#and videos are EITHER heavy on speaking audio OR with a lot of movement

[poisonous-widow]

One Step Forward, Three Steps Back

A/n: Hello everyone! I am back!

So ya'll remember my last bnha angst called 'Good Enough?'. Well I've re-made it to this beaut right here! I'm hoping this will be a short Fan fiction probably 10 chaps be the max (Hopefully) or even lower is possible \(0w0)/. They won't be adults in this one, still in UA and yes - the angst will be there. My Oc will be the main of this, but Y/n is apart, yes that's right - you guys are in this (Don't worry! You aren't the bad guy.......maybe).

I've also made this because I fell in love with Olivia Rodrigo's songs, the ones that I can relate to especially. And for this as well. I hope you enjoy this and tell me what you think in the end.

- Love you guys!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warnings: Cheating, Angst, Crying, fluffy fluff fluff!! 

Additional info: Music videos/audios may be involved (Not in this one) 

Main Characters: Katsuki Bakugou, Amicia Mizuki

Ages: 17-18yrs (Depending on other characters as well and their year)

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CHAPTER ONE - I still love you

~~~~~~~~~~~

We shared many memories. Love...

She’s been humming tunes in her dorm for the past thirty minutes. Cooped up in the corner of her bed, messy blankets, plushies and four pair of legs tangled together. Amicia cackles lightly, long thick lashes kiss her cheeks, lifting her novel she was currently reading - grazing her light forest green hues to her spiky blonde love. Katsuki releases a long deep breath, his head snugged into the thick comfy padding of his girlfriends thighs, rubbing his head further into her when he felt her cackles.

"What are you laughing at..." He grumbled out, a little muffled since he's laying on his side. Squishing his other face cheek.

Amicia giggled. It sounded so calm to his ears, soothing.

"Nothing~" Amicia mused, a smile playing at her lips as she moved her book to one hand, bringing the other down to caress his tuffs of hair. She gently scratched at his scalp with her nails, caressing in long strokes. She heard another long breath release out of him, the weight of katsuki falling onto her thighs.

There was a shift of movement and Amicia moved her hand, allowing Katsuki to roll himself on his back, eye-lids opening to those crimson daring eyes. "Don't lie to me shitty woman..". Amicia pouted, poking his nose in response. "Don't call me that".

"But you are a shitty woman" He smirked, seeing small fumes appear.

"You’re a shitty man then!" Amicia crossed her arms, looking down at her love with pouting lips and a frown that he would never admit was too fucking cute. He rolled again, this time on his stomach. Arms latched themselves around Amicia's waist, causing her to get a small shock. Katsuki looked up at her, crimson meeting green - summer rays swirling the gold speckles secretly hidden within the glimmering emerald.

Katsuki buried himself into her abdomen, kissing her stomach making Amicia yelp. "Katsuki..!" She squeaked in alarm, her hand touching his head with a tenderness he drowned himself in every moment they got like this. He looked up only to quickly kiss her again, grumpily groaning when she tried to push him away - only for the heavy male to halfway lay himself across her soft pudgy body. "What are you.." Amicia rubs his head, confused.

'You are my shitty woman, mine only." He groaned muffly. This made Amicia stop what she was going to do next. That small spark of shock - forming into love. "I love you too Katsuki" She smiled and hugged his laying body lovingly.

It's a cool night outside, but the room felt oddly hot. Warm candle-light fluttered against the tan wallpaper of katsuki's dorm room that scattered around the large shared futon splayed on the ground.

...Want...

Katsuki sat on the futon, arms wrapped around Amicia's waist. She was on top of him, her knees locked on either side as she slightly hoisted herself a bit taller. Their eyes closed in the moment and lips mounding into bliss, Amicia held katsuki's face as he securely held her in his arms. Parting away to breathe, eyes locking together in a mixture of colours and emotions only they seemed to understand without the need of words.

She peppered and nuzzled his face with tenderness, He kissed her neck and bare shoulder with fierceness. Sighs and contentment settled into her as katsuki removed more of her button shirt to nip at the flesh of her neck.

“Hey..!” She jerked away, opening her eyes and looking over to her shoulder where she could see the way his tongue slid across his row of teeth with that heavy smirk. Amicia shook her head, a smirk of her own appearing when she tugged the back roots of his ash-blonde hair into a small fist, causing a low grunt hiss to snake out of his mouth. “You little sh-”  “Don’t ruin the mood my love~” She kissed a finger to his mouth - angered eyes - turning hooded and heavy. 

Katsuki rolled to the side, toppling over Amicia where she laid on her back, he on top this time.”I hate you...” , She giggled at his words, sighed when he kissed her neck and further down a of his warmth. “I hate you so much, you do this to me...” He breathed against her warm honey skin. 

“I love you too...” She smiles with closed crescent eyes. 

The moment stops when his phone-screen turns on. A message, unknown. Who is it from. She goes to read....he pushes her away and takes the phone - but she had seen the name. 

“Get out. GET THE HELL OUT NOW!!” He shoves her out. 

...Hate....

A glass jar went flying across the kitchen of their shared apartment...

It smashes. There’s more screaming. Words flying at each other, next thing there is something more than verbal - physical.

It’s cold again. 

Katsuki thrusts an explosion attack towards Amicia. It’s aggressive and filled with tendency to hurt - a lot. She dodges it, barely. She’s scared but she still fights for her ground. She refuses to cry and be weak to him. “YOU LIAR!! YOU FUCKING LIAR!!” She reaches him, punches him square in the nose. “YOU SAID SHE WAS JUST A FRIEND!”  She wailed, her throat hurts. her head is throbbing. 

“I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! DOES IT MEAN NOTHING TO YOU!?” Amicia clenched where her heart was buried underneath all that flesh, muscle and bone. Tears flooding down like two large blobs of streams.

“I HATE YOU!! I FUCKING HATE YOU AMICIA MIZUKI!!” 

Blood and water stains the floor-boards. 

“If you hate me that much...Then we are over” 

 ...Betrayal...

She’s cold again. 

She felt exposed - naked - even.

Mina hugged her side, the warmth radiating off her pink skin made the honey toned woman comfortable - just a bit - she smiled appreciatively. She was the first to know and your sister Y/n. The other girls who cared enough to visit her dorm in the time of need she really needed them. Then came the boys: Kaminari,sero and deku squad knew first. Then kirishima, he was last because Amicia knew that kirishima was Ka-Bakugou’s best-friend. He hugged her, she cried. 

It’s only been a few days since the break-up. She left their shared apartment and lived with her best-friend. However, the news spread like wild-fire throughout UA - nosy bunches they all are. Amicia hugged her arms as she walked through the long hallways, eyes staring and mouths whispering. 

For the next few days, they all tried to cheer her up:

“Let’s do this, get your mind off things!” 

“You’ll feel better without him, promise” 

“Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaa! Leeeet’s gooo steeal Mr. Aizawaa’s Beean-Baaag~!”

“Cm’on gurl! Sing for me, i miss that voice of yours” 

“Mizuki-chan...mutter mutter...and then...mutter mutter” 

It was hard. At first. But she managed to smile at least, her heart feeling lighter little by little each day. Amicia could run and chase her friends again. Laugh, cry, cheer, scream. But everyone now and then, she would look over her shoulder to spot any ash-blonde spikes in the distance - none - heart throbbing. She still misses him, the break of a heart still cracking in her chest.

...And the most painful...

Two weeks passed and Amicia feels a little more ‘normal’. Her head is held high, a smile on her face and her walk strides in a soft rhythm. She softens to a stop, green jewels wide as she stares ahead. 

Spiky ash-blonde hair in the distance, baggy clothing and that oh-so-knowing posture spewing ‘dominance’. Crimson eyes, a cold and bored gaze.

Her heart thumps in her chest, her feels for him pulsing at the sight of him. They stare at each other for a long moment. Colours mixing again - like before. She snaps out of when she sees a bob of brown hair, pink chubby cheeks and beautiful big chocolate brown eyes comes closer. 

Katsuki Bakugou.

Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou’s new girlfriend. 

She stops just a few steps behind him, waiting for him to go to her. Bakugou still has his eyes on Amicia. There is a look in her eyes that bakugou can’t seem to read. Same to Amicia. She goes to open her mouth to speak but she purses them and closes her eyelids shut. Sucking in a shaky breath, Amicia straightens her back and lifts her chin, fingers splayed across her heart. She opens her eyes again. 

She smiles, lovingly, softly. It scares Bakugou - just a little - only a little. She mouths something. He turns and leaves with his new girl, through the doors of UA and out of sight. She watched them go - him - go. Her hand drops to her side. Her lip is quivering. She purses it when she hears Y/n call her from behind. 

“Hey! You good lil’ sis?” They look at you, leaning beside you. 

Amicia turns her head, glistening emerald eyes sparkling with sun rays. 

“Yes. Let’s get to class before Mr. Aizawa gives us a detention” 

...Acceptance...

" I still love you "

- Amicia Mizuki

______________________________________

Thank you for reading!

[mightbewriting]

Your writing is superb! Wait and Hope is now an all-time favorite fic of mine! I especially admire your ability to write dialogue. Do you have any tips on how to write distinct character voices?

Oh wow, thank you so much! I’m so happy you enjoyed W&H! Dialogue is actually one of my favorite things about writing so the fact that you liked it makes my heart pitter-patter! 

I apologize for sitting on this ask for a couple of days, but I wanted to actually think about some tips for character voice as it relates to dialogue! I do enjoy occasionally nerding out about writing… so without further ado, I’m about to nerd out A LOT (seriously, A LOT). I got a little carried away, but this was so much fun to think about! So, here are some of my thoughts on writing dialogue and using it to support distinct character voices.

The biggest tip I have on how to improve writing the way people talk is to listen to how people talk. Seems obvious, I know. But I mean how real people talk, not scripted movie and TV…which I think is often what comes to mind. I learned more about how people talk in the couple of months I did freelance transcription work than I did in the entirety of the first twenty-something years of my life. You don’t have to actually do transcription work to practice this, just find unscripted video or audio of people talking (interviews, vlogs, streamers, podcasts, whatever!) and type out it out.

The first thing I noticed when I actually had to transcribe real life conversations is that people often make NO SENSE when they talk. They have false starts, verbal pauses, non verbal pauses, they repeat words, they stop mid sentence to start another thought, they fumble with word choice, and so on. This is why professional transcription services offer VERBATIM transcription and NON VERBATIM transcription (I have a point to this, I swear!). Verbatim transcription is how it sounds, you have to type exactly what you hear:

Speaker A: “As I was— I was saying, ah, um, I think we should do— Mary, did you have thoughts on that? No, um, okay [cough], does anyone have any other thou— opinions before we move on?”

Like, what does that even mean? 

