Here are a few considerations over which to ponder when it comes to buying a new stereo system for your car:

Research and find out as much technical information about your car’s current stereo and speakers. You will base your purchase on this so take note. Determine where you want to put your amplifier. Select a location where it can get plenty of air so it won’t overheat. Write down the area and dimensions of the stereo system and amplifier. Measure if it doesn’t state in the manual.

Have your info at hand when you go to the shop and have a salesperson or installer look the details over. Ask what power rating you should consider based on the info and your own taste and needs. Ask for at least three systems you can choose from. Make a comparison of the amplifiers’ power ratings. Most people use 4 ohms as standard. If you wish to add subwoofers to your system later, choose an amp that’s stable down to 2 ohms.

Ask to have the amplifiers tested. Better if they can be plugged into a radio and speakers similar to the ones that exist in your car. Listen to the performance of each before you make your final decision.

Do you want to know how you can sing better? Yes, you can carry a tune, but people don’t get a Tony by just knowing how to carry a tune. If your mom is the only person who can listen to you for hours, then you better tune in to this.
Tips to help you sing better:

Choose a song which you think is perfect for your voice. Are you a soprano or alto or tenor or baritone or bass? Get a copy of the song file, store it in your MP3 player. Look up the lyrics in the internet and print it out. When you have nothing better to do, spend your day in your room singing the song from start to end then start again. Practice makes perfect! But don’t drink cold beverages after your singing session. Karaoke machines would even have features to lower a song’s key to your vocal range.

Record your singing. Get a recording device. You can even use the recording feature on your phone. It’s important that you record your voice so you can hear for yourself the bad parts. This way, you’ll know which stanza needs more work. This would also help a lot in training your ear to detect notes.

Can’t reach the high notes? Remember that there’s a difference between reaching a high note and shouting. If your throat hurts every time you reach the high note then you’re probably screaming, not singing.

Feel the rhythm. Singing is not just about nailing the notes. It’s also about how you express the music. Singers are called artists because they interpret the song beautifully.

Sing in front of a small audience and ask them what they think about it. You can be confident singing in front of your mom, your dad and some not obnoxious siblings. You can depend on them to give you constructive criticism. Practice some more, then sing again in front of them and ask if there’s an improvement.

Get a voice lesson. Do you know someone who’s offering voice lessons? Usually the Music Departments in universities offer courses on voice. If you get really good, you can even have your own recital. Voice training will definitely improve your range and accuracy in hitting those notes.

Your friend who plays in a band suddenly asks you to play roadie in their next gig and help record their music live. He hopes that they’ll get good enough material to send to the local radio rock music station for their “RAW SOUNDS” programs. Being a good friend, and being able to see visions of Billboard top ten hits in the near future, you agree. This is despite the fact that you only have a few recording experience. Of course you can’t cram learning the stuff in a week, as it not only takes knowledge but most importantly experience to do good in this field. But have no fear; here are a few tips to help you play out your rock star fantasies –even if you’re only helping with the recording.

Check the quality of the equipment. If you plan to invest in recording equipment, make sure that you get good quality stuff. Start with the very basics (such as a mic, a mixer, and a recording device) and build your way up. You can participate in online forums that are dedicated to reviewing recording equipment. You usually get loads of good advices from experts and sometimes you also encounter those who sell their old equipment so they can upgrade. You can take advantage of these offers. Don’t forget to conduct trial recordings to judge the level potential of the equipment.

Don’t forget to ask for a line-out in the venue, this means that you record directly from the sound engineer’s board – there is usually one who handles all the sound details during a gig. This will help control noise. And grab the chance to chat with the guy (or gal) and discuss about sounds and equipment and stuff. Be the best of buds.

Speaking of noise control, if you are using microphones, make sure that their placements are well-planned. Select areas where there is the least ambient noise. A boom mic over the crowd’s heads is a nice idea, but try to be more creative in the mic placements if you do not have the budget for boom mics.

Carefully monitor the recording level of your recorder or you’ll get more of the noise than the music.

Practice, practice, practice! You always take chances with live recordings but you minimize the problems by anticipating them. And the great way to know about them is to encounter them. But better to do so while you are practicing rather than on the actual session itself.

You think you’re funny, do you? You think you’re so funny, you think you should have your own show. Before that happens, take your act to the stage first. Here are a few tips on becoming a stand up comedian. First of all, it takes a LOT of guts to go up on stage with the goal of making every person in the room laugh. You’re not going for a snicker or a giggle. You’re going for a ROTFL and that’s way far from easy.

Observe. Learn how the experts do it. There’s a lot of DVDs of stand up acts by the greatest comedians. Learn how they approach a joke, deliver a punchline and work a crowd.

Write the funniest material you can think of. Funny has changed and what makes people laugh now is different from what made people laugh back then. Your natural humor is your wellspring of what’s funny, so nurture it and be witty. There are a lot of smart people in the audience who won’t budge on slapstick humor.

