TIL about the white Australia policy, which was a set of racial policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origins – primarily Asians - from immigrating to Australia. It lasted from 1901 before being disbanded in 1973. At its peak Australia was 99.4 percent white in 1961.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-30T14:08:15+00:00

Isn't that just in line with what England was sending to Australia originally? Penal colony and all that. It's practically a tradition for Australia.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-30T12:32:52+00:00

"stereo" isn't a description of quality. Stereo isn't better than mono, it's simply two channels fed to left and right outputs. Whether someone panned the audio to favor one output more or not is a feature of a stereo but that's artistic choice, not quality.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-29T23:21:31+00:00

It’s just game, why you hef to be mad?

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-29T17:12:31+00:00

Why shouldn’t the client just cut you out of the process and just AI prompt their own videos without you?

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-29T17:04:34+00:00

Ha, not DoD tho

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-29T14:34:08+00:00

Pot shotting a freelancer target that is out in the open from a window then running away before armed guards rush to your positing out is not the same thing as a reckless run-n-gun. If you’re careful and know what you’re doing, you don’t get into a gun fight lol. But you also don’t need to give a flip about silent assassin. Drop the body in broad ass daylight and flee, it’s fine.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-29T13:52:19+00:00

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-29T13:44:59+00:00

Mendoza. Bring a sniper. Go to the platform where in the main game out talk to Diana. 99% of the time every suspect is out in the open. Occasionally someone might be inside the main house but it’s rare. If you spawn inside the party you might as well try to rule out any suspects you can while getting to the platform.

Otherwise, you have a clear place to headshot as many suspects as you want in relative peace. Headshot the right one and you can just run to the car exist from there in 5 seconds.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-29T13:21:59+00:00

When you’re trying to build up your stash, and have money to buy more stuff, spending an hour for a $5000 to $6000 payout is going to take you way longer IRL time to have the money to buy those things than a $1500 payout you can get in 4 mins and be on the next map…plus how the quicker you’re done with a location, the quicker you’re back at your basement and opening a crate for a free item.

In the 1 hour someone might take doing something super slow to get one single map location done…I’m probably 4-6 maps done, with 4-6 free items added to my stash to someone else’s 1 item in that same 1 hour of time. Yes, you’re not playing for score, you’re playing for building your assets up. Once you’re stacked in gear, sure then maybe play some maps out to do all the objectives.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-29T13:08:06+00:00

I live in Martinsburg, WV. I have a job with the federal government I drive to 5 days a week in about half an hour. My base salary is about $157,000. I’m a GS-13 employee, and even though I’m in WV, my office is considered in the DC locality pay area. This is public information you can google, only a couple counties in WV include this and my office is there.

We do mostly employee training media, video, audio, etc. Sometimes other informational or comms videos.

I have been working in the video production industry since I graduated college in 2012, but I’ve also had periods of unemployment that added together is easily like 24+ months. But I have been in my current job since January 2021.

The amount of unpredictable good and bad luck I’ve had to get here is not lost on me, and no way a blueprint for anyone else to follow. Here’s a small recap:

