Ep. 005 – New Mics, a Mixer & Not Enough Time

Miss me?  I surprised myself when I realized we had released 2 episodes of 2nds Count since the last release of I Want to Start a nmaD Podcast. Woah?  Since when were we able to record and produce so quickly?  In fact, as I type this I have the next episode recorded of 2nds Count!   How do you manage to handle your podcast/work/family balance?  My family comes first before anything, and I have to work to take care of them but I am loving the podcasting.  I think the planning is working out OK but if I tighten it up it may be easier.  I may also have Trav start doing the shown notes for 2C.

So what has been going well?  What has been not so well?  Discussing a number of these pluses and minuses in the progress I even mention a special a boo boo with the trial version of Hindenburg and ended up hosing my computer pretty good…for using Hindenburg anyway.  We managed to get past that with a different computer.  We don’t need to worry about it anymore though becauuuuuuuse…..

Not only did Trav pick up an AudioTechnica ATR 2100, but we also got a mixer!  w00t!  A Brother came through and hooked me up with Alesis MultiMix 4 – 4 Channel USB Mixer.  I used it for this episode as well as the last episode of 2nds Count and it worked great.  I’ll discuss what the editing was like in the next episode of IWTSADP.  Very exciting stuff.So what was done with Trav’s old CAD Condenser Mic?  Our buddy Shane has it in his possession and while I’m not sure what he’s planning on recording with it, I’m sure it’ll be funny stuff…especially if he’s using IWTSADP to learn how!

I was FINALLY able to acquire the shows’ URLs.  We are now here at http://www.IWantToStartADamnPodcast.com and the provider coveted http://www.2ndsCount.com.  Please give a listen to Episode 5 below.  Subscribe in iTunes and or favorite in Stitcher.  Hopefully you’re already Following on Twitter and Liked on Facebook!

Till next episode folks!

.:Brother MAK

Ep. 004 – Practice makes…better

Woohoo!  We recorded Episode 2 of 2nds Count!  The show is getting better and better and I’m more excited to do the NEXT episode!  The better we get, the more fun it is.  It also gets easier.  Getting setup is faster, recording and editing is smoother and writing quality show notes is easier.  We’re still in the infant stage, but growing rapidly!

What’s the biggest lesson learned from Episode 1 to Episode 2? Prepare.  Get those pre-show notes written, jotted or even just remembered, but be prepared.  If you have a co-host make sure you know what both are bringing to the discussion.  I even like the idea of a specific structure that you try to keep to.  We’re working on that.  In the end, preparation made the show run smoother and made for far less editing.

What is over editing?  I’m sure there’s many ways to over edit, but I speak of cutting things out where it’s noticeable post production.   Skips, snaps, odd noises.  Sometimes you just need to leave an umm and ya’ know in there so that the end result sounds natural.  When you edit, don’t be afraid to listen to what it sounds like after you alter and/or cut something out.  Sounding natural in the end is the key.  I’ve got some work to do on this, but it’s getting there!  Practice makes better!

Swearing!  Swearing, not in excess, serves a purpose in our language and it’s not just sounding crude.  It helps to portray the severity of that particular statement as well as mentally relieving that severity.  How should it be handles in the show?  We bleeped out the swears in Ep. 1 & 2 and neither of us are happy with them.  We can try reversing them instead, like we do here, but what else is there?  You can cut them out, but for the reasons above, we’d prefer not to.

We changed themes on the wordpress blog!  Now it matches IWTSADP….sooooo should we change this one?  It just fits the show better and didn’t like the old one.  Also, the show notes came out great!   We also discovered the “Add Media” + URL allows you to easily embed a youtube video instead of just linking to it as well as embed the show itself with a basic audio player!  Way better than just having a link to launch a new window!

We’ll be looking to buy the URL for the show and this one as well.  The one for 2C though is ‘unavailable’ unfortunately.  With some digging via a whois lookup I found it’s actually ALMOST freed up….it’s in it’s redemption period.  Which means that the owners time for saving the domain is almost up…then it shall be mine!

Final exciting bit….Trav may getting the Audiotechnica ATR 2100!

Listen in below!  Subscribe in iTunes, Favorite in Stitcher, Like on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter!

Thanks as always to Audionautix for the production music!

Ep. 003 – Muted, rebooted and don’t know what to say.

You ever get all set to talk about something and when you finally get ready to, you forgot what you were going to say?  Yah, us too.  We found out how much show prep can help when we recorded episode 1 of 2nds Count.  We managed just fine, but it turned out to be a ton more work in post production.

Pre-production…lots of effort getting going but…we did it!  We got Ep. 1 recorded using two, count’em two, USB mic inputs into the computer thanks to the latest update from Hindenburg.  Woo hoo!

