weblog.bulknews.net
) without any notice. Since this happened during my trip to Europe, I decided to sign up for their paid plan just for one month as a temporary solution. Now that I’ve returned from my trip, I successfully imported all my articles from Medium to Jekyll using the excellent tool called medium-to-jekyll importer, and now this site is hosted on GitHub Pages.
Fast forward to this week, Meta launched Threads and it uses the same username as Instagram. Because Instagram originally launched just for iPhones, and by the time it became available on Android, it was too late to secure my preferred username 1. I initially registered with bulknews
, but because Instagram prominently displays the username in the timeline feed I changed it to a little more readable: miyagawa_
.
At first, the existence of the underscore didn’t bother much. However, now that it’s also used in Threads and as with IG it’s always displayed in the timeline, it started to bother me. The same thing happened to my secondary Instagram account for my podcast Rebuild. I initially tried rebuildfm
which I use elsewhere, but it was already taken. Luckily, Instagram allows the use of dots in the username, so I settled for rebuild.fm
which somehow felt reasonable. This got me thinking: What if I could do the same for my main account, like a domain name?
For a while, I’ve wanted a new online identity that isn’t tied to a toy website that I built 25 years ago: bulknews.net. It’s often a little awkward to explain what that name means, and it’s also my primary email address and is challenging to pronounce over the phone.
So, yesterday I acquired a new domain, miyagawa.co from Gandi, and migrated the traffic to the old blog URL (https://weblog.bulknews.net/
) to this new domain using redirects through Fastly. Setting up the redirects was pretty simple with a custom VCL snippet. (Disclosure: I work for Fastly)
And yes, I also changed the username on Instagram/Threads to match my new domain.
It’s not perfect, but is a good compromise. And it feels good that I have a short, memorable, and easy-to-pronounce domain that I can use for various purposes.
Interestingly, whoever had the username miyagawa
apparently changed their username at some point, so the current holder is a different account. Maybe I should’ve written a scraper to periodically check the availability of the username! ↩
Before getting to the gears, it is important to pick where to record. The most ideal environment is a room with a lot of clothes (like a walk-in closet), or sound isolation pads that prevents echos. Avoid a room with concrete floor or walls, since that will create a lot of reflections and reverbs.
The room should be reasonably close to your wireless router or have a wired ethernet connection, if you intend to have a call with your guest over the internet.
I’ve been recording at my employer’s office since it’s easy to do so during the weekends, and some of the meeting rooms have a really nice audio treatment. As of this writing however, the office is in its closure due to COVID-19 and I record from my bedroom.
As for microphones I’ve been bouncing between multiple microphones, but always get back to Shure’s BETA series. Beta 87A (super cardioid condenser, $250) gives a pretty bright pickup pattern and I love the tonality of it, but due to it being a condenser microphone it still picks up some ambient noise and especially my mouth noise, although it’s not as bad as other condenser microphones. Beta 57A (super cardioid dynamic, $140) is a dynamic microphone and doesn’t have this problem at all. It is really a versatile microphone and has been helpful since I record from my bedroom with unexpected ambient noise from the neighbor rooms. Beta 57A’s pickup pattern sounds a bit mushy and has a harsh sibilance for my voice, but it’s not hard to fix in post with some EQ.
For the USB Audio Interface, I switched from Tascam’s US2x2 to MOTU M4 ($220), and I absolutely love it. The audio is really clean and has a lot of gain, and it comes with a hardware power switch, LCD meter, USB-C input, playback/monitor level knob, and an additional loopback channel, which is great for when streaming live.
A microphone stand (DS 7200B, $16) and/or boom arm (InnoGear, $12) is important to keep the microphone close to your mouth, 5–8 inches away. Try not to be *too *close to the microphone since that will get your voice sound too bass-y due to the proximity effect. I haven’t used any boom arm before, but as of this writing, this boom arm is very helpful to keep the mic close to my mouth when I need to record from my bedroom.
It is critical to use an in-ear monitor (MEE M6, $50), closed headphones, or earbuds since using open headphones will leak the audio and bleed it to your recordings. Make sure your guest uses an in-ear headphone with tight-fit ear tips as well.
Here’s a few alternatives that are more affordable. I usually recommend them, and send them to my guests when they don’t have any microphones. Most of them need a pop filter or a windscreen.
Audio Technica ATR2100x USB ($100) — This is a USB/XLR dynamic microphone with an upgraded USB-C output. Handy for traveling, and you can even record both to computers via USB and a portable recorder via XLR.
Samson Q2U ($85)— Almost the same as ATR2100, but with an old micro USB output.
Rode NT-USB Mini ($100)— A USB condenser microphone. It is very small, yet heavy and sounds great especially when you speak closer enough to the microphone. It’s a condenser microphone and tends to pickup some ambient noise from the room though. I use this mic when making Zoom calls for my work.
Rode PodMic ($100) — I haven’t tried myself, but have seen some great reviews. This is an XLR microphone and you need a USB audio interface to connect to the computer.
Some microphones are top-addressed and others are side-addressed. Learn which one your microphone is, and speak from the right angle.
via https://twitter.com/bluemicrophones/status/755062370041470976
I haven’t done a lot of in-person recordings, but when I do, I use Zoom H5 ($280) paired with a few Beta 57a’s. H5 is a versatile portable audio interface, and can record it to its SD card as well. You can pair it with Behringer UCA202 ($35) to send the monitor output to the computer, since H5 doesn’t let you record the SD card and use it as a USB interface at the same time.
If you do a lot of mobile recordings, I’d consider Rodecaster Pro or Zoom L-8.
I record the show over Discord calls. Most of the time Discord has the cleanest audio with very little lags, and has reasonable amount of options to tweak when something goes wrong. Sometimes the server is overloaded, or the latency is unbearable and makes it hard to make a conversation, and we fallback to Skype, or FaceTime audio. I configure these VOIP apps to send the output to the audio interface (M4).
On my Mac, my voice (M4 channel 1) and Discord output (M4 loopback channel 5/6) are recorded in Audio Hijack ($59) as WAV files, and are sent to a virtual input channel “Podcast Mix” in Loopback ($99).
When I need to play some pre-recorded audio (like a sponsor read), I connect my iPad Air to M4 channel 2, and mix it in as well.
The “Podcast Mix” channel is now the input channel for the streaming software Mixlr. This way the voice of the guest and myself will be mixed and streamed over Mixlr, so I can receive realtime feedback while recording the show.
