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Thello posted:I'd love some feedback for my show, now two weeks in. While I am by no means on the level of The Moth or This American Life, it's in the storytelling genre and a whole hell of a lot of work goes into it. A solid effort with a Radiolab-sans-Krulwich feel. Some of the audio cues are louder than they should be and a couple times drown out the speaker. Sometimes they seem to be there just for the sake of being there or can sound really fake (especially the crowd noises). Also, consider letting the subject of the interview bring the emotion to the story and let them tell how they're feeling rather than making it the narrator's responsibility. Length is o-k, maybe a little long to hear from just the one person recounting experiences that aren't terribly notable or uncommon. Consider adding in a second person (or more) to talk about that story to give further context and insight. I'd rather hear from one of the woman's parents about their thoughts on her self-imposed sterilization and would be less inclined to think of the virginity story as anything but a really lame Penthouse letter if I could hear from someone else that was there.
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Mar 6, 2014 21:14
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Thello posted:Anyone experienced with monetization In addition to knowing how many people listen to your podcast, advertisers really want to know who your audience is at a macro level. Knowing that also helps you target people to sell your ad inventory to. There isn't a whole lot to figuring that out for a super niche podcast, but the one you have is way too broad to say anything meaningful about its listenership. There isn't a media buyer anywhere that wants to hear the word "everyone" when discussing demographics. Even if you know what your audience is, your expected earnings would be quite low, well below the threshold of what I would consider to be "rent money." Five episodes isn't really enough to convince anyone you're established and in it for the long haul. It's a similar situation for a guy I know, he sells a :30 spot for the princely sum of six bucks. He has a niche program that's one hour long program that releases a couple times a week. If he sells out his inventory (and I know he doesn't), he'd make a whopping $144 a month. Considering that you have a podcast that is much shorter, there is no way to cram a minute and a half of ads in there and expect people to listen to them. You can probably get one :30 spot in there for the same price and when you consider your bi-weekly release schedule, you're inline to make 12 whole Canadian dollars in the average month! You could aim a little higher than that, but short of an angel investor, you aren't going to realize more cash for a :30 ad than radio stations get in your area. You can ask around for rate cards if you want, but it looks like you can get a :30 on CITR (campus/community) for $25 and CHMJ (that weird traffic station) would run you $40. That's clearly more money, but your slow release schedule puts your best expectations between $650 and $1040 for an entire year. I'll hazard a guess that your listenership is orders of magnitude below the 70-thousand "people" the BBM estimates tune into CHMJ every day, so realistic expectations have you towards the bottom end (and perhaps lower still depending on your download numbers) of that range rather than the top. It all hardly seems worth the time of trying to even figure out who your audience is, not to mention cold calling potential advertisers, doing the creative, the production and everything else necessary to get the sponsorship going. You would literally be better off working an afternoon shift every Saturday at a Dairy Queen.
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Apr 9, 2014 16:46
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Start with turning down the mic gain in the software. You might have to boost your waveform later, but that's better than feedback. You could also just mute the headphone audio playback as you record. Just the regular mute function through your computer should manage that. And if you have a Rock Band/Guitar Hero/Whatever game microphone, try that. The quality should be comparable to the one on the headset and it can be kept farther away so that might also fix your problem.
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Jun 3, 2014 16:33
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Serious Cephalopod posted:God drat, I need to learn what the gently caress I'm doing From the first few minutes of Air Bod, it sounds like only one person is talking directly into the microphone. Paul (I think, the guy who did Carl Kasell) is the worst offender, he sounds like he's only being picked up by the other mics and the woman seems to often be talking to the side of her microphone. That seems to be supported by the photo of her not at all talking into the microphone properly. You could go in afterwards and boost their levels afterwards to minimize (but not fix) that issue, but it's easy enough to not create that problem in the first place.
