Yeah, the spinal cord will combine different signals and then transmit to our brain, especially the sensory cortex, you will feel each. Most of the each receptors are GPCR. So we focus on the GPCR, especially the orphan GPCRs expressed in the Dothelroth ganglion neurons. So these orphan GPCRs, maybe the candidates that mediate these each. Our work, you know that in the lab, to demonstrate a principle, we have found the molecular mechanism of cholestatic each, for example. We have this screened antagonist, and we believe that many pharmaceuticals also want to treat this each because it has a big market. So it can also, to this compound, these companies can also target these each receptor to treat this each. I mean, find the antagonist. Also someone's opinion may contradict yours. Where's my friend Allen? It's all about your perspective. Who are we and what is the nature of this reality? Five, four, three, two, one. Ni hao everybody, and Zhongchekuaile, happy mid-autumn festival. We are in the beautiful Beijing, China. Welcome to Simulation. I'm your host Alan Sakyun. We are at the School of Life Sciences here. We are now going to be talking about the sensory GPCR of itch. We have Tianjun Zhao joining us on the show. Hello. Hi, Jun. Hi, Alan. Thank you so much for coming on our show. Yeah. We really appreciate it. Very excited for this conversation. For those who don't know Jun's background, he's a graduate researcher in the Li Lab at Beijing University School of Life Sciences focused on the sensory GPCR of itch. And you can find all of the links in the bio below. Jun, let's start things off by asking you one of our favorite questions. What are your thoughts on the general direction of our world? Oh, it's an interesting question. Yeah, it's general. And you know that there are more and more technologies for our life, especially it's convenient for our life. Take example, you know that the AliPay you have used it, or the WeChat Pay. So I think for the future, these advanced technologies will help us to battery life in this planet. And I think actually I'm afraid maybe the AI will replace me, yeah, for the future. Yeah, it's probably. And but I think the main difference between the human and the AI is the idea. I think the idea is important. And I don't think that the AI will replace the smartest people in the world because, yeah, you know that as I mentioned, it can help us to this repeated works, repetitive tasks. But the creative ones is much harder for it. It also depends on human. And yeah, yeah, it's totally the general direction of now technology augmenting our lives in so many ways, our health, our education, our day to day processes. AI, narrow AI doing repetitive tasks way better than humans is very quickly happening. But AI doing creative tasks is slow slower at happening right now. And building general intelligence is also very difficult. How do you get a computer system to recognize space and time is very hard. But who knows, in terms of replacement of of us as humans are at least augmenting us for sure, replacing us. We've had that conversation many times on our show. It's for sure a fun one. And we'll see exactly what ends up happening with that. June, let's talk about your journey. So where were you born? How did you pick up your interest in science growing up? Oh, it's a good question. Actually, I'm interested in biology. I mean, the natural science where I was a child. Where were born? Yeah. There, yes. OK, I was born in Shandong province, East province of China. And when I was a kid, I'm interested in, for example, why the most critical will cause us each. So you know that it's terrible, especially when we live near the water. It's very terrible. So how to say, I'm interested in this natural science when I was a child. And when I was an undergraduate student in my university, the Northwestern Algorithmic Cultural Forest University in Xi'an province, the west of China. And because in our university, there is no neuroscience lab. So I searched the literature, and I found that the most critical induced each is very complex. And yeah, till now, we have noticed that it may be caused by some compounds released from our such as the immune cells, and then triggered each. And till now, for me, to me, as more and more research is worth down, the deeper you're thinking or the deeper you're understanding, the more I want to know why. So that's why I'm interested in science. Yes, yes. So when you were a little kid, it was as simple as just why is a mosquito bite caused me to itch? And then that got you when you were in biotechnology at the Northwest A&F University. You've kept going into interest in that. Maybe, and then we'll talk about this move to picking university and doing neuroscience here. But I'm so interested in even the most fundamental aspects of what you were talking about with the mosquito and the itch. What do you know about why we itch from the mosquito bite? OK, you mean your question is whether or why we want to know the magnet of itch? Yeah, and why even the mechanism of itch from the mosquito happens? Why do we itch? It's like the immune response. Oh, yeah, OK. I see, I see. Actually, the itch includes acute itch and chronic itch. The mosquito in itch actually is a acute one. And it means that each last shorter for six weeks. Chronic itch is the last over six weeks, especially on some systemic disease. OK, let's back to the acute itch. The acute itch actually is a protective behavior. It will help us to expel stimulus such as the mosquitoes or some plants, toxic plants. OK, so it's protective for our survival. Yeah, and as for the mechanism, I think it's very complex. It includes the immune system, the neuroscience, the behavioral. Yeah, sometimes it seems like when I get a mosquito bite that if I itch, it lasts longer than if I don't itch. What do you think about that? OK, you mean that the scratch, the more scratch, the more itch. Yeah, more itch equals longer mosquito bite. I see, so detailed the mechanism is unknown. And I think it may be caused by a feedback loop. I mean, the more itch, sorry, the more scratch your skin, the more itch is happen. It's also interesting learning from you that even something as simple as what we experience within a mosquito bite has such a complex, both this peripheral skin layer complex here, plus complex with how it triggers our nervous system and our behavior of doing this process of itch or immune system, all this type of stuff is very complex, even something simple like a mosquito bite. Yeah, I see. Actually, as you mentioned, it's a circuit. It's a neural circuit. OK, the stimuli will, yeah, will activate the sensor in our skin. For example, a receptor, the itch, especially the itch receptor and the signal will transmit to the spinal cord. Yeah, the spinal cord will combine different signals and then transmit to our brain, especially the sensory cortex, you will feel itch. And, yeah, the upstream is the receptor. I mean, the sensors that are stimulated or activated by the external stimuli and these receptors mainly expressed in our primary sensory neurons. And this sensory neurons is so-called the dorsal root ganglia neurons. Not only itch, the dorsal ganglia neurons will, I mean, will control different somatosensations, including itch, pen, temperature, even the mechanical sensory. Interesting. Yeah, and this primary sensory neuron will combine these signals and then transmit to the internal neurons in the spinal cord and then to our brain. Wow, OK, one more time. Dorsal root ganglia, which neurons, OK, and that's located in the basal ganglia? Yeah. OK, OK. And so this is very more limbic structure, lower brain structure, not higher cortex structure, lower brain structure. So more older structure, this response. So both mechanical touch, temperature, pain, and itch, somatosensory, the combination of all of those is in this dorsal root. So, yeah, OK, sorry. So dorsal ganglia, the neurons, it's a heterogeneous, a heterogeneous. And prior studies have known that the small diameter neurons will mediate itch and pain. The large diameters will control our, such as the mechanical. As for the temperature, it depends on the expression of different temperature related, such as ion channels. And as I mentioned, this small diameter neurons will control nearly all of the non-ceceptions, including pain, itch. OK, OK. And then how are we learning that the dorsal root ganglia, how do we know that that center is responsible for somatosensory? For example? Yeah, how do we know that that area is responsible for the somatosensory? Do we do neural mapping, neural imaging of that center when, you know, when you poke or when you scratch and you see that area have activation? OK, if I understand it correctly, you mean, how do we characterize this sensory neuron? For example, each neuron indeed controls each sensation. OK, actually, there are many technologies that can help us do that. For example, the single cell aren't sick. Yeah, we can pick one single neuron and then sequence their MRA will help us to identify which gene is expressed in this neuron, this single neuron. If this neuron expressed a well-known itch receptor, such as the mosquito itch receptor, we have known that this neuron could mediate the mosquito induced itch. By the way, the mosquito induced itch is medied by the histamine released by the mast cell. I mean, the mosquito, the bite of the mosquito, such as maybe some organic acid, acid, or stimulate our immune cells, such as the mast cell, and the mast cell then release the histamine. And the histamine, it's a true proietrogen, I mean, the itch-causing compound. It will activate its receptor, the histamine receptor, especially the H1 receptor and H4 receptor expressed in the small diameter DRG neurons. So, yeah, back to this question. If we sequenced the gene expressed in the single neuron, and we found that this neuron expressed the histamine H1, it's a H4 receptor, so we have reason to believe this neuron could mediate the histamine induced itch. Yes, okay, okay.  