I knew this was coming for a week, and still wasn’t prepared, but it’s been that kind of month. So I kept it short, anyway.
Walkabout podcast – International Podcast Day
I know, I know, you’re a little skeptical about this, given the perhaps slightly questionable authenticity of some of the holidays herein, but this really is a recognized holiday. Recognized by whom, you may well ask, though I doubt that because who the hell uses “whom” in a sentence anyway?
And yes, I’m later than I should be, at least to provoke others into trying their own or something, but so it goes – all my sponsors are gonna drop me anyway (well, except for one perhaps, since I have a stranglehold on them.)
So, some related links:
George Hrab’s Geologic Podcast – always excellent, always professional, only occasionally enthusing about The Beatles.
Smartless – Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett; you should recognize at least a couple of those names.
The Bugle – Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver; ditto.
Doing your own (because my efforts are so convincing):
Audacity – Just a wonderful free program
17 Essential Podcast Recording & Editing Tips using Audacity – You may not use them all, depending on your own style and recording system, but you should at least be using some of these. Today’s recording was the first using Amplify, Compress, and Normalize, which seems to work fairly well, but the other filters either made no discernible difference or actually degraded things a little, though your kilometerage, as they say, may vary – don’t hesitate to experiment.
How to Make Your Voice Recordings Sound Professional Using Audacity is similar, but has a couple of other filters therein.
From the same source, Seven Tips That Will Make Your Microphone Sound Better When Recording, though I’ve been doing these for years now. I will add that recording while you are home alone works much better than doing so late at night when you may be self-conscious about your voice carrying too far (which was a factor with this one.)
I mentioned the ‘Ess’ filter in there and then sidetracked myself, but long story short, I’m not using one – just never got any technique to make a reasonable difference, and it doesn’t appear that my tracks are too bad in that regard anyway.
A good microphone will make things much easier on you, but mics are outrageously expensive. I got lucky and found a Samson G-Track used at a decent price, which replaced my CAD U37 (which The Girlfriend still uses for online meetings) – those are the only ones that I have personal experience with, but the CAD was great, and the Samson phenomenal. The Blue Snowball and the Blue Yeti always come recommended and are not ridiculously priced. It’s worth spending a little time with research before a purchase, however, so you don’t get trapped by an XLR interface that requires a phantom power source and end up doubling your expenses.
Anyway, however you choose to, enjoy the holiday and the paid time off from work!