I just tried out a pretty cool site that offers up a Flash Script that allows you to record live over the internet and mix your recording with sound effects and back ground music all at the same time.  Razz is still working on a few things, but recording this way is very very easy and pretty addictive as well. 

I’d definitely recommend it.  It will help you get an understanding of the basics of a mixer, which might especially help if you are considering getting into podcasting.  I suspect this will be most popular with the average blogger that just wants to make a quick message fo their blog or MySpace account. Try the RAZZ Mixer Yourself

I spent a little time trying to get my audio volume levels set just right and trying to get the voice echo down, but this is definitely fun.   The amount of recording time is limited to about 60 seconds, but you may be able to go longer once you have an account.  I signed up when I tried it but I’m still awaiting my verification email. 

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While many PC manufacturers are lamenting Microsoft’s inability to design new generations of an OS that will work with their outdated hardware, many people are missing the fact that the PC manufacturers have been stalling their customers for many years.

Its very easy to point at big brother Microsoft and blame them for an OS that comes right at the end of a Christmas season, which will force computers to be discounted and blown out of the channels during the season.

Truth be told the manufacturers have been failing for over a decade now to design laptops in a way that would enable an easy hardware upgrade that would allow the new operating system to run effectively.  If manufacturers would focus on designing laptops with a more component style of a design, a consumer could readily go out this holiday season, pick up a laptop and in the spring when they are ready to upgrade to Microsoft’s Vista, they could pull out the component with the outdated mother board, or processor, sound card or video card and replace it.

Replacing a hard drive or battery or even a DVD bay is relatively easy.  There really is no good reason why the other major components of a laptop could not be as easy to replace. 

In Oligopoly style the manufacturers and Microsoft benefit from the arrangement.  If the laptops were easy to upgrade with components, then temporary blips in the supply demand curve would not create a pause in the marketplace at Christmas time that delays the purchase of a laptop until after Microsoft’s roll out.  This benefits Microsoft.  From the same perspective the manufacturers, despite their laments, benefit from this channel clearing blow out event.  It allows them to push the old inventory out of the channel and clear the path to reset prices to a new higher level on new equipment capabilities that might not be noticeable if it weren’t for the new and improved interface.

I wouldn’t weep to much for either Microsoft nor the equipment manufacturer’s this helps them both very much, but does not really help their customers, who must by computers at a discount now, which will be obsolete in 2 months.  Plus, its a bit of a misnomer that all computers are obsolete in 6 months anyway.  While this has some truth to it, most computers will remain functional and compatible with other systems for long after a 6 month period.  The computers selling right now however may not be compatible and functional. 

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Companies that want to manage successful marketing campaigns utilizing Google Adwords need to look carefully for companies that have successfully become an Adwords Qualified company.

It takes a substantial amount of experience, training, testing and tools to become a receive this designation, and working with a company that provides the know how to drive not only internet traffic but the right traffic to the right page and convert that traffic to perform the right action, whether its signing up for a service, reading the news, subscribing or participating in a forum discussion.  Making any of these things happen consistently takes experience and rock solid business intelligence and analytic capabilities to manage and orchestrate the Adwords campaign.

Absent these abilities a company can rapidly rack up an advertising bill that may bring eyeballs to their website, but if those people rapidly click away and leave then the program may not have performed the right function and the company is out the fees for the Pay Per Click Campaign.

Search Engine Marketing is not something to be ignored.  The days of people turning to the want ads or yellow pages are long gone.  Most people may develop brand awareness through many avenues, but when its time for them to act and find something, they often turn first to Google.  A quick Google search returns them the top ten list that will likely include what they are looking for.  A company that does not have the experience to get their company website into that top ten list or better get to that number one spot is going to lose a lot of business to their competitors that have engaged in successful Search Engine Marketing(SEM).

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I received my Tapco Mix.100 Ultra-Compact 10-Channel Mixer.

Tomorrow morning bright and early we’ll start to assemble the Maven Mapper’s Studio (Pictures to come).  We’re currently running a Text to Speech program for the audio version of our blog.  We are definitely looking forward to providing our real voices in the not to distant future, and I’ll be mapping out how it all goes together as we make progress.

I’m going to do reviews on several different types of Podcasting Software solutions as we proceed as well.  Your all welcome to follow the story, but more importantly, we look forward to providing an audio component to our regular stories, so that you can pick up Maven Mapper’s Information on your iPod or MP3 player, while you are on the go!

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Voices.com provides a marketplace for people that need or perform voice work.  Podcasting is rapidly growing out in the internet as Company’s, websites and blogs are adding an audio component to their content line up.

A great way to kick off a Podcast is to use a professional voice over artist to introduce the show.  From a corporate perspective, hiring a voice over artist directly to record the entire show is also a very wise choice. 

Bad recording quality or a bad sounding voice can grate on a listener’s nerves and push them to press fast forward, skip or even turn off the show all together.  Getting professional talent is definitely important.  So Voices.com provides a marketplace to bring the voice over work professionals together with the people that are looking for help with their content.

The candidates are often professionals with experience on stage or in radio, plus singers and comedians and more.  The site offers demos that can be listened to in order to identify whether or not a particular artists voice might be right for your company or website.

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