any lag, and my Tmobile@Home service has been rock-solid and not a single issue since I moved to FIOS.

Summary

Both of these companies suck ass and treat their customers like garbage. Because my wife/kids watch a lot of TV I’d probably switch back to Comcast if I could (I’m in a 2-year deal with Verizon). But I’d hate to give up the internet service.

But for now…I found out about these options because I’m set to unhook my phones/router on Thursday as we’re moving to a new house (with 25/15 FIOS!!!) and remembered that call forwarding was included. One nice feature of VOIP is you just unhook the router and move it with the rest of the stuff, then hook it up at the new digs, or the hotel, or the homeless shelter if there is a last-minute problem at settlement : )

Anyways, there are three options:

(text below taken from http://support.t-mobile.com/doc/tm23766.xml )

Call Forwarding – T-Mobile @Home

The call forwarding feature allows you to forward your calls to a number of your choice.

There are three different call forwarding functionalities that your T-Mobile @Home phone supports: Unconditional Call Forwarding, Call Forward No Reply, and Call Forwarding if Not Reachable.

Unconditional call forwarding

NOTE: Unconditional Call Forwarding automatically forwards any calls that your T-Mobile @Home phone would receive to the number requested to forward your calls to. Your T-Mobile @Home Phone will not ring when Unconditional Call Forwarding is set up.

To activate or deactivate Unconditional Call Forwarding, perform one of the following:

Press Star (*) 72, and the phone number that you want to forward calls to. For example, you would press *72 1 555-555-5555.

Press Star (*) 73 to deactivate. You are not required to enter the phone number to deactivate Unconditional Call Forwarding.

Call forwarding No Reply

NOTE: Call Forward No Reply only forwards your T-Mobile @Home phone to another phone number when you do not answer your T-Mobile @Home phone.

To activate or deactivate Call Forward No Reply, perform one of the following:

Press Star (*) 42 and phone number that you want to forward your calls to. For example, you would press *42 1 555-555-5555.

Press Star (*) 93. You are not required to enter the phone number to deactivate Call Forward No Reply.

Call forwarding if Not Reachable

NOTE: Call Forward if Not Reachable only forwards your T-Mobile @Home phone to another phone number if your T-Mobile @Home phone or the T-Mobile HiPort is not reachable (due to electrical or ISP issues).

To activate or deactivate Call Forward if Not Reachable, perform one of the following:

Press Star (*) 62 Star (*) and the phone number that you want to forward your calls to followed by the Pound (#) key. For example, you would press *62* 1 555-555-5555 #.

Press Pound Pound (# #) 62 Pound (#). You are not required to enter the phone number to deactivate Call Forward if Not Reachable.

Anyways…back to the “Quickly Mockup a Business Website” session. It was advertised as an “Advanced” session, or else I would have skipped it. The presenter was really unprepared in terms of the actual presentation. We walked in and I was thrilled to see tables, so I was able to grab a seat and pop open the laptop and connect. The wireless signal here is pretty weak, either that or my new company-supplied Dell D630’s wireless card sucks. So the presenter starts at 9am and just sits there talking through while he designs an ugly website. It wasn’t any worse than the other designs I’ve seen here at MAX – makes me feel good about my own limited design skills. The session started to get interesting as time went on, as we all just sat there and watched him do his thing while he talked. Some hidden gems that I picked up, like giving a 3d perspective to tabs, using the shadow filter and then moving it with the subselection tool to give a different perspective, etc. Basically I learned one key thing: USE THE FEATURES THAT FIREWORKS GIVES YOU! Sounds dumb, but I’ve been stuck in a design rut for a while so this was, while overall not a very good session, it was worthwhile just for that gleaned observation.

Am I happy I attended that session? Hell yeah – they handed out 10th Anniversary Fireworks T-Shirts at the end for all attendees! Plenty to go around, and the XL size looks to be a little big so I’ll actually won’t feel like spandex wearing it!

Other…

I picked up a MAX baseball cap from the Adobe Store here onsite for $12. Nice hat. I’m bummed though that I didn’t buy one or two of the nice AIR and Flex shirts they were selling. The nice-looking ones sold out the first morning of the conference, so the time to get them was on Sunday after/before the preconference sessions. Good deals on books here too, but I’m kind of ‘booked out’ at the moment.

I’m seriously considering signing up and paying (out of my own pocket) for the Captivate certification exam they’re administering here onsite at 33% off. I’ve been meaning to take that exam for a while but haven’t studied for it. I know the tool at an expert level, so I should have no problem passing it, but I took (and passed!) the Flash designer exam a few years ago and although I did well on it it was a tough exam and I wouldn’t have passed had I not specifically studied for it. But I know Captivate much better than I did Flash back then, so I should be okay. It’s just a matter of timing – I don’t want to miss a decent session for the test. I’ll probably do it tomorrow morning.

Next up…the General Session. No idea what to expect out of this one.

Thermo is now officially titled Adobe Flash Catalyst. I’m one of the lucky few that got a prerelease build of that along with the latest prerelease of Flex Gumbo, but of course here at MAX it is ‘uncool’ to not be an Apple fanboy so Adobe only gave out the Mac version prerelease of Catalyst. So I guess I’ll have to ebay it….

The best part of this keynote was the waiting for the speakers. No knock on the speakers, they were fine. But Adobe does a kick-ass job of putting together a multiscreen multimedia extravaganza. They had some guy in an uncomfortable-looking suit doing some sort of turntable scratching/dj’ing and it controlled the video onscreen. It was cool for a minute or two and then got old. The speeches were lackluster.

Kevin Lynch had a big box of mobile devices. He was demoing some new stuff on them. I was waiting for him to put the box away and then say….”Oh. There’s one more thing…” and then pull out the iPhone. He did pull out the iPhone and say they were working on Flash 10 for the iPhone, but he didn’t exactly seize the moment with any drama, it almost seemed kind of unplanned actually. That leads me to believe that Steve Jobs hasn’t really given any indication that it’s *really* coming. Adobe can build it. But if Stevie doesn’t allow it, it ain’t happening. Just my hunch. I’m probably wrong though and it’s just a simple matter of Kevin Lynch not seizing an easy ‘wow’ moment in the keynote.

Air -

Adobe is *really* pushing AIR this year. Every session, it seems like the speaker was tied up and told he had to incorporate AIR into the presentation or else. Even in the Fireworks session I attended, guess what we exported to? AIR and interactive PDF.

More to come…

Well….since applying the firmware update a couple of months ago now, my IP has not changed. At all. I looked at the router settings and nothing changed that I can tell. And I seriously doubt that Comcast helped out T-Mobile by secretly switching me to a static IP service.

Has anyone else noticed their IP remaining unchanged since the firmware update? This can’t be a coincidence. During the last two months I have tried forcing the IP change (which I learned later that you can’t) by unplugging/rebooting the cable modem numerous times, and although unrelated to the T-Mobile@Home service I also switched operating systems, going from Vista to a dual-boot of Ubuntu and XP. My IP address has remained the same.

Is this odd?