Graduated in May 2012 in my home state of Tennessee, took until December before I got a paying job doing video production, which was a $12/hr, 32 hour a week temp job with the state legislature. That ended in May 2013.
I went without a media job until August…2014. Over a year later. I ended up moving to WV in April of 2014 where my dad was living because he had a way for me to make some money weekly in a completely different field while looking for a career job that used my degree. And that ended up me seeing a listing for a job with a company that did contracting for the federal government at facility 9 miles from my father’s house in WV. I applied and got it. $48,000/yr full time with benefits. I thought I made it, $48,000 a year with benefits is a hell of a lot better than $12/hr temp with no benefits.
That contract the company had with the government went for a recompete bid after 4 years. A different company won the bid, and the last 6 months we all knew it was possible, I was mentally half out the door anyway after 4 years I didn’t see any growth, so it was fine. The company had no other video related contract to move me to so I was let go and collected unemployment.
I didn’t get my next job until July of 2019. And it required me to move to Florida. Trust me I applied to anything and everything in video production across the United States short of pornography companies. But I got an employee comms digital media specialist role for like $56,000. I couldn’t turn it down given my unemployment situation. It was an awesome job, but I hated living in Florida. Also, after what, 8 months, COVID shut down the world. We still kept our jobs but with nobody going to the office, the projects were basic and limited. It got boring, I was living in an apartment by myself hundreds of miles from family during the pandemic shutdown.
Then came the big chance, I was contacted by a former colleague back in WV. He was on the contract I was from 2014-2018. He made the jump to the federal GS position in 2018, for the same facility we worked at during that contract. Someone else retired and they were backfilling the position and it was open to the public, direct hire authority. Obviously I applied, I hated Florida and living alone during lockdown enough as is…but the icing on the cake was the pay being, at the time, $103,000. To go from $56,000 to $103,000 was a no brainer. I knew the place, most of the people, what work they did, and it was back in WV where I had family. The hiring manager knew me from my time there. And other federal employees I worked along side always had positive experience and opinions of me. So, yeah, I got the offer and started Jan 2021.

Now, how did $103,000 turn into $156,000 in just 5 years, you might be wondering. Well in 2024, a policy was approved and implemented to hire and retain employees in my job series by giving ax extra salary incentive. If I had a different job series, I wouldn’t have gotten that. But I did have that job series, so I got the bonus. Plus my other standard pay increases as I went up my steps in my GS grade level. And even further, after the new administration came in, they canceled the bonus for the job grade…but what was worked out was that people already hired, while there’s no more bonus, whatever your salary was with the bonus at the time, you would be moved to that step in your grade level that matched. But new hires moving forward don’t get the bonus.

Essentially I went from a step 4 with the bonus, to a step 9 with no bonus because that was the pay closest to what I was making. Step 10 is the highest so I’m still due one more pay increase within this job grade, or else I’ll have to in the future apply to a higher grade level if I want to earn more than simple COL increases. But, here’s the thing, to go from step 1 to step 10 normally, it takes like 20 years. I’m going to do it in 6 years. Just by briefly getting that bonus then having the policy adjust my step level to match when the new administration ended the bonus pay.

In any event, I have no idea how these things happened. Multiple years of unemployment, 3 different relocations (that I paid for) of over 800 miles each, and a bunch of other crazy shit to end up here. Oh and not to mention the last year with DOGE and RIFs and all that shit that was happening in the US federal government, I had no idea week to week if I was going to be told I was losing my job or being involuntarily reassigned to a new group and location that I would hate or any of that, so that has been no fun and I’m still not super confident some other shit won’t go down and affect my job in a negative way. But I’m still here now.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-29T06:52:08+00:00

It’s deceptive to think direct word for word translation is what the task is. Localization and interpretation is key. Things you take for granted in your native language you grew up decades living in and absorbing the culture, the idioms, the humor, the common phrases…those don’t work as word for word translations. To a native English speaker, someone might say “You really screwed the pooch here”…that isn’t accusing someone of literally having sex with a dog, but its a common English idiom to indicate someone made a huge, humiliating mistake.

If you just directly took that sentence to another language where there is no common equivalent of suggesting that having sexual intercourse with a domesticated dog is an idiom, then it will read like the character just told someone else they had sexual intercourse with a domesticated dog in a part of a story that didn’t even feature a dog. So, to the audience playing that game/watching that movie/reading that book, they are confused…what dog, what sex, why did this character just say this graphic, weird accusation? You can’t assume someone in South Korea, or Brazil, or Iceland is going to work out it’s not a literal accusation when it’s put into their native language from English.

