Sir Ken Robinson brilliantly reframes how we should view our time on earth. It’s not a boring, predictable commute from point A to point B. It’s a messy, exciting, uncertain QUEST.
"A quest is a journey you undertake whose outcome is not certain."
While you might get blown off course or end up on unexpected shores, it turns out those foreign places might be a better option than the one you originally had in mind.
But the defining principle of the quest?
"Nobody has ever lived your life, and nobody else ever will. You're a unique moment in the whole of human history."
Watching this archive lecture in 2026, as the world becomes increasingly standardized by technology, Sir Ken’s message about reclaiming our individual uniqueness is more critical than ever.
Are you on a commute, or a quest? Comment below! 👇
Sir Ken Robinson (1950–2020) was a legendary voice on creativity, education, and human potential.
Our sound and lighting courses can be found at https://school.learnlightandsound.com!
In this week’s episode we take a look at the new TASCAM DR-40XP 32-bit float audio handheld field recorder. And the big question most people are asking is, “Are the preamps on this new version cleaner than the last version?” And the answer is…YES!
If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. Our latest courses cover Sound for Live Streaming with the ATEM Mini and an Intro to Izotope RX. See https://school.learnlightandsound.com for more info!
Support my work creating videos by donating at Ko-Fi.com: http://ko-fi.com/curtisjudd
Gear used or mentioned in this episode (the links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases):
- TASCAM DR-40XP 32-bit float Field Recorder — https://geni.us/lTJjnoZ
- SHURE SM7B Cardioid Dynamic Studio Microphone — https://geni.us/GYU7dHy
- JZ Mics V11 (the ‘deodorant mic’) — https://usashop.jzmic.com/collections/vintage-series/products/vintage-11 (not an affiliate link)
- Sound Devices MixPre-3 II 32-bit float audio recorder — https://geni.us/O8e0
- Impact Turtle-Base C-Stands — https://geni.us/8a8tt
- Aputure Light Dome III Softbox — https://geni.us/AVHU1p
- Rosco Prismatic Glass Gobo in Cool Lavender — https://geni.us/GWKt
- Canon C70 Cinema Camera — https://geni.us/ABYB
- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8 lens — https://geni.us/qwsEs
- Panasonic GH5 camera — https://geni.us/InspOl
- Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 II lens — https://geni.us/gr47
Copyright 2026, Curtis Judd
#tascam #DR40XP #recorder
Index
00:00 Are the XP version’s preamps cleaner?
00:10 A word from our sponsors
00:36 Audio samples
00:54 This episode’s signal chain
01:06 The big question
02:55 Does it work with high-gain mics?
03:40 State of the modern 32-bit float recorder market
04:05 The importance of mic quality
04:42 (Un?)solicited advice
05:11 Inbuilt mics
05:27 Just ONE A/D converter?!
06:47 Don’t be a (total) spec-hound!
08:43 Please buy my courses!
I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic, and this is my weekly blog post. The large Sunday comic above is mine, as are all of the non-cartoon comments below.
Since January 2018, the Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics have been written and drawn by my comics partner, Wayno. For more fun, check out Wayno’s weekly blog post this week.
That greeting seems appropriate this week as we discuss lesser-known characters of Greek Mythology.
You’re probably familiar with centaurs (half-human, half-horse) and satyrs (half-horny-human, half-goat), but few are acquainted with the half-human, half-chicken, poultraurs.
Poultraurs subsisted on a diet of insects, worms, greens, and berries, just like regular chickens. This made them unpopular dinner guests, as they were almost as difficult to cook for as vegans.
On the plus side, watching them prance around the yard on human legs, pecking the ground, could be amusing. I won’t even get into their reproductive process, as it was fairly disturbing.
I confess the above comic contains an inaccuracy: the poultraur I’ve drawn has the head of a hen, which are female, but is referred to as a “brother.” My bad. I chose the head of a hen because it is inherently funnier than that of a rooster. I’m not sure why, exactly, but that’s my comedy instinct after nearly half a century as a humorist.
Sadly, poultraurs are extinct. During the severe famine Greece endured during WWII, the top half of poultraurs were widely consumed. It led to the expression, “finger-licking semi-cannibalism,” a phrase that was partially appropriated by a certain American fast-food chain a few years later.
If you enjoy these little cloud-burst blog posts, you’ll doubtless thrill to my creative writing project, The Naked Cartoonist. It’s $5 a month for the entire archive and a new article every two weeks. It’s one of the ways I’m supporting Olive Oyl and myself, as well as paying Wayno to do his award-winning thing.
My most recent article is titled “Ten Things I Have in Common with Trump.” It’s a political satire that includes such points as: “We have each been married three times,” (though none of my wives left me because I cheated on them with a porn star); “I have put my name on things” (such as my underwear when I went to summer camp, but never buildings that were already named or a catalog of cheap crap), etc. Here’s a preview:
I Have Fantasized About Being a Superhero
When I was four years old, my mother ordered a Superman suit for me from a catalog and snapped a photo as I posed before running outside to pretend to fly. I was not an 80-year-old leader of the (previously) free world, nor did I share those images on social media, but my mother kept the photo in my childhood scrapbook.
That’s an actual photo of me on the left, while the image at right is some of the stellar work of a mindless robot. This article will doubtless cost me a few subscriptions if I have any MAGA fans left, which I doubt. Oh well.
Time now for the week’s Bizarro comics by Wayno, or Captain Chuckles, as they call him in the Marvel Universe.
The third and fourth Secret Symbols in this one were hard to find even for me.
O2 and I recently endured a cafe musician who was worse than a tone-deaf, drunken, karaoke singer.
Full disclosure: I’m completely against live music in restaurants. It is invariably too loud. If I wanted to eliminate any chance of meaningful conversation with unbearable noise, I’d dine in a teenager’s bedroom.
Once they start to embed computer chips in our brains, this will be inevitable. Rented movies & series on Amazon Prime now include commercial breaks, I guess because Bezos doesn’t have enough money to keep up with his new wife’s plastic surgery addiction.
Speaking of big brass, years ago, in NYC, I happened upon a performance by Edward Babb and the McCullough Sons of Thunder. I can honestly say it was a spiritual experience. Here’s a short clip on YouTube. To skip the long intro, the music starts at 3:25.
In contrast, I’ve never encountered a sermon that could do what that thundering band I mentioned in the comment above did. IMHO, music has an unexplainable, mystical power.
If there were one of these in the White House, a certain grievance-baby-in-chief would never come above ground.
That brings us to the end of this week’s thingamajig. If you enjoy the things we do and that we offer this majig for free, please consider helping us keep it that way via the links below. We will think of you fondly, with gratitude.
Here’s a quick rundown of the 10 quick tips after you finish installing a brand new Fedora 44 workstation edition. In this article, we will talk about a few post-install tips for Fedora 44 workstation edition. These are a good starting point if you are installing a fresh Fedora 44 workstation edition for all user...
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the writer and broadcaster Misha Glenny about Carol Reed’s 1949 masterpiece The Third Man, written by Graham Greene and featuring a notorious film-stealing performance from Orson Welles. It’s a film about friendship and betrayal, double-crosses and double lives, divided loyalties and dubious moralities. It is also all about Vienna, a city with a double life of its own. Everyone involved in this film had something to hide: the question is, what?
Join us on Wednesday 20th May at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the next film in our spring and summer season: a screening of George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck followed by a live podcast recording with David and writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/4wfM5tb
You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com
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