I ask the guests to record their end locally (Double-ender) using QuickTime Player, and send it to me after the show, so I can have the cleanest mix, without a compression artifact over Discord. I do record the Discord output as a backup on my side as well, in case a guest forgets to hit the record button, or records their voice using a wrong microphone (e.g. laptop built-in).
First, I run the individual source audio files through Auphonic ($89, or freemium with its cloud service) with a minimal noise reduction, and set to -26 LUFS.
I have some thoughts about this and have tried multiple configurations, but running Auphonic first ensures that basic noise and hum are removed, and that all files have the same loudness level. The output files will be imported to Logic Pro X ($199).
I run each channel through multiple plugins, and it’s not always the same, since badly recorded audio needs more plugins to fix it. Here’s a basic list of plugins I apply:
I encode the audio to MP3 using Forecast (free). This is just a frontend for the LAME (free) MP3 encoder. I use a custom Python script to tag chapter information to the mp3 file, reading the list from a YAML file.
During the whole post-production I use the in-ear monitor earbuds to listen to the audio. Once the audio is exported to MP3, I use the AirPods Pro to ensure the levels are roughly the same among the speakers, since different headphones have different frequency response to low-pitch vs high-pitch voices.
I spend a good amount of money for the post production software for editing and encoding. This is because using these tools saves a ton of my time, by throwing some money at it. None of these is strictly necessary, and you can definitely start your show with basic software like Audacity, GarageBand or Ferrite on iPad.
This whole list might sound overwhelming and makes it scary to start a podcast, but this is the setup I’ve arrived after doing the podcast for 7 years. You absolutely don’t need all of this when to start a show, and can start with a minimum and make it grow over time whenever you feel like you need it.
Hope this is helpful to someone. Feel free to ask questions or feedback to me on Twitter.
]]>I have two Amazon accounts, one on .com and another on .co.jp using the same email address. They essentially have completely different account namespaces and there’s no problem with this.
I have my JP account since 2000 and the US account since 2007. Both of them are Amazon Prime accounts.
Around 2012–15, when Amazon.co.jp launched Kindle for Japan, they offered the feature to link these .com and .co.jp accounts. Linking them would allow both of your accounts share the bookshelf, meaning both accounts can access each other’s digital content, while being able to switch the primary store through the UI.
Initially I was skeptical, but a couple of friends who have done it told me that it’s working great. I opted in for the account linking.
This indeed has worked great. My Kindle device at the time can read books from both .com and .co.jp bookshelf, and I was able to buy new books from .co.jp using my account on the JP store.
To change the store to buy Kindle books from, all I need is to go to amazon.com/myk and change the preferred marketplace. For a long time, mine has been set to Japan, so that I can buy books from Japan for Kindle.
Now, fast forward to 2018, they have expanded the Amazon Prime and Digital Content market store to many other fields, including Amazon Music, Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Echo applications.
The problem is that the “Preferred Marketplace” setting above, which was originally set for Kindle, now affects how the default storefront should be for the other Amazon devices. And the setting is global and shared between the linked accounts.
This is what happened to me:
This setting can be changed on the website, and I have done it in the past.
The issues I had above were gone, but of course brought other problems:
I cannot buy books from Amazon.co.jp Kindle stores anymore, and my Fire TV cannot load TV content from Japan when traveling to Japan, because now the preferred market store setting is global and is set to the US on both my .com and .co.jp accounts.
I just wish that there is a way to unlink these two accounts, so that I can get out of this mess. One account for .co.jp, and another for .com, just like it used to be. I have tried many phone calls against Amazon customer support reps, and they have been unable to help me.
Amazon has stopped offering this linking account feature sometime in 2016 (well, wise for them, because this feature brings a terrible user experience), and they do not offer a way to unlink the accounts.
The only way out I have right now seems to be that I just cancel either of these accounts, and create a new one, to get a fresh start. But of course both of my accounts are more than 10 years old, and losing the history of purchases and digital downloads pains me a lot.
]]>It’s a unique event with lots of perl hackers who work on perl toolchain, testing tools, core support and ecosystem such as PAUSE and MetaCPAN. They annually get together and hack on these things in the same room.
I spent a few days in Stockholm as a stop over for this trip. It’s my first time visiting both Stockholm and Oslo, and they’re both beautiful, a bit cold, expensive but really nice. I also enjoyed that the contactless payment via NFC is literally *everywhere *and it was really hard to use cash that I withdrew just as a backup. Maybe more on that in another post.
I stated the day off by merging a few PRs for HTTP::Tinyish from Shoichi Kaji (SKAJI). HTTP::Tinyish is a wrapper module to use curl, wget, LWP and HTTP::Tiny transparently with the same API. You might wonder why you would need the wrapper when you can fatpack and fall back to HTTP::Tiny anyway. This is to support TLS HTTPS requests with a stock perl which doesn’t ship with its HTTP clients that has TLS capabilities. This will be more important in the coming years as more websites will enforce TLS, although I believe PAUSE/CPAN websites will allow non-TLS requests for a while.
The similar code has been there in cpanm for a long time, and this is the first extract of this kind of utility modules.
Now, I moved onto work on outstanding pull requests and bug fixes to cpanm. At this time I was maintaining two different code base: cpanminus-1.7 (devel) branch, and Menlo 2.0 (menlo) branch.
They have very similar codes because one is a copy of another, and provides the same functionalities. Because they’re in different branches under the same repository, we need to apply the same changes to two different branches, or to merge from one to another, with a lot of conflicts to resolve for every merge.
This is obviously painful, and I decided to split the repository into two repos: miyagawa/cpanminus and miyagawa/Menlo. At the same time, I removed App::cpanminus package, and started to use Menlo::CLI::Compat from cpanm so that I don’t need to maintain two different packages for future bug fixes. (Spoiler alert: I thought this was a good idea, but turned out not to be true, more on that later)
I also updated cpanm’s fatpacking tool to use Carton to get the dependencies we want. Previously it was using App::FatPacker’s trace functionality, which works most of the time but is painful to make it work when your perl has unclean site_perl directory because of the side effects of loading modules from there.
This is so much fun of bootstrapping, that we’re building the next release of cpanm using Carton, which relies on the current release of cpanm, when you think about it.
On Friday I continued most of the release-engineering related work on Day 1.
First thing, the split of repositories for cpanminus and Menlo done on Day 1 now means that I have to commit, merge and release from two different repositories for every update. This is slightly annoying, and introduces a bit of confusion for contributors when opening an issue or pull request on GitHub because it’s unclear which repository it has to be fixed.
I quickly decided to move back Menlo to cpanminus repo, but as a subdirectory. Basically this makes it a monorepo with subdirectories for each distribution. It turns out that this has the best of both worlds, so that commits can be made across multiple dists at the same time, while we can release each distribution from its own directory.
