Can you do the thing? That’s what Owen Reynolds asked when talking about getting into Solutions Architecture. Can you do the thing? If not, can you learn fast? If the answer is yes, then you may be on the right track. That question is the driver: can you do the thing? If you can’t, how fast can you learn?

Being able to use the arsenal you have created over the years of your career and pulling out what is needed from the utility belt at any time is incredibly important. I always say I have forgotten way more than I have learned and retained. But when it comes to problem-solving and dealing with issues that come up, your history and experience are the most important things you can draw from when tracking current issues or learning new technologies.

Can you do the thing? That is what I have been asking myself about The Solutions Architect Experience Podcast. Can you do the thing? The answer is, with practice and research of the tools of the field, I absolutely can. Leading up to the first episode, I watched a ton of YouTube videos and read many blogs on DIY podcasts. I learned a lot about audio, configuring my Windows 11 machine with the right input/output settings, and adjusting the gain. I felt the sound quality came out well. I learned the proper way to talk into the mic by practicing, recording, and learning about the proximity effect—adjusting the mic to be six inches from your mouth, lowering the mic so the Ps and Ts that cause more air to come from your lips flow over the top of the mic rather than directly into it, preventing that popping sound from hitting the mic. I learned a sense of mic control.

After the first episode was done, I could hear the relaxed nature of my voice in the recording of the show—something totally missing from the intro to the show originally. I did at least 150 takes and tweaks to the script to get it right—at least, what is right in my ear on playback. Hearing your voice in the monitor as you speak—this strange-sounding voice that sounds nothing like what you hear in your mind when you are talking. But the mic captures everything, something else I learned quickly. Every sound in my house—every footstep, every creak, every bark from my dog Reggie—was picked up on the mic. So now I need to learn about soundproofing, at least what I can do in my office to muffle out the sounds from my home.

Lessons learned from the first show: I need to get better at editing to keep the shows at about an hour. Two hours was not what I was expecting. I need an editing program that gives me more control than what I am using now with Alitu. Alitu is great, and being able to edit from the transcript is an extremely helpful feature. I found that same feature in Descript as well, but the limitations of the free trial with the transcript length kept me from deep diving into the program. I also tried Adobe Audition, and I must admit I found it hard to use and also expensive on the budget side with the licensing requirements from Adobe. I have been in the Adobe business before, and it was tough to get out of, and at over $50+ a month for the Adobe Creative Suite, it is a bit stiff for a newbie.

So, I am on the lookout for new editing software that has the features of Alitu but gives me more control to cut and smooth out the audio. My biggest gripe with Alitu is that cuts made the playback sound choppy and skippy, and there was no way to correct that within the tool. I have paid for a month, so during that time, I will be testing out each product I can find for editing podcasts for people new to editing.

The other lesson I learned is I need to shorten my list of questions to maintain the speed and flow of the show. Though the questions took little time to speak to, recording and practicing the answers and follow-up to each question ended up being too long. I do not mind having a long show—this show has a niche audience—but anything over two hours prevents the YouTube features in RSS from generating a video of the podcast for you.

I have a few guests lined up, and I am reaching out to more people to have chats and interviews with, hoping to find an audience. More importantly, I hope to learn more about solutions architecture from the people doing the job, networking, talking, and making new friends—taking in the advice they provide to increase my own knowledge to use toward my career in the years ahead.

Can you do the thing? Yes, I can…