Blind Abilities

Blind Abilities Presents, Part 6 – The Process Of Creating A Podcast Pete Lane shares Part 6 in his series: The Process of Creating A Podcast. Pete has gone through his own, in depth process   of producing a full length project, the completed podcast for which was published on Blind Abilities on May 27, 2016.  Pete walks through his step by step process, beginning with a recorded Skype interview with Erica Turner. From there Pete demonstrates how he edits and applies various effects using the Amadeus Pro multi-track editing software for the Mac  to enhance the quality of the audio. He splits the recording into separate mono and stereo tracks to further facilitate the use of advanced editing and effects. In this episode, Pete demonstrates how he created the “Outro” or closing segment of the project, using separate music and voice tracks. Join Pete for this short, ten-minute demonstration. As we draw near the end of the series, we’ll explore the use of “transition sounds” to separate topics in the interview and other audio inserts to enhance the message. If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Pete at Info@BlindAbilities.com Stay tuned for Part 7 in the coming weeks!  Follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities and Follow Pete @Lane7625

Cheryl McIntosh, Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane chat with their guest, Dr. Denise M. robinson, PhD and Educator of the blind. Dr. robinson provides a wealth of services, including one on one “applicable” instruction to students remotely using Skype. She employs  innovative and proven techniques for teaching students countless subjects in conjunction with the public school systems using multiple tools.  Check out Dr. robinson’s numerous videos on her Youtube Channel, her “Applicable” learning modules on her web site: www.YourTechVision.com andjoin the Blind Abilities team for this in depth discussion with one of the most esteemed names in blindness education in this 55-minute podcast: A Chat With Dr. Robinson. Follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities Cheryl @MoeLucie Pete @Lane7625 Jeff @JThompson6835 And get the Free Blind Abilities App in the App Store!

Blind Abilities offers the fifth in the series, The Process Of Creating A Podcast. In this episode, Pete Lane walks us through his process of creating the multi-track Intro for the Erica Turner podcast. Pete demonstrates multi track creating using a music bed (So Many Reasons to Rejoice, by Eddie Robinson), and pasting descriptive voice clips using the “Paste to a new track” Command + Option + V. Pete then demonstrates a process that yields similar results by using the Paste Over Command + Shift + V. This latter process is comparable, but provides less flexibility in terms of adding individual effects to each component. Join Pete for this detailed look at his process for creating a multi track Introduction. Included in this Part: * Chapter 7 – Creating a Multi Track Intro Check out the previous four parts to see the full process of creating a podcast from the initial Skype interview until now. Pete will offer three more Parts as he creates an Outro (closing); enhances the body of the interview by inserting transitions and audio inserts, and finally connecting all three components of this project to complete the final Erica Turner podcast. Follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities @Lane7625 @JThompson6835 Stay tuned for Part 6 of the series! Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store!

Join Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane and their guest, Suman Kanuganti, Co-founder and CEO of AIRA. AIRA leverages smart glasses, such as Google Glass to provide a dynamic service to blind users. Beginning with the Explorer program slated to begin in September and October of 2016, this device and the service associated with it promises to be a viable benefit with infinite potential for the blind for years to come. Listen to Jeff and Pete as they engage in a detailed and fascinating look at AIRA in this 47 minute interview, complete with inserted audio from the AIRA.IO web site. Settle-in and hear about the trial, the trained agents, facial recognition and the artificial intelligence that will shape this experience over the next few years. And enjoy the wonderful music of Andre Louis @Freakyfwoof Thank You Andre! You can find AIRA on Twitter at @AIRAIO Jeff Thompson @JThompson6835 Pete Lane @Lane7625 Subscribe to our Feed at BlindAbilities.com/feed/podcast/ and check out our web site BlindAbilities.com Download the Blind Abilities App on the App Store.

In this episode of the Practical Podcasting from Blind Abilities, Jeff Thompson talks about the uses of a mixer being incorporated into your studio. Bringing in audio through separate channels and mixing on the fly is just one example of what a mixer in the mix can do for your audio production. Considering having a 2nd microphone? Capturing audio from a device such as an iPhone, iPad or hand held recorder? Then a mixer may be just what the doctor ordered. Join Jeff in another episode of Practical Podcasting and check out the Mixer Demo by pete lane.