Non verbatim transcription teaches you to edit out the stuff that makes real life speech mostly unintelligible (I’m eternally amazed that we’re able to make sense of stuff like that on the fly! Brains are amazing!) and it turns the sentence above into something more like:

Speaker A: “Mary, did you have thoughts on that? No, okay. Does anyone have any other opinions before we move on?”

This is a pretty heavy handed edit, but I’d argue that the first 13 words of the verbatim sentence is nothing but a false start. I also removed the verbal pauses, the coughing notation, and the switch between words mid-speech. What I’m left with is something that looks and sounds more like what you might see in scripted dialogue. 

All of this is to say; when writing, for coherency’s sake, it’s helpful to write in a non verbatim style so you can be understood. BUT, I love throwing in the occasional false start or thought change mid-sentence, or even a rare verbal pause because I enjoy the bit of realism it adds. I know not everyone will agree with that, but that’s just how I enjoy dialogue.  

Character voice comes into play with dialogue in a lot of ways. If I could boil it down to two things; it’s about WHAT they say and HOW they say it. The WHAT involves things vocabulary: words one character might use that another wouldn’t, or a word they might know that another doesn’t. The HOW involves things like your dialogue tags and the associated actions and narrative surrounding the actual speech.

Rapid fire tips for the WHATs: people speak almost exclusively in contractions, they typically only saying things like “can not” and “do not” etc., for emphasis. Read dialogue out loud; if it sounds weird to hear then it’s probably not right. Character motivation is key; what someone says should make sense for their personality, traits, and history. People don’t always answer questions directly, or say what they mean. Less is usually more, unless someone is especially verbose or engaged in a debate, people don’t tend to wax poetic in long monologues all that often. 

My tips for the HOWs are less rapid fire because I want to talk about dialogue tags and that’s, idk…divisive? Here’s the thing; ‘said’ and ‘asked’ (or their other tense counterparts) are pretty much invisible and are used mostly to indicate who is speaking so a reader doesn’t get lost. Less is more with dialogue tags, too.

Alternative dialogue tags aren’t inherently evil (things like: whispered, shouted, grunted, grumbled, mumbled, growled, exclaimed, ordered, etc. have a place when used judiciously) but they are almost always a stand in for what could be a more interesting use of character voice. It usually ends up being a situation where a writer is telling the reader how to interpret dialogue instead of letting the dialogue speak for itself. So I try to use alternative tags very sparingly; you can actually see my evolution in this throughout W&H and then in S&S and my newer stuff, because I went from being subconsciously aware of it to more consciously practicing.  

Consider this real life example of something I wrote from Ron’s POV:

Malfoy forced them out of his office.

“Now you two figure out the details amongst yourselves; I have work to do,” Malfoy ordered.

I used ‘ordered’ knowing I was using an alternative tag and thinking to myself ‘it’s not so bad here, Ron would think Malfoy is ordering him around.’ Which isn’t necessarily wrong…but it’s not all that interesting. My rewrite, after being rightfully called on my bullshit for being lazy about it, looked like this:

Malfoy forced them out of his office.

“Now you two figure out the details amongst yourselves; I have work to do.” Malfoy waved his hands to dismiss them like they were elves he’d had more than enough of.

This version has a stronger character voice; we get Ron’s interpretation that Malfoy is treating him like an elf and we can imagine a physical movement from Malfoy showing how he’s speaking. I think that’s both more interesting to read and has a stronger sense of voice. When and where possible, I would say that substituting some kind of physical action or observation associated with dialogue usually results in a stronger sense of voice, either from the narrator or the speaker, or both! 

This response has gotten…lengthy. I’m sorry for that (but also, not sorry because writing is so interesting xD). In conclusion, writing is subjective and everyone has their own style. I don’t mean for this to be prescriptive advice, these are simply things that are on my mind when I’m writing dialogue and that I think lead to a stronger result. If nothing else: experiment. Write something exclusively in a verbatim style, write something exclusively with alternative tags, write something with no dialogue tags at all, write an enormous monologue and then figure out how to break it up. Try all sorts of different things to see what doesn’t sound right and what does. Learn the rules and then make your own.

Mostly, have fun. <3

[yegarts]

Blind Ambition: Heroic story of Canadian pilot takes flight in new film by local filmmaker

Filmmaker Frederick Kroetsch, photo supplied by the artist.

When it comes to filmmaking, Frederick Kroetsch is a man of many talents; he has worked as a reporter, camera operator, host, director, TV producer, and he currently runs Catapult Pictures with his wife Rebecca Campbell. He has produced thousands of broadcast stories covering everything from Cattle Police to Astronauts, and as a documentary filmmaker, he has filmed in countries around the world. He has created dozens of projects that range from comedy web-series to feature-length documentaries. He is currently nominated for two Alberta Rosie Awards: Best Screenwriter Unscripted under 30 Minutes and Best Cinematographer Unscripted over 30 Minutes. 

And now Frederick has one more notable career highlight to add to the list – the world premiere of his new short documentary Blind Ambition: The Wop May Story at the Edmonton International Film Festival.

Shot on 35mm filmstock with an orchestral musical score, Blind Ambition brings to life the story of an inspiring and courageous pilot:

After learning to fly in WWI, a young Canadian man returns home to start a bold career in aviation. Barnstormer, lifesaver, and intrepid bush pilot, Wilfred ‘Wop’ May proves the value of flight to the world. But an old injury requires catastrophic vision surgery and forces him to admit he’d done it all with only one good eye. Now grounded, Wop continues to push aviation forward by running training schools for pilots and navigators in WWII, creates the first Air Search and Rescue service, and opens the Arctic and Pacific Rim to commercial flight. But this dedication leaves little time for family, and upon Wop’s death, his teenage son discovers how little he really knew his father when he travels the North and hears tales of his adventures, heroics, and generosity - the legacy of Wop May.

In anticipation of the film’s premiere, we connected with Frederick to learn more about his career as a filmmaker and the process of telling the incredible story of a Canadian aviation hero.

Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself as an artist. How did you get involved in filmmaking?

I got invited to film with some friends when I was in grade 6 – I think we were shooting a Doctor Who spin off. It was gloriously terrible. And we didn’t stop. Video tapes were cheap, and editing was difficult. Following the innocence of Hi8-video I got a fine arts degree at the Concordia film school in Montreal, became a TV journalist for 10 years, and then went back to filmmaking. Currently I enjoy balancing commercial work with smaller art projects.

Q: Your film Blind Ambition tells the story of legendary Canadian pilot, Wilfrid “Wop” May. What drew you to his story?

I recall hearing about him when I was a journalist – I always wanted to find a way to make a project about Wilfrid ‘Wop’ May. Years later I was debating the idea of filming a stop-animation art film about him. I visited the Alberta Aviation Museum to learn more and discovered a lot of new details. Wop was way ahead of his time. Against the social conventions of the day, he hired the first female and Asian pilots. He survived a dogfight against the Red Baron by not knowing how to fly. He did aerial stunts, saved lives, and helped open the arctic with his bush plane. And HE DID IT ALL WITH ONE WORKING EYE. That’s crazy! It’s a story that demands to be told!

Q: You describe the film as a creative documentary. How does this style of documentary differ from the style audiences are likely more accustomed to, and how do you think this form of storytelling added to the story of Wop May?

What I refer to as a ‘Standard Documentary’ is what we see quite often on the news or on Youtube – talking heads interspersed with ‘B-roll.’ Which is a great style for disseminating information but is rather uncinematic.

When discussing Wop May, I felt emotive forces reminiscent of watching adventure films from the 1980s like Indiana Jones. I wanted to find a way to recreate that nostalgic, inspired feeling. Also, we didn’t have any photographs for some of his amazing adventures. So, we decided to film dramatic recreations in two different ways. The first method was with designing comic books that we filmed, and the second was live-action recreations using actors, props and costumes. We filmed in real airplanes with stunt pilots. And we shot it all on 35mm Kodak film stock. We also shot it on anamorphic lenses, which squeeze the image so you can have a classic widescreen aspect ratio. These elements helped to create the atmosphere in which to tell Wop’s life story. I wanted the audience to feel like a kid watching Indiana Jones for the first time, except with a documentary about a real person.

Top: Actor Jesse Gervais with stunt pilot Ted Reynolds, photo by Frederick Kroetsch . Bottom: School room scene from Blind Ambition, photo by  Frederick Kroetsch.

Q: Tell us more about your decision to shoot with 35mm film. What were some of the challenges and rewards to using 35mm?

Our cinematographer David Baron really pushed us to shoot on 35mm Kodak film stock. As much as that sounded like a cool thing to co-director Tom Robinson and I – and it’s pretty cool – we weren't entirely sure that was the best move for us. It’s expensive and you can’t tell if it worked until weeks later when it’s processed. Also, we had VERY little money. We tried it out… and it was beautiful. The grain structure of the film stock perfectly emulated that nostalgic blockbuster feel. Tonally, it fit well with the visual language of historical archives like 8mm and turn of the century photography.

Shooting on film meant we had to change the way we normally make films. We could only do a few takes of each shot – which meant everything had to be rehearsed and perfect. The camera is huge and heavy – which meant we focused more on creating movement in the frame. We had to use a tape measure for focusing – it forced us to be more aware of details. Our artistic process was able to step back in time and enjoy the madness of cinema before it became digital. We are intending to shoot more of it.

Q: For the film, the score was created with a European orchestra. What was it like to work remotely with the Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra? Were there any other collaborations (either local or international) that helped achieve the vision of your film?

Composer John McMillan was the artistic force behind our musical score and the orchestra in Prague. I had just worked with John on Rebecca Campbell’s documentary The Secret Society, and I wanted to work with him again. As soon as he heard the words ‘1980s adventure films’ he was instantly on board. He spent weeks writing the music, and then he hired some recent graduates from the MacEwan class that he teaches for the notation. John also secured a grant from the MacEwan Music Department to record with the Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra a 50-piece orchestra.

The recording took place in a studio at MacEwan. We had a live video feed to the studio in Prague. Someone handed me a stack of sheet music – I stared at it confused. A conductor began speaking in Czech. Then the music began, and we recorded for 3 hours. After that the score was mixed by Paul Johnston, and then went into post audio with Johnny Blerot. It was a lengthy process, and we’re lucky to have worked with so many professional artists.

Q: What do you hope Edmonton audiences will take away from the film?

Wop May is all around us in Edmonton. There are numerous murals on the sides of buildings. The neighbourhood of Mayfield is named after him – that was where he landed his planes. The Blatchford Hanger is where he worked in WW2. I want people to watch this and feel like they’re a kid again, excited and amazed at a good story. And then ask the question – what is a hero?

 You can catch the world premier of Blind Ambition: The Wop May Story at the Edmonton International Film Festival on October 3, 2021, 5:45 PM at Landmark Cinema 9 City Centre. Click here for more information about tickets and online viewing options.

