phlatball96

I haven’t posted in this for a while, so let’s goooooOoOoOoOoOoO!

I have now realised that creating that “Philip…” thing was a stupid idea, nobody was ever going to read it and I was never going to do anything with it.

I’ve also settled on a Tumblr theme that I really, really like. Really like. I think I will set it as my main theme now instead of chopping and changing.

Christmas is round the corner and I now have a PS3. I shall be getting Modern Warfare 2 (well, technically, my dad is getting it) soon so if I remember I will update you on that.

Whoever reads this. That’s the good thing about this. Even though I’m sure nobody reads this, it’s the only online log thing that I’ve really continued.

I will keep posting for some time to come.

My local radio station always seems to read out whatever I send to them, even if I mistake one of the DJs for the one who is supposed to be on but is actually presenting the breakfast show because the DJs who are supposed to present the breakfast show are on holiday. *breathes heavily* So… yeah.

ANYWAY, I got a Pure One Elite DAB Digital Radio (it’s DAB+ Upgradable! But you probably knew that. NOT) for my birthday this year and I have a favourite radio station that I tune in whether I’m on digital or FM. It’s also available online, and that’s how I recorded text and email messages from me being read out on the station.

Until now! Yes, a great audio input-to-input type cable that came with my TV (yeah, strange) has come in useful for many things including plugging in my iPod into my radio to play the songs on it, and also finally being able to use the built-in speakers on my other PC’s monitor (it came bundled with much better speakers, you see); turns out those speakers are as tinny as they look. But, that’s besides the point - as I decided to try and record another email I sent today to see if it got read out, I went onto the radio station’s site to use the Listen Live thing and then use a screen recorder - of all programmes - to record the audio; as you do.

But now the station had put one of those stupid intro things part of a playlist, the intro playing first before the stream loads. And Flip4Mac doesn’t work with playlists. So, I was stuck replaying the same intro thing over and over again, as it only plays the first file in the playlist. Great! I tried several different browsers, as well as putting the .asx file directly into iTunes, but to no luck.

Then, I realised that my iMac has an audio input port… and quickly grabbed for my trusty audio input-to-input cable, plugged one end into the headphone port on the radio, one end in the input port on the Mac, launched Audacity, changed some settings, hit record… and wall-ah! No sound. Well, the sound waves were appearing but I couldn’t hear anything. I pressed stop, then play and… it worked! But this meant pulling out the cable all the time to hear if they were reading out my email or not. I did this at first, then, knowing that they still hadn’t read it out, decided to go back into preferences. There were two options for ‘Playthrough’ (which helpfully had a description saying “Play new track while recording it”) - hardware and software. Software worked.

BUT - I still wanted to hear the input without having to record an hour of songs and garble. Looking at the microphone and speaker monitors, I noticed they have both have drop-down menu arrow buttons on them. I clicked on the supposedly ‘microphone’ monitor menu - there was a button called ‘Monitor Input’ - YAY!! I could listen to the radio now, knowing when the emails were going to be read out.

And, just right now, it’s been read out!! I’ve just cut the file down to just my email being read out. Amazing! I’ve also decided to keep listening to the radio through my Mac, the speakers seem to be much better. Anyway, here are the steps!

You will need:

• An audio-to-audio input type thing cable - one that has a connector that looks just like the one on the end of your iPod earphone cable.
• A computer with an input port, and a programme called Audacity installed - Google it.
• A text sent in to a radio station of your choice that you think they might read out.
• A radio - any type, digital or not, just as long as it had a headphone port

1. Turn on your radio, and tune it in to a station of your choice.
2. Make sure that the station has a text-in number - and they are discussing topics that you are interested in. If you like technology but you’re listening to BBC Radio 5 Live, then find another station.
3. Turn on your computer - well, it should be already - then open up Audacity. Go to ‘Preferences’ in the File menu on Windows (I think) and on the ‘Audacity’ menu on Mac.
4. Make sure that your input is on something like ‘Built-in input’ instead of ‘Built-In microphone’, then check the box next to ‘Software Playthrough’. Click ‘OK’.
5. Now, find that input-2-input type thing cable you probably just bought and connect one end to the headphone port on your radio and the input port on your computer.
6. Click on the arrow under the microphone monitor then click ‘Monitor input’. The radio should now start playing through your computer’s speakers.
7. When you hear your text being read out click record, then click stop when its finished being read out.
8. Edit your file down to cut out beginnings or ends of other people’s texts, then go to file and export to WAV or MP3 - your choice.
9. Your done!

Okay, I guess it was a bid sly to not finish that other post, but I got distracted. Instead, I’ll just recap okay? The list starts in 2004 and ends now.

• Bravenet blog
• Several Blogger blogs
• This Tumblelog
• A few WordPress blogs
• My personal website (see below)
• More Blogger blogs

Kay, happy now? Good.

Anyway, I’m thinking of saving up for a PS3 soon. What do you think (using Tumblr’s new “ask a question” feature)?

We’re all doomed.

This isn’t a blog. But for one post it will be.

I suppose you’re wondering why I have a tumblelog. Well, it all started when I had a Bravenet Blog (Bravenet, remember that?) and I just couldn’t keep up posting lost posts. To be fair, I was only 9, but still today I can’t write very long posts without getting bored halfway through the first paragraph.

In fact, I can’t be bothered doing the rest of this post, so bye.

Screw that, welcome back Tumblr.