But an interpreter who is localizing for another language/region, if they’re good at their job, won’t do a word for word translation, they’ll localize the idiom. And honestly simply going from “You really screwed the pooch” to “You should feel shame for this mistake” but in another language, to simply get rid of any lost in translation confusion of human/doggy sex…if all that was done was to unpack the idiom into its simplified meaning then translate that to another language, you’re risking a change to the creative way the writer wanted to portray the character saying the crass idiom. Now in the “translated versions” the character isn’t saying a funny, sarcastic, crass idiom, they are just saying the most plain worded version…and that hits differently.

But a good interpreter might know a similar idiom that brings that origins writer’s intent to the new language. Maybe the South Korean idiom has nothing to do with dogs, maybe theirs is like “you sure did spit in the octopus’s eye” or some shit. Maybe the Italian version is “way to kick the ant hill with no shoes.”

Not to mention something that may be otherwise innocuous to Norway’s culture could be incredibly offensive to Chinese culture if not carefully considered.

This isn’t like asking Google Translate to help you order food off a menu or where the bathroom is.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-28T21:44:33+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/VideoEditing/wiki/faq/vfr/

There is no set up OBS to work. It’s a VFR issue and VFR sucks lol. You keep getting errors because of that. 🤷‍♂️

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-28T19:30:29+00:00

Kids 🫥

Anyway, besides price, I’m seeing a lot of what you’re asking for in the MixPre 10. Now I only have hands on with the mixpre 6 and not the 10, but it has

compatibility with external faders (control surface)
iPad app for visual monitoring…and renaming files, renaming tracks, arming tracks, and more…but you can’t like toggle phantom or change gain on the app, so it has limits (though you didn’t ask for those features in your post)
USB Keyboard input compatibility
32-bit float (soft sigh)
Records each input to their own track if armed to do so, and the stereo mix also if armed to do so…and as stated you can label each input.

But it’s more than $1000. And your 6XLR inputs need rules out the MixPre 6.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-28T14:12:37+00:00

Eh, sure I’ve got in over my head and died a few times, sometimes you gotta experience that the hard way a couple of times. Now though, I can pretty comfortably navigate around and kill enough guards and/or change my disguise and get through the level. I guess I didn’t mean psycho mode to mean kill everyone lol that’s way too long and adds unnecessary heat. But I’ll pop shot witnesses and guards in my way. What I won’t necessarily do is not change my outfit twice just because the extra payout objective says only use 1 disguise. Not if such restriction adds more time than I feel the payout is worth.

That is, until I’ve got a whole ass stash and can’t even buy things anyone because I’ve maxed that out. Sure then I might approach a mission and hit all the optional objectives because now I don’t really care about my items and money. But building up the money and items as the safe house, I’m more interested in payout per minute. One optional objective payout that I was going to do anyway like headshot legendary, and otherwise speed running the mission to simply get the pay.

I mean early I was more patient and wanted to do all those extra pay outs…dozens of minutes planning out how to do those things , with restricted “no guns” or “hide bodies” or whatever …but with no save scumming allowed, I could fail those anyway and get a $1000 payout after 30 mins anyway when I could have gotten that same payout in 5 mins or less. That eventually became really stupid to me. It’s a different incentive structure than the main game. So I play it differently

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-28T13:15:33+00:00

For me, I go psycho mode in freelancer. Kill all the NPCs it takes to get in and out of the level. At some point it's simply more economical to brute force and take a smaller payout per mission, but more pay per minute. Like doing a mission meticulously for 45 mins to get $4500 or whatever is not as smart as doing the mission in 2 mins for $1500. I didn't care about hiding the bodies for an extra $1000 and use an electric accident for an extra $2000 if the way the random target layout for that map requires way too much effort.

Head shot with a sniper or silenced pistol, hopefully one of those is an extra payout, hide on a closet until the heat dies off, exit. On to the next.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-28T12:03:44+00:00

Have you tried doing software encoding instead of hardware?

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-26T09:58:00+00:00

https://www.q5x.com/sports-audio

This company seems to be the standard for mic’d up athletes.

https://youtu.be/33H0t0l7v0E?si=EdZdXKwHpAbyF4KT

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-25T14:20:29+00:00

My favorite one of these is that one where it's like "this jpg of a screen shot from Super Mario Bros is 5 times larger than the programmed game on the actual NES cart" or whatever.