In the afternoon I managed to implement a long-awaited feature in cpanfile: ‘dist’, ‘mirror’ and ‘url’ support. It was once added in Carton in its 1.1 branch, but the complexity of the implementation made me abandon it.
This time, the patch against cpanm for this feature is really clean and simple, and I learned from the past mistakes and decided to not DWIM on the handling of these values. dist will only take CPAN dist names such as MIYAGAWA/Plack-1.000.tar.gz, while you can specify your DarkPAN URL with mirror keyword, as well as using url for just arbitrary full URL.
requires 'Path::Class', 0.26,
dist => "KWILLIAMS/Path-Class-0.26.tar.gz";
# omit version specifier
requires 'Hash::MultiValue',
dist => "MIYAGAWA/Hash-MultiValue-0.15.tar.gz";
# use dist + mirror
requires 'Cookie::Baker',
dist => "KAZEBURO/Cookie-Baker-0.08.tar.gz",
mirror => "http://cpan.cpantesters.org/";
# use the full URL
requires 'Try::Tiny', 0.28,
url => "http://backpan.perl.org/authors/id/E/ET/ETHER/Try-Tiny-0.28.tar.gz";
In principle I hesitate to add this kind of new features to cpanm itself, but the argument here is that a) the patch is relatively straightforward and optional and b) users are already abusing this by specifying the URL in requires argument:
requires “http://host/path/Foo-Bar-1.00.tar.gz”;which, I hate to admit, accidentally works, so the feature is not really new, but is a cleaner upgrade. Also, implementing it in cpanm (or Menlo in this case) means the downstream clients such as Carton, Carmel and App::cpm will all get this feature for free, with their ability to override it if needed.
On Saturday I took a bit of break and went on a hike to the lake, which is pretty easy to do in Oslo with just a 30 minute metro ride.
In the evening I came back to the hackathon and added a support for x_use_unsafe_inc support in META.json after discussing it with ETHER, HAARG and LEONT.
cpanm by default adds PERL_USE_UNSAFE_INC=1when configuring, building and testing modules so that it can install distributions that have not been updated since perl 5.26 removed “.” (current directory) from the library include path.
Some authors want to disable this, who doesn’t want perl to load modules from an arbitrary directory after chdiring to them, to make sure their tests can reveal bugs if the module is relying on that behavior. Now, you can do that by declaring:
"x_use_unsafe_inc": "0"
This is of course opt-in and configured per distribution, and cpanm will continue to set PERL_USE_UNSAFE_INC=1
unless otherwise set in user’s shell for different values.
Sunday is the last day and I should wrap up, but basically continued working on the remaining stuff, and finally fixed Win32 cmd quoting issue that has been in cpanm from day 1.
Essentially on Win32 you can’t rely on system() and pass arguments in a list, and you have to use modules like Win32::ShellQuote to quote them by hand. cpanm was using its own which function to get the command path name, and added quotes in this command output. This is wrong, and could cause a double escaping issue if you pass an already quoted command to Win32::ShellQuote.
SKAJI has setup an AppVeyor CI repository for me to test the new Menlo-based cpanm on Windows, and I was able to refactor the way we execute the shell command so that it works correctly both on UNIX and Win32, even when the command path or file names include spaces.
I also discussed some quick updates about CPAN static installer with LEONT and ETHER. The basic version of the implementation, which is essentially a port of Module::Build::Tiny, is now in cpanm. This is also an opt-in from CPAN authors and by default cpanm will continue to configure, build and test modules using the standard tools, unless it’s explicitly stated in META.json with x_static_install: “1”
(Right now there’s no way to turn this feature off, but in case it blows up in some buggy distributions, we might need an option to turn this off globally)
After the summit, at the hotel and the airport lounge, I continued investigating the effects of merging cpanm and Menlo. The big striking fact for me was that App::cpm uses and depends on a lot of Menlo::CLI::Compat internals. This essentially makes it difficult or nearly impossible for me to make changes or refactor the internals of Menlo, without breaking downstream clients every time.
Even though SKAJI agreed to patch his code whenever Menlo::CLI::Compat is updated, we decided this is not a great idea for both the maintainer (me) and downstream consumers.
I also know that there are gross hacks out there in the wild, who messes with cpanm internals, or parses its log files or stdout/stderr outputs because frankly there has been no other ways to extend cpanm. I would love to refactor them and make them better, but then if it breaks these users it might not be worth the hassle.
As of this writing, I created a third distribution, Menlo-Legacy, that contains Menlo::CLI::Compat that’s compatible to cpanm 1.7. This is something that is fatpacked into cpanm itself, and can be used by tools like Carton, Carmel or cpm. Menlo will add more features, as well as a lot of refactoring and cleanups, but then the downstream clients can continue using this legacy module, and only need to upgrade to the newer version, whenever they’re ready.
Working on toolchain is a hard job, since you have to support all the old versions of the software, and will be blamed and criticized for “fixing broken features” because people are relying on these broken features.
This is why Perl Toolchain Summit is so valuable so that I can get together with these people, exchange ideas and get a great moral support.
Thanks to NUUG Foundation, Teknologihuset, Booking.com, cPanel, FastMail, Elastic, ZipRecruiter, MaxMind, MongoDB, SureVoIP,Campus Explorer, Bytemark, Infinity Interactive, OpusVL, Eligo, Perl Services, Oetiker+Partner for sponsoring, and sjn & stigo for organizing the great event.
]]>Here’s what’s been happening so far:
So I am about 2 weeks since the first contact with Google to get a replacement for this unstable phone, and still haven’t got one, let alone order a new replacement.
Obviously, a phone that freezes randomly is a major inconvenience. I failed to transfer the trains because Google Maps freeze, or failed to take a good picture opportunity because the camera app crashes.
Google Pixel is a great phone and I loved it, but once it gets broken, their customer support experience is a hell.
**Update: **They finally figured out how to cancel the first RMA and have issued a new order link for me, and I received the new replacement phone on May 18. The new phone works great and there’s no freeze so far.