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Jun 17, 2014 08:17
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I don't think Serious Cephalopod has given us enough information to say if he is or is not being ripped off. Soundcloud is $15 of that, and if the remaining $90 buys enough studio time to do a two hour podcast every week, that brings the hourly rate down to about ten bucks. Sure, that will add up over time and the resources seem comically under-/misused, but he would be hard pressed to find a cheaper price at some other studio. It's maybe not even a bad idea to do it for a month or two before investing into equipment just to see if this is something that will continue. As for content, I honestly can't get through more than the 30 minutes of this thing that I listened to last night because it is so unfocused. I thought the opening was cute and that raised my expectations that there could be something interesting happening, but then the show wandered about like a cow in the pasture. For instance, the early discussion of what everyone watched recently - nobody cares about that if you aren't immediately going to discuss it, so don't even bring it up. You are there (I think) to discuss a bad movie from the 90s, so do that instead. I think you get around to that about 20-25 minutes in, but first I had to listen to that stuff I already mentioned, plus a game of 20 questions*, something about Slenderman, penis monsters and some other stuff that isn't at all about the movie you were apparently there to discuss. When you finally do get around to talking about the movie, you're soon off on another tangent about Ghost Dog and Cop Dog and what the gently caress, then 40 cups of water and I don't even care anymore. Strongly consider mapping out a tight show plan, which is more like a script with timing that could be down to the minute rather than a loose outline like you might have to give a speech in your World Issues class in high school. Because you are discussing Cop Dog, it makes me think you've watched the Red Letter Media Plinkett reviews. If so, you'll notice one of the things he does really well in those reviews is makes use of actualities from the piece. It connects the audience to the subject matter and shows that you aren't just making up stuff or embellishing it beyond what it actually is. And it's something you could do too because it is covered under fair use, so you won't have to worry about copyright issues. *The 20 questions thing is kinda neat, something that could work at the end to set up next week's movie, but making your guest guess what movie you are going to talk about in that very episode is a sure sign that the guest isn't up to speed on the subject matter. Why did you think it was a good idea to have a podcast and then purposefully include people in that podcast that don't really know what you are talking about?
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Jun 17, 2014 14:17
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King Lou posted:I have never heard of such a USB mixer that still outputs indivdual audio streams via USB to Audacity. Can you please link me to such a thing? In addition to that Alesis that Daryl Surat mentions, there is the Behringer XENYX UFX 1204/1604 that get you more than two using USB. They seem to be limited to four tracks, though apparently they have the ability to record up to 12/16 individual tracks to a USB stick so someone only occasionally needing more than four could go that route and just dump it all into some editor once the session is done. TASCAM also had the M-164UF, though it is apparently discontinued. There's probably a couple others that aren't made anymore, which makes me think the early models may not have been quite all they were hyped to be and that scared people off USB/kept them content with aging FireWire stuff. If multi-track to a memory device then ship off to a computer is something that people don't mind working with, there's also stuff like the Zoom R16/24. They are small and portable (they can even be operated on batteries) which is great if the same spot won't always be used to record the podcast. They only have two phantom powered XLRs, so they aren't great if you want to use a bunch of condenser mics, but it should pair well with the Shure SM58s that Cephalopod is leaning towards. The real drawback for any of these solutions for podcasters is cost. They're certainly cheaper than setting up a full studio with rack mounts and a DAW controller, but you're still looking at $300 to $700 on top of the cost of the mics. Throw in the cost of cabling, mic stands and some sort of concoction for everyone to monitor the sound in their headphones, and you can be looking at $900 or so as a targeted minimum to have in the bank to get everything you need. You don't have to give up on the dream of individual tracks if you are one of the poors, just take the same principle of the recorded Skype call and apply it to a local setting by simply adding a second computer. Using the Mic 1 Left/Mic 2 Right thing, everything gets its own individual track with two cheap USB mixers instead of one that is much more expensive. Just remember to clap really loud once everyone is recording so whomever is editing can easily synch everything.
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Jun 19, 2014 14:53
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dizaero posted:Hey guys, first time podcaster. My co-host and I just uploaded our first podcast! A+++ Am looking forward to next week's episode with Maria Sharapova.