[abnicoacademy]

Best article on Importance of Spoken English Classes Online

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For more info visit, https://abnicoacademy.com/

[whatsanalec]

Weeks 9&10

It’s been hectic and stressful to say the least, and a lot happened.

Firstly, concerning the “ ‘ “ idea: I made a portotype for each version (window and crowd). However, the only one I went forward with was the window one, because I feel like it’s more striking and intriguing as an image and concept, and because the crowd idea (seeing image) - although it took a while to draw - turned out to appear a lot more creepy than I imagined because of the eyes. Although I should have seen that coming, come to think of it.

For the Window prototype (first image) I used leftover painted card from last year for the background. For the end product it needs to be bright colour that communicates the feeling of desire.

For both prototypes, I used a photo of myself for the silhouette (which I had to photoshop because my jaw was still very swollen from getting my wisdom tooth removed at the time). This is my way of putting myself in the work, semi-literally. Since this concept is half-inspired by personal experience, it just makes sense for me.

Having decided to go ahead with the window idea, I set to work to get it done. I used another image for the background figure to avoid the same pixelation issue I had with the prototype.

This piece, initially inspired by the Imagine Dragons lyric, “I’m an apostrophe, I’m just a symbol to remind you that there’s more to see,” put you in the perspective of a person who, despite having someone directly in front of and facing them, decides to look through them and onto who’s behind. That person, however, is visually content without knowing or acknowledging you. And yet, you keep looking.

The top layer being plain white serves the purpose of blending into a white wall and emphasising the idea that you are looking straight through someone who is obviously right in front of you. Behind that, the black layer is to create stark contrast and amplify the white’s cutout, but invite you further into the centre of the piece.

The much more intricate application of the crimson and scarlet colours beneath are to communicate the feeling of desire and interest that you feel towards the figure in the back, who is maticulously detailed in contrast to the silhouette in front. This is to convey the idea that you, who is looking through someone that you see no detain in, look past them and onto someone whose body intrigues you so much more. The piece is sized so that the silhouette is life sized in order to make the concept more real to the viewer.

In other news, remember that floating MDF idea I had? Yeah I did that. This was very unlike anything I’ve done before and was very stressful because I was working on this and ‘ at the same time for over a week.

This started with me stealing (with permission) - bunch of lasercut rectangles from the digital making space, and the idea of “strangers,” which I came up with after a conversation with my friend about my social anxiety. After a slow back and forth with Ronnie about how to suspend them, I painted them all white on both sides and we constructed the... thing.

As I mentioned before, my first thought was to create some kind of crosshatch design - either out of assembled wood or lasercut MDF - and attach it to my studio board so that the pieces could be hung in seemingly random places, because that’s what I wanted. What Ronnie thought of was similar. We screwed a couple long, thin pieces of wood coming off the top of my studio board and I was left to play with it.

We were going to do the same thing with another piece of wood and then attach some pieces across the ones already there, parallel to the wall, but after some experimentation with hanging the MDF I realised that it would be much better if the wood parallel to the wall was completely movable. That way, I could move and swap them about freely to get what I want without the hassle of untying the thread and tying it back on in a different spot. And if I wanted to change the position of a single MDF piece, I could shimmy it over thanks to the slack on the knots, or I could loop the thread around the wood to make the MDF higher. Foolproof.

But this contraption isn’t the whole thing. To communicate the aforementioned idea of anxiety, I had the idea of projecting a video of an eye looking around restlessly, with audio of panicked breathing. Luckily, I have three things that made this possible on short notice: a phone capable of filming in 4K, a clip-on macro lens for said phone, and a willing friend.

My idea for this video was to make it very eerie and anxiety inducing. So when it came to editing it, I used Davinci Resolve to desaturate the colours and lower the temperature to make it seem cold and absolutely not uplifting. I then took it into Premiere Pro. There, I made an identical video track but reversed it and lowered the opacity to 33% so it looks like two eyes of the danger owner moving independently.

For the audio, I added a recording of my heavy breathing and upped the gain to make it loud but not deafeningly so. I also added a slowed down version of it for a creepy bass layer, and I also added a track of room time but made it louder to amplify the feeling of something being off.

So, I got a projector and a plinth, and it turned out pretty great. Without further ado:

Strangers is an installation with the purpose of portraying my experience with social anxiety and difficulty communicating with proper I don’t know well or aren’t comfortable around.

The projected video aims to induce the feelings of anxiety and panic, which are communicated through many aspects: i.e. the lack of vibrance, overlap of visuals and collection of audio. The use of colour gives anything but a feeling of happiness and makes the viewer feel on edge just by that alone. The overlap of video shows constant rapid movement, and along with the sound of panicked breathing, plus the sounds beneath that, the feeling of being overwhelmed is emphasised so much more.

The MDF pieces are suspended by transparent fishing wire to give the impression that they are floating. They are positioned in a way that appears random and they take up all three axes. These shapes represent uncertainty and/or people, and their positioning gives the idea that there is no escape from threes feelings of anxiety - you’re surrounded by them. They’re everywhere. These objects onstruct the projection and leave holes in it, furthering the relationship between the two elements of the installation and bringing the video forwards into the third dimension.

To see the video, click here: https://youtu.be/tAJWmACRYbY

Moving Image module

Editing this thing together was an experience but less tedious than I expected. I used Davinci Teeolve for the first time to colour correct and whatnot. It was a slow process because my laptop isn’t great but I got there. I tried to make it look like there was more sun, to give a warm feeling and emphasise the light-heartedness, but some locations are visually overcast so it was kind of difficult to make them seem sunnier while being realistic. In some cases I ended up just being able to boost the colour which will have to suffice.

When it came to making all the cuts in Premiere, I divided a method for including all the locations without the film being a confusing mess: start with 3 locations and cut between them. 3 minutes in, take one out and introduce a new one in the former’s place. Repeat until all locations are introduced. I had to write this down in a way that visually represented it in a simple way my feeble little brain could understand:

This method was derived from Creature Comforts, which did near the same thing. The difference being that they had many more settings to cut between. After I developed the method, it was a matter of singling out the moray interesting parts/monuments with potential for the voiceover, and cutting them together. It came to about 11.5 minutes, which is respectable in my opinion, as long as we can keep the energy up during recording.

Speaking of which, I think the recording went well. We started with the traffic/weather track which was going well, considering we hadn’t had any practice, until Nathan forgot we weren’t doing voices yet. He realised after that track and we gained confidence through recording the others.

Being one take and in time with the video track, the audio was easy to implement. At first I lowered the sfx and ambiance tracks to give the speech one more prominence, but Nathan advised I boost all of them. This was alright, just meant I had to adjust the volume of some parts. Also, I only ended up using the direction track once, where the speech track peaked badly. If we did this again, I’d definitely speak more clearly during recording and be more cautious about packing the mic. But of course we couldn’t do a second take, because that would go against the whole point of doing a single take.

And that’s it done. I definitely believe we could have achieved something much more impressive if we went with my initial idea or something similar. But nevertheless, this was a fun process, especially the recording. At least I learned new software and hot more experience with editing. Link to the film: https://youtu.be/BoH4mZsXRac

Now all that’s left is assessment. Please have mercy.

[ecotone99]

[MF] Who Is That

​

For the last four weeks I have been tied to my desk, remotely working, as my new position doesn’t require me to commute into any office. I can do all my position entails while never putting on a pair of pants, which I rarely did anymore. My laundry mostly consists of socks, underwear and an occasional dress shirt I wear when I have weekly video meetings with my supervisors. My change in position had nicely coincided with a world pandemic, which is lucky for me. While millions of people were out of work and getting hours cut, I had received a wage increase and the ability to do my job twenty feet from where I sleep.

Because of the nature of my work, which is mainly web design / maintenance and some video and audio editing, projects have to be done on a deadline, and the only things that I need to be on call for are updates to our main site. I still had to clock in and out, but as long as I met my deadlines and was available for anything new, I had the rest of the time to myself. After two days at my new post, I began taking walks whenever I felt like it around my neighborhood. Looking at houses I had never noticed, making acronyms from letters on license plates, and subtly nodding at neighbors I had never seen before when I passed by. I figured out after a couple days that I could walk 10 minutes away from my house and be safe. Anything inside of that, I could make it back to my desk and begin any updates without delay. The fourth day I was caught almost two miles from my house and had to sprint back, only to be scolded by my superior and forced to lie about running out to get cat food. And seeing as how conflict makes me very uncomfortable, I started keeping my excursions within 10 minutes.

But a couple weeks in, none of the houses looked any different. So I had to start looking for something else to do instead of walking. I tried all kinds of things. Video games frustrate me, T.V. is boring and reading only works for me in the right mood which hasn’t been very often lately. Within three or four days I was back walking, and figured out that to make it interesting, like any other story or adventure, you need characters, storylines or something to come back to. To start, I created backstories for cats or dogs that I passed by regularly. I even started bringing treats with me to get closer to them so I could gage their personality better and be more accurate in my character and profile building.

Three houses down on the left was a dog who I named Marty. Marty was in his fifth year of community college and had changed majors four times before settling on communications. And he was good friends with Shauna who lived across the street and one house over from him but hated Lily who lived four houses to the left of him, and was Shauna’s best friend. Whenever they went out together, which hasn’t really happened since high school, Marty couldn’t wait to drop her off so he could walk Shauna the rest of the way home, even if it was just three doors down. There was also an old cat who hung out on the top of a brick fence on the house on the corner. His name was Gerry and worked at a bait and tackle shop for 39 years before retiring to this fence. And while he didn’t speak much, his eyes judged any and all movement.

While I was starting to form my storylines I realized that I sounded insane. Cats don’t work at bait and tackle shops and dogs don’t go to school, even though both species would most likely enjoy those activities. Being relatively new to the neighborhood, moving in just eight months earlier, I didn’t know anybody close enough to communicate with to curb my boredom. And being that the world is in a medical state of emergency because of an incredibly contagious strain of flu, very few neighbors were willing to get within 10 feet of me or anybody for that matter.

The solution I decided on for this problem was, sadly, more insane than the last. Cats, dogs, birds and other animals were too easy and not at all satisfying. But people, coming up with backstories and profiles about people was much more viable. People each have their own style, expressions, faces and personalities that you can get a read on just by seeing them most of the time. For me at least, from the first time I see someone, I can gauge if I would like them, want to be friends with them, hate them and a bunch of other “aura” stuff that I never bothered to try and understand. So I figured that If I spent my time analyzing and crafting stories around my neighbors it would not only cure my boredom but maybe in some weird way I didn’t bother to try and understand, make me less anxious around them. Win-Win.

