Tools, Coffee and episode 11

Hi everyone,

Just a short update to let you know that the next episode of the War Panda Radio Pawd-cast will be out by October 31st

I know that’s a little later than I originally hoped, but I’ve simply not been in the right headspace to get the episode finished. Rather than force it and put something out that I’m not happy with, I’m giving myself a bit more time to get Episode 11 where I want it to be.

There’s also going to be another fairly noticeable change: some of the character voices are changing.

I know that’s far from ideal with an audio podcast. You get used to a character sounding a certain way, and then suddenly the voice changes. Don’t worry, though they’re staying in roughly the same vocal ballpark. Remus isn’t suddenly going to turn up sounding like an excitable French waiter.

The simple reason is that AI voices have improved enormously, even over the past year. Some of the voices I used when I first created the Pawd-cast just don’t sound good enough to me anymore.

You normally only hear the best takes, of course. What you don’t hear is me repeatedly regenerating the same passage because the voice decided to pronounce something strangely, change emotion halfway through a sentence, or apparently suffer some sort of digital existential crisis.

That costs time, money and, occasionally, what remains of my sanity.

Hopefully the new voices won’t be too distracting, and once they settle in I think they’ll make the Pawd-cast sound considerably better.

As always, I’d also like to go back through the older episodes and update them with the newer voices. Unfortunately, that’s an enormous amount of work, and because I’m one of those people who is permanently distracted by the newest shiny thing, it keeps getting pushed further down the list.

There are a few other changes happening behind the scenes too.

I’ve decided to stop using Logic Pro as my main editor, sell the Mac kit and come back to PC. Pretty much everything else I use already runs on Windows. The only thing that had been holding me back was finding the right software for the podcast.

I already own FL Studio, but I’ve always found it better suited to making music. I also tried Cubase and Ableton Live, and neither quite clicked.

Then I found Fender Studio Pro.

I like the way it looks, the tools it offers and, importantly, the price. It feels like the right fit, so Episode 11 will be the first episode produced with it.

So: new audio editor, some new voices, same questionable collection of pandas, robots and cosmic troublemakers.

I’ve also decided to stop using Suno for my music.

Suno is a very capable tool, but I don’t like the direction it is taking. Its updated terms came into effect on 3 September, introducing download limits and granting Suno a very broad licence to use submitted and generated content, including for improving and training its services.

To be fair, Suno says songs downloaded under a paid plan keep their commercial-use rights. Even so, the overall changes still don’t sit comfortably with me.

If AI companies are going to charge creators for their tools—and they should—they also need to keep those paying creators in mind. Too often our work helps train or improve these systems while the protection and commercial backing offered to us feels far less reassuring than it should.

Yes, I know we’re living through something of an AI-backlash moment. But I also know that I couldn’t make this Pawd-cast without my AI buddies—or my “Magic Robots”, as I like to call them.

Sometimes the best tools aren’t necessarily the tools that are best for creators, and moving the goalposts once you’ve built up a large following just isn’t on.

End of vent. Promise.

October is my favourite month and Halloween is my favourite day of the year, closely followed by Christmas Eve. I’m really not a summer person. Too much sun, heat and human flesh on display for my liking.

Ben (my AI) and I have also just designed Lady Deadheart’s new look, and I think she looks great.

For those keeping up with the story, Lady Deadheart is heading to the Red Eye of Zap to meet Dr Clack and receive her new and greatly improved Symphora body.

You’ll hear much more about that in Episode 11.

One last practical note: I’ve added a Buy Me a Coffee button to the home page of the site.

Hosting, voices, software and subscriptions all add up when you’re making something like this on your own. If you’re in a position to chip in, it genuinely helps keep the Pawd-cast going.

If not, listening is more than enough.

My virtual self will see you by Halloween.

Until then, stay strange and stay frosty, Warpers.