Technology
Better Podcasting #312 - Our Gear 2024
In Episode 312 of Better Podcasting, hosts Steven and SP dive into their annual gear review, discussing upgrades and improvements made throughout 2024. They also cover industry updates, including A-Ca...
Better Podcasting #312 - Our Gear 2024
Technology •
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Interactive Transcript
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I'm Damien the DM from Adventures in Aurelia, a collaborative storytelling experience told
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through a game of dungeons and dragons, part of the Gunnigik Network, just like the show
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you're checking out now.
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Shows on the network are individually owned and opinions expressed may not reflect others.
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Find other epically geeky shows at GunnigikNetwork.com
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Welcome to Episode 312 of Better Podcasting.
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On this show, we continue our tradition of running down our podcast gear improvements,
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upgrades and purchases for the year.
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In this week's Better Podnerings, topics include A-Cast Limits, updated Streamnards,
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Terms of Service, and we say farewell to Blog Talk Radio.
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And finally, in this week's Better Pod Back, we close up our year, the best way we know how to,
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with comments from our audience.
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Lauren, why don't you kick off the close-out by starting our show now?
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This is Better Podcasting.
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We are hobby podcasters through and through, just like you.
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That's why we are different.
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We minimize the money talk so that you can focus on building a better podcast.
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Welcome to the season finale of Better Podcasting.
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I am Steven and I am pleased to say he did not leave me the entire season.
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SP is here.
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Hey everybody, how's it going?
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It's been a fantastic year.
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I'm Better Podcasting.
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We've actually accomplished quite a bit it as I said a couple of episodes ago.
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And we're looking to kick this year off with a doozy of an episode as we go through.
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It's a fan favorite.
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It's our gear episode.
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Yeah, can you believe that we are a good portion through November.
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It's almost over and we are completely done recording our season.
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It's insane, completely crazy.
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It is crazy, but we have made the decision to take the holidays off.
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The holidays for us is American Thanksgiving through new year.
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So we will be back in January of 2025.
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All right, well, should we get into the meat of this episode,
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which is talking about gear?
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Yes, the favorite subject of most of our audience.
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It's that time.
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It's time for our annual gear show.
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Now, let's start this annual gear show off with a recap of how we got here.
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Because we started our annual gear show just by happen chance.
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We were doing an arc about the evolution of our gear,
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the first year that we did, better podcasting.
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That just so happened to fall around the end of the year.
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And the main purpose of this arc was to tell people,
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you don't have to spend a bunch of money on gear to get started podcasting.
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And sometimes you don't have to spend even anything on gear.
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And then you can just evolve with time should you want to.
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And that in itself is the essence of why we like to keep doing this each year.
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We want to show people some of the ways that we've evolved
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our setups over the past year and show that sometimes there is a lot of change
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in other times.
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Not so much intent.
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But this is a big message we like to push at this time,
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which is you don't always need to put a bunch of money into gear.
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And it is okay to evolve with time.
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But we still love taking this time, talking about our gear changes.
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And more importantly, kicking off the subsequent action that usually comes forth.
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A lot of people telling us about their gear changes as well.
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And then for those that are interested in our past episodes,
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because it does roll out the history of our gear changes,
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since the beginning of when we podcasted,
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not just better podcasting.
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Here's a full list for you.
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Back in 2015, we did our first episodes.
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It was better podcasting episode seven.
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That was Stephen's gear and better podcasting episode eight.
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That was my gear.
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And that's when we went over our history from when we started podcasting up to that point in 2017.
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Or 2015.
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Sorry, 2015.
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Then the next year in 2016,
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episodes 59 and 60, Stephen and me.
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And then episodes 111 and 112 in 2017.
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Again, Stephen then me.
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And then in 2018, episodes 161 and 162 of better podcasting.
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Again, Stephen first, then me.
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We did have a discussion by the way of who went first with their gear
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and it was determined that I didn't get a vote.
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So there we go.
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And then if you remember that conversation,
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you're like, well, this is the way we're going to do it.
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I do.
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And I remember saying it was because everybody would tune out if they heard your gear first.
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Yeah, because they didn't want to hear it.
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Anyway, in 2019, episodes,
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212 and 213 were our single gear episodes.
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And 2020, it was the final year that we did separate episodes.
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And that was episode 241 and 242.
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And that was the first year of the pandemic.
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And we changed it in the next year.
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We did a combined edition.
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That's what it was called episode 260 and 2021.
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And then in 2022, two years ago, episode 268 and then last year,
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episode 283, the last three years we have done them combined,
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which is what we're going to do today.
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So with that said, should we start running down our gear?
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Absolutely.
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And piggybacking to what I just said a minute ago,
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where we know that you will tune out if we give SP's gear first.
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We'll just go into SP's gear because we know he's the more important one of the show.
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I don't know if that's true or not, but we'll start going through things.
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And the first thing I'm going to talk about is software changes that I made this year.
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It's not hardware gear, but it's still gear that we need to make our show.
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And I've graded from Vegas 19 to Vegas Pro 21.
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I did that in May of this year.
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And I took...
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Oh, oh, oh, oh.
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I thought they say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
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You're not allowed to talk about this.
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Well, I will talk about the fact that I lost $100.
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on Vegas because it was a sale because they were going to do an upgrade pretty soon.
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And that is true. They're on Vegas 22 now.
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So 21 was the upgrade that I did in May.
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And I started using that...
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I think a couple weeks later.
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And the reason I upgraded because I got isotope RX 10 standard in April.
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And that was also $100.
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And I found out that some of the interoperability didn't work with 19.
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So I had to go to 21 for it to work together.
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So it was a $200 upgrade.
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But I have been enjoying the upgraded plugins in isotope RX 10 standard.
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And every year they get better, you know,
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plugins that might be at a more advanced level are filtered down to the lower levels.
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So it's worth staying abreast of this.
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And then the $100 that I spent was well underneath if you were just buying it for the first time.
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So if you roll into the loyalty discounts as the RX line gets improved over time,
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it does cost you less money every couple of years.
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And that's what I did.
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I want to say that I was running RX 7 before that and upgraded to 10.
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And it's been a noticeable upgrade.
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So I've enjoyed that in my editing.
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Now, Steven's moved on from Vegas, but I still maintain Vegas as my primary editing platform
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for both video and audio.
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And I've been enjoying it, but I'm also curious to hear from Steven
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how he's still enjoying the resolve, not resolve.
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You're using...
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Yeah, DaVinci Resolve.
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DaVinci Resolve.
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For some weird section there, I thought I was going to go to Reaper Resolve.