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Nov 19, 2014 15:12
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The plan seems solid, but the tech side isn't the biggest challenge in getting a podcast launched, content is. I did a quick inventory of the new launches over the past three pages and of the 18 or so, only five had produced a new episode in the past month. That low rate of conversion to a long-term project is precisely why the guides discourage a large investment. What you're looking to buy is about $500 worth of stuff, which isn't as big a deal for you since you seem to do a bit of audio recording anyway. It probably won't all just end up in the closet. And it's not like you're rushing out to buy nice condenser mics at $750 a piece. That said, you could scrimp out on the 18i8 for a while if your friend also had a USB input device. Plug both in, force one mic to left, another to right and mix the mono tracks later on. That said, if you've wanted the 18i8 since hearing about it and the podcast is the excuse to upgrade, then two USB devices totally won't work and you should place that Amazon order right away.
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Nov 19, 2014 17:36
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One mic per person in the style of a radio studio is certainly best, yeah. If you're going to get better hardware, there isn't any need to pan mics entirely left or right. That is just something a lot of podcasters do because it is the cheap rear end way of getting isolated waveforms with budget hardware that only offers a stereo output. When you say you don't want headsets, does that mean they won't be monitoring or just that you didn't want a headset mic setup? It's fine if you want to avoid the headphone mics (good ones are pricey) but even a 20 dollar pair of headphones for monitoring can be helpful in keeping the talent focused on the conversation and not a distracting noise in the background. It's like ~30 bucks for a headphone amp from Monoprice, likely money well spent. That said, if the show is about moms dealing with issues facing moms, a quick departure to settle a loud dispute between siblings is entirely within the scope of the show and maybe they want that.
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Nov 19, 2014 19:18
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Headphones aren't that foreign to people as to be intimidating, and like I say, it helps those who don't routinely talk into microphones for a living stay a little more focused on the conversation. They also impose a physical restriction a person from moving their head around all that much for fear that the headphones may fall off and that keeps them talking into the mic a bit more directly so you get better quality audio. As for your own monitoring, there isn't much point to it once you know that they have levels all set up and whatnot. Just turn it on and walk away. If you have to listen to it all in the end anyway for editing, just make sure they know what to look for if the recording stops suddenly for some reason so they don't waste an hour talking and not recording anything. Sounds like an interesting topic though, make sure you tell us when it launches and I'll certainly give it a listen.
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Nov 19, 2014 20:52
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DavidAlltheTime posted:I have a question about podcast hosting. I've started a podcast called 'David Reads It!' to read the original 1883 text of Pinocchio just for fun, and I chose podomatic as my host because it seemed to offer the best free package. But after uploading episode 1, I've used a tenth of my storage space. Pinocchio alone might go beyond 10 episodes, never mind if I decide to do Sleeping Beauty afterwards. Is there a better free host for me to use? Or, if I have to pay to be doing this, where is the best deal? Particular to your venture, you may want to look into Project Gutenberg as an alternate means of distribution. If you don't know, Project Gutenberg is taking public domain works and making them available to the masses, and they are trying to include audio books as well. Pinocchio happens to have one already, but you may find that as an alternate means of distribution. You'd have to edit slightly from your current format though, they have their own preamble you have to stick on, but I think they are on board with the no voices thing. Something to consider anyway.
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Jan 13, 2015 14:28
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Mr.48 posted:Hey guys, what do you think about one-man podcasts? A really tiny niche like that is really only a problem if you want to monetize. In terms of a dedicated group of listeners, it is probably a good thing. I don't know what kind of science you do, but I think there is only so much that can be said about how patients are selected for a clinical trial or random samplings decided for voting patterns among single mothers. I don't know that episodes 2, 3, and 4 would be all that much different than the first for that sort of thing. Perhaps in the physical sciences there is more to be said? If so, I hope you're more into physics than psychology. Who you are is also somewhat important. If you are just some undergrad... maybe don't bother. You say you are a scientist though, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt and think that you might already be doing reviews for journals? Will it be somewhat like that, or will you be approaching from some other angle?