The first day out I was more motivated than I had been since the first day of my new position. First I saw a man. Yes, a man. Slightly taller than me, maybe six foot flat but a hundred and fifty pounds heavier. He wore a tank top that said, “Cali” on the front, baggy black basketball shorts that went almost to his ankles and some slide on sandals. As ugly as he was, I could see his yellow toenails from across the street, he was walking two little pugs that were probably his girlfriend’s pet of choice. He was maybe 35 and had dark skin and a full black beard and mustache. And even with his heavy waddle he had a subtlety to him. His steps seemed quiet and his face blankly observed the dogs, careful to not cross the leashes and encouraging them along when he needed to.

I came to the conclusion that his name was David. And he grew up probably a city or two over in a poorer area. He was subjected to gang violence, and even was part of a gang as a youth, before deciding he would move out of the neighborhood to settle his life down because he was always scared of the conflict and violence. He did this through a girlfriend who I could only imagine was on the heavier side and was very bossy. She confused encouragement and motivation with bullying and without a doubt was home, but refused to take HER dogs out and was having her man with the waddle and light footsteps do the work. I began and finished this profile in about thirty seconds, and even came up with a name for his girlfriend, Paola. We were walking on opposite sides of the street and when we passed he must have noticed me staring and gave me a very sad nod that only proved to me he lived a disappointing life and led me to pity him for a second or two.

After our nod and he had passed by me, I had a strange feeling build. It was warm and made me kind of nauseous even though the feeling was in my chest. The only thing I wanted to do was somehow follow him home, and figure out how close I was to the truth. Did he even have a girlfriend? I hadn’t thought about children of any kind, did extended family or in-laws live with him? Was he a loner? These were questions that burned a hole in my head. Even after I was called back to my desk to work on a project, my work pace had slowed because I couldn’t focus. I could only think of David, and his sad, sad life. Although I have never been the most outstanding or outspoken person, I certainly have never been bullied into doing anything I didn’t want to, and made it a point to avoid at all costs things I didn’t want to do. But David never stood a chance. A sensitive soul thrust into gang life and forced to endure and assimilate into a living situation filled with things he otherwise had no interest in. And when a female gave him the opportunity to change, no matter if it was into something he also had no interest in, he jumped at the opportunity and didn’t consider if this life would be any better. A sad life indeed.

I finished my work and took my lunch, ate a leftover piece of salmon and some white rice from the night before, clocked back in and went back out for a walk. It was noon and the sun was beating down on the pavement. I walked quickly through my street and saw no one so I ventured to the next. It was there I saw a girl walking. This girl I had a background on already. No more than 16 I had seen her around the neighborhood at any and all hours of the day and night before we went on a county-wide recommended quarantine and had seen her for the past month or so on my walks. She was clearly hispanic but had a light complexion, and had brown brunette hair with slightly lighter brown streaks down in some parts. She wore big glasses, had a prominent overbite that I always exaggerated and will describe as forcing her teeth out of her mouth. She had on a plain v-neck t-shirt and short jean shorts with canvas shoes every time I saw her. Without fail, only during school did she also have a basic black backpack. And everytime I saw her walking it was either by herself or with a different person. I never saw her with the same person twice. So clearly a girl that understands school and socializing. She didn’t look particularly athletic, and at the risk of sounding perverted wasn’t particularly pretty. She must just know how to talk to people, I was jealous, she must have a lot of friends.

But If I remember correctly I had also seen her working a shift at an ice cream shop, and given her age, money must be important, either for personal motivations or family pressure. Because of all I knew, I figured personal motivation to free her from family pressure or responsibility. Maybe even just an excuse to get out of the house. This current walk she was accompanied by her younger sister who I pegged around four or five. I lied earlier, I had seen her walk with her sister on numerous occasions. This gap in age could mean a lot of things. For one, it could mean her parents simply have a lot of kids, but because she only ever walks with a younger sister, I am sticking with their simply being a gap, and there being no other sibling in between. This could also be a half-sibling from either her mother or father with a new significant other. But I'm going to go with distant parents, who were dissatisfied with her at a young age and decided to have another kid, which triggered her to push away from them, focus on friends and socializing and begin working at a young age so she can move out as soon as possible. But she still loves the baby sister and idolizes an older brother who rebelled from their parents and left at a young age. Her name, by the way, is Natalie. Which I know because I saw her nametag when I was at the ice cream shop.

I know she has seen me before, and most likely recognizes me. She was walking on the opposite side of the street. When we came close to passing I knelt down to tie my shoe and she crossed the street and stopped about eight feet from me. She started talking to me. She talked fine but because of her teeth it was very “spitty” if that makes sense. She talked to me quickly about where I live and what I do and how old I was. I answered quickly without a lot of extra words, mainly because I didn’t want to be seen talking to a girl who was clearly underage. In the middle of her next question I saw David, good old David, picking up the mail and walking back to his door. I interrupted her and asked, “You’ve lived here a long time, yea?”

She answered very uneasily, “Yea, why?”

“So do you know all the people in the neighborhood?”

“Yea basically, why?”

“So if I asked who lived in that house over there, with the flag outside of it” I asked and pointed to a house across the street and two houses down from David’s house.

“Yea that’s some old lady and her husband. They’ve been there longer than us for sure, why?” she repeated.

“And what about that one, the one with the dirt lawn,” pointing to a house further down the street.

“That’s another older couple but not too old. They have a son probably around your age that lives with them, but why do you want to know?” She repeated again.

“Okay, last one. What about that one,” and I pointed to the house with a yard high brick fence around the yard that I had seen David come out and check the mail at.

“Oh I know the lady that lives there. Her name is Priscilla I think, why?”

“Nobody else lives there?”

“Why? Are you some kind of pervert or somethin, I mean you're walking around all the time.”

“No. no I’m not a pervert I’m just new to the neighborhood, and I’ve been walking around for the past month but since we can’t get close to anyone I haven’t really gotten to meet or get to know people in the neighborhood.”

“Oh, I guess. But yea some guy named Diego lives there with her, he’s the guy always walking the dogs.”

“Mmm I knew I had seen that guy before. Anyway thanks, nice to meet you,” and started to walk away back the way I came. I didn’t even think to look back to see if she was giving me an awkward glance.

Without a doubt I had felt accomplished. She had not only confirmed that I had the first letter right, but that he did live with a girl. I would have asked more questions but I think I pushed luck far enough with what I asked already. This satisfied me greatly, and I went back and worked clear headed until I finished all my projects which wasn’t until around eight at night. I didn’t care. In one day I had been able to not only begin a profile and character, which was my only goal, but then confirm that it was at least partially true.

But when I laid down that night, after about 20 minutes in bed I had another feeling of warmth and nausea. Through prior knowledge and deduction I had come up with a very in-depth and judgemental profile about a girl. And I had spoken to that girl, who inquired about my life, but I had done nothing to pry into hers. This is probably because at the time, the profile was the fun, and only when I saw David, or Diego, did I decide to try for more. But after I spent so much time trying to get info on David, by the time I realized that I should have asked her more, I was long gone. I would have had to carry a conversation with her, THEN move onto David. How could I be so stupid.

But, and this is the last piece of withheld information, I knew where she lived. I had seen her and her sister coming out of the house one day. It’s after midnight, everyone is asleep. If anyone is suspicious I could just say that I couldn’t sleep and needed some air. And before I knew it I was on the streets. Walking towards where I thought she lived. But what would I even do, they were all asleep, it’s not like I could get any validation from observing a sleeping family. I thought about all the various possibilities but never decided to stop walking until I saw her house. Before I knew it I was in their neighbors yard, and quietly made my way to their backyard which luckily had no dog. I had peeped over and seen no dog in theirs, even tossing a couple rocks and sticks over to see if it stirred anything, but nothing. So I climbed over, slowly, quietly. Looking through the window I could see who I assume to be her mother sitting at the dining room table drinking coffee or tea out of a mug in her robe looking exhausted.

At that moment, seeing another human in a moment they have reason to believe is private, I became sicker than I ever had. The feelings of nausea were nothing compared to this. I ran and jumped over the fence that led to the street, not caring about the noise I made, and bolted towards my house. Not looking back or to the side and not stopping until I was back in my room. Dripping in sweat I took off all my black clothes and showered. And by the time I was out, dressed and about to get back into bed, there was a knock at my door. The police.

When I opened the door there were two policemen at my doorstep, the girl Natalie, her mom, and what appeared to be an older brother on the sidewalk. I was initially happy to see that it seemed like my suspicion that there was an older brother was correct, but then sad because the fact that he was there at this time of night means he either hasn’t moved out or was just spending the night. But then that led to a whole trail of thoughts I didn’t have time to think of because of the two policemen in my face.

I didn’t deny that I had been in their backyard. I even told them why, which they didn’t believe. They thought I was a pervert, obsessed with a not-yet legal girl that lived in the house. I told them to search my house, computer and even my phone and they won’t find any evidence of that. Not a single picture. They did, I sat around, didn’t bother to call a lawyer or get bailed out. I apologized, told them it was a mistake, volunteered community service or anything to make it easier.

After all negotiating I just moved. That was it. I really don’t like conflict and always aim to avoid it. Instead of dealing with my problem I moved to an apartment complex the next city over, closer to the beach and on the fifth floor. To pass the time, I bought some binoculars. Just to curb my boredom.

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[entergamingxp]

why Microsoft redefined the console form factor • Eurogamer.net

Undoubtedly the biggest surprise of The Game Awards back in December 2019 was Microsoft’s decision to reveal Xbox Series X: the name, the branding – and most crucially, the form factor. It was a console quite unlike anything we’d seen before, possibly the most original home console design since Nintendo’s GameCube way back in 2001. During our recent visit to the Microsoft campus in Redmond WA, we had a chance to meet key members of the hardware team that created this remarkable-looking device – and in the process, we gained a much better understanding of why Xbox Series X required a top to bottom revamp of the traditional console form factor.

“When we started thinking about how we would design this, everything was theoretical,” says Chris Kujawski, principal designer at Microsoft. “We didn’t have stuff we could test, we didn’t have measurements we could take, we knew it was going to be powerful and we knew it was going to require a totally different way of thinking about how to design a console.”

The key issue facing the designers came down to power and target performance. The Xbox system architects decided from the get-go that the next generation console had to deliver an absolute minimum of twice the overall graphics performance of the Xbox One X, meaning 12 teraflops of GPU compute, sitting alongside the Zen 2 cores that would deliver a 4x improvement in CPU power. At the same time, the mandate was set that the machine also had to equal the acoustic performance of the Xbox One X – a tall order when system power would be increasing significantly.

The challenge came into focus once the outsize power requirements of the new hardware came into focus. Based on the prototype hardware we saw, Xbox Series X ships with a 315W power supply and in keeping with all of Microsoft’s console designs since Xbox Series S, this would be delivered internally. With the sheer amount of electrical power pumping through the processor, the regulators pump up to 100W per square inch, delivering up to 190A. What made this all coalesce into the form factor we have today is the key decision to move to a split motherboard design: one board houses the high-power components like the Series X processor, the GDDR6 and the power regulators. The other is the Southbridge board, principally handling I/O. The boards sit on either side of a substantial chassis block – a sheer aluminium casting.