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And that just didn't make any sense.
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Okay.
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So that's some of the software upgrades that I made.
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And we'll get back to software at the end of my section.
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I also have last year put a new monitor.
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And then I put it on a riser.
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And I used to have the webcam on top of my monitor.
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And because it was noticeably higher, like six to nine inches higher,
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I didn't actually do the measurement.
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I'm just looking at it right now.
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I kept on looking down on myself when I was seeing myself back.
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So I'm like, I need to change this.
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And I just came to the revelation in the middle of the year.
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Steven, I'm shocked that you didn't mention anything beforehand.
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That, oh, I can get a camera, a webcam tripod, basically.
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With a big stick that comes out, it's got a webcam or a tripod base.
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So it's pretty stable.
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And I bought one of those.
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It was only 16 bucks.
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We can put the link in the show notes.
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It's not a really noticeable brand or anything.
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But it puts it at a level that's more looking directly in my eyes.
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And unfortunately, that's brought up a problem where I'm having glass blue eye issues.
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So maybe I'll do something with that next year.
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But I did get a tripod and extendable arm tripod for my webcam.
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Do you know why I didn't comment on that?
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Why?
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Because I just assumed that you wanted the people watching us,
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the way that the industry watches us looking down on us.
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Well, that is symbolic.
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That's for sure.
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And true.
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What I also wanted to do this year, we'll get back into this.
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I wanted to increase my monitor space,
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my screen space available to me because I have a ton of windows that I have up at any given time.
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I like looking up at my live streams for the rocket launches.
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I like when I'm editing on this big screen to have another video playing in the background.
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If there's a sporting event that's going on, like a hockey game or a football game
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or something like that.
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And then I have my reference material over on the left.
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So I was like, I need more monitor space with this.
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And I wanted to buy new monitors.
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That didn't happen this year.
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But what did happen is my parents actually decommissioned their computer that they had at home.
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They've gone entirely to their mobile devices.
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And they had an extra monitor that was kicking around a 22 inch monitor.
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So I'm like, I can use this.
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So in order to use that, though, I didn't have to increase the video card.
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My video card, I currently have five monitors.
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My video card actually is in the motherboard supports a total of six.
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So I can actually add one more.
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But I didn't have to upgrade that.
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But I had to have a place to put the monitor.
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So I actually got a single monitor mount adjustable monitor desk arm
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that is actually clamped to the riser on my right monitor.
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And it is above the monitor.
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So I can put the specific one in there.
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It was a 13 to 32 inch screen.
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And it had a max height of 22 inches.
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So or 44 inches, excuse me.
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So I needed that specific one to get the specific height to get it above the other monitor.
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And that was $43.
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And it's worked great.
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I love it.
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Have another monitor there.
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I think I've shared a screen share of my current monitor layout in the discord.
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If I haven't, I will definitely put that in there.
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So Steven, while you've decreased your monitor account because you went bigger with your monitor,
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I've actually added another monitor.
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So I'm at a total of five now versus four.
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Well, congratulations.
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And I am excited for you.
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And I have faith that one day you can double that number.
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Maybe, maybe.
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So what I did need to double though is the amount of cushion on my chair.
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Because the other chair that I had had well been beyond its life,
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the faux leather had been peeling from the back of it.
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And I didn't have the amount of cushion on the bottom of it anymore.
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And it was definitely making noise.
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So earlier this year, as a present from the kids, they actually got me a office chair from
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office depot.
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So it's not the good Herman Miller or Steelcase chair or anything like that.
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But it was a new chair and I needed it.
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It was a brinkly ergonomic bonded leather, high back executive office chair, black silver.
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With the Certa Cushing in it.
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It's going to last a few years if I'm lucky three.
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And it was on sale.
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It's regularly $350.
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It was on sale for $199.
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So I'm like, score.
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And it's on sale now because I check back into it.
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It's on sale now again for $199, usually a $350 chair.
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And I have enjoyed it with the exception of it started creaking a couple of weeks ago.
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So oh well, I'll just try not to move as much when I record.
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However, I will say that even if it is creaking now,
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there was a lot of creaking on your last chair.
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I was hesitant to say that because I don't know how many people actually noticed it.
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But there was definitely some that made it into the recording on the old chair.
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Definitely.
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So another thing that the old chair did was it kind of marked up the carpet quite a bit because
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I just had the standard office wheelchair wheels on it.
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And I discovered that you could actually put aftermark the chair wheels on it.
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Where I'm sitting normally, I would just put one of those floor savers underneath.
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Unfortunately, I can't do that.
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Or if I did in this configuration, I would have to cut it up.
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So that's kind of a major project.
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So I just decided, well, let's try these replacement rubber chair wheels.
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They're basically wheels that you would find on an inline skate.
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And they're kind of rubbery a little bit.
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And they've been doing a great job.
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It's smoother movements.
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It's a little bit extra cushioning, not much, but a little extra cushioning.
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And those were $32 to do the retrofit on the chair.
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And I'm glad I did.
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And I move easier.
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And it's just one of the best upgrades that I've ever done that I didn't know I needed.
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Another thing that I've done this year, it's standard.
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It's not new is I bought a total of four SD cards.
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Yes, not the hundreds of dozens of SD cards for my roadcaster that I have done in the past.
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And that's probably a factor of I'm recording a little bit less than I used to.
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And I am being a little bit more judicious.
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And the size of the cards are up.
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So I've only bought four of those this year.
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I did one that was at the 512 level and the others have been at the 256 level.
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Gigabytes.
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That's the storage level that's on the cards.
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So I did buy four of those.
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And Steven, we made a big deal about this on the podcast earlier
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with the roadcaster because of the troubles that I was having with the
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RMAID roadcaster pro two.
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The AC adapter that's needed to plug it in failed.
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This is actually the replacement by road.
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But I needed an actual adapter to work by roadcaster while I was waiting the week and a half or so for this to come in.
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So I went to Best Buy and bought a J5 create 100 watt supercharger USB-C adapter.
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And that works great for the roadcaster pro two.
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And it's still connected to the roadcaster right now.
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And then this replacement, which I did confirm works.
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But I just have the J5 in there.
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So I'm like, okay, I will just use that and not worry about it.
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So that was $40 and that has worked so far.
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And Steven, we are J5 create buddies.
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We are because I have one as well that I use not for podcasting purposes,
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but I do regularly use it.
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So I am so excited that we can share that bond together.
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That's what they say.
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Lifelong J5 create buddies.
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That's a thing.
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This next one I thought you've been waiting for four years.