Join the Blind abilities Team of Pete Lane and Jeff Thompson as they talk to Dan Parker about his life changing racing accident and how he has set goals to overcome the challenges from losing his eye sight and more than anything, not losing his vision of racing again. Dan is the 2005 World Champion racer who now uses his skills and confidence to re-invent himself as the World’s Fastest Blind Man. Racing is a family tradition and getting back into the shop and building racing components for cars and motorcycles has given him success and accomplishments that he only dreamed about as he recovered from his near death racing accident in 2012. By 2013 he was racing across the Salt Flats and in 2014 he attended the Louisiana Center for the Blind to gain the skills and confidence he knew he needed to enhance his daily life skills and competency in his tech skills. With goals of becoming the World’s Fastest Blind Man and enjoying doing what he has done for years, Dan Parker is inspiring others and racing ahead with goals and dreams he now knows he can achieve. You can reach Dan Parker @QuestForTheSalt on Twitter and Facebook.You can also find YouTube Videos by searching for Dan Parker.

Pete Lane reviews the new and simplified method of selecting, copying and pasting text brought about in IOS9. He demonstrates a process he uses to notify his iAccess Team members of upcoming meetings and assignments. Pete also points out a quirk which prompts a simple work around. Join Pete for this, the latest iAccess Demo from Blind Abilities. Follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities Follow Pete Lane on Twitter @Lane7625 Get the Freee Blind Abilities App in the App Store

Pete Lane offers the fourth part of the series: the Process Of Creating A Podcast. In this episode, Pete converts his two, split mono tracks into stereo tracks; adjusts the stereo balance using the Stereo Utilities menu in Amadeus Pro, and bounces them to a single stereo file. Pete also demonstrates the Edit command that will delete separate tracks simultaneously without adversely impacting the recording. This will position Pete for creating a multi-track Intro and Outro (closing) and inserting audio clips and transitions into the file Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store.

CareerTrack focuses on the track towards gaining a career from high school to College to Employment. Highlighting specific areas of importance for you to enhance your opportunities, make good choices and get on the right track towards your career. Join Lucie as she navigates the CareerTrack showing you and demonstrating some of the best practices, resources and sharing the experiences of others to best give you the tools you will need in your own CareerTrack. Let Lucy know what you think and if you have some great ideas and suggestions, please share and Lucie will spread the word. You can contact Lucy on Twitter @MoeLucie You can find more Career podcasts with a Blindness perspective at www.BlindAbilities.com/category/career/

When capturing Audio on the go,The best recorder is the one you have on hand! Thus, I find my iPhone is always on me and nearly ready to go when I need it. With the addition of my Apogee or Shure MV88 microphones and either the BossJockStudio App or the Motiv App from Shure, I am safe to say that I can get the audio quality I want at a drop of a hat. That’s not to say that one needs to spend $150 or $225 for one of these microphones for the iPhone, with a bit of post editing the iPhone mic can work in a pinch. And taking advantage of the BossJockStudio App’s recording capabilities especially the ability to shut off the IOS processing in the mic circuitry, your iPhone now becomes a mean and lean recording machine. With the Sure MV88 multi-capsule lightning port microphone taking the industry by storm, the versatility and accessibility to the Motiv app from Shure has been a real game changer for me in how I record while on the go. Jeff Thompson from the Blind Abilities Team shares his experience and clips of audio using the Apogee, MV88 and the iPhone microphones using the BossJock App on the iPhone 6. CheeChau lends a tip in reducing background with noise reduction and Jeff includes a demo of the Shure Motiv app and it’s accessibility with VoiceOver. Once again, a big thanks to Renee Russell @Logical_Woman on Twitter for the music she produced and composed using LogicPro on her Mac. Such a creative musician. Thanks Renee. You can find the BossJock App in the App Store and the Shure MV88 in the Apple Store, on Amazon, Guitar Center, MusiciansFriend as well as the Apogee Microphone. The Shure MV88 retails for $149 The Apogee Mic retails for $225 and the BossJock App sells for $9.99 while BossJockJr is a free edition.

Blind Abilities offers this, the third installment in their series: the Process Of Creating A Podcast. he demonstrates how he applies various effects to separate mono tracks, including eliminating “speak-overs” where two people speak at the same time, applying silence to quiet the gaps in between speaking, and applying Equalization to a single track to enhance the audio quality of the voice. Join Pete as he continues to take us through his comprehensive process of creating and producing a podcast using Amadeus Pro, the multi-track recording and editing software for the Mac. Included in this Part: Editing and Applying Effects To Multiple Tracks * Below is a list of Amadeus Pro Keyboard Commands used in this series: Navigation Commands – Move to next/Previous Marker – Option + Right/Left Arrow – Extend Selection to Next/Previous Marker – Command + Right/Left Arrow – Move to beginning/end of audio file – Option + Home/End – Go To Location (determine and/or go to exact time location of audio file) – Command + G – Move to Right Channel in single stereo track – Press Down Arrow key twice – Move to Left channel in single stereo track – Press Up Arrow key twice – Move between single tracks in a multi-track file – Press N, or VO + Up/Down Arrow Action Commands – Place Insertion Point – Command + P – Play/Pause selected audio – Press spacebar – Play from beginning of audio file – Press Tab key – Advance/Reverse Play Back – Press Right/Left Arrow during play back – Sample resulting audio after deletion is made – Press E – Set Marker – Press P, or Command + Shift + M – Delete Selected Audio – Press Backspace button at top right of keyboard – Delete all tracks together in multi-track file – Option + Back space – Listen to focused track in multi-track file – Shift + spacebar – Save File – Press S – Save As new file – Command + Shift + S – Repeat last action – Command + T – Undo Previous Action – Command Z – Redo Undone Action – Command + Shift + Z – Bounce Multi-track file to a new, single-track file – Command + Shift + F – Fade-in – Command + Shift + Comma – Fade-out – Command + Shift + Period Stay tuned for Part 4 of this series where we will convert our two mono tracks to stereo, apply effects, and then bounce our two stereo tracks to a single stereo track. Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store.