]]>この記事に書いてあるのは、自分が Rebuild でこの4年間利用してきたものを中心にしている。すべての人にあてはまるものではもちろんないし、日本では手に入りにくい機材なんかも紹介している。また、基本的には毎週、何人かの(レギュラーではない)ゲストと遠隔で収録するというスタイルなので、そうでない場合には参考にならないかもしれない。
項目の多さや、使用しているツールの価格など、「ここまでこだわることはないだろう」という印象を受ける人も多いかもしれない。もちろんそれは正しいのだが、言いたいことはむしろ逆である。良い機材やツールを利用すれば、その分、手間をかけずに、より聴きやすいエピソードを効率よく配信することができるようになる。
大きく分けて、マイク編、レコーディング編、ポストプロダクション編、ストリーミング編としてみた。収録スタイルやポリシーによっては必要のないセクションもあると思うので、適宜読み飛ばしてもらいたい。
アナログマイク、XLR ケーブル、USB インターフェース
とりあえずはじめる、という意味で入門用マイクにおすすめしたいのは、Samson Q2U もしくは Audio-Technica ATR-2100。この2つ以外でまともに使えるダイナミック型の USB マイクは見たことがない。
【楽天市場】SAMSON Q2U | 価格比較 - 商品価格ナビ
SAMSON Q2Uの価格比較、最安値比較。【最安値 8,110円(税込)】【評価:4.00】【口コミ:2件】(1/23時点 - 商品価格ナビ)product.rakuten.co.jpAudio-Technica ATR2100-USB Cardioid Dynamic USB/XLR Microphone
Edit descriptionwww.amazon.comどちらのマイクも USB のダイナミックマイクで、XLR 端子もついているため、後々 XLR ベースのセットアップに移行する際にもそのまま使用することができる。また両方を同時につかうこともできるので、USB で Mac につないで Skype に流し、 XLR からポータブルレコーダーに入れて手元で録音し、というような変態的な利用方法も可能だ。
ダイナミック型とコンデンサ型の違いは、一口にいってしまうと、コンデンサ型のほうが感度が強く、よりきめ細やかな音を再現できるということになる。ポッドキャストでは、収録環境のファンノイズや、エアコンの音、部屋の物音などを拾ってしまう可能性も大きく、ダイナミックマイクのほうが無難と言っていいだろう。
オーディオテクニカは日本の会社のはずだが、ATR2100 は日本での取扱がないので、ほぼ同等の Q2U を紹介しておく。みた感じほとんど同じ製品で、どちらかのOEM ではないか?と思われるほど。かなりポップ音 (パ、バ、タ行の破裂音)に弱いので、マイクカバーをつけるのをおすすめする。
このマイクを使用しているゲスト: hak, N, higepon
その他の理由で、コンデンサマイクやヘッドセットを使いたい場合は、Blue の Yeti やサンワサプライのヘッドセットを紹介しておく。
Blue Micro Yeti USB 2.0マイク 15374
PC用マイクをお探しなら低価格・豊富な品ぞろえのAmazon.co.jpで、Blue Micro Yeti USB 2.0マイク 15374を通販でいつでもお安く。アマゾン配送商品なら通常配送無料(一部除く)。www.amazon.co.jpコンデンサタイプは部屋の騒音を拾いやすいほか、Yeti は構造上、マイクを置いたテーブルの音をかなり大きく拾うため(キーボードの打鍵音など)、注意が必要だ。
このマイクを使用しているゲスト: naoya
サンワサプライ USBヘッドセット/ヘッドホン ホワイト MMZ-HSUSB10W
PC用ヘッドセットをお探しなら低価格・豊富な品ぞろえのAmazon.co.jpで、サンワサプライ USBヘッドセット/ヘッドホン ホワイト MMZ-HSUSB10Wを通販でいつでもお安く。アマゾン配送商品なら通常配送無料(一部除く)。www.amazon.co.jpヘッドセットタイプの場合、マイクとヘッドフォンが原理上つながっているため、ヘッドフォンから漏れ出た相手方の音を拾いやすく、後述するダブルエンダー式のローカル録音をする場合は注意が必要。
このマイクを使用しているゲスト: typester, Matz, kazuho
XLR マイクを使うと、多様なマイクから選ぶことができ、USB インタフェースで自分の声をモニターしたり、ポータブルレコーダーでオフライン収録をするなど、応用範囲が広くなる。PC に入力するには別途 USB インタフェースが必要になるため、気軽にはじめるというのには向かないが、ある程度軌道に乗ってきたら、検討してみても良いだろう。
2014–15年ごろは、手元の収録環境として、ダイナミックマイクの XLR マイク Shure BETA 57A を利用していた。
BETA 57A
Excellent microphone designed for use with amplified or acoustic instruments. Compact grille design.www.shure.comもちろん、悪くないマイクだが、ダイナミックの特性ということもあってか、中音域がこもりがちになる。またマイクの感度が低い(ダイナミックマイク全般の特長)ため、インタフェースのゲインを最大まで上げないと PC で使える音にならず、そのためにラインノイズが増えるというところも気になっていた。
そこで、現在は Accidental Tech Podcast でおなじみ Marco の Podcast Microphones Guide で紹介されていた BETA 87A を使っている。
BETA 87A
For studio-quality sound in live performance, a smooth, tailored response for warm, accurate sound.www.shure.com57A とは異なり、コンデンサ型のマイクだが、hyper cardioid というピックアップパターンなので、ほとんど部屋の騒音を拾わない。また収録自体はクローゼットで行っているため、元から騒音も反響もないというところが重要ではある。
最終的にミックスダウンするとあまり違いがわからない程度ともいえるが、ここ1年ぐらいの自分の声は、よりクリアになったんじゃないかな、とは感じている。
コンデンサマイクではファンタム電源が必要なので、USB インタフェース Mackie Onyx Blackjack から供給している:
MACKIE マッキー 2×2 USBオーディオインターフェイス Onyx Blackjack 国内正規品
オンライン通販のAmazon公式サイトなら、MACKIE マッキー 2×2 USBオーディオインターフェイス Onyx Blackjack 国内正規品を 楽器・音響機器ストアで、いつでもお安く。当日お急ぎ便対象商品は、当日お届け可能で…www.amazon.co.jp他にも $150 前後で購入できる USB インタフェースはたくさんある。Six Colors のサイトにレビューがあるので、参考まで。
ポッドキャストを収録するには、リモートでインタビューする方式と、実際に会って収録する方法がある。持っている機材や住んでいる場所によってどちらを選ぶかは変わってくるが、大まかにいうと以下のようになる。
オンラインで収録するには多くのネットワーク通話ソフトが利用できるが、2017 年現在、もっとも安定して利用できるソフトは依然として Skype であり、Skype のアカウントを持っていないという人はほとんどいない。より低レイテンシを求めるなら Discord, またポッドキャストに特化したローカル録音も可能なサービスとして Zencastr なども出てきているが、この記事では Skype を前提として書いていく。
Skype の録音をそのまま収録するソフトウェアとして紹介したいのが eCamm call recorder だ。
Call Recorder for Skype
Record Mac Skype Calls - Automatically record and save call audio and video on your Mac.www.ecamm.com
Call Recorder For Skype簡単なUIで、通話を録音することができる。自分側の音声はローカルで、相手側の音声は Skype からのものとなり、別途提供されるツールで、別トラックに書き出すことも可能。ただしゲストが複数人いる場合、その複数人はまとめて1トラックとなる。
Skype での音声は、ネットワーク環境によっては強くコンプレッションがかかったものになりがちだが、コンプレッサーとしては優秀な部類のため、聴くに堪えないほどではないのも事実。
Rebuild で行っているのが、ダブルエンダーと呼ばれる録音方式。何のことはない、QuickTime や Audacity などのツールで、相手側でも録音を行ってもらい、自分で録音したトラックとマージする方式である。
Skype を経由しないため、ネットワークでのディレイやコンプレッションにまったく影響されない音質で録音することができる。ただし注意が必要な点として、
そもそも収録した内容をあまり編集しない、また Skype の音質で問題がない、というのであれば、Skype の録音をマスターにするのでもよい。どちらも同じソースから録音されているのでドリフトがおこることは原理上ない。
Rebuild でローカル収録の際に利用している機材は以下の通り:
H5 Handy Recorder
クリエイターのニーズに応じて、常に進化を遂げてきたZOOMのハンディレコーダー。その伝統は、最新モデルの『H5』にも息づいています。 内蔵ステレオマイクと2系統の外部入力を組み合わせた、最大4トラックの同時録音機能。140dB …www.zoom.co.jpZoom の H5 は、2チャンネルXLR入力が用意されていて、オプションのモジュールでさらに 2チャンネル追加することができる。録音は SD カードに保存することができ、複数のモニタリング出力を使って、収録しながらライブストリームのためのソース入力にする、といったこともできる。