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And that is the fact that I have transitioned from Streamyard to VDO.Ninja,
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the website to connect, which we are using right now as we record better podcasting
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and recording through OBS.
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I'm not streaming through OBS.
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There's a few other things that I need to have happen before I actually go ahead and stream via OBS.
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Or maybe I won't ever stream through OBS.
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We will see how that goes in the future.
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But I am now using that combination to connect and record the shows.
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And I'm able to multitrack and it is $0 out of my pocket at least for now.
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I have mentioned that I want to donate some money to VDO.Ninja.
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And I still have to do that in full disclosure.
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But I do want to do that because I think the capability is great and it's free.
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If I can do that versus having to pay $50 a month for Riverside or Streamyard or Restream or
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something like that, I think that's all I need as a hobby podcaster. I don't need the heavy lift.
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I'm not getting the 10,000 watches through a live stream or anything like that.
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I would need a more professional setup.
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And even saying that, I'm not so sure that VDO.Ninja and OBS could actually support that.
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Because when you're streaming, it just goes to the places that you're streaming from and then
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they get hit with all of the back end for people that are watching, right?
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I have noticed as an aside that I'm limited to 720 and a lot of my co-host,
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they can't support 1080. And we are still working through the issues for me to try to get 4K to you
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for better podcasting. But 720 is pretty much where most of my co-hosts are. Some of them can stream at 1080.
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And I would prefer 1080 in this day and age. It's a little sharper, but you know, whatever.
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This is a hobby and as long as we're connecting and we're able to see each other and talk to each
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other as we're recording that's really what the purpose is there. So moving on from that,
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a couple of the other upgrades that I did, I actually upgraded my main hero hub and a couple
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of the other hubs throughout the house from a 6 pro to a 6e pro. And in some cases, from a 5 to a 6e pro,
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I still have a couple more I need to upgrade, but that has been an improvement throughout the house.
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And should lighten the load as far as the Wi-Fi that's been used while I'm actually recording. Say,
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I have a full house of kids and they're all adults, so they're all either working or streaming
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everything that they're doing. It does get taxing for some of these older Wi-Fi, whether it's a mesh
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system or a singular system or whatever. So upgrading to a 6e, it's affordable. I know the
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7 and the 7 max or 7 pro or whatever it is for heroes out right now. I know that those are
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very expensive. So the 6e is more affordable to me, especially if it's on sale on Amazon. So
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that is what I got. And then as a final note on my gear itself, I continue to sell gear that is old.
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I think I'm about done with the stuff that I want to sell. It's taken a couple of years. You know,
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I had the big, macchi mixers that I sold, a lot of the older microphones that I had around the
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house that I wanted to get rid of that I didn't need anymore. I've been selling those and some of
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the older audio rack stuff that I've been selling like compressor. I still have the 2dbx 286s,
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but I'm on the cusp of wanting to get rid of those once I get a replacement for the Roadcaster Pro.
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So that's it for the gear. I have future plans, but Stephen, do you have any questions about the
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gear that we just ran down? Yeah, I was wondering how come you didn't move past the Roadcaster Pro
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2 this year? Because there was nothing out there to replace it. I desperately want to do a new
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recorder mixer, but through your trials and tribulations, what you get to in a second, there really
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isn't anything that I want to pivot to that's available for purchase today. And I desperately do
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to move on to the next generation of gear. I would prefer if it's not road, but I'm just guessing
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that it's going to be a Roadcaster Pro 3 or something like that next year. I hope it's not a video
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switcher because those are very expensive apparently from road and I don't want to spend that much.
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So do you have any future plans then? I do. So three things that I noticed I said at the end of last
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year that I wanted to make improvements this year. I wanted a new iPad Pro, new 4K monitors on the
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sides. And I wanted to explore a new laptop, which I've come to know that the type is called a duo.
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And it's got that extra dashboard monitor below. And I did not make any headway with that this
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year whatsoever. So I will be exploring all of that starting next year. The new laptop is going
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to be more imperative as we get closer to Windows 10, I believe. Yeah, 10 that shutting down as
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Windows 11 becomes mandatory. So that might be a more than an emergency purchase. Like I thought
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it through, but I just haven't pulled the trigger on it later next year. I'm thinking that Microsoft
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is going to delay their Windows 11 mandate by a couple months, maybe a year or something like that.
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So I'm just thinking I have another year there. And the first purchase I do want to make is an
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iPad Pro. If I come across some 4K monitors that are affordable for right now, because right now
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they're in like the three to $400 range for the type of gaming 4K monitor that I want. It's,
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yeah, it's a little excessive. So an iPad Pro. And when I say an iPad Pro, I'm talking about
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a refurbished iPad Pro, not a brand new one. So I'm talking a 2020 version or 2022 version
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or whatever. I'm not talking about a brand new one. So those are some of the things that I wanted
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to do this year that I wasn't able to get to last year. And then I is I mentioned I want a new
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roadcaster pro two replacement, whether that's road or a taskam or whatever. I want a new one
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because I'm not comfortable with this. I'm literally I'm not comfortable. It's like I'm getting
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divorced from it. I'm just not comfortable being in the room with it. But I still have to be
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associated with it in order to live my life. So there you go. What I don't need at the moment,
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I don't need a new microphone. I'm pretty set with that. I've got enough microphones that
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still work great for me, including this SM7B that I'm using right now that I just don't feel
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a need to do another one. If I was going to get a new microphone, I would get a roadcaster or
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road pod mic USB. And the reason I would get that is I would enable five microphones through the
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roadcaster pro two because I can use that USB to as an additional microphone. Am I really going
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to need five people? Not really. And in fact, a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about what gear
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that I would take if we were going to record somewhere. And I would just take and I know I said
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I've hated it. But if we're not streaming, I would just take that zoom H eight and I would use that
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because I could use six microphones into it. And if I was streaming though, I couldn't use that.
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I'd have to use something else. And that's why I hate it is because well, we've got this podcast
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mode, but it's not an audio interface. So you can't stream with it like whatever. So that's one
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thing I don't need a new microphone. But on the microphone front, I discovered as I was getting
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ready to go to Voltcon that I only have four Sunhizer MD 46s. And I was racking my brain. I was like,
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oh, yeah, I gave two away. So I need to recap in order to record total of six people. I have enough
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microphones. I can take other things. But if I want everybody on a Sunhizer MD 46, I need two more.
