The Incarnation of DeadRag 2.0

I want to give an update to all those who follow the show. As you may already know, we're putting on the first DeadFest: Sphere of Influence. The goal of us doing this event (and possibly future ones) is to first, work for the community and try out a new style of game. We don't have any real Russian-themed games so we're thinking of possibly making future DeadFests (if there are any) into Russian conflict games to give a variety over the stuff we normally do. We're also trying out the Battlefield (1942, 2, 2142) style conquest game and even built some cool flags that can be raised and lowered. But all that aside, our second reason for doing DeadFest is to benefit the radio show. We used to take cash from our sponsors to help with operating costs and equipment but the problem with that was, while money helped, we didn't get much gear to review. What we heard from our listeners was "MORE GEAR REVIEWS!" so we shifted and stopped asking for monetary contributions from our sponsors and now only get gear so we can review it on the show. Gear is fun, but it doesn't pay the bills.

Here's how our show works- a "behind the scenes", if you will:
Our DeadRag studio is my room basically and we use some crappy Fry's gaming headset mics with a headphone splitter that goes into the soundcard on my computer (amazingly high tech!). My room is packed with airsoft gear and Micah has to sit close to the back of my desk in a wierd position so the cables reach- and it gets hot with the equipment and the door closed haha.. Callers are piped in from Skype. Everything is recorded into a free program called Audacity and then outputted into Cubase so I can mix the pre-recorded stuff like the commercials, bumps and music beds with the recorded audio. It takes us a FULL Saturday to record one show then it takes me another 5-6 hours processing the audio and trying to make it sound non-crappy (which works sometimes, sometimes not). Then I have to create the RSS feed and write the show descriptions, upload the files to my server (which I luckily borrow space on from a friend) and ping itunes to let them know that the show is up. At some point in the middle of all this, we would have set up my lighting and backdrop in my living room and done photos of all the review gear. Then I take a few hours processing the photos, adding our watermark, saving them to a web-friendly format and uploading to my server space. After all that goodness, I then create a new post on the DeadRag site with the notes from the episode, upload pics, get links posted and add a link to the MP3 episode file so people can download it directly from our website that's usually another 2 hours.

And that's how we make one episode! This is why it takes up so long between episodes.

This brings me to the next section- DeadRag 2.0. The goal is to be able to drastically increase our sound quality and make recording the show more streamlined so we can produce episodes faster and at a higher quality. We want to be professional radio quality. This equates to money which is where DeadFest comes in. We want to buy a firewire mixer, 4 phantom-powered condenser mics with shock mounts and pop filters, mic stands, an outboard audio compressor (makes our volume more consistent- a big complaint we get), a headphone amp with 4 studio monitor headphones, a Mac to record everything into, a mobile MP3 recorder and a big desk to put it all on. And I have a big empty space in my living room that we can move the studio into. The other goal when choosing equipment is that we want the ability to have it portable and be able to do remote shows, either at events or airsoft stores or whatever. Another goal is to be able to record shows in one-shot or close to one shot to cut down the editing time and to possibly enable us to do live shows where people can call in. If we get to that point, then it's possible that we could do a Howard Stern style videocast of us recording the show. So DeadFest is a big key to getting up a step closer to where we'd like to be. We used our contacts with retailers to get a pretty good raffle for everyone and we hope it will be fun. If you listen to the show and feel like you'd like to give something back for the work that goes into it for you guys, come out to DeadFest! You'll be helping DeadRag Airsoft Radio and you'll have a good time to boot! You might even win a cool prize!

We really appreciate all the support that the local community has shown us and hopefully, if everything goes well, we'll be able to do our next episode with substantially better quality and do more of them. We also really appreciate the support from the airsoft community at-large. We get emails and comments from people all over the country as well as other countries and we really do appreciate it. If you've emailed me recently and I havent gotten back to you, I apoligize, I've been really super busy- shoot me another follow up and I'll get back with you.