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Jan 20, 2015 15:52
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codyclarke posted:I edit stuff like that (and too-long pauses, and umms/likes) out of my podcast in post. This times a thousand. There are a lot of amateur podcasters that just dump a raw tape into Audacity and call it a day. When someone starts, they are probably looking at spending at least twice as long editing as it takes to record. That sucks so it makes you get better at interviewing. Also, if everyone is on the same microphone, stop using the regular vocal cues that are a part of a regular conversation. Stuff like "yeah" and "uh-huh" just get in the way of what the other person is saying. Less an issue if everyone is on their own channel, but still something that should be avoided.
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Feb 4, 2015 18:58
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thehustler posted:I've had a totally pie-in-the-sky idea for something I'd like to do with the Edinburgh Skeptics podcast and I want to know if anybody else has considered it, or if you know of anybody doing it. Like Serial? That was kind of a big thing, so yeah, that is an appetite for it. I know of a couple in Canada. Thello (from this very thread!) has one, and an ex-CBC guy runs one called Canadaland.
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Jun 30, 2015 15:47
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Yeah, there is no reason it wouldn't work. Like I say, it is pretty much sounding like what Thello does. His podcast is at thelapse.org and I think he said it apparenty was voted among the best in <<something>> in 2014. It is a bit busy with the sound effects for my tastes, but it has undoubtedly found an audience. Come to think of it, there is also the entire RadioTopia slate of shows. 99% Invisible is their biggest one, they have a dozen or so shows that can be heard at radiotopia.fm. Best idea is to probably just try it out. Run it up a flagpole and see if anyone salutes.
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Jun 30, 2015 19:23
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I don't know the first thing about video podcasts (put it on YouTube is as good as I got) and the answer to the first of your questions isn't really possible without knowing what sort of setup you already have and how much, if any money, you are willing and able to spend. Not that you necessarily have to spend anything at all, but it will help to provide some options. I can comment a bit on the editing of video in saying that it is long and laborious and if you want it to look halfway decent. You can't just cut out the unwanted bits like with audio because you'll see the person jerk about in an unnatural manner. To fix that, you have to cut to other visuals to drop the uhhhs and ummms and that means you'll need to shoot a lot of B-roll At least your genre might lend itself well enough to that as you could presumably cut to someone lifting something heavy , trim the audio, and come back to the speaker.
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Oct 20, 2015 13:41
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Alfalfa posted:Thanks. Maybe I'll just keep the video versions raw and uncensored lol. In that case you may as well just record a second waveform on the computer using if Skype or just through the line-in port if by phone. To tap your cell phone, you'll need a cable like this:  which you might just have lying around if you ever owned a camcorder, otherwise it is about two bucks on Amazon (search 4 pole RCA). You'll need to split the audio channels to some monitor speakers and off to the line-in on the PC, plus have some sort of cheap mic to send a signal back. Might be looking at $20 for all that, much of which can be found at the dollar store. A land line will require this:  which is unlikely to be a thing you just happen to have around, but it only costs four bucks on Amazon (search RJ 11 to 3.5mm). You'll need a regular 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable like you'd use to plug in an ipod to an AUX IN port on something, which is exactly what you will do with that, plug it into the computer and so you can record. You probably have one of those, if not, they are also a dollar store sourceable part. Editing with this can get tricky if you talk over each other a lot. Unlike the cellphone method that will just record the caller side audio, this method gets you and the caller on the recording. That will be a real pain in the rear end for the first couple of episodes until you learn to shut the gently caress up when the other guy is talking so you don't have an editing nightmare to deal with afterwards. If you feel like dropping hundreds instead of just the cash you'd save by skipping a couple of beers this weekend. If you have a lot of cash to spend on this (seriously, don't yet, wait until you've been going for at least six months) there are many more fancy things out there, but this is the it's-not-pretty-but-it-works solution.