And so, we're doing single cell RNA sequencing on the basal root ganglia, or on the dorsal root ganglia. And that gave us the understanding that it expresses specifically for itch. Actually, yeah, yeah. Actually, as I mentioned, it can help, it can tell us whether this neuron could indeed express each receptor or not. But the direct question is that whether this receptor expressed in this neuron is functional. So, we need to do some other experiments to help us to demonstrate or characterize whether this neuron is indeed functional in the, for example, each transmission. And to achieve this, yeah, as I mentioned, we can do many different kinds of experiments. One is the calcium imaging. Because if the neuron is activated, the intracellular calcium will be increased either through the extracellular calcium influx or the release of the calcium from the intracellular part, the ER part. And I mean, the calcium is released from ER to the cytoplasma. The intracellular increase of the calcium will activate this neuron. You know that the neurotransmitter release is dependent on the calcium increase. So, the calcium imaging, I mean, this experiment will help us to test whether this neuron is indeed functional in this process. For example, I can buy the histamine, I mean, the pure histamine compound and then treat it as the neurons. If this neuron is expressed a functional histamine receptor to mediate each, the application or the administration of histamine will activate this neuron. So, this neuron, I mean, the intracellular calcium will be increased. If we use the one calcium indicator to help us to distinguish whether the intracellular calcium in this neuron is increased, we can distinguish this. Interesting. Intracellular calcium increase, okay, means that it's expressing to... It's activity of this neuron. Okay. Okay, so that's one in single cell RNA sequencing is another part of... Actually, it is a two-distinguished part. Two different ways to... One, the single cell RNA-stake, it's demonstrated the expression of the receptor. The calcium imaging or the electrophysiology is demonstrated that function of the receptor or this neuron, both the expression and the function. I like that, yeah. The expression and the function gives you the knowledge that that's what's going on, yeah. How about... Let's talk about this from the explanation of GPCR, G protein-coupled receptors. Okay, so apparently there's lots of them on the outside of every cell. Do we know about how many on the outside of every cell? Lots. You know the numbers of GPCRs in our body? Yeah, on the... But let's do try every cell, how many GPCRs? No, not every cell. Not every cell. Which cells have GPCR and which ones don't? It depends. As I mentioned, if this receptor could mediate, such as each PEN, and this GPCRs may be exclusively expressed in the primary sensory neurons, the DRG, the dorsal rotor ganglia neurons, if this receptor could mediate the immune reaction, these GPCRs, these receptors may be expressed in the immune cells, such as the mast cell or microphage. It depends. Okay, but all neurons and glia cells have GPCR receptors? Hmm... Or a lot do? Or... Sorry, okay. How many of the brain cells have GPCR receptors? I think nearly all the neurons... Nearly all neurons. Nearly all neurons could express GPCR, but not all of the GPCRs. Okay, but not all. In our body, there are nearly 800 GPCRs. Yes, okay. There are some identified GPCRs. I mean, the function is known and some others are often GPCRs, means their endogenous ligands are unknown, so-called often GPCR. For your question, I think nearly all of the neurons, the brain neurons could express several GPCRs, for example, the glutamate receptor, but not all of the GPCRs. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, and then when we look at the GPCR receptor, this is something that is about 40 or 50% of all FDA drugs are targeting GPCR receptors. So this is a big field. People care a lot about being able to target molecular compounds to GPCR receptors. So how do you know what GPCR receptors are related to itch? Is that what we were talking about earlier with the dorsal root ganglia that those cells have GPCR receptors for itch? Yeah, is that what we were talking about earlier with the... So your question is, how do we characterize a receptor as each receptor? Yes. Okay, as I mentioned, firstly, in the expression level, it should express, if this receptor is each receptor, it should express in the primary sensory neural, the dorsal root ganglia neural. After that, we need to demonstrate their function, or its function in each pathway. Expression function, yes, and specifically the dorsal root ganglia. Okay, so then you are always targeting dorsal root ganglia GPCR receptors? Yeah. That's your... Okay, because that's always where itch is. Yeah. It's going to be... Okay, okay. Cholestatic disease. Cholestasis. Cholestatis. Cholestasis. Obstructing the flow of bile from the liver. Yeah. Okay, so bile from our liver is what tells us to itch? Okay, so, yeah, you know that in the physiological condition, the bile will reach to the intestine from the liver, especially in the doodino, which is a part of small intestine. And the bile, such as the bile acids, will help us to digest the food. But there is a condition of the disease called cholestatis. It means there is some blockage, so the bile cannot reach to the intestine, but accumulates in the liver. And through the systemic circulation, this accumulated bile, for example, the bile acids, the bilirubin, our compounds contained in the bile, will reach to our body tissues through the systemic circulation, such as the serum or skin. And the major symptom of the cholestatic patient is the itch, the severe itch. I mean the chronic itch over six weeks. And but the magnesium is still unknown. But actually, 2000 years ago, a Greek physician found that, or hypothesized that, maybe some compounds contained in bile caused itch from his clinical observation. So we hypothesized that maybe some compounds contained in bile is the itch-causing compound. OK, and then compounds in bile are itch-causing. OK, and then our itch-causing compounds. And if the bile builds up in the liver and doesn't, if the flow is obstructed, like in cholestasis, then the itch just goes to chronic itch happens with the buildup of bile. OK, so bile acids, as I mentioned, if we accumulate in the liver through the systemic circulation, it will reach to other body tissues, including skin. And we hypothesized that the elevated levels of bile acids maybe trigger the itch. But the question is that, what's the receptor that emitted this itch? We don't know. OK, OK, buildup of bile acid in the liver causes chronic itch. OK, so the obstructed flow, so if bile was flowing, then we wouldn't be itching. OK, it's an interesting point. As for the, actually, there are several therapies for the cholestatic itch. One of them is a resin. It actually is an iron resin, so-called cholesteremia. It's a strong iron resin. I mean, it will absorb the bile acids to form the insoluble complex that's then secreted from our body tissue. And the patients, after usage of this cholesteremia, this itch is released. It's decreased. I mean, decreased. So we hypothesized that the decreased bile acids caused the decreased itch symptom. So maybe the bile acids is the itch causing compounds. Yes, OK, OK, OK. So now we also figure out that there's a process with the bile acid that then also is when it induces the bile acid compound inducing itch. But then we also are trying to figure out how, with chronic itch, to block the GPCR receptors so that in the dorsal root ganglia, so that I don't chronic itch. So you want to make a molecular compound to block the GPCR receptor so that I don't itch. Exactly. To achieve this, we need to know the exact of the receptor that immediate this itch. So our lab are interested in this question. And as I mentioned, this year's study have known that most of the itch receptors are GPCR. So we focus on the GPCR, especially the orphan GPCRs, expressed in the dorsal root ganglia neurons. So these orphan GPCRs should be a candidate. Maybe the candidates that immediate this itch. So we analyze the sequence data of the human dorsal root ganglia neuron. And we found several orphan GPCRs that are highly expressed in this DRG neurons. I mean, in the human DRG neurons. So these orphan GPCRs, as I mentioned, should be the candidate that immediate this itch. So when we found this, firstly, we used the Bio-X tracks, the Bio-X tracks to test whether the Bio-X tracks could activate these orphan GPCRs. If this receptor, or maybe one or several GPCRs, could be activated by the Bio-X tracks, it should be each receptor, at least a candidate receptor. And actually, we performed this. And we found that the Bio-X tracks could specifically activate one of the orphan GPCRs, very luckily. And we found that it is MRGPR-X4 that highly expressed in human DRG neurons. So the Bio-X tracks is complex. I mean, there are many different compounds, including bio-acids, bilirubin, and some other compounds. So after that, we want to know the exact compound. I mean, the active component contained in the Bio-X tracks that activate this MRGPR-X4, this receptor. So after the chemical separation, such as the mesospectral, you know that, the mesotractal, or NMR, and we identified it is bio-acid. It's the active component to activate this receptor. Yeah. OK. And then you have to figure out out of 2,000 molecular compounds, which one is going to do the blocking of the GPCR receptor. So you have to run 2,000 of these experiments to see. Actually, when we found that MRGPR-X4 by combining other experiments, we have demonstrated that this receptor is each receptor that mediate the bio-acids-induced colostatic-H in human. So after that, we want to know or we hypothesis that if we could find a compound that specifically blocked this receptor, it should be a drug candidate for each symptom. And actually, we have did this. We screened nearly 2,000 compounds and we have found some candidates. And we think we can find a compound that can block this receptor. But it's not enough, you know, that if we want to further develop this compound from bench to clinical, we need to demonstrate different properties of this compound, such as the potency affinity toxicology. Yeah. So if we found this compound, we need to collaborate with such as chemical groups to perform the chemical modulation of phantune the structure of this candidate to get a potent one, especially specificity. The specificity is very important because we don't want to get other side effects. And if we found this potent compound, I mean the antagonist of this receptor, it should be a best candidate for this each. OK. So then it could be that the about 200,000 people in the USA per year, and I don't know how many worldwide, probably millions of people in the worldwide, that have a cholestatic disease can then potentially use a pharmacological aid in order to prevent their chronic itch from happening. OK, so this is one of the health outcomes of your scientific research. Yeah. Actually, there are no efficient therapy for this treatment, I mean for this cholestatic itch. The traditional method used the cholesteroamine, as I mentioned, but it will cause severe constipation. And because of this test, the severe test, the patients found it