Also- for those of you who participated in our poll asking if you'd like a DeadRag patch- you're in luck! We have patches now. They will be available from the site in about a week or so for $15 shipped each. They're pretty sweet and we got a multicam-ish color so it should work with any uniform. They also have high-quality velcro backing! All the proceeds from the patch sales will go for our operating costs and gear. Here's a picture of the patch on some tri-color desert. The "dark tan" color is actually a light greenish color like multicam, they just blend in well with tri-color:

Episode 13

News
We catch the latest airsoft news and gossip from our very own Booligan!

Interviews
Micah and I take it on the road and interview two local airsoft stores, Airsoft of Texas and The Army Store.

Airsoft of Texas









The Army store












Reviews

Our own Boomer gives his review of the Classic Army MP5 full-metal Sportline series from Kapowwe Airsoft


Micah gives us his take on the WileyX SG-1 V-Cut Goggles...
...and I talk about the ultra-cool ESS Flyby ballistic sunglasses.
We give our review of the MadBull chrono (ours withstood a coke-spill!)...

...and i talk about my new "most favorite airsoft gun ever", the Classic Army M15A4 P.M.C- also known as "that gun from Metal Gear Solid 4"




Here are some pictures of the PMC gearbox

A bit dirty on the outside but clean on the inside. The great feature of this gun is that it comes pre-upgraded from Spartan Imports (the US Distributor for all Classic Army guns). Out of the box, it chronoed a whopping 465FPS on our Madbull Chrono. After several magazines and a day of careful skirmishing, it is now settled at 375-380FPS and it has incredible range and accuracy for a "stock" gun


This gun uses the standard Classic Army 7mm Ball Bearing Gearbox found in their CQB line of M4 series guns but features an upgraded spring.

Here's a shot of the factory bore-up cylinder. Yes- it is a bore-up just like the rest of their ball-bearing series guns. You can see the nice aluminum pistonhead and brass, padded cylinderhead. The cylinderhead is only single o-ringed unlike some of the aftermarket double o-ring units but it provides a good airseal. The shimming was good from the factory and I only had to add one really thin shim on the spur gear.


Tech Corner: The Coke Can Chrono Demystefied!
Micah and I pick up 2 cases of cokes, drink them and shoot holes in them in the quest to discover just how accurate the famous coke-can chrono is, to see at what level of caffiene and sugar intake the human heart explodes, and to see just how much coke you can spill on a MadBull Chrono before it stops working!
Tactics Breakdown: Night Game Tactics
Micah and I discuss the finer points of pwning noobs at a night game. What kind of gear should you bring, and most importantly, why wearing black at a night game is semi-retarded.

Episode 13 is up!

Show notes to come...

Episode 13 Production Update!

Sorry for the big delay, guys! It seems like every time we plan on getting together to record, we have a game or OP to go to! But that just means we can review gear even more in the real-world to give you guys some unbiased opinions about it.

A couple of the things I've been personally reviewing for Episode 13 are the MadBull Chrono and the newly-released Classic Army P.M.C. modeled after the M4 from Metal Gear Solid 4. I can tell you that this AEG is getting a rave review from me... Listen to the show to find out why!

Another thing we've been working on at DeadRag is putting on our own large event to help boost the local community as well as provide some funding to the show. We need to get some new hardware because next year, we'd like to start doing some different things (videos maybe??). Our event is called DeadFest: Sphere of Influence and it's based off of the recent Georgian/Russian conflict during the 2008 Olympics. It's being held outside of DFW, TX on November 22nd and we're expecting 100+ players. Check it out on the official event website HERE.

So Micah and I are meeting up on Saturday to finish recording Ep 13. We've recorded some stuff so far, we just need to get the rest done. Sorry it takes so long between shows, guys, it's just tough between our real lives, playing airsoft and recording the show. Thanks for keeping up with us and we'll have the next show up soon.