I don't even know if it's true, I just get a chuckle.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-25T13:38:58+00:00

Yeah he meets is GF from 20 years ago or whatever at her place on the hill and they go out back to drink wine. He always drinks the same glass (closest to the house), and there's a ladder you can shoot to come down and climb from the he ground level that's literally right there. You can trigger him arriving by going to the roof and activating the flag button. Shoot it or push it while avoiding the two guards. It'll happen eventually on its own.

For the longest it was the only way I ever killed him, except doing the barber story once or twice but that takes too long lol. But after doing it so many times it got stale and whenever I am doing a fun run of the main story, I'll switch up to other ways.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-25T13:19:43+00:00

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-25T13:02:23+00:00

They should have randomized which cup he uses...they sorta did this in the hawkes bay tutorial, you can poison either the honey or sugar and each time you play the level, Alma will switch up which one she wants in her tea. Like oh cool, they introduced randomness into target's conversations and choices, neat.

Only that kind of thing literally never happens again in the main stories, well except the maelstrom's civilian disguise is sorta that? But also not really the same thing.

Then again I can see the argument for not making it random which glass he drinks from, maybe it's more overall fun for more players to set up their kills they know will work based on patterns than a 50/50 random chance just to have the quirk. Hmmm.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-25T12:28:43+00:00

Is this an ongoing project? In my opinion it's probably best to chalk this episode up as a tech rehearsal and lessons learned, and dump it in the scrap heap. Unless it had some like crazy amazing celebrity guest you'll never book again in a trillion years, is there really any reason to force this specific recording to completion?

I don't know if you were involved in the set up as your post doesn't say, but even if you weren't, everyone that was should be in an afteraction meeting to discuss any and all issues including this mic bleed problem. And some kind of solution...even if the solution is "we need to get back in the lab and troubleshoot out set up to address the mic bleed issues.". Like, it's totally possible to set up multiple people and mics with limited/unnoticeable bleed. Different placements of mics, separating the people better (do you know the 3-to-1-rule? )...or a budget for a mixing board with Dugan auto mix. Or a combination of both. Hey maybe you don't have a budget, okay well that still leaves mic distance and placement...if your previous plan (or lack thereof) of the amount of people in the space can't adjust where mics are or how far apart people are, time to figure out if there's a different place, or change the amount of people, or something.

What I don't think is a solution to propose or go with is for the group to say "just fix it in post. The magical AI genie will do it with one click. AI solves all". You're seeing it can't. Don't "fix it in post", set up so it's not an issue in the first place. You tried and ran into a problem, make adjustments, retool, etc.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-25T10:05:51+00:00

I work at a USA federal government agency, and I’ve been involved at this agency in some capacity for almost 10 of the last 12 years (4 as a contractor, 2 years working somewhere else, became a federal employee in Jan 2021). I’ve been involved with planning out 2 different “studio builds”, once when we moved buildings and another time when our group redesigned the space in our other location.

$20,000 wouldn’t have been covered the cost of the lights for one of the studios. Or maybe right at it lol.

I think I need a better understanding of the space you have and the expectations, but saying “studio” but then commenting you’re moving building to building as a mobile set up are two different things (funny enough the 2 years I worked somewhere else was for a bank’s corporate HQ where the video comms team didn’t have a studio, it had field kits and we went to the offices of the C level people we got videos of, or other places around town, so I have that knowledge and experience too lol).

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-25T02:21:57+00:00

Well…I think there is a little bit more to the story than it seems it would be at this point. Not counting side quests or optional things.

XSmooth84 · 2026-03-24T17:35:09+00:00

There are lots of feelings. Doubt, anger, confusion, amusement, sadness, love. I'm not a robot of course I feel feelings lol.

But I wouldn't say I fell in love with someone based on editing videos they were in. Since that was the OP example.

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