Zoom H6 Handy Recorder
別売オプションのデュアルXLR/TRSカプセル『EXH-6』を装着すれば、『H6』が合計6系統のマイク/ライン信号を入力できるマルチトラック・レコーダーに早変わり。ボーカル、ドラム、ベース、ギターなど、各楽器を個別のトラックに録音して、…www.zoom.co.jp最初から3人以上での録音を視野にいれるなら、上位モデルの H6 でもよいだろう。ただその分、サイズやバッテリー容量なども大きくなってしまう。
ローカル収録する際は、相互のチャンネルに相手の声も拾ってしまうため、Skype で別トラックで録音した場合と同じように編集するのは困難となる。よって、反響の大きくない部屋で収録することが重要になるし、また一方が話している際にむやみに相槌を打たない、などに気をつける必要がある(とくに日本人は1–1の会話でやたらと相槌を打つくせがある人が多く、ポッドキャストでは過剰な相槌は聴いていて不快になるので、意識してしないようにすることが重要)。
収録が終わったら、それを配信できる形にまで持っていくのがポストプロダクション作業だ。ここにどの程度の手間や時間をかけるのかは、完全にポッドキャストの運営ポリシーによって異なってくる。
Rebuild では、サポータープログラム向けの RAW データ配信は上記の録って出しが近い。ストリーミング時に録音したローカル録音と Skype 録音をレベル調整しただけのデータをMP3にエンコードして配信している。
それに対し、ポッドキャストフィードで配信されるアーカイブ版は、より聞きやすくなるようにミックスを行っている。開始当初に比べると、内容を編集したりカットしたりという部分は殆どないので、主にオーディオ面でのエフェクトや、過剰な無音部分のカットなどが中心となる。
ポッドキャスト編集に必要なソフトウェアは、マルチトラックで編集ができる DAW であればなんでもよい。フリーで入手できるソフトとしては Audacity や GarageBand などがある。
Logic Pro X - Music production. Cranked up to X.
Logic Pro X brings Touch Bar support and other powerful new tools to the studio. In a more modern interface.www.apple.comLogic Pro X は $200 と、決して安くはないソフトウェアだが、使いやすくカスタマイズ可能なキーボードショートカットや、無音部分を自動でカットする “Strip Silence”、多彩なプラグインなど、ポストプロダクション作業を大いに効率化してくれるソフトウェアだ。
必ず使用しているエフェクト、プラグインは以下の通り:
Logic を使用しない場合 (GarageBand, Audacity など) でも、ノーマライザとコンプレッサーを正しく使用することで、音量バランスをかなり改善することが可能となる。
ノイズの軽減については、かならず Noise Reduction 系のプラグインを利用し、Noise Gate を利用しないこと。Gate の場合、会話していない場所を完全に無音にしてしまうため、静かな環境で聴いていると、ノイズが出たり入ったりの状態になって、かえって聴きづらくなってしまう。
オプションとしてかけているプラグインとしては、
実際のポストプロダクション作業については以前に動画にしたことがあるので、参考にしてもらいたい。大きく内容を編集することはないが、全体を通して微調整をするので、収録の実時間+αの時間はどうしてもかかってしまう。
前述のコンプレッサーでトラック内のピークを揃えることはできるが、全体を通して音量の大きな箇所と小さな箇所の差分をなくしていくのが Leveler というエフェクトになる。これは最後の最適化なので、やらなくてもよい。
Logic Pro X 内でも同等の処理をするプラグインが存在するが、Rebuild のマスタリングでは別途 Auphonic というソフトウェアを使っている。
Auphonic Audio Examples
The automatic audio post production webservice, using signal processing and machine learning techniques.auphonic.comオンライン版はフリーミアムモデルで、月2時間まで無料、そのあとは従量課金となる。オフライン版はソフトウェアを一度ダウンロードすればそのあとは課金やアップロードすることもなく使うことができる。
フリーで利用できるソフトウェアとして Levelator がある。Rebuild でも当初はこのソフトウェアを利用していた。
The Levelator® from The Conversations Network
The Conversations Networkwww.conversationsnetwork.org
最終的に Logic や Auphonic からエクスポートされた音源は WAV/AIFF のデータとなる。これをポッドキャストで配信できる形式である MP3 へエンコードする。Logic や Auphonic などにも MP3 エンコーダがついているが、微調整したりメタデータの追加を自動化するため、LAME を使っている。
lame –tt
あまりストリーミング配信をしているポッドキャストは見かけないので、最後に持ってきた。とはいえ、どのようにしているか知りたいという需要があるようなので、かんたんに解説しておく。
Skype での収録を配信するためのツールは以下の通り:
Output Device: Loopback Audioこれで Loopback Audio を mixlr の channel 1 とする。同様に、 Skype の出力を channel 2 にするには、Loopback で Skype チャンネルを作ればよい。
Skype to LoopbackSkype の音声は自分でも聴く必要があるので、”Mute audio sources” はオフにする。
Loopback + Skype for Mixlr inputs最終的にはこのように Loopback (自分の声) と Skype を別チャンネルにして Mixlr に流している。ストリーム開始前の音楽も、同様に音楽再生ソフトの音を Loopback からキャプチャすればよい。
ちなみに Mixlr 自体の Audio Link でも同等のことはできるはずだが、複数のアプリケーションからの入力を別個に拾うのは難しいかもしれない。
前述したようにオフライン収録は Zoom H5 ポータブルレコーダーで行っている。H5自体は USB インタフェースにもなるのだが、そうするとSDカードに録音することができなくなるので、録音自体はSDカードに行い、アナログモニタ出力を Mac に入力する方針でストリーミング配信する。
Amazon.co.jp: BEHRINGER UCA202: 楽器・音響機器
オンライン通販のAmazon公式サイトなら、BEHRINGER UCA202を 楽器・音響機器ストアで、いつでもお安く。当日お急ぎ便対象商品は、当日お届け可能です。Amazon.co.jpが発送する商品なら配送料無料(条件あり)。www.amazon.co.jpH5 のモニタ出力 (3.5mm ジャック) を Behringer UCA202 に入力すると、USB 経由で Mac に入力ソースとしてとりこむことができる。この変換のオーディオレベルはとても小さいので、先ほどのSkype の場合と同様、いったん Logic Pro X などのDAWソフトウェアでコンプレッサーをかけ、それを Mixlr に入力する。この場合 Skype などのリモートコールがないため、1トラックで完結し、よりシンプルになる。
ちなみに録音を H5 で行わず、USB インタフェースとして入力し、 Logic で録音しつつモニタリング出力を Mixlr にとばす方法もある。過去何度か試した結果 Mac の負荷が高くなりオーディオのドロップなどが発生したことがあるので、あまりおすすめはしない。また別途録音すればどちらかが失敗してもバックアップが残る安心感がある。
たくさんの項目を紹介したが、どれも音をより良くするというより、いかに効率よく、後手間を発生させないかという観点で選んでいる。
まずはじめるにあたって抑えておいてほしいポイントは、
The Headphone - Bragi
Bragi - experience the world’s first wireless smart headphoneswww.bragi.comBragi’s The Headphone is a truly wireless earbud, meaning these are just earbuds, and no cable between them, similar to Apple’s AirPods or EARIN. Unlike Bragi’s previous model, The Dash, The Headphone does *not *have:
It is very important to have a comfortable and solid fit to the ear, so that I would not drop and lose the earbuds. The Headphone comes with 2 sizes of ear tips (S/M) and slightly bigger foam. I tested both the foam and M-size ear tips, and they both fit to ears comfortably.
