February 12, 2006

Episode 1: Is That Really What I Sound Like?

By
Amanda
Posted at 12:03 am

Red Hot Mama: The PodcastNobody asked me for an audio recap of this week in Redsland, but I put one together anyway. It's pretty much just an opportunity for me to practice and try some stuff out. So, if you're in the mood to sit through about two minutes of Reds news you already knew while I struggle to come to terms with the sound of my own voice, then by all means click here.

Red Hot Mama Reviews Reds News for February 11, 2006. (1.34 MB, 1:55)

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Posted in Podcasts.
4 Comments
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4 comments to “Episode 1: Is That Really What I Sound Like?”

  1. Dro Kulix says:
    February 12, 2006 at 4:54 pm

    So far, things are sounding good. Comments:

    * I hope you have podcast rights to your theme. 😉

    * The black background on the QuickTime player is a neat trick. Do you need QuickTime Pro for that?

    * The recording has a particularly good technical sound for coming from the built-in mic—I would say it’s probably on par with the [i]current[/i] [i][url=http://www.dawnanddrew.com/]The Dawn and Drew Show![/url][/i]s.

    * Advice for when you get something a little less built-in: Experiment with the mic position. Unlike with some nebulous omni, something at which you’re directly talking may pick up the noise of blasted consonants ([i]blast![/i]), and wind screens really don’t help much in this regard. Most of my better results have come from having the mic positioned sideways, and, if possible, [i]above[/i] my mouth.

    * I don’t think [i]anyone[/i] really enjoys the sound of his and/or her own voice as recorded, at least at first. The phenomenon of losing that direct, solid-matter reverberation between your larynx and your inner ear tends to make everything sound a little shallow. It will sound a tiny bit closer to what’s inside your head when you get your higher-precision mic. I myself also like to run my vocal channel through a compressor (means something completely different than in the world of data) and a bass booster. Your mileage may vary. In the meantime, rest assured that, at least in my opinion, your voice is far superior to those of most of the amateur podcasters (and some of the pros) I’ve heard. (Incidentally, the podcast world has been graced with some of the least polished voice talents of all time, and you can really tell that most of them have never acted in their lives, but that’s another story…)

    (More…)

  2. Dro Kulix says:
    February 12, 2006 at 4:55 pm

    * Your filename scheme passes as being from the [url=http://radio.sprawling.org/instant-wastecast-rhm-shameless-plug]Radio Sprawling[/url] school of thought. (Shameless plug.) Got the nyud.net redirect to work, too…nice.

    * As far as the RSS feed is concerned, well, from here it looks like you’ll only have to rework your journaler’s existing feed mechanism to account for a couple of things. First, you’ll probably want to figure out how to create a special version of the feed that only includes entries from the “Podcasts” category. Second, you’ll have to figure out how to add the proper <enclosure /> tag to each <item />. That’s all that’s technically necessary, though there is other stuff you could add on later (iTunes-specific tags and such).

    That’s all for now. Looking forward to more!

    —qlx

  3. Dro Kulix says:
    February 12, 2006 at 5:04 pm

    (Okay, one more thing…the “Recent Posts” deal was registering comments I was hitting “Preview” on instead of “Submit”. I suppose that [i]shouldn’t[/i] happen and is a technicality of whatever module supports the chatbox. —qlx)

  4. Red Hot Mama says:
    February 12, 2006 at 10:38 pm

    To think: [i]the[/i] Dro Kulix here. On my blog. Wow.

    Hey, Dro. Thanks for the feedback. Or to be more specific:

    * Yes, to the best of my understanding, I am allowed to use my intro music. It was one of the loops that came with GarageBand. According to my crack audio consulting staff, podcasts aren’t specifically addressed in the documentation of our version of GB, but the most current version of GB does seem to encourage the free use of loops in podcasts.

    * Neither I nor my crack audio consulting staff know how we got the background black. Good karma, I guess.

    * I, too, have been pretty impressed with the microphone quality. Nevertheless, a real mic has been ordered and should be here in time for next week’s show.

    * Will do.

    * Aw, shucks. Still, I’m looking to up the Sassy Factor. What do you think, Señor Sassy?

    * But of course!

    * I’ll let my crack audio consulting staff know.

    Thanks again for listening. Hopefully the comment quirk you discovered is fixed for good now.

    XOXO,
    RHM