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So I might look into getting two of those this next year if they're on sale. And right now,
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I've seen some great sales. It's $199 microphone. And I've seen some just this past week for sale for
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$120, $130. So that's starting to get into the Amai's World Buy it because I'm never going to see
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this price again. Well, I look forward to seeing what happens in 2025 and which of these items roll
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on again to your end of 2025 discussion. And now I'll get to that in 2026. I think two out of three
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will probably be in that realm. Anyway, what about year gear? What kind of updates and upgrades did
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you do this year? Well, honestly, it's been a bit of a quiet year for me as far as core podcasting
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equipment purchases go. But that's not for a lack of trying, S.B. I have been trying and trying.
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And there has been lots of trial and error, specifically lots of errors on that front. And
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let's start with the first error was I tried to join you in a modern era digital mixer. I bought
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myself the Maccadl Z creator access. It looked like it fit the bill for so many different things that I
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liked, including size and functionality. But then they're just ended up being a couple of problems
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that made me just take it back. I didn't want to spend my money on it. I knew very quickly,
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very quickly. It wasn't going to be something that I kept because the biggest showstopper for me
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on that if you missed it was that there was a lack of security on the network connectivity.
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Basically, it was wide open to anything that was on the network. Anything on the network could
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just hit the IP address and be into full access of that board, including being able to set a pin
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on it. So at that point, I went, I don't know. This is not great. I'm concerned about security. But
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I was also concerned about the future support of the Maccadl Z creator just because Maccadl was
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bought by road and what's going to be the future. And so I didn't want to hold out for maybe that
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being patched. And in my efforts to try to find out information about that as well as some firmware
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issues that I ran out into due to some misnumbering, I found out that the support was questionable at best.
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So these things all together just went, no, I'm not keeping that. And I talked more on better
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podcasting episode 291 about that. So a couple of things. First of all, I can totally see your older
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son actually starting his hacking skills, kind of hack into it because he listens to the show,
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right? And he went, oh, dad says vulnerability. And I'm on the network. I could get in there. So I
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could totally see that. Second of all, you mentioned that this was the DLZ creator access. And it was
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the size that you were looking for. I don't know if it was for the first time, but this past week,
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I got a reset because I went into Best Buy. And I got a reset as to the size of the Roadcaster duo
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versus the Roadcaster pro two. I'm fine with the Roadcaster pro two in its size. But I saw it
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right next to each other with the duo. And I was like, okay, I can see people that didn't have a
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16 channel mixer on their desk to begin with wanting to have something that was smaller, especially
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if you're podcasting from a laptop to begin with. And you're just not used to a big setup like
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it's both Stephen and I have. I could see wanting to go to that smaller size, whether that's the duo
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or the DLZ creator access. So I understand the desire to make that piece of gear smaller.
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There are some considerations for that like the duo you lose some of the sound pads on it. So
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you have less control either from a midi standpoint or from a voice modulation standpoint and
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effect standpoint or from sound pad standpoint actually playing sounds on it. You have less available
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because you have six versus eight. But most people it probably works just great. And then of course
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you run down the number of XLR inputs from four to two. And I believe the access is pretty much
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the same on the DLZ in terms of you reduce the capability because you're reducing the size. So
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I get it, but I want more control versus less. And I think I outlined this in 291. For me,
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none of those were issues for me at all. I that they weren't with my workflow. So that's why the
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size was just like, yeah, this is great. But anyways, too many other issues. So it went back. I
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also continued my mic arm dilemma because for those of you that didn't know this for a very long time,
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I used the Hi-O-PL2T. And then for a little while I ended up using the Elgato Wavearm LP.
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And then I rearranged my office and it didn't really work so well. So then I was trying to find another
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solution. I went through some checking of things last year. Didn't really work out. But I still
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wanted to try to upgrade my mic arm because I wanted to find something that was modern that would
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work. And in the end, after a bunch of playing around, I just went back to that trusty Hi-O-PL2T
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off of a bench that I have to my right and buy my desk. So it is actually away from the desk that
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I'm banging and hitting while I'm recording when I'm doing all this stupid hand talking. But it is,
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it's trusty. I'm back to the same old Hi-O-PL2T that I've had for all these years. We'll see.
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I looked at a whole bunch of different specs, a whole bunch of different mic arms out there. And so far,
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there's nothing that has seemed like it's going to be suitable to replace mine with the position I
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wanted in. The one thing I will say I love my Hi-O-PL2T by the way. But the one thing I will say about it,
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we were just talking about like road and the questionable maintainability and sustainability.
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Bob Hi-O passed away, right? So I'm very curious as to the Hi-O-brand who's going to take that over
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and if they're going to maintain the same sort of quality with it as we go forward. I haven't
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heard anything about any issues whatsoever with how gear sense Bob passed away. But that is in
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the back of my mind a concern of who's actually running the Hi-O-brand right now. Are they actually
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manufacturing more and then how is that going? Like is the quality the same basically? So we'll see
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over time right now there's no issue whatsoever. But it's in the back of my mind. Is the Hi-O-PL2T
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going to either be discontinued or degrade? The next thing I wanted to talk about in my trial
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and errors was one that truly was hell freezing over because I tried to make the conversion over to
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a Mac Mini this year. But in the end, they're just ended up being too many random bugs, random
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quirks that I had with it. And it just felt like the wrong unit for me. Really, I ended up deciding
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to go with the M2 Pro Mac Mini because I wanted to have more than two monitor support. And in order
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to do that, I needed to have the M2 Pro so I could get three. But what I found was that I still felt
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like I was just making it work because my regular setup involves four monitors. And so the M2 Pro
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line of Mac Mini was quite expensive off of your base or compared to your base price tag
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of the Mac Mini. And so I was looking at it. I had all these random quirks that seemed to be
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trying to figure out. And then the price was high. And I was left feeling like this is making things
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work. So I just decided that with all of these things, all of these weird anomalies that I was
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experiencing, including having to shut it down regularly or having it forced restart on me
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because of weird sleep mode issues. I just decided that was not the time. But maybe in the future,
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once there was an upgrade to the line, maybe I would revisit. But the thing is if I was only going to
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be able to support three monitors, I would have to think really hard about what my price level would
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be at. And I think I'd want to be in on that basic price tag because the fourth would probably
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need to be supplemented by something else. And yes, there are ways to get the fourth, but then you
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lose the HTCP stuff and everything and it's a big kerfuffle. So I'd have to really think about
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what my price trade off would be for only having three because I would want to still use four
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and that would involve a workaround. There's more details on better podcasting episode 300 if you
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really want to check that out, but only a little bit. There was only a little bit of talk in there.
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I was really a failure. This is a great time for me to announce that I am now on a Mac Mini M4.
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Are you? No. Oh, well, I was excited for a minute. Somebody, somebody perked up hearing that.