We ran into a few issues regarding echos and the duel use of condenser and dynamic mics but I found a cool button in audacity.  Check it out!    I had to cut a ton audio, but that really goes toward focus and the need for prep work.

Oh, and don’t forget to unmute your keyboard.  Panned audio is not good for podcasts!  At least not how I had it.  Thanks the folks in the Podcasters community in Google plus for some feedback on that!

Listen in as I delve into the recordings of Ep. 1 all that transpired.  May even kick a ‘Because of my Podcast’ story over to Dave Jackson at the School of Podcasting.

Thanks again to Audionautix for the production music.  Thanks for love everyone!   Listen to Episode 3 now!

.:Brother MAK

Ep. 002 – 2 mics, one puter, editing and show notes

I’m getting better every time I touch the mic and the cutting board.  Really enjoying learning a lot of little tricks with editing.  In my post production listening of this show I think I need to work on voice consistency, but I’ll save that for another episode.

We were able to get Episode 0 of 2nds Count thanks to the help of .:Bro. Robert Johnson from the Whence Came You Podcast.  Many thanks Brother.  Would’ve hated to scrap the whole thing. We determined the issue was with us both using Trav’s CAD condenser mic.  It still doesn’t sound great, but it’s tolerable…and published in iTunes & Stitcher!  Wooohoo!  Now we’ve got both shows up.

We’re going to try using the new version of Hindenburg for next episodes recording so that we can hopefully use both microphones.  Time will tell and if not, I’ll beat Trav into getting a dynamic mic as we DO have a mixer available to try out.

Learned a bit about adding in intro music and whether to roll the dice and use music before you’ve received permission.  Editing this stuff is tricky to make it sound right with your episode.  I feel like I know double what I did before last time and yet still so ignorant as to best practices. And speaking of intro music, thanks to Audionautix for the great free production music.

Should we monetize?  We only have 1 crappy episode out. I’d say heck no…until a tip from Daniel J Lewis (I REMEMBERED!) at the Audacity to Podcast made me think otherwise.

Finally some show notes and I’m convinced they’re important.  But are they the same thing as the blog post?  You can see I’ve gotten more wordy here than the last time(s).  Oooh and look at my pretty pre-show notes picture.

Give it a listen to Episode 2, subscribe and send me some feedback.

Without Wax,

.:Brother MAK

Can’t Forget the Links you Said you’d link to:

• Audacity to Podcast
• Ask the Podcast Coach
• School of Podcasting
• Smart Passive Income
• Whence Came You Podcast
• Audionautix

Ep. 001 – 2C episode 0 Recorded – but poorly!

Woo hoo!  While I haven’t heard back from iTunes or Stitcher yet – Episode 0 of I Want to Start a nmaD Podcast has officially been submitted.  Here’s hoping you can actually listen to it through the feed.  In this episode the recording of Episode 0 of 2nds Count Podcast…A true understanding of what Episode 0 means.  Condenser mics bad – Dynamic Good (though my guess is Trav will still argue that point).  Discovery – You can’t use 2 USB microphones on the computer…well, you can…you just need a mixer.  Always monitor your audio…trust the monitor and make sure you sound good when recording.

Holy moley we figured out how to host for free in Google drive, made a feed with Feedburner and even publish to iTunes and Stitcher! Back to Audacity….sorry Hindenburg – where’s the effects? What is episode 0? Yay – a Facebook page…..and a WordPress page (the free one!). This MP3 encoder is LAME! Cover photo MP3 embedding made easy with…WMP? Don’t forget to host your itunes cover photo in the right place. What is the difference from the itunes cover photo and the mp3 one?

Download Episode 1!

Links from Show:2nds Count Podcast
How to Host your Podcast for Free on Google Drive – Amit Agarwal
Lame Mp3 encoder

Ep. 000 – I Want to Start a nmaD Podcast

OK – following that debacle during recording and editing…I have managed, with the help of Amit Agarwal‘s post online, been able to create an rss feed with the file floating somewhere around the WWW!  I even submitted it to itunes!  Hey – this might have actually worked!  You can check out the episode below but hopefully it actually DID get submitted to iTunes and IF so, check it out there and subscribe. Next episode I’ll talk about the nonsense involved in finishing this first one and then rest of the discovery process in creating the ACTUAL podcast this test one here is all about. ____________________________________________ Discussing the journey of starting a podcast.  Why do I want to start a podcast?  How do I start a podcast?  What is RSS?  I’m a Dave Jackson fanboy. I love my audiotechnica atr 2100.  I’m cheap and don’t want to pay for anything else.  Check out my cool reverse effect and intro outro music.

Download Episode 0

Links from show:
School of Podcasting
Smart Passive Income – Podcast tutorial
The Audacity to Podcast
Hindenburg – Trial
We’re Alive, A Story of Survival
Intro-Outro from AudioAutix