unplatable. And yeah, so we think if we find a drug, especially a drug candidate, it should be very efficient for this each symptom. In addition to treating itch, where else could science like this help us? OK. In addition to each, there are many different sensory somatosensations, such as the pain, or temperature, or the mechanical. The pain is also a severe one. So if we find the pain, I mean, the specific receptor that immediate pain, we can treat the pain symptom with the similar strategy. Like when I have a very severe surgery and I have several weeks of severe pain that we could block the GPCR receptor for pain? Yeah, yeah. The traditional method is such as the morphine. But it has a severe side effect, such as the addiction. High addiction. High addiction. Because there are many morphine receptors expressed in our brain. But if we cannot achieve the specificity, it will cause a severe side effect. For each receptor, as I mentioned before, it is specifically expressed in the Dothraut ganglion neurons. If we find a candidate or antagonist of this receptor, supposedly it will not influence our CNS, the central nervous system, because it can specifically target to this receptor, but not other receptors. OK. So targeting pain very specifically, rather than in the whole numbing of the whole. Yeah. Yeah, OK. OK. Get some point. Yeah, exactly. OK. And maybe even, yeah, temperature. Maybe even the mechanical. OK, OK. OK. OK. Now, what about where do you see your work here at the lab? Where do you see your work going with, you think then, do you need to partner with a pharmacological institution to help you develop the molecular compound for you to actually be able to go and deliver that to the GPCR receptors to block the itch for the chronic itch patients? Exactly. Actually, our work, you know, that in the lab to demonstrate a principle. I mean, we have found the molecular magnetism of cholestatic itch, for example. We have this screened antagonist. And we believe that many pharmaceuticals also want to treat this itch, because it has a big market. So it can also, to this compound, these companies can also target this itch receptor to treat this itch. I mean, find the antagonist. Do you know what it would look like for a lab that found the molecular mechanism of itch, of a chronic itch, to work with a pharmacological company? Like, what do you do? Do you say, here's our research paper. Will you guys make the molecular compounds and then continue helping us fund this project and we collaborate on it? And then we own, we split the IP, the intellectual property. How does it work if that happens? Actually, we can collaborate with some pharmaceuticals. And we can also build up our own pharmaceutical to develop the compound to the clinical trial. Yes, yes. OK. I'm curious what the split in ownership is or what the funding is like. Do they help fund the lab? If you guys have really good research that they want to use, that's an interesting question. The relationship between a pharmaceutical company and a lab that's doing research. What would be a ideal neuroscience tool for you, let's say 50 or 100 years down the line, where we're doing everything that we want to do with the brain? What would that tool look like? OK. The question is, what is the most efficient tool in neuroscience? Yeah, and 50 or 100 years down the line, the future. Even for the future. Yeah, yeah. What would that look like? What would that tool look like? I think it may be called the optogenetics, you know, the channel reduction. If we can express a channel reduction, actually it's ion channel, in the neuron, we can just use a light to stimulate this neuron, to activate or deactivate this neurons activity. So if we want to treat some disease caused by the sensory, I mean the neuroscience, the nervous system, we can express this optogenetic related ion channels in the brain, and use a light to activate or deactivate the neurons. So I think the optogenetics is powerful. Yeah, agreed. Optogenetics is a massive one. OK, OK. How about on a global collaboration level, how can we increase people around the world working together? Oh, it's interesting. Honesty is important for the collaboration. Yeah, and we need to share our data with each other, but not hiding them. Yeah, and besides that, I think the policy is important. I mean, the government, the policy is important for the collaboration, especially from different countries. Yeah, yeah. Honest data, more clear scientific communication and collaboration channels, and then just the overall, I guess governmental, but also company-wide collaboration across the world. How about as we go into this exponential technology era and the 21st century, what is a skill that young people should know so that they can be highly effective in the world? OK. It's hard to say. I think, firstly, the tool is important for the technology. I mean, the tool is important for one field to achieve the hard problem or the question. So maybe the tool development is important. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I like that answer. Young people going into the new ages should be focused on tool development. I like that answer, especially because then the tool can then have other people from around the world begin using the tool and then have more creativity, more science. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that. What about we find ourselves being born onto this planet orbiting the star? There's 8 billion of us here, 100 billion potentially lived and died before us to build the world. What is the purpose of the human experience? What's the meaning of life? OK. You mean the purpose of the human being? Yeah. OK, it's very interesting to survive. And I think for the better survival, the better life is important for the human beings. OK, yeah. A constant process of bettering the human experience. Yeah. What do you think about consciousness? What is consciousness? Oh, it's very complex. It's very, very complex. I think it depends not only on the nervous system, it may be enclosed different symptoms. The nervous system, immune system, the behavior and the psychologist. To my knowledge, I don't think it's a clear study to demonstrate what is consciousness. Yeah. Do you think we have free will? Sorry? Do you think we have free will? Free will. Oh, OK. Maybe. But, yeah, we still don't know the magnet, OK. It's hard to say. Yeah. The consciousness is very complex. Yeah. What do you think is the role of love in life? Sorry. What do you think is the role of love in life? Oh, it can allow, will encourage yourself to pursue what you want, to pursue your life, OK. And for me, as I mentioned, it can help to release, especially when I was in a depressed, kematon or upset condition, the love can help us to stand up and move on, move on. Yeah. Love can give us something every day when we wake up to look forward to achieving every day, falling in love with what you do. And given that our computational capacity has been increasing so fast and our ability to make simulations of biological systems and all these types of things, do you feel like our life is a simulation? Yeah. I think it is a simulation, so complex, OK. It depends on the correlation. I mean, it depends on the correlation between different systems. Yeah. What do you think is the most beautiful thing in the world? Love. Yeah. I think love is the most beautiful thing in the world. And love, why? Everything. Why? Yeah, why? Why is it that? I mentioned it's the source of power. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love this. I mean, this has been such a fun conversation. Thank you very much for joining us on the show. OK, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's been such a pleasure learning about the sensory GPCR of itch. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below, everyone. Let us know what you're thinking. And have more conversations with your friends, families, coworkers, people online about sensory GPCR, about itch, about fixing chronic itch, about the development of the newest sort of molecular compounds that can help solve some of these major diseases or issues with our bodies. More conversations about neuroscience. Also support youlongleadlab.org, the links in the bio below. Support the artists, the entrepreneurs, the leaders, the organizations around the world that you believe in support us. Simulation, you can find our links below and support us there. And also go and build the future, everyone. Manifest your dreams in the world. Zhongxia Kuala. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival. And also go and build the future. Manifest your dreams into the world. Thank you very much, everyone, for tuning in. And we will see you soon. Peace.


The grind is on, upside folks. You get the gold contract trading up $3.70 at $2,072 an ounce, Silver's flat $24.48 an ounce, the oil's up about a half, bucky $85 rack at $75.41 a barrel and notes and bonds. Up for ticks right now, trading $112.23, the 30 year is up 14 ticks at $124.06 and we get the 10 year right now, still a $3.8 in Kingdala. Kingdala's down $236 ticks, trading $101.461, Euro at $110, Yen's trading $142, British pound is at $127. I'm going to go right to the dollar, folks, because the dollar's running the steel. What we did last week is that you broke down again in the dollar and it's ready to just break even the lows of last Friday. So you can see this, we're getting right next to this $99. We're going to go after $99, I suspect we're going to probably have $99 before the end of this week, which is pretty wild. That is going to be the first leg, if I bring this back a little now. When you take a look at this, what you're going to see is that, yeah, $99.540 is the first leg. Now that being said, there's hardly any support there. There was two weeks of support there. That's it. So I suspect you can get down there, do a little sideways movement. Then this dollar, man, this dollar wants to run to $94. We'll see if it holds to $94, it only traded at $94 for two months. So this thing is going lower and it's going a lot lower. We take a look at the S&P, bottom line is that just continues higher. Here in ABC structures up, right now we're at $475, $502 is the number on the S&P. We take a look at the Q's, same setup in the Q's. Q's are at $410, we're $434. See, 24 points in the Q's is nothing, man. That's what's pretty amazing actually. So pull this back and you're going to, yeah, it hasn't really got away yet from the highs just taken out. You know, you got to get a little bit more away from that high and then your probability gets a lot higher that that ABC structure is going to be in place. Stay right there folks, come right back.