The foam piece would be better if your ear is bigger and/or you prefer a tight fit and strong bass from the music. For me, M-size ear tips worked great even with longer hours of wearing.
The Headphone with M-size ear tips
Turning on and off the headphone could be a little easier. Turning on requires long-pressing the button on the right side for 1 second. It would be nice if it automatically turns on when I take it out from the charger, like Apple AirPods do.
Turning off is done either by long-pressing the same button for 3 seconds, or putting the earbuds to the case *and *connecting to the charging cable. The latter is a much easier action when I get home, but it is still annoying that putting back the earbud to the case alone is not enough to turn off the device.
Apparently it can automatically go into a sleep mode when no audio has been playing for 10 minutes, but that did not work for me when paired with my Google Pixel phone.
I’ve used Anker IE-20 for about a year and the nice thing about it is that it automatically powers on/off with the magnet. It means that it powers on when I wear it, and powers off when I do not.
Anker SoundBuds Sport IE20 In-Ear Bluetooth Earbuds, Smart Magnetic Wireless Headphones with aptx…
Edit descriptionwww.amazon.com
Once it’s paired, the connection is solid. I’ve used many Bluetooth headsets like Anker’s IE-20 and Sony’s SBH-20 before, and have always experienced some audio drops in busy areas — I’ve never experienced any drops with The Headphone yet.
The sound is decent, and once you get a tight fit of the ear tips (see above for the fitting), you get a good bass sound as well.
When you listen to audio source with a bit of silence in-between, like podcasts, you might constantly hear a slight static noise getting in and out, on the left side of the earbud. The noise is very subtle, and is hard to notice when you’re in a loud environment, or when you listen to regular music without much silence, though.
One of the complaints I hear most from Apple’s AirPods users is that it does not have audio controls for volumes and playbacks.
The Headphone has three buttons on the right side, and it provides these features, to control the volume, pause and skip the songs. While it is really nice to have them on the device, it is very uncomfortable to click these buttons while you wear it. You either have to pinpoint the button and click it with a nail, or just push hard the earbud to register the clicks.
I imagine that the touch sensor on The Dash would have been much easier to use.
The Headphone comes with a carrying case, and it has a micro USB connector to charge. The case does not have a battery to provide its power when it is disconnected to the charger, which is a bit of a bummer.
Honestly, the case is a bit too bulky just for a carrying case. For the last couple of days, I just leave the case plugged all the time on my desk, and carry the earbuds in a much smaller pouch in my pocket. This way I can just remove the earbuds and drop them on the charger when I’m home. Obviously, the downside of this setup is I cannot charge the earbuds when it runs out of the juice, after 6 hours of use.
Overall I like it and would use this most of the time in my commute to the office and in the office when I want to shut the ambient sound. I keep my Anker IE-20 to pair it with my laptop, since multipoint pairing on Bluetooth is still a nightmare in 2017.
Assume you’re a Chrome user and have multiple Google profiles, one for your personal account and another for work account. This way you can sign in to sites like Google Apps, GitHub or Slack with the correct account.
On Mac OS, Chrome profiles work under one Chrome app instance, which means when you click a link from other apps such as Mail, Twitter clients or Slack app, it will open in the last browser window you opened. This gets you into a situation where you click an internal Wiki link from Slack which opens in your personal profile window, which gets you redirected to your company’s SSO page (such as Okta) because you’re not signed in. Ugh! Now you go back to the other window to make sure it is forefront, then re-open the link. This is obviously tedious.
Enter Choosy: a browser shim that sends links to the right browser of your choice.
Choosy is designed for users who would like to open a particular link in a browser that’s different from the primary (default) browser.