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I'm sure somebody did. I don't have a desire to go over to Mac because I'm pretty ingrained
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with my setup the way it is and staying on Windows. But sometimes I'm not going to preclude it
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sometime in the future. I have used Macs before. I have a 2015 MacBook Pro that I tried to resurrect
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this past year and it just didn't work. So I actually need to find a way to dispose of that
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because it's just the screen is unusable and there's just no way to fix it that it's affordable
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for what it's worth. So I don't have a problem with going with the Mac OS, but I'm just
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preferring to stay with what I got for now. So that could change. Well, in my next section of
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things I wanted to discuss, I'm going to call them evolutions because I feel like I was able to save
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some money and just evolve my setup by doing some configuration changes. And there's just a
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couple of things I want to rattle through here. The first is I switched how I'm using OBS to do
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multi-track audio so that on OBS I have myself a clean backup tracks for each person that's
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participating. And I'll clean quite unquote because it does depend on the connection. Yeah, but it's
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still clean. They're isolated. They're not like they were where before I used to have just a
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stereo mix in OBS of the entire board output, which was everybody together. So this way I have
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everybody individually on there if I want and with video ninja, they are fairly clean if you send
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the right parameters. But I also did adapt how I am using the roadcaster pro one because of this
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instead of just using that stereo mix from the roadcaster pro into OBS. I am now using ASIO
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drivers in order to pull just the specific channels that I need into OBS. So basically OBS is
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capturing my microphone from ASIO, the channel that I use for the music bumpers that I play live.
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And then in OBS, OBS is getting the audio directly from the participants themselves.
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So this really helped level up sort of the setup that I have. It was kind of like integrating
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backup hardware with more redundancy without actually having to do anything but configuration
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changes. And then I also recently of course started to talk about chapter markers which I recapped
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in the recent episode 308. But that has allowed me to change my editing workflow. And I wanted to
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highlight this specifically because earlier this year, I had been considering do I need to bring other
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specific editing hardware into the equation to really speed up my editing workflow even more.
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And after this, I've gotten no. Oh, okay. Yes, I did make a purchase which I'll talk about in a second
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to help with this. But overall, I decided no. I didn't really need to do any editing specific hardware
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to speed up my workflow because this change saved a lot of time for me. So moving on to some
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purchases, what I did to refer to a minute ago was I boss a stream deck Neo in order to enhance
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my ease of making those chapter marker edit point notes while we're recording. I didn't really
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need this. I could have used the two stream decks I already have. But this was something that I
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was on sale at the time. And I went, okay, this is just going to make it a little bit easier. And so
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I would say that the stream deck Neo was really the only true podcast purchase of the year that
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I could think about as far as hardware goes anyways. Okay. Yeah, I have not gone that way yet. But
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now that I'm using OBS, I can definitely see the possibilities of using it. Whereas before, with
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Streamyard, I could do everything on the web interface. And it wasn't that big of a deal for me to
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click on the screen itself. But now that I'm using OBS, I can definitely see that it's a little
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bit more of a hassle to get things done within OBS. So if I could just click a singular button to
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have whatever effect that goes through, I could definitely see it. But this is not your only
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stream deck. This is like your 12th one, right? It's my third. It's my third. We'll see how many I can
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add by the end of 2025. You're like the musician that has about 50 keyboards in front of them to
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do different things. Exactly. Yeah. Well, let's move on to some semi podcast related purchases.
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And the first one I wanted to call out was one that I did not anticipate this past year,
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which is about myself a Samsung Tab S9 tablet. Now, the reason I bought this was because
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basically my local Costco, I was pretty sure had some wacky pricing going on it. And I really
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couldn't resist it in the context of what I'm about to explain. I had been thinking about
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possibly getting a tablet already, basically for some more convenient note taking and other
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various tasks in a more convenient location than something like a full laptop. And I combine this
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with a Dexner keyboard case that I'll try to remember to put over in our notes over at
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betterpodcasting.com slash 312. And basically that Dexner keyboard case is very similar to the
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iPad Magic keyboard. If you've ever seen that, it's the tablet magnetically attaches to it.
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It has a trackpad in it and it has a keyboard. So it works really well. And I bring this up because
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I really wanted this for twofold. Number one, I needed a form of a replacement for my laptop because
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my son's basically taken mine hostage. So I used to regularly have my laptop around when I was
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just mindlessly watching TV or doing something around the house that I didn't want to be in the
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but my son keeps using it. And so after several times of him using it and
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having fun playing with it and I went, okay fine, I will let you keep using that. And then I said,
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but I need something for myself. So I was sort of on the lookout. And when this came along,
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I was like, this might work really well. And I really wanted something portable as well because I
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did want to try to work on my podcast prep and stuff in more convenient places where I wanted to.
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And this has fit to bill by switching to a tablet because it's very easy to bring this along with me.
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And I've worked on show notes in the car while waiting for activities or appointments to finish.
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I've actually brought it to work and hotspotted to my phone so that I could work on show notes
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and other podcast related stuff while I'm on my lunch at work. And I never really brought
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in my laptop before I just felt kind of like that was a bit too much but this fits into my bag nicely.
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And then I've even used it outside during the summer to maybe work on the podcast while having a
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summer moulson beverage. But you know, this is the point, not really. But the point is that it's
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a much more convenient and portable way that I can sort of chip away on various podcast activities.
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And actually it's worked exactly like I wanted to, but I do use it for much more than just podcast
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prep. Couple of things. First of all, there's seasonal moulsons. I thought there was just one moulson.
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I don't know. I don't drink moulson. Sure. You're Canadian. Of course you drink it.
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So that's one thing. And another thing, it sounds like all you use cases for this is very similar
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to why I use an iPad Pro and why I don't need the latest and greatest because I'm not actually
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podcasting from it. But I'm using it for preparation. I'm using it as a reader as well. I do have a
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Kindle, but I use it as a reader as well and a web browser. Now a days and it's got a bigger screen
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than a phone in it. And as I get older, because you know, I'm knocking on 60 now. My eyes aren't all
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that great. So a bigger screen is always great. So yeah, I'm holy, it doesn't have to be an Apple
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device and iOS device. It's some sort of screen that's mobile like that is incredibly useful.
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And we both do not have actual data running through it. We both connect through Wi-Fi. It sounds
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like from what you just said. So I don't have mine connected to a cellular plan basically. And
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neither do you. And it works just fine with the hotspot. It wouldn't work fine with the hotspot.