This video will show how to simplify fractions. So fractions can be written A over B, where B cannot be equal to 0. If we divide by 0, it's undefined, so B can't be 0. For a proper fraction, then, we have the numerator that is going to be smaller than the denominator. So that would be like 1 half or 3 fourths, the top number smaller than the bottom number. An improper fraction is just the opposite, where the numerator is going to be greater than the denominator. So that would be something like 5 thirds or 7 fifths. The top number is bigger than the bottom number. And then a mixed fraction is where you have a whole number and a fraction, usually a proper fraction. So it would be something like 1 and 1 half or 5 and 7 eighths, something like that. So we can go from improper to mixed or mixed to improper. If we start with improper to mixed, what you want to do is really just divide. 26, if we did it by long hand, divided by 3, that would go in there 8 times, leaving with 24 down here, and then 24 from 26 would be 2, so this would be 8 and 2, and then you put it over the same denominator because we want to know how many thirds we have. We have 8 whole parts plus 2 thirds left over. So if I take that 8 and 2 thirds, I should be able to get back to 26 over 3 if I go from mixed to improper. So to do that, we're going to take the big number, and we're going to multiply it by the bottom number, and then we are going to add the top number, and then we're really going to put that all over the bottom number because we want to know how many thirds do we have. Just like over here, we had thirds to end up with, 2 thirds. We still are talking about thirds in this problem. So if I do that here, I'm going to take 8, and then times my 3, which gives me 24, and then I'm going to add my 2, which gives me 26, and then we divide it by that bottom number of 3. And there we are at 26 over 3, just like we had when we went from improper to mixed, going from mixed back to improper, we got the same thing. So when we have simplifying fractions, one way to solve them is to prime factor it and then find common factors. So let's take 144 and let's prime factor that. So it goes in 2, and 2 into 14 would be 7, and then that would be 2 into 4 goes twice, so 2 times 72 is 144, and that goes in, that's an even number, so 2 goes into that, and that would be 36. So if we divide that by 2, that will give us 18, and 18 would be 2 times 9, and 9 would be 3 times 3. Here we have 2 times 2 times 2 times 2 times 3 times 3, all on the top. And then if we do 54, and prime factor that one, and that would be 2 times 27, and 27 would be 3 times 9, and then 9 would be 3 times 3. So the prime factors would be 2 times 3 times 3 times 3. What we're looking for is common factors between the top and the bottom. Well here's a common factor, that becomes 1, and then here's a common factor, 3 and 3. One on the top and one on the bottom becomes a factor of 1, and there's one more 3 that they have in common. So that leaves us with 2 times 2 times 2 on the top, and 3 on the bottom, or 8 over 3. Another way we can simplify fractions is just to think about common factors. We don't necessarily have to find the prime factors, but what about the common factor? So I'm looking at 12 and 15, and I'm saying I know they both have 3 as a factor. 12 is 3 times 4, and 15 is 3 times 5. So here I see my factor of 1, which leaves me with 4 over 5 as my reduced or simplified fraction. Well what happens when we have something really large like this? Well when you end up with a bunch of zeros in your numbers that are all lined up, then the ones are going to cancel, the 10s are going to cancel, the 100s are going to cancel, and it's really like if we had divided each of these by 1000, that would give me 110, 110,000, if you want to see it, 110,000. Divide it by 1000, give me 110, and same thing here, if I divide off the 1000, those three zeros are going to drop off, and I'm going to have 286. So now I have a simplified number, but it's still not completely simplified, so I have to go a little bit further, and I have to find out what they have in common. I could prime factor, or I could think about some common factors, and another way that you actually could do it is to come over into your calculator and take the number that you want to find factors for, so the bottom number is 286, and I can say 286 divided by X. That means that when I look at my table, it's going to, the X and Y columns are going to be my factors, and in 110 divided by X would be the top. So I go look at my table, second graph, and these are the one factor, and here's another factor, all those decimals don't work for me, but I see I have 11 and 26, and 13 and 22, up here I have 10 and 11, let's go down and see if we have anything else in common, and I know that I have, where did it go? 22 is also common, I knew that to be a fact. So for 286, that's my bottom number, I know I did this backward, but 286 is going to be 22 times 13, and when we did the other one, it was 22 times 5 is 110, and again looking for a common factor of 22 in this case, that leaves us with 5 over 13.


Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk tech talk Take talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk Great time for the phone to ring Anyway, it's big moment if you have a question for George or I on home voiceover Studios put it in the chat room and Jeff Holman who's sitting there right now still talking Tech talk is going to write it down and Give it to us in the next half hour. We will get to your question great opportunity for you right now Anyway, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk. So don't go away. It's time for that right now Oh Voiceover body shop tech talk is brought to you by Voiceover essentials comm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements the folks who bring you source connect Voheroes comm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over training Voice actor comm your voice over website ready in minutes Voiceover extra your daily resource for voice over success and by world voices the industry Association of freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts Dan and George Hi there. Guess what? I'm Dan Leonard. Hey, and I'm George with him and this is voiceover body shop or VO BS That's Jeff Holman by the way who's sitting in our chat room and getting all of your questions to us Just to make sure that it's all complete. Yeah, I like the big headshot. Let's let's switch to the big heads I mean this one. Yeah. Yeah.  Okay. Let's try the heads We have well, we'll try this for a little about tech. That's right big heads about tech Now it's too distracting. It's too much. It's just too much just too much. Let's go back to that view Okay, cool Anyway, what is it that George and I do we do home voice over studio tech you want to talk about a niche Yeah, there's a bunch of other people out there saying yeah, I do this and yeah I can help you with it. I can generally count on less than two hands The people that actually know what they're talking about I won't mention any names and I certainly won't mention the names of the people who we think I have no idea What on earth they're talking about just to remember that most people are experts in one studio their own and What works for them may not necessarily work for you in the environment in which you are working and What George and I do is we help you Understand all of the important things that have to go on in your home studio and we will physically if you Hey, we happen to be close by I mean we do house calls here in LA George You go all over the place, you know when you're traveling you offer the opportunity for people to have you come over and work on There's to the action next week or actually as you're watching this in replay I'm heading to Boise, Idaho of all places if you if you happen to be Boise, Idaho, and you'd really like me to come by You know, you know where to find me. Oh Boise. All right And so if you want to work with one of us because clearly if I'm watching this show, you know what we're talking You know, we know that we're talking about You can work with either one of us like for instance if you want to work with George you where do you go? You go over to There it is George the dot tech weights that when I'm sort of slash VOBS because that's where you get our special deals Oh, okay. Yeah, but never nothing wrong with that. But yeah, George the dot tech is the site and we are a growing in terms of our content and our service offerings and our team There are there are a growing number of team members. We have a lot of getting bigger and bigger And and we've got that the 9-1-1 tech support service, which I'll tell you it fortunately for the last month It's been pretty quiet There's really been very very few emergency tech calls coming in which it it's a good thing We don't want to see emergencies But if you do you can call us 4242 to 68528 and press option 9 And you will actually reach live dispatch Dispatchers who will get you to one of our emergency on-call tech team So pretty amazing stuff that over George the dot tech Dan What you doing over there at home voiceover studio comm Well, I tell people the reality of a home voiceover studio It's not like it's something with lots of dials and buttons and a mixer and and nice furniture and guitars hanging on the It also is in a gamers headset. No, no, it is not and although I've seen it There are some good headsets, but you can't afford them It's it's important to get your setup done, right I will teach you about acoustics and proper microphone technique and why I always sound fabulous even if I have a cold And and you can sound that way too if you use your microphone, right and setting levels No one seems to understand that stuff if you want to learn how to do it, right? If you're here in the Los Angeles area, I do house calls And I just love going into people's homes and ripping out all the wires and making things a lot simpler for them And they're like geez it sounds so much better. How'd you do that? I got rid of all the stuff that you had plugged in and and and stuff It's not about the technology. It really is all physical the technology is kind of secondary You don't want crappy technology But you certainly do want to have stuff that is going to work properly and we know Exactly what will work properly in your particular environment without all of those equations that acousticians use It's like sounds good to me, you know, and generally if you send in a sample to me at my specimen collection cup You know, it's like I want some silence I want you to read some copy and I want you have more open mic silence And I will listen and within five seconds at the Least I Will know what's going on in your studio, you know, I can see the background noise. I can hear what the reverberation is You do this a couple thousand times you actually get to know what you're doing so go on over to homevoiceoverstudio.com and You'll get your home studio put together right look you're looking at the two top guys in the business here That's why we do this we give you lots of free information But we really would like if you really need some help Specifically with your home studio, you can't do better than either of us Well, I know you'll do great with George What happens with me is you'll have a great time because I end up talking about the voiceover business with people You probably a