BTS.talk: Majic's Podcasting Workshop

PODcast: Majic's Podcasting Workshop
Majic offers tips and techniques for podcasting, invites fellow podcasters to share theirs, and discusses minimizing podcast file size.

length: 04:44
file: btstpod_1172.mp3
size: 833k
feed: btst
status: live (at time of posting)

Arealy good Podcast there Majic, I hope this turnes out to be a regular thing asi think i would be good for people like me who have only just started.

Great job!

PODcast: Majic's Podcasting Workshop (reply 1)
NrKy's response to the podcasting workshop, adding some tips for podcasts aimed at ipod users, and requesting details about the filters majic uses.

length: 04:26
file: btstpod_1193.mp3
size: 1825k
feed:
status: hold (at time of posting)

PODcast: Majic's Podcasting Workshop (reply 2)
Majic responds to Nrky with a LONG rambling discussion of filters, noise, compression and experimenting with podcasts.

length: 17:31
file: atscpod_1222.mp3
size: 3081k
feed:
status: live (at time of posting)

Much <3 for Majic, thanks for taking the time from your busy drama schedule to do this, mate.
I'd never have guessed the 'low pass filter' thing; I was trying to reduce noise by the 'noise removal' filter, which involved selecting a 'noise profile' section of apparent white noise, and getting it to reduce that from the rest of the podcast. After using that however, and compressing it, I'd get flanging.

I've noticed, whilst testing, that if I run a low-pass filter (of, say, 10,000hz), it keeps the audio within a range that is more appealing to the ears, however I still have the background 'fuzz' noise problem. I tried what you suggested, which is recording noise while the microphone was turned OFF, and my recorder came up with the VERY same background noise that I keep needing to eliminate EVERY single time that I make a podcast. Note, the mic was turned OFF. On my other computer, I can't manage to get the gain on my mic to increase to ANY intelligible level, despite trying every angle (so I can't use that one to record), and when I tried moving my podcasting pc (my crappy old dell laptop) to the lounge room (the quiet room) to record, I got a constant pulsing noise coming through the recordings when the mic was OFF. I'm so confused! It's as though I'm cursed, and there's a GHOST living in my computers or something, that wants to purposefuly put extra white noise into my recordings, even when the damned mic is OFF! I've ruled out the possibility that it's simply the headphones and nothing wrong with the mic (which isn't true, it's the computer, or something, not the headphones), because when I played back an empty recording with the mic switched off, it played back more white noise than what the headphones normally play when plugged in and nothing's playing.
...It's like there's some electrical feedback or something going on here, or an EM grid interference, because the noise changes when I unplug the laptop and run on battery power.

EDIT: Okay, I've done some tests, and... Location of the laptop doesn't make a difference, I still get exactly the same white noise through the headphones (note, whatever I get in white noise through the headphones, oddly enough, also seems to be recorded by the recording tools, so that when I play it back, I get two lots of it at once). When the laptop is plugged in to the power, however, it reduces to a more frequent 'fluff' noise, rather than 'electrical pulses + fluff'. Unfortunately using my desktop pc for recording isn't an option, as I cannot figure out for the life of me how to get the mic gain to increase, I've tried everything that I can think of. (all the MS bloatware apps to test, 'optimise', record, speech recognition, etc.., but no third-party tools yet, only MS-winxp bloatware) Are you using some white noise dampener on your mic and speaker/headphone setup? I also noticed that when I use my trusty (trusty is an understatement, these things are GODLY) signature-white iPod headphones on my desktop pc (which I never do), I get a huuuuuuuuuge amount of white noise static. (To also confirm that my desktop pc's sound system was crappola, I plugged my uber wireless headphones into my laptop for the first time ever, and I don't get any of the strange electrical whooshing and pinging noises that I get when listening to THE SAME white noise, on my desktop pc. WORD OF ADVICE, NEVER buy a shuttle pc.)

[edit on 13-1-2006 by nrky]

PODcast: Majic's Podcasting Workshop (reply 3)
Majic discusses Nrky's persistent ghostly noise problem.

length: 06:56
file: atscpod_1226.mp3
size: 1222k
feed:
status: live (at time of posting)

^_^
Thanks for the replies Majic.
Laptop: Dell 4150, bought THREE YEARS AGO, 1.6P4M cpu, 256+128 ddr300mhz ram, ati radeon 750, xsga+ 14inch screen, intel (82801CA/CAM ac'97...????) audio controller, usb1, no firewire.
Shuttle desktop: 2ghz amd, 256+512 ddr400ram, geforce4 420mx, realtek ac'97 audio controller (on board), usb2, firewire400.
Disposable income, currently, 0$.

Luckily for me, however, the majority of my peripherals and stuff that I use, are external. Spare harddrives in caddies (FW), dvd burners (FW), mini led desk lamp (USB), coffee warmer (USB), etc.. I've had to get used to moving my computers around ALOT, and changing parts ALOT over the past decade of buying computer bits, so I like a certain hot-swappable-factor in my gear. Needless to say, however, I've never actually purchased any sound cards of any significance. Since my soundblaster 128 on the p2 200, I've been lazy and started using onboard sound for everything. My brother is a doof-doof fanatic though (likes to have massive speakers and subwoofers), and bought himself an extigy2 (*DROOLS*) a year ago, with optical connections and 5.1 set up for all the neighbourhood to hear. It would be AWESOME to have this soundcard in a standalone firewire box, instead of the current get up of it taking up a pci slot, but alas, it would cost me in excess of 300AUD$... Looks like I'm stuck with what I have, for now... damn you evil soundcard ghosts! *shakes fists in anger* damn you dirty ghostapes!!!

Anyyywho... you mentioned 'dynamic mic' in your last podcast... ... ... I have one of those, cost me 10$AUD from kmart, and it's what I've been using ever since my third or fourth podcast (used my MOBILE PHONE microphone before that, hahahahahha!). It's big, it's huge, it looks like it could choke Mick Jagger, but it does the job. Nonetheless, you ARE the resident audiophile here, so if you could reccomend microphones, briefly, in your next workshop podcast, that would be excellent.

Sorry to be appearing to guide the topics of your podcasting workshops, I'm simply taking advantage of the fact that there's someone out there who knows what on earth they are doing, and praying that they see the logic in assuming that I may not be the only person with these problems.

EDIT: I totally need to get a life, surely there's better things to stress about than podcast sound quality... nooooooooo.... (really, sadly enough I can't really think of anything else that I can be bothered thinking about right now, haha!)

[edit on 13-1-2006 by nrky]

PODcast: Majic's Podcasting Workshop (reply 4)
Majic describes how he uses Audacity (available free from audacity.sourceforge.net) and dBpowerAMP Converter (available free from dbpoweramp.com) to make podcasts, right down to the specific filters and settings.

length: 11:15
file: btstpod_1366.mp3
size: 1979k
feed:
status: live (at time of posting)