Here’s the tricky bit: in my use case, there’s no non-default browsers involved. It’s both Google Chrome, just under a different profile, and the way Chrome User Profiles works is not really designed to operate under multiple Chrome instances.
It definitely seems possible to play with an AppleScript and then mess around URL handlers with plist files to create a separate Chrome app instance, but there’s a much easier way to get this done: Chrome Canary.
Unlike Chrome beta or dev channel, Chrome Canary operates as a complete separate app instance. This allows you to sign in to your personal account with primary Chrome, then to the work account with Chrome Canary, and they’re recognized as completely different browser applications by the system.
Now, all you need to do is to configure Choosy:
Rules to override Work link addressesYou can list as many enterprise/SaaS domains such as Okta, Zendesk, GitHub Enterprise and so on as an individual rule, and use “Any” to combine the rules.
As of this writing, the “Source application” setting seems to be kind of unreliable according to the developer. It is alright for me, since I use Slack for multiple teams and I do not want all links opened from Slack to go to my Work profile.
You can also add a modifier key such as Shift to force-enable or disable the particular override rules. I set it so that shift-clicking links in Slack always results to open in a work profile.
**Tip: **It is recommended to use one of Chrome themes to easily identify which browser profile you’re using. I chose the one that is similar to our corporate color scheme 😁
]]>Made by Google
It has the highest rated smartphone camera. Ever. A battery that lasts all day. Unlimited storage for all your photos…madeby.google.comいままでの Nexus 端末って、「まぁ Google 使ってて Android 好きってんならいいんじゃないですかね …」って後ろ向きな感じでしかオススメできなかったんだけど、この端末は違う。妥協せずに作った感がだいぶあって、OSとハードがいい具合に融合してるし、何よりカメラが素晴らしい。日本での発売、だいぶ音沙汰ないですね。
Lumsing USB C External Battery Pack 10050 mAh, Quick Charge 3.0 Power Bank USB-C Battery Charger…
Edit descriptionamzn.toUSB-C なスマートフォンは Nexus 5X についで 2台めなんだけど、以前から使っていた Anker Astro では、外でチャージするときのスピードが “Charging rapidly” になってくれないのが気になってた、というか気づくレベルで遅い。
ただ巷に出てる USB-C 対応のモバイルバッテリーはどれもごつい。Anker のこれとか鈍器レベル。どれもスマートフォンだけじゃなくてタブレットとか MacBook とか充電する仕様で作られてるので、でかいんですね。
この Lumsing は 10050 mAh と手頃なサイズで、 USB-C 急速充電と QuickCharge 2/3 にも対応してる。札幌と台湾旅行中は活躍してくれました。だいたい 10% から 50% まで 20分程度でチャージできて、ちょっと電車で移動中とかカフェとかで休憩してるうちにかなり回復できるので心強い。
Omaker マイクロUSBケーブル 2本セット リバーシブルUSBメス/オス端子搭載(二重保護 両端両面挿し)耐久性第一のスマホ充電microUSBケーブル(シルバー)1m
Amazon.co.jp: Omaker マイクロUSBケーブル 2本セット リバーシブルUSBメス/オス端子搭載(二重保護 両端両面挿し)耐久性第一のスマホ充電microUSBケーブル(シルバー)1m: 銅: 家電・カメラwww.amazon.co.jpUSB-C に統一する未来は見えている中、micro USB なデバイスもなかなか消えてはくれない。これはリバーシブルタイプの micro USB で、既存のデバイスでもそのまま使える。てか、スペック変えずにリバーシブルにできるならなんで最初からそうじゃなかったのかと疑問になる。 ともあれ、Bluetooth ヘッドセット、QC20, Kindle などで活躍してます。やっぱり上下を気にせずさせるのって素晴らしい。
Bluelounge CableDrop Multi White - Cable Management System
Amazon.com: Bluelounge CableDrop Multi White - Cable Management System: Home Audio & Theaterwww.amazon.comそんなわけで過渡期に混沌としているケーブルをまとめるホルダーがこちら。前にも似たようなのをつかっていたんだけど、Bluelounge のこれはサイズもほどよく、3M の両面テープも最初からついていて、うちの白 IKEA デスクにぴったり。
Kindle Oasis
Kindle Oasis - 最薄・最軽量。革新的なデザイン
Kindle Oasisはこれまでで最も薄く、最も軽いKindleです。人間工学に基づいた特徴的なデザインにより、手の中に重心が収まるので、端末の重量を気にせず読書に集中できるように設計されています。これまで以上にいつでもどこでも読書を…www.amazon.co.jpこれで4台目になる Kindle Oasis. これもすばらしくて何の文句もつけようがない。サクサク動くし、フォントもきれい、カバーでチャージしながら、外して読むと軽いし片手で持てる。
日本版では Paperwhite のマンガ仕様(ストレージ8GB)が出たみたいだけど、 Oasis にもほしいですね。結構すぐいっぱいになっちゃうので。
Amazon.co.jp: レノボ・ジャパン ThinkPad トラックポイント・キーボード - 英語 0B47190: パソコン・周辺機器
オンライン通販のAmazon公式サイトなら、レノボ・ジャパン ThinkPad トラックポイント・キーボード - 英語 0B47190を パソコン・周辺機器ストアで、いつでもお安く。当日お急ぎ便対象商品は、当日お届け可能です。アマゾン配…www.amazon.co.jp2016年に買うべきもの、ではないと思うんだけど、会社でスタンディングデスクでタイプする時にトラックパッドに手をのばすのがだるいな、と思い購入した ThinkPad Keyboard。なかなかタイピングの打ち心地もよいし、ホームポジションから腕を動かさずに Track Point で動かせるのはやっぱりよいですね。コンパクトだし USB給電で充電の心配もなく、旅行にも持っていけるサイズ。
結果気に入ったので家でも Apple Keyboard をリプレース。とはいえ Logic Pro X なんかで podcast 編集したり、Lightroom で写真いじったり、なんかのときはやっぱりトラックパッドのほうが便利なので個人用では併用してます。
Amazon.co.jp: パナソニック エチケットカッター 黒 ER-GN30-K: ホーム&キッチン
オンライン通販のAmazon公式サイトなら、パナソニック エチケットカッター 黒 ER-GN30-Kを ホーム&キッチンストアで、いつでもお安く。当日お急ぎ便対象商品は、当日お届け可能です。アマゾン配送商品は、通常送料無料。www.amazon.co.jpだいぶ昔に naoya さんがオススメしていて買って以来、たまに買い替えている Panasonic のいわゆる鼻毛カッター。基本的にあんまり髭が生えないほうなので、そちらもこれで十分処理できる。これは新しめのモデルみたいで、以前のやつに比べて音も小さく、底面積もだいぶコンパクトになっていて、よいアップデート。
この記事を書きながら調べたところによると、洗浄するのにいちいち刃を取り外さなくてもいいんですね。なんて画期的。前と同じと思ってマニュアル読んでなかった。
Samsung SSD USB3.1 Gen1 TYPE-C 450MB/s MU-PT500B サムスン T3 500GB [並行輸入品]
高速データ転送 従来の2.5 “ポータブルハードディスクドライブ(HDD)よりも4倍まで、最大450メガバイト/秒の高速読み出し/書き込み速度です。 小型、軽量・名刺サイズの軽量ボディSamsung V-NANDテクノロジー強固なメタ…*www.amazon.co.jpMacBook Pro Late 2013 で SSD 512GB を使ってるんですが、旅行中とかどうしても写真やらポッドキャストの生音源やらでストレージが不安になる。このサムソンの SSD は名刺サイズで 500GB、めっちゃコンパクトで軽いし、どこにでも持っていける感じ。$200 そこらで買えちゃうんで、MacBook のストレージが足りなくて、って人にはおすすめですね。
Amazon.co.jp: 【国内正規品】SHURE iPhone iPad用マイク MV88 MOTIVシリーズ 24bit/48kHz MV88A-A: 楽器・音響機器
オンライン通販のAmazon公式サイトなら、【国内正規品】SHURE iPhone iPad用マイク MV88 MOTIVシリーズ 24bit/48kHz MV88A-Aを 楽器・音響機器ストアで、いつでもお安く。当日お急ぎ便対象商品は…www.amazon.co.jpiPhone/iPad につけて利用できるコンデンサマイク。Shure 製だけあって音質はもちろん問題ないし、なにより lightning 端子につないでそのまま録音できる気楽さがすばらしい。