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If you're talking at least on the iOS side of things, if you're talking about podcasting through
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it, because there's just not enough data throughput for that. I've discovered through just trying to
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connect it and do like a FaceTime or something like that on it. And it's just not enough data. You can
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turn off the restrict data and it's still not as good data as through your actual phone. So yeah,
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anything that's low data, text only, web pages which are optimized for data throughput,
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that sort of thing. It works great. So it doesn't matter if it's Android or any other system or iOS
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having something like this is just been incredible useful. The next thing I wanted to
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correctly mention was I did a little USB cleanup for my setup. Really it came down to replacing
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a few very messy hubs, USB hubs with some back desk mountable USB hubs. And I have two
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four port USB three hubs. And then I have one USB C hub which has three USB three ports in one USB
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C. And this was mostly a cleanup project. But I also wanted to have these USB ports attached to
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the back of my desk so that I could easily plug in those many stream decks that I have in a
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convenient way that wasn't a bunch of hubs shoved under my desk. So yeah, I definitely was motivated
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by that. And I was also motivated to upgrade my keyboard this year because I had over the past few
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years shrunk down my keyboard to something that was a little smaller form factor when I went to the
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mechanical keyboard. But I just I didn't want it to try a low profile mechanical keyboard. And so
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I went with a keycron K5 pro when it came on sale. And I quite like it. It's a full size keyboard.
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So I went back up which was it is comfortable, especially with some of the random I use the numpad
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a lot which which is important. But I also use the print screen button and some other things.
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But it's quite a programmable keyboard. And so the keycron K5 pro keyboard is where I will
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sit with for a while. And the last thing I wanted to mention is just because I was so jealous of
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you getting yourself a new chair earlier this year. I went, you know what? I'm going to buy myself
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a new chair for $50. I approve of this plan because I know the backstory. So this actually just happened
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just last week was I was at work and suddenly an email comes out from work and they go, hey,
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we're getting different chairs in the office. So we will be selling air quotes selling the existing
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chairs for $50 but they were donations to charities. So the summary is that my my previous chair was
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broken the hydraulic one on it and I've been work getting by with it just a little bit lower.
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And these chairs in the office are our Herman Miller, Aaron chairs. And so yeah, when this came up
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they were in good condition. There's some circumstances why the office got new chairs when they
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probably didn't necessarily need to be replaced. And because I was there and I was one of the first
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ones put up my hand. I got to go around the office and find the best one and it's in really good
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condition. So we'll see obviously it still is worn. It is still is pre-used. There is still,
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well, there's not really buck grooves because it's mesh, but there's still is, you know,
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pre-butt use on it. So we will see what happens. How long will last but for $50? Hey, it solved my
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immediate broken chair problem with a Herman Miller chair. I don't care if it lasts only
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into next year. It'll be worth the $50. Yeah, and I really think the mesh is good for you there,
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especially during the summer because you don't have air conditioning in your house and it gets a
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little warm there because who needs air conditioning in Canada, right? Global warming. So the
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mesh is actually cooler and you can stay more comfortable in your chair for a longer, especially
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in your office which is getting super heated by the computers that you're using, which was one of
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the main considerations of you trying to use the Mac earlier this year as well. So yeah, I like
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the whole chair. It's a good chair. I like the mesh on it and everything. Back to your key
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board comment there, I have for the first time in my life, I've actually had to purchase some
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letter stickers, which I was debating whether even to say something about it on my keyboard because
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I had rubbed the letters off because they're just I guess not good. I haven't had this keyboard
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that long, but I've actually put stickers on top of my keyboard on the A key, the S key,
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the E key, the D key, because apparently I hit them pretty hard with my left hand. So there you go.
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I will also put a comment here that I did also buy Isatope RX 10. So did that. And also probably by
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the end of the year, I'll be either fixing or replacing my UPS because again, just last week,
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discovered that my one of my two UPS is in here is dead. So that's an anticipated
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thing that will probably happen before the end of 2024. I thought I might have done some UPS
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upgrades this year, but I didn't. It was late last year that I did it. And we accounted for it
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in last year's gear episode. So yeah, it's cyclical. If you have UPSes, eventually you're going to have
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to do it. And I have, I don't know how many I have in this house. I want to say somewhere around 10,
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maybe 15 because I am really, I'm afraid of tornadoes. So I want the UPSes around the house
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so that I can have as much information as I can have as late as I can have it, which includes
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here in the podcast studio. So I have three in this room alone of UPSes. And then I have
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other scattered throughout the house. So there you go. That's going to take you to the end of the
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gear portion of our gear episode. We would love to know what sort of upgrades have you done
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this year? Please come to our discord at betterpodcasting.com slash discord. Please come over there
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and chat with us. Tell us all about the things that you have done with your podcast or maybe it's
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sort of in line with us. Some of the changes you've made to sort of enhance your setup and whatnot.
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Let us know at betterpodcasting.com slash discord. We love to talk gear. And you can also email
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podcast at betterpodcasting.com if you would like or find us over on our socials at betterpodcasting.com
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slash contact. I look forward to seeing what gear we're going to purchase next year SP.
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Yeah, and as the special shout out, we do have the third official cohost of better podcasting that's
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already posted on our discord server because he Damian did some studio upgrades already. So
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go to our discord server and you can see what he has done to his studio. It was very expensive.
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All right, I was thinking we should switch over to blog talk radio.
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The one benefit with blog talk radio is that you can take collars, take live collars to your show.
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And you don't have to do any wacky things like a Bluetooth connection to your mixer recorder
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device or anything like that, which by the way, that is a possibility. So blog talk radio is not
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necessary anymore. There was some news on blog talk radio. They sent out an email and they said,
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yeah, we're going to close, I believe in January, yeah, end of January, January 31st, 2025,
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blog talk radio will no longer be operating and will be saying goodbye to their loyal users.