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Oct 20, 2015 17:54
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Alfalfa posted:Thanks for the help and I guess this would be the best option. Im confused though as to what connects to what. None of this connects to the computer correct? None of that goes directly to the computer, but signal gets to one eventually. Follow this somewhat lengthily guide for a cheap and inelegant solution for what you are trying to do with audio considerably better than putting someone on speakerphone. Here's a diagram of what needs to happen:  If there is a heavy black rectangle showing the connections you have to make with a cable of some sort. They're all labelled and here are some pictures. And when I say PC Line In, Microphone In also works, just like Speaker Out will work instead of Headphone Out. Just so everything is in one post, here's the Camcorder Cable (one male 3.5 mm to three female RCA)  Y-Splitter (one male to two female)  RCA to 3.5mm cable (two male RCA to one 3.5 mm Male)  Mystery Cable/Adapter to attach the Omni mic to the phone (probably this female stereo 3.5 mm to male mono RCA adapter)  The Omni Mic (omnidirectional microphone) is a cheap desktop mic for a computer. It's cable is a mystery because maybe you find something that has an RCA on it already, but you almost certainly won't because the cheap ones all pretty much have a 3.5mm male end so you can plug them into your computer. Here's it is step by step: 1) Connect the Camcorder Cable to the Phone. *2) Connect the Omni Mic to the Camcorder Cable using the Mystery Cable/Adapter. *3) Connect the PC (Line In) to the Camcorder Cable using the RCA to 3.5mm Cable Note: I cannot tell you which colours to use for these, you are going to have to do a bit of trial and error testing. Your first impulse will be to connect the red and white from the Camcorder Cable to the red and white of the RCA to 3.5mm Cable and use the yellow for the Omni Mic. And that may be correct, or it may not. You can be sure that one of red or white will be audio so the trial and error to switch everything around won't take much doing. 4) Connect the PC (Headphone Out) to Headphones A and B using the Y-Splitter. 5.1) If using Windows, make sure you can hear the Line In input. Right click on the speaker icon on the task bar (lower right) and then left click on Recording Properties. From the Sound dialogue box, right click on the Line In icon and then left click on Properties. From the Line In Properties dialogue box, left click on the Listen tab and make sure the box next to "Listen to this device" has a check mark. Click Apply/OK as necessary until all dialogue boxes are closed. 5.2) If using a Mac, figure it out your own drat self. 5.3) If using Linux, you probably should have figured all this out yourself. 6) Configure recording software to use Line In for as its source. Check levels! Here's what happens once everything is working: You and your co-host are recording on the Zoom like always. What you say will be recorded there, but also picked up with the Omni Mic and sent to the caller. As far a the phone knows, it just has a headset attached. What the caller says will be heard in your headphones as it is recorded on the computer. Your voices will not be recorded on the computer, only the caller's. The file from the Zoom and the file from the computer then have to be edited together. This seems stupid but it makes editing much better because if one of you cough or interrupt the caller, it can be edited out. From the listener's perspective, this is a good thing. You could take the audio out from the computer and put it to monitor speakers, but there is a chance your Zoom starts recording it so it is better to go with headphones. You may experience some trouble hearing your cohost if you have headphones on, so just use one side.
