Friday evening.
I had a recording session in New Jersey in the morning and one in New York City in the afternoon. I got home around 5:30 PM.
During the day, a client emailed me with a one-sentence revision for an old project. No problem, I’ll bang it out then put my feet up for the night. As I was about to start recording, another client called me also needing a one-sentence revision for an old project. Cool, two sentences and I’m free.
I set everything up, get in the booth, and hit the red button. Nothing. Adobe Audition was recording, but no sound was being picked up by my mic.
I switched mics. Nothing.
I tried Audacity instead of Adobe Audition. Nothing.
I looked at my Scarlett 2i2 preamp and the mic seemed to work. (the green ring lit up when I talked into the mic). Hmm.
I plugged the Scarlett 2i2 into my laptop. Everything worked perfectly.
I recorded the two sentences on my laptop and saved the sound files in Dropbox. I opened up the files in Adobe Audition on my desktop to see if I could edit them there. Everything worked perfectly.
I call my buddy Sean Caldwell. We discovered that in Windows 10 on my desktop PC, “Levels” under “Line In Properties” was muted.
He helped me reinstall the 2i2 driver. It worked. Hooray!
Saturday morning.
I had a 20+ page e-learning project due the following Monday. Since I had such a busy week, I only had time to record one page. My plan was to take a few hours in the morning and put a dent in it. Just as I’m about to start recording, another client calls that needs three scripts recorded today. I tell them no problem and they send me the scripts.
I set everything up, get in the booth, and hit the red button. Nothing.
I checked “Levels” under “Line In Properties” and it was muted again. I turned the volume back up, but it wouldn’t let me click the Apply button. When I navigated away from that window, it muted itself again.
I didn’t want to bother Sean on a Saturday morning so I recorded the scripts on my laptop and everything went fine.
I Googled what to do if you can’t un-mute your line-in. I found a website that explained what happened.
Malware.
I ran Malwarebytes and it took care of it. I run it every week but between the last time I ran it and last Friday my PC got popped with something.
Sunday morning.
I recorded & edited for two hours and everything worked.
Whew.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Protect your computer! Even if you think you’re doing a good job, you can do better. Here are some tips:
Backup your hard drive regularly. Carbonite backs up my hard drive every day. Every few months I do a manual backup onto an external hard drive, though I think should do that more often.
Use anti-virus software. I use Norton 360 and Malwarebytes.
Keep your computer clean and lean. I use Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragment, and Optimize Drives every month.
Password Protect Your Computer
Turn On Your Firewall
NEWS AND NOTES
The New England Audiobook Retreat is this weekend! I’m uber-geeked up to be running workshops on marketing & e-learning, being a guest panelist, and doing some one-on-one coaching.
HAPPY HAPPYS
Happy Candy Corn Day and Howl At The Moon Day! Am I one of the only people out there who loves candy corn?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
From my village to yours; this is Tom Dheere, GKN News…
Tom Dheere is a 20-year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a coach at Edge Studio, voiceover business consultant known as the Voice Over Strategist, and is currently producing the comic book “Agent 1.22”.