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I'm just guessing that there wasn't a lot of new users coming onto the platform. They probably
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hemorrhaged a lot of users that either were using new hardware solutions or they just wasn't a
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audio only because I believe it's audio only audio only streaming issue that people wanted to do
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anymore. I mean, speaker no longer does audio only either. So I think a lot of people are doing
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what we do and stream via OBS either to Twitch or YouTube or you name it could tick-tock Instagram
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whatever that they're using and blog talk radio is no longer there. So yeah, I think it was a big part
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of podcasting as podcasting was growing up but is just no longer usable and I do believe they're
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currently owned by speakers. So with the loss of blog talk radio, speaker no longer has an ability
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to stream anything. So that's a change from when we first started podcasting and started better
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podcasting in 2015. Also, I will just put it out there that I think there's a whole generation that
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goes what's a blog? Yeah, probably because well, I don't know about that because if you have any sort
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of written material online, it's still called a blog, but maybe you're right. Maybe people don't
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read anymore. I don't know. You know the other thing I was thinking about SB. What's that? I was
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thinking that although we just moved to podcast maybe maybe a cast free plan would do us maybe we
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should switch over to that. Maybe I was actually surprised to learn this. We did a review on a cast
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earlier this year, but I was surprised again to learn that they had an unlimited plan but that
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was just changed. Their free plan only allows you to have five episodes. So it's not unlimited
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anymore. It's only five episodes, but you still get a free RSS feed and you can record and edit
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through podcast, oh, podcast, oh, podcast, oh, not podcast, oh, podcast, oh, and you can have
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a website and have advanced analytics. So that's all pretty good for a free plan, but they had to
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have a limit somewhere. They said that in order to keep our capabilities refreshed and everything
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and we're okay with that here on better podcasting. You have to have a way to monetize in order to
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stay in business so that your service to podcasters is out there and is maintained. So their
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limit now is you can just have five episodes, which years ago, Stephen, I was trying to remember
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some of the free plans for other things like back in 2015. I want to say one to three episodes. So
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five episodes is actually pretty good compared to where it was 10 years ago. Yeah, you know what?
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I kind of am glad how we went through last season, which was basically writing off free plans,
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unless that was the product was was free, because these sort of things seems in the current year still
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more and more likely to happen because there's a lot of money involved with hosting and stuff and
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unless your business strategy is very specific, it's still hard in 2024 to be able to offer a free
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product and make money. Obviously, there's other monetization ways now through taking cut through
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some of those monetization features that they offer podcasters, but yeah, you know, this is not
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surprising to me. I was trying to think of other free plans out there, stuff on my top, my head,
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their Spotify, of course, which is free. They actually don't have a monetized podcast hosting plan
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right now. And the other one that I could think of was Red Circle, but if I remember right,
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there's a lot of caveats with the Red Circle free plan. So I think Spotify is really the only
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game in town that's worth looking into if you're looking for a free host. There are issues with Spotify.
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We still do recommend them for hobby podcasters and let's something else changes.
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So yeah, reference the previous episode where we talk about the new Spotify for creators.
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And moving on to the last news point for the year is looking at StreamYard. So I got this email
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on the 7th of November and StreamYard updated their terms of service. So I read through that in the
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big term of service change here is for free users, which I am now a free user of StreamYard as a
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backup to video Ninja and OBS. They said that they were going to be able to delete recordings at
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any point in time. Well, the new terms of services said they will keep it from 12 months from the
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recording date of each stream. There's a lot of limitations to their free plan over on StreamYard,
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but I would be concerned about doing a recording and then something happens. I'm tired. I want to go
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to bed and I wake up the next morning and the file is not there for me to download so I could edit it
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later. And now they're saying they will be out there for 12 months. So I think that's a saving
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factor for a lot of people. I don't really think it needs to be 12 months, but they're saying it's 12
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months. So okay. And again, it's free. You're getting what you pay for and StreamYard's free
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plan as an emergency is good enough for me, even with all its limitations, but only as backup,
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not as a prime. Yeah, I also wouldn't be surprised if eventually they lower this down a little bit.
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12 months, I think, is more than reasonable for a free tier. I think they could go much shorter.
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And by much shorter, I mean like three months max. Yeah, and they're saying that if you do have
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any recordings that are over 12 months and you want to keep them, they were giving you 30 days
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from the day to the email. So by December 7th or so, they will be deleting them. So you still have
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some time. If you're listening to this, you have about a week. If you're getting the published version
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to download your recordings, if you're on the free StreamYard plan. So go do that. I've deleted all my.
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Well, with that, should we get into our final better pod back of 2024? We sure do. I love hearing from
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our listeners. This is where we hear it better podcasting turn the show over to you as we run through
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some of your feedback. We call this segment better pod back. All right, we're going to play a little
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favoritism here and play favoritism to those who are watching a Stream Live because there was a
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couple of comments that came in that I want to start off with. And the first was while you were
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going through your gear, you made a comment of justifying not making a purchase saying something
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about you don't really need something. And Liberty Dude came in and said, is gear really about
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need? Question mark? Toshay Liberty Dude Toshay. Yeah, it depends on how you go about it. For us,
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it's a hobby and it's enjoyment. So yes, we need to. But if you're just podcasting, do you need to
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have certain things? I don't know. I don't think you need to have gear. But yes, I will say Toshay,
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Liberty Dude Toshay. We also had Damien the DM say my group successfully used video ninja for our
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extra live stream was using it to pull in their gameplay across like four to five different
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team members. So this goes right to what you were saying earlier and previously in our discussions
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about your discovery of how powerful video can be for what it offers. And so, uh, yeah, video ninja
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definitely to me, I still do send a couple of bucks a month through GitHub. I know you said you're
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going to do that and to me as well worth it. Yeah, the one thing that I will say about the way that
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we use both video and OBS though is we've been saying multi track that is only good for five
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multi track streams. So if you have you might be able to do it with six, but everybody would be
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on their individual and then you wouldn't have a combined track to use to line everybody up. But
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I don't think that would be a problem. So five or six is the limit on the multi track that you
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do with OBS. And we did cover video ninja has ability to record locally. So everybody could record
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their video ninja locally and you could get multi track that way, but it would be the same as
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using audacity locally to record everybody recording. And then you would have to have some way to line
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everybody up. Uh, still well worth it. Love it. It's free. It's way better than Skype. I actually had
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a Skype connection a couple of weeks ago and I had all sorts of issues like it didn't select my
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microphone. Even though it said it was selecting the microphone, it selected my webcam instead.
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There was all sorts of audio processing on there that was not good and everything. I'm like, oh,
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this is why I don't like it. And you know, every once in a while Microsoft pops this is one of the
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bad things about using Windows Microsoft pops up by automatically loading Skype. When you start up
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and you have to go through the whole thing of deleting it from the startup menu and everything.
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So it doesn't start up when you start up your computer because it's just waste resources and I'm
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not going to use it. So no, I don't want Skype automatically loading. I haven't had Skype on Windows 11.
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Yeah. And I should have mentioned that that in our offseason, that will be one of the things
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I don't want to do now. I definitely want to upgrade my computer to Windows 11. I've said that the
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last couple of breaks, but it's getting to the point where I have to now to get ready for next year.
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Let's get to some feedback from our discord. When I posted our this week's chaotic,
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chaotic schedule for recording, it's been that all season long. There's just been so many
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personal conflicts that our livestream has been all over the place. Well, I posted information in
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there and then said that we would be taking an extended end of the year break. So you needed to
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get to the livestream or you were going to have to wait because we had an extended end of the year
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break. And that meant that we would end up feeling the benefits of taking November and December off.