Constructing Xbox Series X – Microsoft and Digital Foundry build the console up from the centre chassis upwards.

“I like to think about our past generations as having a bit of an exoskeleton, so you have a mechanical structure with electrical shielding all on the outside then you have all the guts in the inside,” explains Jim Wahl, director of mechanical engineering for Xbox hardware. “And so what we did in this generation is that we turned that completely inside out… and so this centre chassis essentially forms the spine, the foundation of this system and then we build things out from there.”

“This is actually my favorite part of the console on the inside,” adds Chris Kujawski. “It’s like it’s the coolest part that anybody who actually buys the console will never actually see.” It’s also essential in keeping the thermal demands of the hottest components in check. “It creates what we call a parallel cooling architecture, so you get cool air in – and cool air streams through separate zones of the console,” adds Wahl. “The second thing it does is that it actually distributes the heat sources a bit differently in the console – so those two things together are really effective at cooling a console. And then the third thing it does is… we play this sort of 3D Tetris game, where you’re trying to figure out where the components should go and what’s the best arrangement – and then that starts to establish some of the dimensional aspects.”

While all of this is happening, Chris Kujawski is literally building an Xbox Series X right in front of us using all of these component parts – an exercise we would be carrying out ourselves the following day when it came to producing the video content at the top of this page. The two main boards are of broadly equivalent size, slotting into place on either side of the chassis. I’m reminded more of the old Apple Mac Pro design rather than any kind of console I’d seen before. “So already you can see how these larger components are being Tetrissed together,” says Kujawski. “Already you can tell it’s going to be a very different kind of shaped product than we’ve ever done before.”

Along with the 4K UHD Blu-ray optical drive and the 315W power supply, electrical shielding is added to the construction. There’s a real balancing act to this. Essentially, electromagnetic radiation has to be contained within the machine, but at the same time, Xbox Series X has to dissipate a lot of heat. “What’s interesting is that if you look up previous generations, we always had a very nice piece of metal around [the internals] like a Faraday cage,” says Andres Hernandez, director of electrical engineering for Xbox. “This time, we had to think a little outside the box. We have board-level shields. We have localised shielding, instead of having that huge piece of metal shielding.”

Xbox Series X Xbox One X Xbox One S Dimensions 15.1cm x 15.1cm x 30.1cm 30cm x 24cm x 6cm 29.5cm x 23cm x 6.5cm Total Volume 6.86 litres 4.32 litres 4.41 litres Weight 4.45kg/9.8lbs 3.69kg/8.14kg 2.90kg/6.4lbs Ports: HDMI 2.1 output, 3x USB 3.2, networking port, expanded storage slot, power input HDMI 2.0b output, HDMI 1.4 input, 3x USB 3.2, Toslink audio, IR output, Gigabit Ethernet, power input. HDMI 2.0a output, HDMI 1.4 input, 3x USB 3.2, Toslink audio, IR output, Gigabit Ethernet, power input. Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray 4K UHD Blu-ray 4K UHD Blu-ray

After this, we get a look at the solid-state storage drive – a custom module built for Xbox Series X, which has its own thermal challenges. “What’s really impressive is that this is a 1TB internal module and it runs at 2.4GB/s at up 3.8W, so this is a big challenge for us,” says Hernandez. “When you’re in a 22x30mm [SSD] form factor, that’s really tiny… how do you dissipate all of that heat? So that’s one of the pieces where we had to go and rethink a lot of our thermal strategy, because that’s a lot of bandwidth to go push into such a small form factor.”

PC NVMe SSDs often lose performance simply because they get too hot – and this required some innovative engineering for the new Xbox. “We have these competing set of springs that we call thermal bias springs,” says Jim Wahl. “What that does is that it actually biases the card up against this top thick heatsink, so that the card is transferring heat through its connector into the chassis off to cooling air as it goes through the system… there’s tons of engineering that just sort of sharpens the pencil and gets it right.”

Chris Kujawski continues to construct the Series X and it’s time to bring out one of the largest single components in the entire design – the heat sink. It’s pretty big, relatively speaking, a heavy copper vapour chamber with a lightweight aluminium heat sink attached. It’s big enough to cover the vast majority of the SoC board – but it doesn’t just siphon heat away from the main processor. “We have these very powerful regulators, so one of the challenges is how do we actually cool that much power density? So, we actually ended up using the vapour chamber for a couple of things,” says Andres Hernandez. “The first one is we also heat sink our GDDR6 memory to the vapour chamber. That made a lot of sense because when you’re pushing a lot of bandwidth, those chips are thermally high. And then the second piece is, as I mentioned, the regulators. It’s one of the most power-dense pieces of our box.”

In order to maintain the same kind of acoustic performance seen on Xbox One X, a number of components are required, but it starts with hardware built into the processor itself. Readings from 64 diodes on the SoC are continually monitored, feeding a fan algorithm in the system firmware that keeps the system as quiet as possible, while delivering cooling power when it’s needed. “With all that power, you have to move a lot of air and you want to move it quietly,” says Jim Wahl. “We studied many different ways of doing air movement in a product and a single axial fan was the most efficient, the quietest air mover for our system… we do a bunch of customisations here, so the number of blades, particularly the blade geometry, is highly highly optimised to operate within the confines of our system.

A video presentation of the Xbox Series X’s specifications and features – and a look at a range of impressive demos showing the key technologies in action.

“There are a bunch of under-the-hood things like the bearing surfaces and the bearing types to keep it very quiet, to make sure that this powerful fan stays quiet across its life,” adds Wahl. “And then there are things that are more subtle, like the curvature on the shroud out to the corners, even those little details improve the efficiency of moving air through the box and out the top.”

Sitting next to the Xbox Series X construction taking shape is the main casing into which all of these parts will be packed. However, what’s immediately obvious is that this device is dense. There’s going to be very little free space within it once the component parts are placed within. It’s a complete antithesis to the concept of airflow as we know it within, say, a PC case. “We also have to have good air in to the enclosure, so you have certain venting and large holes,” explains Jim Wahl. “You have exhaust out the top and we have large venting holes, but the the net effect of putting all of this together, having parallel paths, having this really powerful quiet fan at the top, is that we get 70 per cent more airflow through this console than the past generation and we get 20 per cent more airflow through our heatsink alone than in the past generation.”

And at the most fundamental level, there’s a very basic set of ‘rules’ that define the form factor of Xbox Series X beyond the unprecedented power requirements of the processor, as Chris Kujawski explains: “Jim mentioned how the ODD [optical disc drive] sets one dimension, the volume of the heat sink sets the other dimension, the height is set by airflow and throughout this kind of complex negotiation of figuring out how this stuff comes together, we landed on a square form factor which we love.”

Certain thermal realities also helped to define the look of the box. The large holes on the top of the machine are there by virtue of the need to expel a good amount of hot air. “We decided to really focus on this as the signature surface on the product,” explains Kujawski. “We started off by creating some extra depth by making them each about a centimetre deep. And then carving out this surface, it changes the look of it as you approach it – and as you raise and lower your sight line, you see more or less in there. Then we amped it up by adding that green layer underneath and that’s got its own variable depth, so it’s thicker in the middle and it’s thinner on the edges.”

And with that, the internal structure is essentially complete. Kujawski takes a hold of the construction by the heat sink and slots it into the external casing. And the plastic surround must surely be one of the simpler aspects of the design, right? It’s a rectangular piece of casing, after all. In actual fact, the dimensions of the shell created a whole new series of challenges, mostly owing to its depth. Robots construct Xbox Series X on the production line, with tooling moving in and out of the casing – and at one point, there was simply no give left in the design – the tools couldn’t leave the case, requiring another Eureka moment to make the Series X form factor possible to mass produce.

It’s fair to say that the hardware team didn’t quite expect to see some of the memes that emerged from the Game Awards reveal, but it has been fun to see Microsoft react with humour to some of the more amusing form factor comparisons – to the point where the infamous Series X vs fridge head-to-head made it into Microsoft’s own social media. However, the fact remains that it is a fundamentally different, challenging design and with that in mind, it was sent out to focus testers for their thoughts.

“We presented it to them and said, ‘what do you think, does this work for you? Unplug your Xbox, plug this in. Does it fit in your cabinet? Would you want to show this off to your friends?’ And we were relieved and gratified to find out that the vast majority of people totally loved it,” says Chris Kujawski. “The footprint is really small – when you compare it to a traditional shaped console that’s pretty deep, you’ve actually got a really small footprint so when you plug in all your cables, you can actually put it on a much shallower shelf or put it in a shallower cabinet than you could before. That was pretty magical for us to get that feedback so early on in the program and to get that confidence that this was going to work, that people are going to respond well to this.”

With the Series X constructed, the focus shifts to the revised Xbox controller. For our briefing, the design team put together a presentation board showing all of its joypads from across the years from the original vintage 2001 ‘Duke’ all the way up to recent devices like the Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 and Microsoft’s acclaimed Adaptive Controller. Sitting on the top-right of the board is the new pad for Xbox Series X. There’s obviously a journey here of gradual evolution, though obviously the Adaptive Controller is something of a radical departure.

“What was really cool about it is that accessibility and inclusive design is now a baseline part of every product we design,” says Chris Kujawski. “Just like we would talk about performance, specs and reliability, accessibility is is part of that conversation now across all of our hardware and our packaging. That’s been really cool just process-wise for us and I think it’s helped a lot of us grow and become just better product makers, it’s been a really great thing to be part of.”

On the face of it, the new Xbox controller doesn’t look that much different from the pads we’ve seen before with the obvious exception of the share button and a new d-pad that appears to share much in common with the design seen on the Elite series controllers. The number one piece of feedback Microsoft received from its most committed players is that they are happy with the existing design – the key was to extend that level of satisfaction to more users. “Some of the themes that came up, number one was ergonomics,” explains Microsoft senior designer Ryan Whitaker. “Can you make this thing more comfortable? I have small hands. Can you make this fit in my hands better? Connectivity – I have all these new devices, I want to play Xbox games on all these devices, can you make it easier to pair? Sharing – capturing and sharing has become a really big part of the gaming lifestyle.”

Microsoft kept the same basic design, ensuring that existing peripherals like the chat pad would work just fine with the new controller – but went to work in re-sculpting the design. It turned out that small changes could make the pad far more comfortable to use for many, many more users. The existing controller is designed to fit comfortably within the fifth to 95th percentile hand sizes, but small changes could go a long way in accessibility terms. “One of the things we found is that if we can actually reduce the percentiles on the lower end, if we target the third percentile up to the 95th percentile, those two percentile points actually represent hundreds of millions of people,” says Whitaker. “And so just by slightly shrinking some areas of the controller, we found that we can actually reach a lot more people and at the same time make it more comfortable for everyone.”

