Podcast Tips for Beginners
November 18, 2006 – 3:55 pm | by nerd's eye view
Yup, once again, an episode of “Learn from a total moron’s mistakes.” Take notes, people, so you don’t have to learn the hard way like I am.
Today’s lesson is called Know Your Hardware.
Say you shop around a little and you spring for a cute little mic. And it works good, yessiree, you know that because you’ve tried it out at home. Well, you drive across town and hook the thing up, right? But before you hit record, make sure you’ve set your laptop to use that cute little mic as the input. Because if you don’t, the quiet talking guy who’s telling you really delightful tales, backed up by his equally delightful wife, will be the ultra-quiet talking guy on the recording. See, the built in recorder on your laptop is directional and it’s not facing HIM, it’s facing you. You’ll come in loud and clear, yes sir, and the gracious quiet talking guy well, you know what he’s talking about because you were there. But your listeners? Ha. You will have to find a post recording filter to run all that audio through. That will be a drag. Yes sir.
I did remember to leave the recording running. And next time, I will do an actual sound check. I’ll ask my interviewee to tell me what they had for breakfast or something, and then, I’ll play it back. And THEN, I’ll start the session. Check, one, two. Check, one, two. Check, are you a moron? Yes. Yes I am.
You are not a moron, though. Not like I am, biting off more than you can chew without knowing what the hell you’re doing.
It was a great session, though. I’m determined to save a bunch of this audio. I’ll find a way. I’m a dork, but I’m a resourceful dork. And if YOU know of a way, let me know, eh?
[tags]podcasting, microphone[/tags]
3 Responses to “Podcast Tips for Beginners”
By Marilyn on Nov 19, 2006 | Reply
Oooh, bummer! (This sounds like something I would do…being all un-technical and all.)
By Pam on Nov 19, 2006 | Reply
It IS a bummer, but I talked with a friend who does audio for a living. He said two things to me:
1. You can save that recording and here’s what you gotta do. So that’s good.
2. It sounds like you’re making all the right rookie mistakes.
Given that I’m only on Session Two, I feel like I’m doing okay. I have two more willing interview candidates lined up and I’m sure I can find more. While it’s a drag to lose those first sessions to error, at least I’m learning from my mistakes. This time I DID keep recording, though, um, you can’t really HEAR it.
Heh. Learning is fun. Right?
By Jesse on Nov 19, 2006 | Reply
Another good way to avoid this is to occasionally monitor on headphones just to make sure you’re getting a signal and that things are still working. That way you can also pick up any weird noises that you don’t notice otherwise.
I once did a whole interview with the mic off. Oops. It was even less fun to listen to an hour of complete silence later on.