Practice your material. Once you have finished writing your script, you should practice your delivery. Remember that in comedy, timing is everything. So make sure your punch lines are not wasted due to bad intonation, low voice volume, and bad timing. You also need to master your ad-lib. This will save you from an impending embarrassment when you forget your lines. If you know how to ad-lib, you’ll be more confident, knowing that you can always think up of something if you forget your script.

Be prepared. Aspiring to be a comedian is not a joke. If you want to pursue it as a career, you have to be ready because there is a long way to go. It’s hard to earn gigs and the pay is not as rewarding as the effort. So make sure you stay funny. Know what makes people laugh, and you’ll make it big in no time.

… a month! And oh, wait… Wait for it… for 12 months!

Just when you thought you’re getting a bargain, Kelly’s Sales and Leasing is offering a rent-to-own arrangement for a Nintendo Wii (which is currently priced at a relatively cheap $250) that would, in the end, cost you a grand total of $948 – almost the amount of 4 Wiis.

Oh and their definition of lease-purchase:

What distinguishes lease-purchase from a retail credit sale is that there is no interest charged to consumers, no credit is needed, and customers can return the merchandise at any time. This no-obligation, no-debt feature is the cornerstone of lease-purchase. It’s easy, it’s safe and it’s hassle-free. Free replacement, repair and delivery are included.

Yeah, no credit needed, only you get to “own” the item for nearly 400% its retail value. Even an installment with interest via credit card purchase is still way lower than what Kelly’s has to offer.

Via: Consumerist

It has been a wild ride for this one. Personally, I’m still stuck with DVDs at home. I have a trusty laptop anyway to double up as my portable theater system. This HD wars have gone so mucky that it’s the consumer that’s caught within the crossfire. There seems to be no room for practicality here especially for movie afficionados. Get one format, forgo all the other release made for the other.

But with this price cut of Toshiba’s, wouldn’t that make it more accessible for a person to own both formats? I wonder how this would eventually play out.

Via Computerworld

So now, let’s look into this Warner Bros. thing. Warner has officially said that it will solely support Blu-ray as its publishing format for hi-def. Is this decisive enough to snuff out HD-DVD. I bet Toshiba would be up in arms with such claims of HD-DVD being killed off.

This increases the difficulty of choice for consumers with one outfit would have their releases in Blu-ray, another in HD-DVD. Movie fans and home theater enthusiasts would go berserk since collecting meant having to deal with two different formats. Unless, of course, HD players go hybrid with capabilities of playing both formats. Or will this inevitably lead to consumer apathy?

Via Computerworld

Someday, your old LPs will soon conk out. If you still have The Who’s Tommy somewhere in the attic, you might want to bring it down for a good listen. (Well, better have it cleaned and restored since it’s a collector’s item already.) So why not create a digital archive while they’re still playable? That way you can enjoy listening to your LPs in your iPod complete with the old crackle-pop of old LPs.

What you need:

• A turntable with a preamplifier with a line-out or microphone jack
• A sound card with a line-in jack
• An audio cable that matches the preamplifier and the sound card
• An audio recording/editing software (Audacity works great)

What to do:

• Make sure that you clean the LP
• Clean the stylus (or use a new one)
• Plug in the cable to your preamplifier and sound card
• Set your recording OS to record using the line-in signal. (In XP, you can do this by accessing Volume -> Recording -> Check Line in).
• Launch your audio recording software
• Double-check that the software also uses the line-in signal
• Start recording
• Lower the stylus to start playing the LP
• When the LP finishes, stop your recording software.
• Do all the editing and cutting after the recording has finished.
• Advanced audio editing software can eliminate the crackles and pops in LP recordings but I personally leave those behind since they give the recording some novelty and character.

gpSPhone is an emulator that makes all of this possible. It’s still a bit rough on the edges (the sound quality is quite raspy) but it’s a step towards merging technologies.

Well, as is, you still need to break Apple’s security in order to cram the emulator into the phone. Also it will all be up to you to supply the games and BIOS.

Source: MacWorld via ComputerWorld

Tired of watching your movies on your TV? We have a great idea! Why not transform your room into one media center complete with sensurround sound? With the growing popularity of projectors and white screens, you can enjoy a whole new meaning of the word “entertainment”.

Projector and screen. Projectors could be expensive, but if you have the money, you should buy one. Check out the net to get an idea of the projector you can purchase with your budget. Also check out the lowest prices for a projector screen. Here’s our guide in buying a home theater system.

Prepare your room. Playing your media on a projector and screen require a lot of free space. When your movie starts projecting, there shouldn’t be anything blocking the visuals. Any furniture or a painting on the wall should be cleared out. It’s the perfect time to rearrange your room and pave way for your media center. If you can afford soundproofing, splurge away and tweak your room’s acoustics.

Complete your collection of the all-time blockbusters. Of course only the best movies should be played on your new home entertainment theater. List all the exciting upcoming movies, and recall the old movies you have loved.

Stock on your movie food. Head for the grocery store, and fill your shopping cart with soda and chips. Don’t forget the popcorn! And invite your friends over for a movie marathon.