lot more than you bargained for with Dan. Yeah, most likely most likely has a voice actor I there's there's an awful lot. I know about the industry and It's it's and I have a great time talking with people. Anyway, it's time for George's tech update We got lots of stuff. What do you got for us this week? Well as timing should have it this never happens on the show, but Apple decided it was time to have their scary fast Release Which normally they do their big press releases launching a brand new Mac in the fall. That's nothing new This time they squeeze they squeaked it in they decided not to do it on Halloween But do it the night before call it scary fast and launch a few big Well, I don't know big announcements. Maybe just faster computers that the computers are Exactly the same in terms of performance Let's take a look at what you're gonna see The this is from the verge by the way the verge does great They do great reporting on their live events. There's an M3 chip now. It's the M3 chip. That's right So all the you're not gonna see in the MacBook Air yet, but strangely you will see it in the iMac Yes, they released a new iMac new meaning Exactly the same as the other iMac that was already out just with a faster chip So if you've been thinking about buying an iMac now is probably the time to get the iMac now Who's an iMac for I it's not my first choice for a home studio. I'm always gonna go these days to a Mac mini For a home studio. I just like that you can get any size monitor you want. You're not stuck with a specific size But if you like an extremely minimalistic Looking setup. Well, look at those pictures of the iMac. You can't get more minimal than that That is an extremely clean looking little computer and I've set up a few in some home studios and they they work fine They don't make any noise and they're plenty fast I mean listen guys anything with the M1 or higher chip is a light year ahead of anything made before it from From Apple it really is true. So it doesn't matter what you get just they're faster now than they were M3 Confusingly is double the speed of an M1 if you're looking trying to compare apples to apples. Yeah, in the apple Exactly. So it is definitely faster. Will you notice it? I guess if you already have an M1 and you use it all the time you might notice it if you're coming from an older machine They're all faster. So you're not gonna you're not gonna notice crazy how much crazier fast it is And then the MacBook Pro is released as well with the newest M3 chips going up to the M3 max You'll notice that you can for the mega power users who are ready to spend $7,100 on a new MacBook Pro.  You can get 128 gigabytes of Memory or RAM in your MacBook Pro and 8 terabytes of storage So that is one monster computer in a portable computer and it supports up to four External screens and it's 16 core or up to 40 core. I mean, it was like two cores was really cool It's insane. It's clearly for video professionals and photography professionals It does have a memory card slot in it again So yes, and you don't have to carry another freaking adapter when you want to dump your cards to your computer But it is a it is an absolute beast But the even the base base model the M3 MacBook Pro 16 inch It starts at six fifteen ninety nine. So You know, it's a reasonable price point. A lot of people buying a new computer for work have no problems spending 2000 plus so 1600 for them MacBook Pro 16 no 14 inch It's a pretty good. It's a pretty good deal if I hadn't just invested in the 20 what is it the 13 inch MacBook Air M2? Would have considered this one, but I'm fine. I'm cool or Matt. So that's the new things from from Apple You know, I I'm not gonna go buy a brand new Mac day-in-date when it comes out I don't care how many generations and I just don't think it's a good idea to have not only the new Mac That's not even what I'm worried about. It's the new OS If you get a brand new Apple computer that comes out, then they start shipping November 7th It's gonna have Sonoma on it. You can guarantee it. That is the newest newest newest OS and it's just it's still Not quite. We're not quite ready folks Give us give everybody some time to to get used to the new version find all its quirks and features and the developers can find all the quirks and Let the everybody else deal with that before you put that into your production computer If you have two computers put it on the one you don't rely on to make a living with if you really want to try it out What which is what I did with my MacBook Air. I'm like, I gotta try this Totally seamless seamless. Yeah, it was if you don't use a lot of hardware and devices And you just really use it as a laptop with mostly bread browser stuff and apples software and stuff You're probably fine. You're probably fine. It's it's always the the things that the surprises always come with hardware and like Hardware drivers and like plug-ins, you know, that's where things will sneak up on you. So In a totally different area Just a little update from Sentrance. I've been getting you know, the occasional email or comment Hey, what's going on with that audio interface that you helped kind of invent Whose name I can't remember nobody seems to be able to remember the name of this thing the Passport VO Well, I did get an update from Michael and I did encourage him to release this to the Investors who have purchased pre-purchased theirs But he said essentially the good news is the prototyping machine is finally working and is assembled to of the chipboard of the Boards so far the boards are the circuit board inside the product So they have their own in-house chip bot that will make the circuit board And so he said, you know, that means we won't need to rely on China so much I don't know if that means they won't make any in China or if that's just for the prototype Not sure on that one, but that's what I've got from them so far They've pretty much they've drawn up all the analog schematics for the product The last thing the last X factor is the USB chip for the product He said I asked a friend who lives in Taiwan to go down to see the manufacturer And we're still waiting to hear the results of the evaluation. So There you go TMI, but you know, this is what it takes to get a new product to market when certain things like you pardon me like your USB chip just Vanishes in the thin air and you have to find a new chip and redesign the board and make it all over again So that's what's up with PS the passport VO. All right Now I've got a little quick. I'm gonna take a snippet from a 14 minute video Show you what I think maybe one of the more interesting parts then some of you This is gonna feel like watching this old house for a few minutes This is the a little clip from the factory tour that I took Vocalbooth.com when I was up there a few weeks ago And this is the segment segment where we start looking at the doors and how the doors are made So let's take a look at this Building those doors pretty serious piece of machine or mill All right, this is the the infamous door machine Nate's gonna demonstrate it for us So He's rattering out the little tabs, you know the little plate where the plates go for the hinges does that first And you gotta have three of those You gotta have three and if the door is big enough it might have four And as you can see this is a solid core door Is it made out of oak or what did they say it was made of I shouldn't ask them what materials They make the doors out of you know, I don't I don't know they get the door blanks sent to them, right? They don't make the door blanks in the house. That's done somewhere else But this huge machine which was the first thing I'd really notice when I walked in the facility this and the plasma cutter Which they also have this thing is cutting where the doorknob goes It's got a Forstner bit thing that pokes through and just cuts that hole. That's all it does And then on the bottom is another one punch in the hole for the plunger You know and it that's all that thing does it does one job And then he goes on and he cuts the rest of the hinge plates This is real-time. It takes about three minutes to cut and mill all the different parts of the door and This huge machine they only have it because the door supplier that they were using for their doors close their doors and Calvin the owner I have another video by the way interviewing Calvin you guys can check out on the George the Tech YouTube channel He said hey, can we buy that machine from you guys and they did so They have this very very large machine. That's just for precision milling all the parts of a door Which I thought was obviously really fascinating and probably impressive piece of machinery Yeah, and the door is probably when it comes to a vocal booth Probably one of the most important pieces of any particular You know soundproof booth because without the without a solid core door and the right Fittings and it's fitting just right. Yeah Here's another another router underneath. So it's an upside-down router It's cutting the strike plate area. Oh, I'm so glad you know the actual technical nerves There's the strike and the strike plate having done a lot of videos on how to install doors. So Yeah, yeah, so there there that's done And then he drills the holes I love air drills man, they're so fast It sounds like the Indy 500, I know Actually worked for a couple of different door companies. Oh, yeah, different different That I would hope not. Yeah. Anyway, nothing's more fun than trying to hang a door Well, I mean a Calvin made a good point as well. He said, you know, listen, it's not it's one thing to have this big heavy door That's one thing. It's another thing to hang a big heavy door off of a thing that you assembled at home And have it, you know that the weight of that door when it swings wide open That thing's pulling on the structure, you know, all that force is pulling on the thing It's essentially a flimsy door frame is what it is because you're just screwing It's not framed and hung and mounted to the house So it's even trickier to get those things To get those things dialed in right so yeah, I was I was really impressed by that really really really cool Seeing that stuff being done in person All right. Well, that's it for my tech update and Dan. We're talking about The cloud the theory of the cloud. No, it's the theory of the cloud panel Now this is then it's not even a theory. I mean I call it a theory But in working with a lot of people and you know and and how many of you are in a closet? Deliberately and if you're you're in there Closets can be very different. I mean the every closet is different. I mean, there's a standard closet There's an a 12 inch or an 18 inch deep closet with the sliding door And then there's a walk-in closet you open a door and all your clothes are in there and stuff and the ceiling is generally pretty high Or if you're in a smaller closet, it's built into a wall that has a higher ceiling and That ceiling is sort of like that big hole in a guitar It creates a big acoustical space above you that is going to create bass reflex like you wouldn't believe And it's gonna sound like you're down the hallway or something along those lines so one of the things that The George and I have been doing with people is we've been creating what we call clouds and What is a cloud? Well, if I if I use my camera here and I can actually go up and show you what a cloud looks like Yeah, look