But this is the next generation Xbox, so why not push on with a more radical design? A look at the presentation board in front of us showing the evolution of the controller demonstrates that the fundamentals haven’t really changed. Behind us on a flipboard, there are photos of how users interact with the existing pad – and let’s just say that there are some strange formations of fingers and hands there. According to Microsoft, the decision to evolve the existing design is essentially born from the fact that users like the current set-up. They’re used to it and happy with it.

“They’ve got a lot of muscle memory in there,” sums up Whitaker. “Some of the ways that we’ve found that we could increase accessibility is by rounding those corners on the bumper. We’ve taken in the opening by a few millimeters and the angle of attack there has changed by a degree. There are things that we knew we didn’t want to change, that includes things like thumbstick heights, we want to make sure that people’s muscle memories still there.”

There are other simple changes that can also help more than you might imagine. “You can see that we have a matte finish on the bumpers and triggers now instead of gloss,” says Ryan Whitaker. “And what that helps us do is – whether you have dry hands or you’re really intense and your fingers are getting kind of sweaty, it actually helps to maintain the same posture, grip, and friction so that your performance doesn’t change over time.” Again, hundreds of thousands of hours of testing are done on new controller designs. “All these angles, heights, textures, they’re finally tuned – we’re talking 0.1mm and people notice the difference,” says Whitaker. “You can actually measure the performance and see how things go up or go down based on how you tune those surfaces.”

Rich Leadbetter and John Linneman talk about their impressions of the Xbox Series X hardware, inside and out.

An interesting point of discussion is the fact that the Xbox controller still ships with AA batteries as opposed to the kind of built-in rechargeable cells we find in the Dual Shock pad – and that tradition extends to the Series X pad too. Tech influencer Austin Evans (also attending this event) asks whether it’s time to move on, while Digital Foundry’s John Linneman points out how his son needs to instantly get back into the game when the batteries die, while also making the argument that AA battery support means that the controller will still work perfectly many years from now, while internal cells fade and die.

Jason Ronald, partner director of program management at Xbox – aka ‘Xbox Beard Guy’ from the E3 2019 Scarlett trailer – muses that the 50/50 split on opinion in the room almost perfectly reflects customer feedback: “What it comes down to is when actually talking to gamers, it’s kind of polarising and there is a strong camp that really want AAs. So just giving flexibility is the way to please both [sets of] people… You can use a rechargeable battery pack and it works just like it does on the Elite, [but] it is a separate thing.”

We had the chance to use the pad and fundamentally it delivers exactly what the Xbox team says it does. It’s familiar, yet easier to hold, the share button addresses easy access to game clips and screenshots while the extra clicky d-pad feels like a big improvement over the existing pad. Under the hood, the latest Bluetooth radio is integrated for easier connectivity to non-Xbox hardware while the existing wireless interface is refined for lower latency. It’s a software-based revamp on the pad at least, so the Xbox team’s drive to lower input lag will be retrofitted into existing controllers, while the new model pairs to Xbox One too.

Microsoft’s initial Game Awards reveal ended with a look at the Series X console, the new controller resting against it – and this one image effectively summarises the contrasts in approach to the next-gen design. On the one hand, there’s revolution in the form of the console itself, its revamped form factor, double board design and prodigious airflow. And then there’s the controller – an altogether more cautious design perhaps, but with worthwhile new features and an approach to accessibility that opens up the controller to more users, while making it more comfortable for those already used to it.

There’s still plenty of unanswered questions though. Just how much power will the console actually draw from the wall? Is the final retail Series X really going to be as discreet as the Xbox One X under load? We’ve already showcased the form factor up against the X, but how about actual integration into a media cabinet? And finally – the biggest question of all. If there is another Xbox console coming alongside Series X, what’s that going to look like? We can’t wait to find out.

Digital Foundry was invited to Microsoft in Redmond WA during early March to cover the Xbox Series X specs reveal. Microsoft paid for travel and accommodation.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/why-microsoft-redefined-the-console-form-factor-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-microsoft-redefined-the-console-form-factor-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[caraudiologic]

Best 15 Inch Subwoofer Reviews

Smaller subwoofers are a lot better than having nothing at all, but when you really want to shake the block, 8” or 12” just isn’t going to cut it. Before you proceed, you’ve got to understand that this is a serious commitment to bass. You’re going to need a powerful amplifier, but you know that already. If you want to feel your music at the very core of your existence, you’re on the right path.

Even an incredible subwoofer at a smaller size just isn’t going to be able to hit those deepest, darkest notes that you’ll get out of your 15” subwoofer.

Whether you’re looking for something that’s a little more on the affordable side, or you’re looking for full-on competition grade subwoofers because you’re tired of playing games, we’ve covered the gamut with the following choices and we’re confident that there’s something for everyone on this list.

  Editor’s Choice 15’inch Sub

It’s very heavy. You’ll notice many of the cheaper subs don’t weigh nearly as much

It gets very loud, and the bass is very powerful.

Overall, this is the best 15 inch subwoofer you’ll likely find.

READ FULL REVIEW >>>

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Best 15 Inch Subwoofer Reviews – Top Choices For 2019

1. Orion HCCA152 :

The HCCA152 is a heavy-hitter, with an SPL that’s off the charts. If your setup can handle it, and you’re willing to sacrifice most of your trunk to carry around this huge, heavy monster of a subwoofer, you’re in for a real treat.

If you’re at all on the fence about diving into the deep end, this one isn’t for you so keep reading to find something a little less all-in.

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Orion’s HCCA (which stands for High Current Competition Class) brand of competitive car audio gear dates back to the 80’s, but remains as relevant as ever. That familiar red paint staring you in the face lets you know that you’re about to be absolutely demolished once these things kick in.

These subwoofers get LOUD. The oversized rubber surround gives you some insane excursion, if you take a slow-motion video you’ll see about 4 inches of movement.

All the power being pushed through this sub creates the opportunity for a lot of heat on the voice coil, but there’s a cooling system in place to help dissipate some of the extra heat. Little details like that help with justifying the price, but once you get a chance to push this subwoofer, it really speaks for itself.

It’s not the best option for everyday, casual listening (most 15” subwoofers aren’t), and it is pretty power-hungry so make sure you’ve got an amplifier and an electrical system that can handle it.

If you’re looking for the advantages of a 15” inch sub, but want something that’s a little easier to drive, you’ll want to check out some of the other options because the Orion HCCA152 is not for the casual listener.

It’s very heavy. You’ll notice many of the cheaper subs don’t weigh nearly as much.

It gets very loud, and the bass is very powerful.

Overall, this is the best 15 inch subwoofer you’ll find on this page.

It takes a lot of power to get it moving at full force, and takes a lot of space for installation.

But if you’re in the market for a subwoofer like this, those aren’t cons that you’re going to worry about it because you understand the end goal is worth it.

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2. Rockford Fosgate P3D2-15 :

Provides Big sound with a smaller footprint. Don’t worry, it can still get plenty loud and rumble your whole world.

If you’re looking to shake things up without going all-in on competition-tier equipment, this is a great middle ground. It’s a clear upgrade over most subs, without being too over the top.

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Rockfoord Fostage has been innovating car audio since the early ‘70s when Jim Fosgate was tinkering with designs in his garage. They’ve come a long way since then, and are one of a handful of legendary brands in the car audio space.

But reputation isn’t enough, you’re only as good as your last speaker. This sub continues that tradition, and fills an important section of the market, even if it’s not the most powerful 15 incher out there.

With 600 watts RMS, and 1200 watts peak, these are on the lower-end compared to some of the other subwoofers on this page. Having said that, it still hits plenty hard. Because of this, it’s a great choice when you are working with a more limited source of power but you still want huge, deep bass.

Feels a lot more powerful than the wattage would suggest.

Very well-made from a reputable brand.

This is a great way to step into a super-system without quite diving into the deep end.

It’s not going to move as much air as higher-end 15” subwoofers.

Relatively pricey for the amount of wattage, but you get what you pay for (Very high quality sound)

Excellent, deep bass but won’t get as loud as other options. In this case, it’s a good trade off, and an excellent subwoofer.

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3. Kicker Stillwater Designs 11S15L72 :

From the moment this subwoofer starts gobbling up power, you’re going to know exactly who it was designed for: the discerning basshead.

It’s not just about loudness, either, the bass sounds rich and full and is the perfect way to round out the bottom end of your soundscape. The square design isn’t just a gimmick, so believe the hype.

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Some people like to grab two of these and pair them up, but even one of them will give you that hard, violent bass that will drop jaws and rattle eardrums.

The advantage of the square design is that it can theoretically displace more air than a round speaker, if you’re talking about subwoofers of the same size, due to the extra surface area you get with a square.

In any case, this still relies heavily on properly building and tuning the enclosure. Kicker’s patented square design gives you 18% more cone than a round subwoofer, and it’s noticeable.

If you’ve got a monoblock amplifier that can handle 1000 watts RMS and 2000 watts peak, this 15 inch subwoofer from Kicker and your amp are going to become fast friends.

It packs some serious punch and amazing sound quality for this price range.

Perfect choice for getting right up there in terms of quality, without breaking the bank or hitting the point of diminishing returns.

The square design isn’t for everyone.

If you’re buying a pre-built enclosure, your options will be more limited.

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4. Power Acoustik MOFO-152X :

This is a loud, powerful subwoofer that won’t break the bank. It’s a good upgrade from a budget sub, and offers massive value, but without being too cheap.

It’s not going to check all of the boxes for someone looking for audiophile gear, but as far as stuff for the regular consumer, this hits hard and loud and it’ll definitely turn heads.

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We need to establish a bit of context before judging this particular subwoofer. Here’s the deal, it’s got some serious power at 1400 watts RMS and 3000 watts peak, but you’ll notice it’s also priced a lot lower than some of the other super powerful subs we’ve featured.

If you want to save some cash when you’re buying a sub, you’ll have to make certain sacrifices. Either you’ll need something smaller, less powerful, quieter, lower sound quality, or lower build quality. It’s all about balancing those specs and finding what suits your needs.

In this case, you’re going to lose a bit when it comes to build quality and it’s just not going to sound as amazing as subwoofers that cost three, four, or five times as much. You’re getting the power here, and you’re getting the depth that comes from 15”, and all things considered – it’s going to absolutely shake your car, but it does leave a bit to be desired when it comes to overall sound quality and build.

That’s not to say it’s terrible, and it’s not the most budget option we’re featuring, so if you’re looking to get away with not spending a ton, this is a safe bet.

Offers a ton of value for the price, very massive bang for your buck.

Powerful, loud, and very impressive overall. Your passengers won’t be able to tell that you didn’t spend a small fortune on it.

If you want that ultra deep bass that you feel deep in your stomach, this one isn’t quite there.