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Oct 29, 2015 20:06
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yehdawg posted:Release: Partial episode 4 transcript: [unintelligible noise] Man [quiet]: okay Man [loud, exhale]: Wooh! [VU peaks because man is too close to mic] Man [normal]: It is another Sunday night... Ok... So, in the first ten seconds you have two major audio issues and have outright lied about something. This is a really bad start and if I was just browsing through some podcasts I would have stopped right there and never went back. Going through content, I am a minute in and the podcast hasn't told me what it is going to be about, but I know Phil works with you and he bought a microphone. Is this a podcast about who owns what percentage of the podcast, because that's the only content I am hearing for the first three minutes. At five minutes in, I still have no idea what this is about. There is a bit of mention of the Korean DMZ and something about Thai food. And a plot rundown of a James Bond film. What is this episode of your podcast about, and for that matter what is your podcast about in general? The podcast should tell me, I shouldn't have to read a description of the episode to know what it was about. And if I did read that description out of curiosity, I'd be confused about what the podcast is about because you are not talking about what the description says it is about. Apparently it is about Asia, which finally gets revealed about seven minutes in. That means ten per cent of the episode has been wasted on things that aren't the topic. Almost wasted anyway, as Phil admits to not knowing what the words he uses means. And you say that Phil knows a lot of "random erroneous things about the world." Do you know what "erroneous" means? I don't think anyone who knows what that word means would use it to describe a guest who was brought on to speak with some authority about a topic. So the first seven minutes are only not wasted in the sense that I know I can pretty much ignore everything Phil has to say for the remaining 52 minutes of the runtime. Eleven minutes was enough for me to get the sense that this is another entry in the very long and ever growing list of poorly produced podcasts wherein some people talk into a microphone with a lot of enthusiasm about things in their shared past that they find funny. And perhaps other people who were at those events may also find them funny, but they are firmly in the camp of "you had to be there" humour. If you just like the sound of your own voice, feel free to keep doing what you're doing until you get bored of it in a few months and let the domain lapse whenever the subscription runs out. If you want to get better, you have a lot of ground to cover. First you should delete the "Hello World!" post automatically generated with every new Word Press install to at least make it look like you have a smattering of technical competence. Second, you'll want to back up that assertion by editing. Start with the basic stuff: cut the seven seconds of silence at the end and the noisy beginnings. Look to start editing for content (you desperately need to edit for content) once you are familiar with manipulating audio files. You wouldn't need to edit for content as much as you do now if you stick to an outline. Consider scripting an open so you don't wander off the path about irrelevant nonsense like microphone ownership. Much like any paper you ever wrote in school, you have to state the reason you are doing that episode and podcast. As an example, go listen to the first minute of the first episode of Serial season one. Once you get past the ads, the host tells you what it is (Serial podcast), who she is (Sarah Koening), what Serial is (one story told week by week), and what her topic is (one hour on one day of a high school kids life). That gives the listener everything needed to start hearing the story. You get three of the four in episode two, and the only time you ever say the reason behind the podcast in the first minute is in the first episode. But you don't name the podcast in the first minute of the first podcast. So focus on those things for now: easy technical edits and the who/what/why points that sets the scene instead of the scattered cold openings you have. Don't mention the when and where will only be important if you are ever somewhere else. Those things will only make you more competent, you then have to work on storytelling. That is significantly harder, though perhaps your background in stand up can assist. If you are any good at it (you say aspiring so you may well not have mastered this skill) then you should be able to see how so much of episode four is like a joke told out of order. Set the scene for Model UN, don't fill in after the punch line. Jokes aren't funny if they have to be explained, and everything that you both found funny in those first few minutes needed to be explained. That fixes the problem of the "you had to be there"-ness of the jokes because with a proper setup, the listener is there. tl;dr: your technical skills are poo poo and your storytelling is worse.
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Dec 25, 2015 08:14
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How "not technical"? If they can manage Skype, that probably the best audio you are going to get without investing big in hardware. If they can't do any more than the phone, just tap the line with something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Telephone-Rec...=phone+recorder You'll have to mix that together, or your voice also sounds like it is coming in off of a telephone line. There are some really cheap digital recorders that toss that adapter in as an extra, you could go that route if you only have one recording device. http://www.amazon.com/AQURE-Digital...r+phone+adapter I made a couple of effort posts about more or less this same thing a while ago, here they are so you don't have to go looking Antifreeze Head posted:In that case you may as well just record a second waveform on the computer using if Skype or just through the line-in port if by phone. To tap your cell phone, you'll need a cable like this: Antifreeze Head posted:None of that goes directly to the computer, but signal gets to one eventually. Follow this somewhat lengthily guide for a cheap and inelegant solution for what you are trying to do with audio considerably better than putting someone on speakerphone. Antifreeze Head fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Mar 19, 2016 02:51
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Loutre posted:Can I maybe build an enclosure or something? I'd rather pay for an excellent VO mic that has zero range/background than totally redo a room of my house. A bit late to this, but it isn't unheard of for people who record audio books to use a closet as a recording space.
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Oct 7, 2017 17:19
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