at that isn't that cool that I can do all that yeah, that that is what clouds look like there They are panels that are made out of wood They can be fiberglass or rocks all filled and and then I usually put like a backing of weed block behind it to keep the fiberglass of the rock soul. Yeah installed and See goes right back to where it's supposed to and What a cloud does is you know, it's like a regular sound panel that will Absorb sound and not let it reflect back to your microphone But here's the theory about this that I find fascinating That is if you if you're in your booth and And you go up and down like good, you know trying to go down on your knees or and or stand up really straight You will find that as your your your mouth goes higher or lower inside that space It will change the dynamic of of the room, you know, and if it's a very small room It's going to really affect the sound. It's gonna become very very hollow sounding So by hanging a cloud, you're doing a couple of things one You're reducing the the upper area of the of the closet or the room you're in so it's not It's not going up into that chamber and reflecting all over the place and then coming back down But here's the cool thing because I was as I was just describing going up and down and Listening in your own ears how the sound changes depending on where in the particular booth you are I Came up with this idea that I was proven to be 1,000% correct because it just made sense and that is when you're hanging a cloud Make it adjustable. Maybe put it on a pulley. Maybe have you know having been a sailor in knowing an awful lot about pulleys and all that stuff You can make something that is totally adjustable so what we're trying to do is we want to create a sweet spot in your in your booth that will Work every time and if you're you know if you're standing or sitting you can adjust that cloud to maintain a consistent sound within your booth And I know some booth manufacturers and we've talked to them and they're like I'm like Why don't you put a cloud in here and make it adjustable and they're like we don't want to do that Well, that's their problem because it works great in a closet. I just installed one in some of these closet the other day and it sounds sweet and Before I put it in it sounded pretty sour. It was very very reverberant and it was The thing is is it has to be custom-cut for the for that particular room and If you've ever watched me measure something and cut it, you know, maybe I'm not the one to be building those but It's I thought that was 21 inches. Why is it? You know, yeah, it's a lot of work. I don't like making that stuff more than I have to either yeah, I Mean, I just made a clock out of a zenith cloud of a radio face and I built a wooden frame with it and And did and did it all by hand you do it by hand.  That's right. So it's Yeah, it's it's not it's not perfect But if you can get it, you know fitting inside and not necessarily really tightly so you can get it So it moves up and down, you know It cuts off the angle of your voice and doesn't let it reverberate up in the in the upper chamber of the closet And so that's something you might want to consider when you're building your home studio Or if you have no idea what you're doing what you do is you go over to one of our websites home voice your voice over studio calm or over to George V dot tech and Tell them what we know you want to tell us what you want to do and we can help you out But making one yourself is not that hard. I can build one with an electric staple gun in less than an hour Which is actually kind of cool considering the kind of space I have here to actually do that Your thoughts mr. Woodham. Yeah, I agree totally. I mean a sound cloud acoustic cloud whatever you want to call it It works so well It does a very good job of dealing with a lot of issues in small spaces It doesn't take up more wall space so you can kind of use more wall space for other purposes It can really Really make a dramatic improvement with you know, the hardest part really it's just a physical Hanging of it from the ceiling that is the hardest part of the install, you know other than that Absolutely worth the effort. No no brainer. Yeah toggle bolts are fabulous Yeah, these is ones that like you there's like a plastic thing you shove it in the hole and then it goes like Yeah, yeah, I was into the ceiling Yeah, there are a lot of those in this studio this George will attest to and they're all still holding so that's even better But if you put it up there with rings and the right type of rope it can you can Really make it very very precise to make it sound exactly the way we want it to sound So that's that's a good thing to know and that's why I figured I'd talk about my cloud theory Love it. I love that you could show us too. Yes Anyway, we're gonna take a quick break here and if you have a question We would like to see your questions here on voiceover body shop tech talk because that's why we're here I see there's a bunch of people watching. I know you have questions Even if it's about, you know marriage difficulties or about about your medical issues. Yeah As long as it relates to voiceover put it in the chat room right now and Jeff Holman will get that to us In the meantime, we're gonna take a break and we'll be right back here on voiceover body shop So do not go a way. Hi, this is Bill Farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great Oh, hi, you know if you live in a house and your voiceover studio is in that house You don't want to disturb everybody else who's living in there So what you need are good headphones that are made specifically for voiceover And that's why we have Harlan Hogan's signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 What's so great about these? Well one they have a very flat response So you only hear exactly what it is you sound like second Incredibly comfortable leather leather pads on the outside filled with memory foam of Really comfortable headband that really it really works with your head The most important thing you can wear them for long periods of time That's really important. Where do you get them? Only at voiceover Essentials.com that's voiceover essentials.com. Just go there look at the headphones and get them now Tell them we sent you. Thanks Harlan All right, well, it's time to talk about source elements It creates a source connect and source nexus 2.0, which was just released very recently And it provides a different set of tools that you're not probably accustomed to from source elements Now the nexus thing's been around for a while It's a virtual sound router for your computer works on Windows or Mac and allows you to take any Audio source or destination on your computer whether it be a Chrome web browser Zoom Skype Whatever it is you can assign them their own unique sets of audio drivers And what that allows those things to do is to communicate with other Applications in the computer and nexus is basically the traffic cop. It's the nexus It's the intersection of all those things But it also creates a driver so that any one of those sound sources or destinations can show up and become a plug-in The plug-in in your multi-track software where they're using pro tools logic reaper Whatever use new endo for your post-production can now Allow those signals to stream in and out seamlessly so if you're doing a zoom or a Skype and You are producing and you need to get the talent in and the client listening in on their favorite zoom platform Maybe they're using Google Meep or it's corporate and they have to use teams From Microsoft no worries You have a way to get that audio in and out of the production smoothly to make everybody's Life easier and make it work The way it feels like when they're all in the studio with you which seems to happen so much less often So if you want to learn more about nexus and of course if you want to get source connect because you're you're starting to Get the big job auditions coming in that say must have source connect Head over to source dash elements calm and get started and tell them we sent you we appreciate it We'll be right back with your questions. Send them in right after this. Well. Hey there It's David H. Lawrence with VO heroes and wouldn't it be cool if there was a very simple tool Drag-and-drop tool that would guarantee that the audio you need to upload a CX or any other audiobook platform Is perfectly set up in terms of the tech standards that you root mean square normalization the peak Normalization the noise floor guess what there is and I want you to have it absolutely free It's called audio cupcake and you can find it at audio cupcake calm I helped create this software It was built to my specs and my standards for when I do audiobooks and I know it's gonna work for you Now it's only available for Macintosh Because you windows users you have the ability to use other tools that work for you But in this case you edit your final raw what way file for a chapter you drop it on audio cupcake and out comes the 192k mono MP3 file you can upload immediately. That's audio cupcake calm audio cupcake calm. I hope you love it This is the Latin Lover narrator from Jane the Virgin Anthony Mendez and you're enjoying Den and George on the voice over buddy shop All right. We're back here at voice over buddy shop again. If you have a tech question for us And it could be anything at all regarding your home voice over studio George and I will talk about it incessantly for hours on end Anytime I mean that's why you better ask some questions otherwise We're gonna just go off on it on and on and on and on but but we've got a couple of questions So we're gonna get to in a minute here, but by the way Jeff Jeff. What were you so angry? I see you going Oh What is that Jeff everybody agent? I think it's all gonna zagen We got to unmute you here there you go. Oh Oh, everything's fine. I just you know, it's just like George said like that's that's my moment for the show and Get a phone call right then. It's like It's just you know All right Is somebody's had a case of the Mondays right anyway if you've got a question This is where it's going it before it comes here. So if it gets kind of weird before then now, you know why thanks Jeff Thank you. All right Anyway We have a couple of questions here and again just throw it in the chat room George and I will be happy to answer your questions on your home voice over studio or technology We'll start off with the question from Jeff Since he's in there he gets he gets priority because that's right He's typing he says he says every time I hear artificially produced voices on youtube videos.  I keep hearing about the canned tomato sauce of voice over That's what I call it. Yeah The reason why you're hearing all these like lousy voice models on youtube Is they're mostly extremely cheap or free They're built into the free freemium or free apps people are using And uh, that's why I I just thought I mean when you mention that question the name the the idea of the canned tomato sauce Comes to mind because listen if you were a chef at a restaurant And you made pasta And you literally opened a can of tomato sauce You would not be a chef for very long, right? Yeah, exactly those restaurants pride themselves on that sauce They make the sundae gravy, right? You make the best sauce you ever had. That's why you come back for me It's pizza the best taste in sauce Imagine imagine if voice actors were to just be using an ai version other of a voice And that would be accepted as a great performance. Ain't gonna happen. Is it good enough for at home? To feed the kids. Yeah, that's what the that's what the canned tomato sauce is for Can a chef boy rd.  