[=] How much does it cost … let me first start by saying, asking how much is akin to asking how much for a vacation? - in that there is no right or wrong when it comes to money but traveling first class via Concord and staying at 5-Diamond resorts is one thing vs hitch-hiking and staying with friends is another … all comes down to goals and money and balancing the two :>)

[=] Converting your materials to digital … essentially there are three buckets, each of which has its own costs and layers of complexities … first bucket is content acquisition / capture … the second bucket is editing / polishing / mastering … and the third bucket is delivery (e.g., compressed mp3s, dvds, cds) … one could also say that marketing / pr are separate bucket but i tend to lump this into the third bucket as part of delivery / distribution …

[=] Acquisition … this can range from as simple as you talking into a digital recorder and giving an editor your wave file, or going to a studio, or hiring a team to come in and capture / record / film live performance in HD and 5.1 Surround Sound … you can also have mix of all the above … i was reminded of this the other day while i was digitizing some of my cassettes in my library and one was Wayne Dyer’s on being a no limit person … in his case, some of the narration was him in the studio, very clean sound and direct .. then other parts were him at conferences with people asking questions, applauding, laughing .. both elements were nicely mixed to fit his “chapters” along with sprinkles of ambient music for cues, plus the Nightingale Conant voice overs (the distributor) … audio is much less taxing than video (cost of capture and editing) and most business content is best served as audio for reasons i can explain separately ..

[=] Editing .. this is where the real magic happens and what separates the pros from the wannabees … with audio, taking out the “eh hms, ahas, coughs” and then leveling volumes for consistent sound is great … noise reduction for any room tones like air conditioning hums etc also helps get clean sounds … if you are doing videos, then you have the added layer of making sure the video supports the audio … humans will forgive bad visuals more easily than we will bad audio … something about our ears being more sensitive while our eyes can “fill in the gaps” but i digress … adding ear and eye candy to mix is another layer (e.g., background music, graphic titles, animations, etc) …

[=] Distribution … are you going to self-publish and burn your own cds/dvds, if so, then all you need is a good master cd/dvd … are you going to replicate (duplication via stamped glass masters) and buy 1000 cds/dvds, then you need someone who can help you create that master along with the visual templates that will accompany your product (e.g., the liners, the jackets) thus knowing how to master for print (e.g., 300 dpi tiff files for graphics) vs 72 jpg files for web, becomes paramount …

the good news is that today we have more choices than ever … you can create a free promo video of your services, park it on Youtube and voila - new calling card … you can create series of audio writing and sell on iTunes as downloads … and of course, you can create a CoolTea store and do all of the above :>)

when it comes to vendors, you can certainly retain one group, like an ad agency to guide you through the entire process, or you can find your own individual teams … many times they overlap - e.g., an audio studio often has ties to graphic freelancers and duplication/replication vendors … alternatively, you can engage someone like myself as a Creative Consultant who will help you pick the best vendors, and help you understand your best options while you are dealing with each of them as you migrate down the content development paths …

lastly i will mention this -> best to have a plan that you can build on so that all your deliverables start to feed your brand (as opposed to have mishmash of products that sound differently and look differently) … which leads to sonic branding and video bugs … these are part of the cues that help your customers (and prospects) know what they are about to listen to our look at … take any good TV show (e.g., Mash, Cheers, Sienfeld) and as soon as we hear the jingles we recognize the show, even if we are in the other room talking to someone else, subconsciously we know that brand and the more comfortable we are in knowing the brand, the more receptive we are to their message :>)

And as to the music -> the music was happy accident years back with Kurzweil 2500 or 2600 - in that one night i found a pattern, turned on the apreggiator that gave it some groove, then jammed to the beat with one left hand occasionally dancing on the ribbon strip hence the warbled effects … was a one take thing that i pumped into Soundforge before i’ve since learned how to go into Sonar with the midi and the audio from Triton in case i want to go back and edit … came across this clip while i was cataloging some of the older clips that i was putting on new Western Digital Terabyte drive and thought “hnmm - this should work for that project” and voila - gobble gobble funk :>0

thanks for kudos :>)

How’d you do the spiral transition at 2:03? Is that a stock Vegas effect?

The music was perfect too. Was that done with arpeggiator patterns in your
synth plus some live playing on top?

Also, this was a great example of what religion should do. If they stuck to
acts of kindness like this, and kept out of politics and people’s private
bedrooms, I’d be a big supporter. :->)

All in all, good show my man!