About WDW-Memories

The Site

WDW Memories has been around in some form since 1995. The site began as a tribute simply to my favorite place to visit, Walt Disney World. Initially you could just find attraction descriptions and my thoughts on them, plus links to other great Walt Disney World sites.

But as the internet grew, so did the site. Right around 2000, I began sharing my audio through Live365.com as an internet radio station. This worked great for a while, but when the copyright rulings came out, and Live365 started charging for its services, I left.

It took a little while for me to figure out the next step, but I decided to go with sharing my audio through requests. I created online forms where you could choose attractions you wanted copies of and I would share them via XDrive.com, but this was expensive, and I didn’t reach many people yet.

In the mean time, Napster took off, and here was a better medium for me to share these recordings I had. But that too came to an end, and things kind of just went dark for me.

Then Podcasts were born. A perfect medium for me. In 2006 the WDW-Memories Podcast was born. I’m anything but consistent unfortunately, as this is purely a labor of love. Memories are released approximately every 4 weeks (though I aim for every 2). At this time, the website also got a major overhaul, migrating to ASP.NET with a database to drive the content. I still shared comments and tips, but now I began sharing pictures I’ve taken over the years at Walt Disney World.

Now, the site is changing once again, with a bigger focus on the Podcast, and lesser on the attractions. Attractions/shows change so frequently, it’s quite difficult to keep up. So I’ve decided to move to the Blogosphere, and begin sharing memories I have of Walt Disney World through this blog. These memories may be triggered by an article I read, or another podcast, or even my own podcast.

The Podcast Equipment

Over the years my equipment has changed, hopefully for the better.

1998: The equipment was simple. I started out recording using a Sony MiniDisk Recorder with a direct line from a Monural Microphone. This was less than ideal as everytime the cord moved I got this horrible static sound.

1999-2006: I upgraded MiniDisk recorders and also made the switch to a stereo microphone which helped on mulitple levels. I no longer recieved that weird static sound, and stereo sound was much better than that cheep monural microphone.

2006-2012: Mid year, I switched from my MiniDisk recorder to an iRiver T30 digital recorder. This helped me be able to record without worries of skips. I also added a Bass Rolloff to help with the low booms that would cause distortion. And finally I got a pair of Binaural Microphones, to help complete the reality of reliving those memories.

2012-Present: Well the iRiver T30 has served it’s purpose, but it’s time to upgrade to something with a bit more recording time and quality. Everyone seems to have moved to the Zoom recorders, and the Zoom H1 Handy Recorder fit the bill. The cost is low, there is a low cut filter for wind noise and booms, it can record in many MP3 qualities or WAV formats, has removable storage, has a line-in or can use the built in mikes record wonderfully in stereo, with it’s line out can be used as an improved microphone, and it’s very portable. I would highly suggest anyone get the H1 if you’re looking for a good little recorder. I still use the same Binaurl Microphones as before, but now I don’t need the additional Bass Rolloff. Now with a 4GB card I can record at 256 KBPS for like 18 hours non-stop.

Disclaimer

Please note that WDW Memories and Lou are in no way part of, endorsed or authorized by, or affiliated with the Walt Disney Company© or its affiliates. All photos, videos, and audio were taken by me (unless otherwise stated), and I ask that you not distribute them without my consent. Visit Disney's official web site at Disney.com.