Current mood:	annoyed
Entry tags:	serial

[Serial] Print is easy, Sound is hard.
Making a recording of game rules that you intend to sell as the final product is proving to be a learning experience for me. In case anyone else decides that this route is right for their game, here's some things I learned along the way so far.

Use a pop filter
Jeff Lower suggested I pick up a pop filter to stop my "p" sounds from exploding in my listeners' ears. Even I can hear the difference.

Listen to your playback
This sounds really, really elementary, but I recorded the first few tracks without listening to any of it. When I did listen, I heard this horrible buzzing sound. Turns out my microphone jack inserts a buzz even when nothing's plugged into it! I tried to remove the noise in Audacity, but then it sounded like I was talking inside a coffee can. Luckily, Rob Bohl suggested I pick up a USB microphone.

Get someone very talented to do the music
I spoke with Russell Collins at Dreamation about the project, and he agreed to do a short intro for me. It sounds great, and sets a pretty high bar for the rest of my recording to live up to.

Record it in stereo
This past week I recorded all the tracks. This morning, when I tried to add in Russell's excellent music, I found out that I had the microphone set to MONO rather than STEREO, which means that unless I want some people to only be able to hear the game from their left speaker, I have to record everything again. This will push playtesting back, but only hopefully a few days.

More updates as screw-ups warrant.