The build quality isn’t the best. It’s not going to fall apart in your trunk or anything, but if you put it side-by-side with a high-end subwoofer, you can tell the build quality is not the same.

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5. DS18 EXL-X15.2D :

Serious power that’ll change the way you experience your music. This gives you everything you would want from a 15” subwoofer, and it’s very well-made, with some helpful extra features like the dual voice coils to round out a nearly flawless offering.

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DS18 makes subwoofers that run the gamut from as budget as budget gets, all the way up to competition grade. Their EXL line represents the higher-end, peaking at 2500w, and gets down to 25Hz with the newer model.

We need to point out that the final sub on this list that we’ll be checking out in just a moment claims to reach 25Hz as well, but not all Hz are created equal, and the DS18 EXL-X15.2D sounds objectively better, so you can’t always rely on the specs to tell the full story. There’s a difference between being able to hit a frequency at a loud volume, or only being able to hit it whisper-quiet.

With that out of the way, the DS18 is a great alternative for someone who was looking at the Kicker 11S15L72 but was turned off by the square shape of it. This subwoofer is built like a tank. The dual voice coil gives you more flexibility for wiring your system. At 35 pounds it’s definitely heavy, but not the heaviest.

It’s big and powerful enough to easily replace a pair of 10” or 12” subs with just one 15”.

There are lots of subwoofers to choose from in this price range, and this is one of the most well-rounded options.

They won’t play nice with amplifiers that aren’t good enough, which isn’t the end of the world since you’ll want an amp that can push this sub to its peak, anyways.

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6. Planet Audio AC15D :

A budget subwoofer that still has size, power, and a deep frequency response to hit those deep bass notes and rumble your car in the process.

It’s not super well-made, it’s very light, but it’s still a capable subwoofer. Even if you’re saving some cash on the sub, don’t skimp out when it comes to your amplifier.

See Price On Amazon >>>

Make no mistake, this is a budget option through-and-through. It doesn’t stand toe to toe with the high-end competition grade subwoofers we’ve featured, but that’s okay.

There’s a school of thought that if you’re going to spend the money and the time putting together your enclosure, you may as well pony up some cash to put something incredible inside of it, but that’s not always possible.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the Planet Audio AC15D is considerably lighter than some of the other beasts we’ve featured here. It comes in just over 15 pounds, compared to some that are upwards of 50. That’s going to leave you with a significantly less dense, less powerful, and lower quality output.

Just because it’s in the budget-tier, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad sub, it just means you get what you pay for. You can’t reasonably expect this to perform the same as a sub that costs 10x as much, but if this is what you’ve got room for in your budget, then it’s a good choice in this price range.

Peak power of 2100w and a frequency response of 25Hz is nothing to scoff at, but keep in mind that not all power ratings or frequency response charts are created equal, either. 25Hz on a competition-grade sub is not going to sound the same as 25Hz on a budget subwoofer, so it’s all about managing your expectations.

It’s 15” and it’s cheap

If you manage your expectations, you’ll be pleasantly impressed.

You won’t be winning any competitions with this anytime soon.

It’s not on the same level as any of the other subwoofers featured on this page, but if you’re working with a super tight budget, it’ll do just fine.

Check Latest Price

Related Topics : 

Best 10 Inch Subwoofer Reviews

Best Underseat Subwoofer Reviews – Top 6 Products For 2019

The post Best 15 Inch Subwoofer Reviews appeared first on Car Audio Logic.

[yourgabru]

Top Sports Earphones

1. Jaybird X3 – Simply the Best headphones for working out

Jaybird X3 is an excellent choice for people looking for headphones for the gym or other sports.

It’s our top pick because it offers the best balance of price, features, and functions.

Jaybird X3 offers extremely versatile and Secure fit and has a great build quality.

It also features a useful companion app to adjust the equalizer so you are in more in control while listening to music or podcasts.

(watch the in-depth video review below)

PROS 🙂

8 hours of Battery life. 15 mins of charging will give you 60 mins of playback time!

Great for running, and long gym sessions

Features Excellent adaptable sound

Compact & Durable design

Comes with a Useful App (Called MySound app) to personalize your experience. The software works with Android and iOS.

Excellent noise isolation

CONS 🙁

Proprietary charging accessory. So if you lose the charging dock, you have to purchase a new one.

Average call quality (but not a dealbreaker)

The X3 is the third generation workout and sports headset from Jaybird. It is the successor to the critically acclaimed X2, released in 2015. The Bluetooth-powered X-series headphones are known for their high-quality sound and customization options.

And the X3 doesn’t disappoint, with top notch sound quality, deep booming bass, and excellent clarity. After all, Jaybird has been ranked among premium brands like Beats, Bose, and Sennheiser in the past.

On the design front, the X3 is a Bluetooth wireless headset, with a cable joining the two earbuds. The cable also houses a small three-button remote.

Jaybird has added a lot of customization options with the earbuds to help us find the right fit. The memory foam and silicone tips are a mixed bag really. The foam offers the most secure fit, while the silicone may have a tendency to slip, especially after excessive sweating.

The patented silicone fins are entirely optional, and that is a good thing. Some might find it extremely useful to anchor the buds inside their ears. While for others, they may just be a needless distraction.

Regarding size, the X3 is a good deal smaller than the X2. But with the batteries inside the earbuds, they are still quite large and slightly heavy. But the extra weight was not a major issue for us.

Battery performance is not too shabby, with a total running time of close to 8 hours on a full charge. The charging is not lightning fast, but you can easily get an hours worth of juice in within 15 minutes of charging if you are in a hurry.

The Bad: Phone call reception quality is only average

If you need to answer a lot of calls while working out, you might have some issue with the X3. Don’t get us wrong, the call quality is quite acceptable, but there is some static involved. The whole experience is average. If you want to get a headphone with a better call quality, check out the Bose SoundSport Headphones.

The software features worked quite well. The app has some nifty features involving playlists. And the Android and iOS compatibility is excellent.

The cable is flat and quite tangle free. You get a cord shortening clip mechanism along with it to adjust the length. It doesn’t get in your way when you are running at all.

The earphones are almost waterproof, and we mean almost. They can survive rivers of sweat and the odd accidental splash of water. But they cannot handle showers or actual swimming.

Verdict

JayBird X3 is this year’s best bluetooth workout earbuds. The manufacturer specializes in producing premium quality sports earphones, and it shows in the way the X3 is designed. If you want to listen to music while breaking into as sweat, either in the gym or outdoors, the X3 is a great choice.

2. Bose SoundSport Wireless Headphones – Our 2nd Best Bluetooth Headphones for Gym.

We are pretty sure that Bose does not need any introduction. And yes, quite unsurprisingly the SoundSport also finds a spot on our Editor’s Choice list.

The Bose Soundsport wireless headphones are our runner-up pick. They are the most comfortable in-ear wireless headphones right now.

They are sweat-resistant & offer excellent sound quality with a little bass emphasized sound compared to the X3 reviewed at #1.

According to out test results, the Bose Soundsports has one of the Strongest wireless performance when compared to other earbuds in this price range.

PROS 🙂

Great Sound

Good call quality

Sweat-resistant

Extremely comfortable to wear

Excellent Wireless Performance

Secure fit due to winged tips

Sweat resistant, ideal for running/jogging

CONS 🙁

6 hours of battery life which is relatively less than our top pick

Slightly bulkier than other on this list.

Full In-depth Review:

Perfection is a word that one commonly associates with the Bose brand. And they almost managed to pull it off again, with the SoundSport headphones. And we say almost, only because this is the first ever wireless sports headset designed by the company!

Like most of its competition, the SoundSport also features two earbuds connected by a cord. You also get an inline mic and volume controls on the cord. Incidentally, though, there is no cord shortening feature, just a clip on system to keep the cable from moving around.

There is nothing shocking or surprising about the sound quality. This is, after all, a Bose product. It delivers everything you expect from the brand regarding sound quality, period.

But you will be seriously taken aback when you see the earbuds. They are huge, positively massive, and do stick out a fair bit from inside your ears.

But once you get over the initial surprise, the earbuds do feel well designed. The set comes with silicone ear plugs in three different sizes. At least one of them should fit well enough for most people.

Plus, there is also the proprietary StayHear+ design technology that securely anchors these buds in your ear. They work well for the most part. The huge ear buds stay in place surprisingly well, even when one is running full tilt.

There is no noise cancellation option, so be prepared to catch quite a bit of background noise. If your gym music is loud, you might have some trouble with these headsets. But on the whole, they are perfect for the runners and joggers, as you need to be able to hear traffic sounds and all

The call quality is pretty decent, even if the person on the other end will get a lot of background sounds from the inline mic. Overall, the SoundSport can easily handle frequent phone calls when you are on the go.

Those earbuds are massive because of two Li-ion batteries inside, capable of delivering six hours of running time. Charging can be completed within two hours. And you can charge directly from the earbuds, which is a handy feature.

Battery life is decent, not decidedly the best. But Bose provides a way to get around that with a very useful accessory case, available for purchase. The case has a built-in charger that can be used for charging on the go.

SoundSport shines on the connectivity and software front, with NFC, Bluetooth, and the dedicated Bose app. Connecting to, and switching between devices is an absolute breeze. And the Bose app is packed with features like heart rate monitor.

Verdict

The Bose SoundSport are one of the best bluetooth in-ear workout headphones that very comfortable, sounds great and you can purchase it at a very reasonable price. it does have some chinks in its armor, but they are only minor gripes. Bose has managed to get their fundamentals spot on.

3. Plantronics BackBeat Fit – Best Waterproof Sports Headphones

Did you know that Neil Armstrong was speaking through a Plantronics headset while on the moon? The brand sure has a long and storied history, with experience in both commercial and consumer audio products. The BackBeat Fit is one of the best workout earbuds ever from the Plantronics stable.

BackBeat Fit does not have any messy cable connecting the earbuds. Instead, they have opted for a flexible wire that stays behind your head when you wear the headset. This wire/cord doesn’t touch your neck, which is great.

But on the whole, the fit and finish are quite satisfactory. The entire device is coated with a very soft and malleable rubber finish. The material is sweat and water resistant, which is to be expected from a sports headset.

The earbuds do not plug into the ear canal, so there is no noise cancellation on offer. This makes the BackBeat Fit a good option if you are on a bike, or running outdoors. The ear hooks loop over the top of your ear to keep the buds securely in place.

The design overall is quite comfortable and suited to constant movement. Some people might be bothered by the way the wire/cord keeps bobbing around behind their neck/head.

Buttons are placed on the external surface of the earbuds, controlling volume, calls, connectivity and play/pause. The setup is quite intuitive and easy to master. As long as you don’t mind reaching for your ears to do everything, they work fine.