Yeah But you wouldn't dare share that with guests or is like with a word a restaurant, right? So that's the way I kind of look at it Like these are just the canned tomato sauce voices that are cheap free built into the apps You know, and you're hearing them way too way too often now, right? Yeah, I mean we had pj oculinan with us last week and we were talking about this You know, I look at ai and everybody's oh, it's getting better. It's all this. It's all that I got quoted in wired magazine a couple weeks ago about ai voices and which I was totally honored to be Yeah, uh as president of world voices and they contacted me. So do you have a comment? I'm like as a matter of fact I do Um To me I am convinced and they'll tell me oh, it's gonna happen and I'm like yeah, I'll believe it when I hear it That a computer cannot cry A computer generated voice cannot sigh a computer generated voice cannot laugh Yeah, it can You can program it to do you can program it to do those things But it'll do it over and over and over again and every time Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh or at the end of a sentence you'll hear And then you'll hear the exact same breath throughout the entire thing You know or if you're watching something like ancient aliens, which we've been sort of hooked on but You know, it's an ai voice because ancient alien theorists, you know suggest It's the same intonation constantly and it is perfect every time variation. There's no variation It actually gets kind of droney, yeah, a little bit and but you know, they said, you know, the horseless carriage will never take off, but what did we know? Look, as technology changes, human beings do what human beings do. We adapt.  I'm sorry, a computer can't do it. It cannot replace humans. Yeah, I mean, I just saw an incredible musical musical artist last night, Pat Matheny. He's a renowned jazz guitar player. Legend. Yeah. The sound, his tone is unique, his style of playing is unique and it crosses borders between classical and jazz and it's just incredible. He's one of the most amazing guitar players alive, right? And on stage, he had at least nine different guitars. He had some of them covered in a black duvetine so you didn't see it until the last second. He'd pull it off and then play it. He had other, a whole, this huge, crazy automated instrument that he created a few years ago that he triggers from his guitar and it's playing mallets and bells and drums. I mean, it is just an unbelievable thing. The thing is, that is entertaining. It's real equipment making real sound in a real space. By a human. By a human. Yes, you could program all of that in a computer. You could sequence it and you could walk on stage and hit a play button, right? In fact, I actually saw an artist a few six months ago where it was the weirdest thing. The lead singer guy basically yells at the audience and the musician has a laptop and at the beginning of each song, he hits play and then he dances around. It was the weirdest freaking thing I've ever seen. It was called Sleaford Mods. Anyway, my point, I'm getting at. Hire the human. People still are going to want to see humans, be human, do human things, share human experiences, listen to human voices. Yes, there's always going to be a place where AI voice comes in and yes, it's going to get better. Just like synthesizers came and changed a lot of music, just like, you know, there's a lot of things that have been substituted in over the years, but it's not going to replace it. I just, it's not going to, it's not going to, and I keep saying this, it's going to be more work to make the fake version sound real than it will be for a real person to provide the real voice. It's going to take more time, more programming, it's going to be more difficult. So humans win. Absolutely. Yes. Humans win. Humans win. Computers zero. All right. Justin Ramos asked a question. This is regarding the cloud thingies, you know, these guys up here. Any problem regarding earthquake safety, nah, unless you're living in a, I think earthquake wise, first off, if you're in Los Angeles, it's not a problem. Nothing breaks here. Everything out of wood. It just goes, everything's designed to handle that. But I guess, don't just, just don't use good quality, good anchors, you know, the things are going to swing around in the ceiling and that's probably fine. I don't know if I'd want to be underneath one in a major earthquake. If they were swinging around over my head, I might consider leaving the room. But I don't think you're going to have too much to worry about. Interesting question. Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you set it up right, if you've got more, a couple of anchors in there, if the whole ceiling doesn't fall down, it's not going to hurt you. Plus it's made out of soft stuff, except for the frame. So if the frame doesn't hit you, it's like getting hit on the head with a pillow. As long as it's not the very edge of the frame. Right. Right. And on to a different subject from the same questioner with the same sort of question, someone asks, speaking of clouds, cloud storage recommendation for backups of auditions, et cetera. What do you think, George? Clever. Clever. I'll just tell you what I use. I use Odrive, which is a way to like synchronize and move files between your computer and different cloud storages. So it works with Odrive. It works with Google Drive. It works with Dropbox and that's what I'm using with those two services. And it just makes it easier for me to have more than one Google Drive account synchronizing to my computer at the same time. So that's what I use. All of my work exists on Google Drive, right? So that is my file syncing, file sharing, cloud backup, all wrapped up in the one bundle, right? It's there. If it's in those folders, it's a backed up, it's in the cloud. If I have to run out of my house with my laptop and my girlfriend and my wallet, I'll get all my work back because I can download that again from the cloud. So that works for me. Dan, what do you do? Same. You know, I use, you know, as much problem as Google is getting themselves into troubles to Google's getting themselves into in different places, Google Drive works great.  It's there. It makes it easy to share them. But I also use iCloud, which is why when I open my laptop in the house, everything that was ever on my desktop suddenly appears on there. I'm like, I don't want that stuff and you should start moving it around and stuff. iCloud is great for saving the stuff that is actually the downloads in your computer and stuff like that. But for actually, for transferring files, because you can make them huge, GDrive works just great. And it's not expensive to have a couple of terabytes of GDrive. And totally worth it if you're moving a lot of files. Otherwise, you don't really want to storm on your machine. Yeah. Don't think of a drive, a file just sitting on your computer as permanent. Exactly. We like to say if it doesn't exist in at least two places at once, consider that it doesn't exist at all. Unless you put it on a CD-ROM. Right, right. If you happen to have a CD-ROM burner, which, you know, if you have a 1911, or a 2011 computer, you might actually have it. I do still use a time machine hard drive. So I mean, just an external laptop-sized hard drive plugged into my computer to do another backup onto the physical disk. And I just, I haven't had to restore from one of those in a very long time. Maybe I've been lucky. But I haven't had to worry about that at all. But OSes are just incredibly stable now. You think they figured out how to make them now? So they're... Yeah. I mean, they're stable. They're a little memory chip that stores everything, can fail. Like, when is that going to happen? That happened in the early days of flash storage 10 plus years ago. Yeah. It was more common. It is very uncommon nowadays. You'd need an EMP, electronic, or EPM, what is it, electronic pulse weapon or something? Yeah. Somebody drops a nuclear bomb over your house. One, your hard drive is the least of your concerns. There ain't no coming back from a nuclear attack. Anyway, yeah. Okay. So, we got another question. You get it, George, from Dave. Dave just upgraded a mid-2012. He just upgraded a 10-year-old MacBook Pro just now from stock to two 1-terabyte solid state drives, good move, 16 gigabytes of memory, good move, a new battery, and it's a 2.5 MHz Core i5. It's like a mid-level MacBook Pro. Do you think this can be a decent backup laptop for the road? Yeah, of course. I mean, the thing is, once it's a 2012 or older, really, if it's a 2015 or older, you're going to start running into web browser compatibility problems. Some things are just not going to work on that system. Browsers won't stay up to date any longer. There's going to be some issues, and it's not because of the hardware. It's because of Apple just rolling out new machines and sun-setting the old ones and stopping supporting the old ones with the newer OSes, and it kind of rolls. It's like this time of year, when the new OS comes out, something just lost support. So I think maybe that was High Sierra maybe, maybe Mojave is kind of the end of the road in terms of getting support and staying supported and current. So yes, it'll work. If you just need a computer to travel with and record, that's technically overkill with all those specs, but it'll work fine. He says, can I get a second Twisted Wave license on it? Yes. When you want a Twisted Wave license, you can install it on as many computers as you want. It's actually very different from a lot of other platforms. Yeah. Either have one or two or five limit, I mean maybe five or something. Right. Right. And it's great because then you've got it on one computer, it makes it easy to transfer to the other, and you're working in the same environment. And Twisted Wave's great software. And just for relative speed, he made a little observation. Even with all those upgrades, the faster storage, the more memory, it's still one sixth the speed of the M1 storage or performance. I don't know if he means the speed of storage or the speed of the computer. But yeah, the M1s are dramatically faster, no doubt about it. The storage on the silicon chips, because everything's unified into one small chip, the storage is lightning fast. Yeah. And at the end of the day, that's what makes a computer from a day-to-day use case. Just opening the apps, loading files, saving things, exporting this, that's the speed of that storage. Is it really what you're going to notice? That is what makes the computer feel extremely snappy. That's what keeps you from seeing the spinning pinwheel all the time. That's what you're really going to notice more than anything, I think. So yeah, it's a good experience for most people. Keep an old machine around as a backup. I do the same. I just, believe it or not, I took my old backup computer that I gave to my daughter. She's like, this thing stinks, dad, it's slow. So I gave her my 2019 MacBook Pro, which is a very base model, right? And I cleaned it and put her system on it. She's fine. She is a camper. I took her old MacBook Air 2015 and I wiped it and installed my user account on it. And it's fine. It still works fine. Yes, it's slow, but it will still do basic things. And if I need to run an Intel-specific thing, like I have a Windows version on there, runs. Windows 32, Windows 7, Windows 7, whatever, Windows 7, it will actually run on that old Intel Mac and it won't run on my new one. So I still keep it around. Very cool. Use a Mac.  