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We actually talked about this when I came back earlier this year was we took an extended
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break last year. We liked it. We thought there's benefits. And so that's what we decided to do. Well,
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in response to talking about said break, Allerun came in and he had a descriptor for us.
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Right? That's me. He said slackers. And to that, Jason, I will go back to you and say,
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oh, you mean the entire time that you're in Sweden, you're not slacking? Because you've been
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in Sweden the last couple of summers and you have been recording for Sweden. So yeah, slacker,
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slacker, your summer slacker. I won't retort it.
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You just get accepted. I'm going to roll.
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We also had DC Dave come in and he had a follow up question to our discussion a couple episodes back
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about websites. And he said, so here's a question. What happens when you fall in love with a podcast
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theme that your favorite podcast about hobby podcasting is using it is a popular theme and it's
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marketed to podcasting. I suppose as long as I'm not making better podcasting, I should be okay,
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right? And so he was referring, of course, to the website theme we use, which is called Bolden.
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It's made by a company called the second line themes. That's what we run that and the Gennigy
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website on actually. Well, before I respond to this, I want to say, when I first read that,
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I saw the little preview come up on my phone. And I saw the part that just said, what happens when
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you fall in love with a podcast theme that your favorite podcast about hobby podcasting is using.
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And I didn't think website. I thought, oh, he wants to create a podcast about hobby podcasting.
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And I was like, okay, I guess I originally took that as our musical theme.
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Oh, see, we've been all over the place. Yeah, all over the place there. Yeah, actually,
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as long as it's not a name infringement, which you wouldn't want to do from an SEO perspective,
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that is saving yourself from somebody searching from your show and actually being directed to the
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wrong show. So I wouldn't want to name my show the same as something else out there, especially
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something that has a URL with that name out there. So that's one thing and another thing.
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It doesn't matter anymore. You can have the same musical theme if it's available, like ours is
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available on pond five, go ahead, you can find it and you can use it on your shows. Some people
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have done that already. It's been on national level commercials and everything. You, and we've
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actually been on commercials in stores too. I forget if it was Target or Walmart or whatever.
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But yeah, go ahead and do that. And as far as the website goes, hey, go ahead, go for it.
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It's just flattery to Steven that what he's doing is actually working. Look, I like
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the theme. There's all sorts of questions about the future of WordPress and whether you should
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still be on it and all this other stuff. But which, anyways, I'm finding on it. So let me just
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get that out of the way. But the thing is if you're using WordPress and you're got a podcast,
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especially if a podcast network or a podcast website with multiple shows on it, that theme is very
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feature rich, which is why I always say the name of it. It's bold in by second line themes.
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There's a lot of pros about it. It's I like it. Yeah, I'd never had a chance to actually
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implement it, but I have been using it behind the scenes, of course, on better podcasting. So
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betterpodcasting.com. I have admin rights there. Thank you very much, Steven, for still allowing me
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to be able to do that. And yeah, it's been fun at least seeing it from the back end standpoint.
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And seeing if I wanted to do it myself, I would do it. I don't know if I would do a WordPress
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installation myself anymore or not, or if I would go with one of the streamline paid services.
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I probably wouldn't because I don't want to spend the money. But I would have to spend the money
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anyway on the hosting for the website. So I don't know. I don't know. We'll see if I ever get to
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that point. I just don't think I mean, that's why we're buddies because you do the website. And I don't.
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I should also throw out this disclaimer. There is an affiliate code technically on there. And we
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haven't ever had any that have gone through there as of this recording. And I'm just putting that
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out there because I'm not trying to give out that affiliate code. I'm just acknowledging that one
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exists in case someone wants to come in and go, ha, that's you. Oh, yeah, that we haven't disclosed it.
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes we put is disclosed over on YouTube. We put affiliate
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codes over there on the gear that we talk about. I don't know if I'm going to do that with this
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episode or not. We'll see. But yeah, that's also so and that is fully disclosed in the description
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when we do that. But that's going to take us to the end of this episode before we wrap up. We
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will remind you we're part of the Gnogig network. As of this recording, there is no
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episode we've recorded final episode of the year for the Gnogig show, which is a show that SP and I
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do talking geek stuff usually once a month with our co-host Chris Ferrell over there. But we're
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still trying to if you listen to that show. And the reason I mentioned that is because
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this episode here is in my mind an annual tradition of mine that just really helps bring me
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into the holidays. And the other is of course doing the year end episode of the Gnogig show. And
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those two things together just helps me kick off the idea of what's truly the holidays now.
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And so doing our gear episode today just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. SP.
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Yeah, I would say so. And I would hope that we are able to get together with Chris and do it by
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the way. It's not just one of us. It's all three of us that have had issues with times to get
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together to record the Gnogig show. I would like to get to one, especially with all the starship
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stuff that's happened and all the other space launch vehicle stuff that's happened. So we'll see.
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But if this is it, I am fully in the holiday mode. And I will be putting out the week that this
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podcast goes out. I will be putting out my outdoor holiday decorations.
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Ooh, exciting. And if you would like to chat podcasting stuff, well, we are on our winter hiatus.
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I guess is technically winter yet. Anyways, come on over to the discord at betterpodcasting.com
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slash discord and chat there. Okay. Hey, thank you very much for listening and watching us this
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entire year. And we are very honored that you continue to come to us for your hobby podcasting
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needs in season four. We covered the podcast media host reviews. And we had a lot of comments on
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that in season five. There's been a lot of comments on the technical side of things that we've been
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going on in next year. We will be doing even more stuff if you have any ideas that you would like
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to see us review or comment on or give a background for hobby podcasters. We would love to hear about
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that you can catch us on our discord server or you can email us at podcast at betterpodcasting.com.
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Any of those ways to contact us will be great. And we would love to hear from you on how you're
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liking the show and what you want us to do in the future. So for episode number 312 of better
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podcasting, I'm Steven saying it has been a fantastic year. And thanks everybody who has watched
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listened or just chatted with us around the pod sphere. Catch everybody next year. Bye.
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Maybe next year there will be podcasting 3.0. Bye.
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Thanks for checking out another episode of better podcasting. You can find the full-back catalog of
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better podcasting at betterpodcasting.com. If you're into geeky podcasts, please check out the other
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podcasts on the Gunnigique network at Gunnigiquenetwork.com. This show was produced and edited by Steven
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John Drew. Voice work was done by LW Silenus. Thanks again for listening or watching and we hope to
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see you again next week.