Caitlyn is setting out to transition from High School to College and to a career and is getting all the skills and training to enhance her opportunities. Jeff Thompson of the Blind Abilities Team interviews Caitlyn about her plans, goals, objectives and most of all, the connection with State Services and her peers to ensure her journey succeeds. From camps to training Caitlyn is getting it done. You can contact Kaitlyn on Twitter @Cheyenne_writes

So often Blind Abilities interviews blind individuals, or organizations or businesses who cater to the blind. Today, we feature a sighted individual who has devoted a large part of her life, both working and volunteering to enrich the lives of the blind. Pete interviews Mandy VanCleave: n Assistive Technology specialist, and a volunteer for various blindness apps including BeSpecular, Be My Eyes and soon, the new camera glasses, AIRA. Join us and meet Mandy!

Welcome to the introduction of a Brand new series Called Practical Podcasting: Capturing a Thought Bubble on Audio. In this series we will cover a large number of topics surrounding the art of Podcasting and recording Audio. In this introduction Jeff Thompson, from the blind Abilities Team, lists the topics and the wide range of areas that make a Podcast what it is. Each episode in this continuing series will highlight a specific hardware, software, technique or process. Guest content providers will give demonstrations, comparisons, and suggestions related to the Practical Podcasting experience. This introduction is just that, an overall introduction and the highlight of a microphone comparison provided by Dan Brown is a 4 mic showdown allowing one to hear and consider some of the highly used microphones in the podcasting field. Dan introduces us to the Beringer XM 85 dynamic, the AudioTechnica AT 2100 Dynamic, the Blue Yetti Condenser and the MXL 5000 Condenser microphones. Music for this Podcasts was produced and performed by Rene Russell @Logical_Woman on Twitter. Next episode will center around the idea of podcasting with the devices you may already have! Whether it be a Mac, PC or your smart phone, podcasting is not that far from your reach.

Blind Abilities Presents Part 2 – The Process Of Creating A Podcast. Pete Lane takes us through more editing of the interview: eliminating silences, ums, ahs and other unwanted portions of the interview. He then splits the track into two mono tracks and performs De-noising of some unwanted background noise on Erica’s track. This Part includes two Chapters in the series: * Chapter 3 – Continuing The Editing Process, and * chapter 4 – splitting The Tracks & De-noising #TheProcessOfCreatingAPodcast #BlindAbilities #AmadeusPro * Below is a list of Amadeus Pro Keyboard Commands used in this series: Navigation Commands – Move to next/Previous Marker – Option + Right/Left Arrow – Extend Selection to Next/Previous Marker – Command + Right/Left Arrow – Move to beginning/end of audio file – Option + Home/End – Go To Location (determine and/or go to exact time location of audio file) – Command + G – Move to Right Channel in single stereo track – Press Down Arrow key twice – Move to Left channel in single stereo track – Press Up Arrow key twice – Move between single tracks in a multi-track file – Press N, or VO + Up/Down Arrow Action Commands – Place Insertion Point – Command + P – Play/Pause selected audio – Press spacebar – Play from beginning of audio file – Press Tab key – Advance/Reverse Play Back – Press Right/Left Arrow during play back – Sample resulting audio after deletion is made – Press E – Set Marker – Press P, or Command + Shift + M – Delete Selected Audio – Press Backspace button at top right of keyboard – Delete all tracks together in multi-track file – Option + Back space – Listen to focused track in multi-track file – Shift + spacebar – Save File – Press S – Save As new file – Command + Shift + S – Repeat last action – Command + T – Undo Previous Action – Command Z – Redo Undone Action – Command + Shift + Z – Bounce Multi-track file to a new, single-track file – Command + Shift + F – Fade-in – Command + Shift + Comma – Fade-out – Command + Shift + Period Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series next week. Please provide feedback on this initial episode by writing to Info@BlindAbilities.com