残念ながら iPhone 使いではないので iPod touch と一緒に持ち歩くことになりますが、それでもフルのレコーディングキットとは比べ物にならないし、ふとしたところで収録ができたり、iPhone 7 使いの人なら、動画のオーディオソースとしてももちろん利用できる。 Rebuild の本編では利用していないけど、ちょっとしたインタビューエピソードやサポーター限定の撮って出しなエピソードでは重宝しています。
願わくばこれの USB-C 版がでて Google Pixel で使えれば。。 Shure さん、お願いしますよ。
PlayStation 4 ジェット・ブラック 500GB(CUH-2000AB01)
オンライン通販のAmazon公式サイトなら、PlayStation 4 ジェット・ブラック 500GB(CUH-2000AB01)を ゲームストアで、いつでもお安く。当日お急ぎ便対象商品は、当日お届け可能です。アマゾン配送商品は、通常送…www.amazon.co.jpそろそろ買ってもいいよね、ってことで購入。Black Friday でバンドル $200 で買えました。まだ FF XV しかやってない。○☓ボタンが US システムと JP ゲームで逆になる問題、どうにかならんすかね。
The reason is pretty simple — there’s not really a lot of things to write about this device. Except that: it is almost perfect. So the tl;dr of the post is: I love this phone, and recommend it to every Android user, and potentially an iPhone user who is thinking about switching.
The phone costs $650 as the base, non-XL model to begin with, and I upgraded to the 128GB storage model — totally recommended because it fills quickly if you shoot videos in 4K — and all the taxes included it was over $800. XL adds another $120 on top, so that’s a big price hike. Unlike iPhone 7 vs 7 Plus, there’s no functionalities difference between Pixel and Pixel XL, except that:
The box came with a lot more tools than you’d ever need. A really powerful charger that is capable of USB-C Power Delivery to quickly charge the phone. USB-A to C OTG adapter so that you can transfer data from your previous Android devices or even from an iPhone. Apparently, importing the data from an iPhone works by emulating a PC storage in Pixel and getting your iPhone data backed up to a PC. I haven’t tried this, but that’s a really cool technique.
And it comes with USB-C to USB-C cable for charging, and USB-A to USB-C cable for data transfer, or some other uses. The cables look solid. It did not come with a pair of headphones, but who needs it anyway.
The price matches with the rest of the high end phones like Galaxy S Edge or iPhone 7, and I think it does what you’d expect this price range phones do. It is very snappy with the Snapdragon 821 processor, and I’ve not noticed any lags that I constantly experienced with the Nexus 5X.
I was a bit skeptical about the battery life of the phone, and the first few days were a bit disappointing, since I was mostly outside and the phone battery died down to 20% around the time I came home. But since then it has become much better, and when I work from the office when it is mostly in Wi-Fi, the battery is about 70% when I come home about 6pm. I’m sure the battery drain of the first few days was the artifact of me tweaking the phone all the time, and initializing lots of applications during the first run etc.
The back of the phone is a little bit slippery, but not as much as iPhone 7, thanks to its non-round shape of the edge. Also the glass surface around the fingerprint censor makes it more grippy than the rest. I chose the color “Quite Black” but interestingly it looks more like Space Gray of the iPhones. Not quite black.
The camera looks stunning photos. It is very subjective but I’d say it takes even better photos than iPhone 7 at times. Of course iPhone 7 Plus’s portrait mode is a killer and Pixel’s “Lens blur” is a pretty fake gimmick and there’s no contest here, though.
The thing I love about the camera is not just about the photo quality — it’s the performance. With Nexus 5X, you could take great photos, if you’re really patient, or your target can wait for your camera to turn up. Nexus 5X camera app even goes completely disconnected from the camera and showed dark screen, which cannot be fixed until the reboot. Its HDR+ takes a few seconds that block your next photo shoot opportunities.
None of that crap with the Pixel cameral. It boots up really quickly with the two clicks of the power button, and shooting takes very fast, and there’s no lag. Even HDR+ is done automatically in the background, and it does not block your next photo shooting. It’s impressive.
Software video stabilization works really great too. Here’s a video that I took while holding Pixel in one hand and walking in the farmer’s market. I took this video in full HD because the stock setting of the video shooting is 1080p, which I needed to change to 4K after realizing it.
For still photos, I immediately noticed that there were few lens flares when I shoot photos under the sunlight or even a room light directly facing at the camera. Maybe this is the consequence of removing the camera bump?
Google apparently recognized the issue and is preparing for a software update to remove the flare, which I’m not sure how well it works.
Pixel is a great phone that I recommend to everyone, as long as $700+ does not bother you. This is finally an Android/Google phone that is without all the garbages, and has no lag or any easily identifiable compromises, and has a great camera that takes impressive photos.
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