That's fabulous. If you're good at that, I'm going to get that skeeter. I'm telling you, this guy, we support Windows over at George the Tech. We've got a few on our team who are very Windows-centric. Yep. Even the ones that are the most experienced still, we run into technical brick walls where it's like, I don't know why it's glitching. What's going on there?  Because people on Windows hate being told to try a Mac. They just, it just makes them crazy. And okay, whatever the reasons you might maybe have some political reason, you know, like Apple, I don't know. It's it just is proven to be a great, stable, easy to use, well-supported platform for creating media, which is what we do, which is what it's really designed for. I mean, yeah, like PCs are great for doing spreadsheets. And they're great for maybe doing some graphic work and stuff like that. Yeah. And definitely for gaming. Do not game on a Mac unless you can. But for voiceover, nothing is simpler than a Mac. You don't want all these different variables in the operating system. And Macs just are really designed for creatives like us. And that's why we virus scanners running all the time. Absolutely. No one's infected my computer. Now, of course, someone's going to attack it today. But that would end up the Monday night sleep. When exactly after the show, you had to hack my computer after the show. Please wait. Yeah. Exactly. So I think that's it for most of the questions tonight. Thanks for all of those. Again, if you want to if you want to write to us and you've got a question, let me get the right banner up there so I can show you exactly what it is you're supposed to say, write to you, write to. The guys at VOBS dot TV. How do you like that? If you write to that address and you have a question for us any time of the week, you wake up in the middle of the night going, what about this interface I've got? Write to us at the guys at VOBS TV and we'll be happy to answer it on our next show.  Don't make me do that again. OK. And so that's an important thing to to know. If you've got a question, you can always ask one of us. Come on. Yes. So anyway, I'm going to wrap this, you know, we should wrap it up into a nice tight little ball and get rolling here. So don't go away. We'll be right back after these messages to wrap things up and make it more important to you, because we'll be talking about you. We'll be right back here on Voice Over Body Shop. So do not go away. Yeah. Hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rocky, the voice of Brocco, and you're watching Voice Over Body Shop. Your dynamic voice over career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead. There's one place where you can explore everything the voice over industry has to offer. That place is voiceoverextra.com. Whether you're just exploring a voice over career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level, stay in touch with market trends, coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls. Voice Over Extra has hundreds of articles, free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed. Learn from the most respected talents, coaches and industry insiders. When you join the online sessions, bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books, auditioning, home studios, setup and equipment, marketing, performance techniques and much more. It's time to hit your one stop daily resource for voice over success. Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports. It's all here at voiceoverextra.com. That's voiceoverextra.com. All right, it's time for me to talk about a great product, a great website. And that is voiceactor.com. Yes, voiceactor.com. An affiliate of voiceactorwebsites.com. Now, what do they do over at voiceactor.com? They have templated websites. If you've tried to build your own website using Wix or you're trying to do things with HTML and WordPress or one of the... There's a lot to learn. We've taken that problem out of the equation because a templated website gives you all sorts of options, different designs, different ways to present your name, your demos and your contact information, which is by far the most important stuff that you can have on your website. And you can change the background picture. You can change the colors. You can add anything you want. And it's all menu driven, not code driven. And what they've been able to do is the technology has been updated so everything is just a menu, a dropdown. OK, use this color, use that. Is it simple? Yes. Do you need something complex to show that you're a great voice actor? What you want to show as a voice actor is what you sound like and how to contact you. And that's really the most important thing. Other people spend six months designing the perfect website. And in two years, it's out of date already. Or it's too elaborate. You don't want people going in there and going to all these different places. They want to see your name. They want to hear your demos and they want to know how to contact you. That's what your website is for. So go over to voiceactor.com and get yourself a website really, really quick, like in 20 minutes. So go over to voiceactor.com right now. We are the World Voices Organization, also known as Wobo. We're the not-for-profit industry association of freelance voice talent. VoiceOver is a complex entrepreneurial business. Wobo is there to promote the professional nature of voice work to the public, to those already established in their voiceover practice and to those who want to pursue voiceover as a career. Membership benefits include a supportive and creative community, a profile and demos on voiceover.biz, our searchable directory of vetted professional voice talent, our exclusive demo player for your personal website. Our mentoring program, business resources and our video library. Our annual WoboCon conference, a fun and educational weekend with other members with a chance to learn and network. Webinars and great speakers and weekly social chats with other members around the world. If your world is voiceover, make Wobo part of it. World Voices Organization. We speak for those who speak for a living. This is Ariana Ratner and you're enjoying VoiceOver Body Shop with Dan Leonard and George Wittem, VoBS.tv. All righty. Unmute, we're unmuted, aren't we? We're unmuted and we'll mix it up. I'm mixing this back up again. There we go. No, OK, is that the way you're going to be? No, we're going to switch it around again. OK, having fun with the switcher. OK, let's go back to where we usually are. OK, hey, technology. It's fascinating trying to direct this and catch a mosquito at the same time. I must say. Anyway, thanks for watching tonight. It's always fun doing this show. And Mr. Wittem, it is always a pleasure doing it with you. Thanks, it's fun. Next week, Jeff. Why can I never remember his last name? Howell. Jeff Howell will be our guest. Hey, I don't don't laugh. I'm amazed I pulled that name out of my butt, too. I'm just as amazed as you are. I'm, you know, I'm I'm taking I'm taking the lion's mane. It actually is helping a little bit. Actually, OK, good to know. Lion's mane coffee. This is a mushroom. It's a it's a it's a good kind of mushroom.  Hey, what's wrong with that? That's true. Anyway, if you want to work with one of us, we have to remind you once again that if you want to work with me, you just got to go on over to homevoiceoverstudio.com and, you know, put put in your specimen in your in my specimen cup and for twenty five dollars. I'll give you stuff a listen or you can go over to george.the.tech. All right. And you can head over to the slash V.O.B.S. landing page to remind me reminded what our coupon code is, which is V.O.B.S. fan ten. All right. Ten percent off anything on the website. All right. Let's see here. You're still selling the Studio Bricks and the Vocal Booth. Oh, yeah, we do. We we have a Vocal Booth.com diamond. You know, the diamond shaped one for sale. Still here in actually belong to Alice Talent. Oh, it's out there. They don't need it anymore. They don't have actors come in.  No, it's still there. Thank goodness. It's still there. It's just over in play of this to near Marina Del Rey. And you can come check it out. Yeah, email me at george.the.tech. And we also have two Studio Bricks booths for sale that my friend, our friend, actually, our producer, Sue, is helping us get sold. And so again, just email me if you're interested in finding out more about those Studio Bricks booths that are for sale. They're there's some pretty big ones. Oh, and those are the twice as big as this. Right. Oh, wow. And then the small ones are nice, too. So anyway, we need to thank our donors of the week. And you can donate to our show by going to our page. If you're already there, it says VOBS.TV right underneath all that stuff that says donate now. Click on that and you can a dollar a month be fabulous. It all adds up. It makes it sound like public radio, but we're better than that. We give you stuff you actually need and not anything spun a certain way, except our way. But we need to thank our donors of the week, like Greg Cooper, Grace Newton, Christopher Epperson, Robert Liedem, Steve Chandler, Casey Clack, Jonathan Grant, Thomas Pinto, Greg Thomas, a doctor voice, Antland Productions, Martha Conn, 949 Designs, Sarah Borges, Philip Sapir, Brian Page, Rob Ryder, Shona Pennington-Baird, Don Griffith, Trey Moseley, Diana Birdsall, Maria Makas, and Sandra Manwheeler. Also, we need to thank our amazing sponsors like Harlan Hogan's Voiceover Essentials, Voiceover Extra, Source Elements, VeroHeroes.com, VoiceActor.com and WorldVoices.org. Wovo, the industry association of freelance voice talent. Yes, I am in charge of that right now for the next year or so. We're making lots of changes. It's going to be a great organization with some great benefits for people. So go over to world-voices.org and join up. We need to thank Mr. Jeff Holman. Where is he, Jeff Holman? There it is. Yeah, Jeff Holman and there he is. Jeff Holman. See, it's like BJ Leaderman. They have to mention it every Saturday morning on National Public Radio. But there he is. There you go. There we go. He is in all sorts of stuff. He's making. I hire him. Absolutely. Go to find him at imdb.me slash Jeff Holman. One L, one M, one N. OK, very good. Thanks for all your help in the chat room tonight. Sue Merlino, we thank you for just being Sue because she's got a real bad back problem and she could not help us out tonight. So I've been doing all the switching and doing the best I can. And of course, Lee Penny, simply for being Lee Penny. Well, that's going to do it for us this week. Thanks for tuning in.  You've got so much you've got to learn. One of the most important parts is do you sound good? But we found that if it sounds good, it is good. I'm Dan Leonard. And I'm George Whidham. And this is voiceover. Body shop or V.O.B.S. Tech talk. Tech talk, tech talk, tech talk, tech talk, tech talk. Tech talk. All righty. Have a good week, everybody. We will see you next time here at Voiceover Body Shop. OK.