The Bluetooth range is quite phenomenal at over 100 feet, so you don’t have to carry your phone around. If you must, you can also use the pouch provided, which doubles as an armband with a holster for your cell phone.

When the headset is placed outside the range of any connecting device, it is programmed to enter a battery saving mode automatically. And the battery capacity is also above average, stretching out to nearly eight hours of playback time. Charging can take up to 2 hours, which is quite acceptable.

You may have noticed that we have not mentioned audio quality yet, despite being deep in our review. To be frank, the BackBeat Fit does not have the chops to duke it out with the likes of Bose or JayBird. But it certainly is not the worst out there either.

If you are an audiophile, you may be disappointed by this headset. But for the normal user, Plantronics offers a more than decent listening experience. Sound levels might be too low for those who want high-intensity music to get into the “zone.”

Check Out the Video Review by RIZKNOWS:

Final Verdict

The BackBeat Fit is a good product, with enough features to entice outdoor workout enthusiasts more than the gym freaks. The sound quality is acceptable, the build quality is excellent, and the battery life is just outstanding. It has a few flaws, but they are not deal-killers.

PROS

Excellent durability and build quality.

Above average battery life

The wireless range is impressive

Ideal for biking and running

CONS

Disappointing bass and volume

The cord has an irksome tendency to keep bobbing

4. SENSO ActivBuds S-250 – Bestseller Earbuds for Working Out

It takes a special mix for a product to be popular to a wide section of the populace. Cheap alone does not cut it; you need a balance between affordability and quality. And that is what Senso seems to have nailed on the head, with their Amazon Best Seller sports headphones.

So what makes the Senso one of the best wireless headphones for working out? Yes, it is a budget product, but there is more to it than that. This headphone has a bevy of useful features that make it a worthwhile investment for fitness oriented users.

For starters, the design is quite compact and understated. The two earphones are connected by a tangle free fire that doesn’t get in the way while you are working out. The earpieces have a hook design that securely anchors them in place while you workout.

PROS

Amazon’s Best Seller

Comfortable

Good Wireless Performance

8 hours of battery life and upto 240 hrs of standby time.

Excellent customer support

Lots of freebies

CONS

Mic quality is average during calls

In-depth review:

The ClipSize ConfigurationBluetoothBattery

That hook or clip is made of soft silicone substance. It cannot be molded into shape, but it stays comfortable even without that feature.

Sure, they may not handle the more high-intensity routines, but they are good enough for biking, jogging, and other gym routines.

As for the sound quality, this is one of the highlights of the Senso. Sure, you cannot expect audiophile quality, but that would be madness for a budget sports earphone. Still, the Senso can offer some fight to higher priced brands like Beats in this category.

The bass is high enough for a good workout session. And the sound output is also very loud. The vocals are on the lower end of the spectrum, but you cannot anything more than that.

What truly seals the deal is the number of freebies provided as part of the package. You get two charging cords, including a car charger and a Lightning/micro USB, as well as a carrying case, and replacement buds. This is one of the best gym headphones out there.

Final Verdict

The popularity of Senso stems from what it offers on the whole, as a complete package. The earphones punch above their weight regarding audio quality, the manufacturer offers a bunch of useful freebies, and the wireless works fine. If you want a budget all-rounder for your medium intensity workout routines, this is a solid product.

5. Mpow V4.1 – Bluetooth Headphones Wireless Sport Earphones

Not everyone wants audiophile quality sound output from their workout headphones. If “budget” or “best bang for the buck” is what you are looking for, Mpow may have some affordable options with acceptable quality for you. And the V4.1 Sports earphones are just that.

The V4.1 are wireless sports earphones connected by a cable. The design is nothing revolutionary, but what is available is quite functional. The cable also hosts the volume control buttons and a mic for answering phone calls.

Let’s get audio quality out of the way as quickly as possible. You get average quality output that is quite acceptable at a budget price point. The bass is quite loud and adequate for gym settings, but everything else is mediocre.

And there is noise cancellation feature either. But that shouldn’t be too much of a concern since most sport model earphones leave that feature out for extra safety when you are outdoors.

The overall customizability and fit of the earbuds can be a hit or miss situation. The Mpow V4.1 does come with three ear tips of different sizes, as well as six different ear hooks, three for indoor use and three for outdoors.

You will have to spend some time experimenting with the combination of ear tips and hooks to get the best possible combination. Even then, the experience is not likely to be free of hiccups. The earbuds do have a tendency to fall off now and then, both in the gym and outdoors.

The individual earbuds have a metallic exterior, and they can feel quite bulky. The batteries inside offer average to acceptable performance, lasting around 5 hours.

Overall the build quality is quite decent, and the device is rated as sweat-proof and waterproof. But that is not entirely true, as, in some instances, excessive sweating can take out the volume control buttons.

The controls can take some time to get used to, but they are quite easy to learn. The Bluetooth pairing feature works well, and there is no trouble at all in finding the signals. The software end is not the best out there, but that is to be expected for this class of sports earphones.

Longevity is a serious concern for these earphones though. If you want a device that lasts for several years, you may very well have to look elsewhere. The customer care though is top notch, and they do deliver replacements quite quickly.

Final Verdict:

The Mpow V4.1 exists for a very specific reason, and that can be explained in just a single word: budget. It offers everything you can expect from a budget product, including the flaws. If you can suffer those, this earphone is well worth a look.

PROS

Acceptable sound quality

Uses Bluetooth 4.1

Robust metal and rubber construction

Excellent customer service

Great budget optional

CONS

Earbuds have a tendency to fall off

Not completely sweat-proof

6. SoundPEATS Wireless Earbuds

Not everyone likes the cables that connect our earphones and headsets. Even wireless earphones usually have a connecting wire between the two earbuds. If you want to go the Apple Air Pod route on a budget, the SoundPeats earbuds are a tantalizing option.

As already mentioned, these are just like Air Pods. They are truly wireless and have nothing linking the two earpieces. But in the looks department, they are nothing like the Apple pods.

The two earpieces have ear hooks to hold them securely in place over your ears. All the controls are placed on the side of the devices, which also feature a USB charging port. The on-board batteries can keep them alive for nearly six hours, which is quite good.

The individual pieces can work separately even at a distance of 10 feet. So if you want to share some music with your gym partner or better half while running, this is a good option.

There are quite a lot of control buttons on these SoundPEATS earphones when compared to some other options in our list. And getting a grip on them all can be a chore, especially since the manual seems to rather poorly written.

The pieces fit quite comfortably in ears. But it has to be said that they do seem to go in deeper than other earbuds. It might feel a bit awkward initially, but that should pass with time. As such, it was not a major inconvenience for us

Those who need some tinkering can try changing the size of the earbuds. The package comes with soft ear buds in three different sizes. You also get a much-needed carrying case when you purchase this set.

The hooks help keep the earpieces in place during workouts and sprints. They may fall off with very rigorous or strenuous workouts involving a lot of movement, but otherwise, they hold on pretty well.

They are rated sweat-proof and work as expected in that regard. Since there is no connecting cable hugging your body, there is no risk of the controls getting wet and malfunctioning.

Since these are two independent pieces, you can use them in single or stereo mode. But the right piece is the main one, and if you lose it, the other one becomes pretty much useless. And it is quite easy to misplace one of these since they are not connected.

The overall sound quality places SoundPeats firmly in the cheap budget segment. It is acceptable for workouts, but do not expect awesome bass or treble levels. If you are an audiophile, this is not the best workout headphones for you, period.

Bluetooth connectivity is not a major issue, but connecting both pieces can be quite confusing. This is especially true for users who are new to wireless headphones.

Verdict

The SoundPEATS earphones are ideal for those who want a true wireless experience on a budget. They offer decent if not stellar sound quality, and stay firmly in your ears. The battery life is also acceptable, with no major issues elsewhere.

PROS

True wireless listening experience

Uses Bluetooth 4.2

Comfortable to use, and stays in ear most of the time

Decent battery life

Can be used separately

CONS

Sound quality is not the best.

The individual earpieces occasionally cut out.

7. Shure SE215-K – Best Sound Isolating Earphones

PROS

Superb sound quality

Detachable cable, and modular design

Durable build quality

Fits comfortably in the ear

CONS

Not a dedicated sports design, might be unsuitable for jogging and running outdoors for some ears.

Video Review:

For audiophiles on a budget, there are some neat options in the market these days. The Shure SE215-K is one of the best among the lot, coming from a known brand steeped in history. Using a unique design, they offer something different from what you see around.

Okay, these are not wireless earphones. Instead, they are wired earphones with a neat twist: removable cable. This means that they will keep working for a lot longer since in most wired earphones, it is the cable that dies first.

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Time based creation

Explanation of time based creation

The use of a male model

when in the planning and preparation process of creating this piece of work. I decided that I wanted to use a male model in the visuals. My first reason for this is that there is a lot of heavy stigma around mental illness however male mental illness stigma is much worse. Statistics in mental health records show that the number of men in treatment in comparison to women is much lower, however the number of who report they have a mental illness or feel mentally unwell is higher. This statistic suggests that due to stigma men are prevented from and or are less likely to seek professional health.  In a recent national mental health report a statistic showed 4 out of 5 suicides are male and for men under the age of 35 suicide is the most common cause of death. This shows that due to the stigma preventing men from seeking mental health, their suffering worsens and their health declines. I therefore decided that I wanted to use a male model in an attempt of decreasing stigma and to bring light to male mental illness.

The use of a females voice

I chose to use a females voice over the male model as a way of symbolizing to the audience how men are often ignored or over looked in the area of mental health. Furthermore, It is my belief that using a females voice enables the video to emphasize on a loss of identity that people suffering from mental illnesses can feel and experience in everyday life. Specifically with personality and emotion related disorders, sufferers report either a feeling that they have no identity and feel lost or that they feel consumed by they are identified by their disorder and people over look who they are.

Why I have chosen to have the voice and model not in sync

often people suffering with mental illness, feel that when they are speaking to both people they know as well as professionals they are trying to explain their situation, experience and emotions but no one can really comprehend or understand what you are going through. It can often feel like people are hearing what you are saying but not really listening. For this reason I feel that having the words out of sync from the movement of the models mouth puts emphasis on how it can feel like you are talking to a brick wall or screaming out for help but people are hearing something competently different to what you are trying to stay or communicate to them.

The use of the hospital noises

I have chosen to have the use of a heart monitor and general hospital sounds playing over the girl talking about her experience. My reasoning behind this is that i wanted to express how often mental health is overshadowed by physical health. To put further emphasis on this point I chose to have the audio of the hospital sounds playing at a higher volume than the voice.

Cuts in scenes and jumping from emotion to emotion