Wizardgold

Busy time here but I managed to record a podcast. I would have done it with video for the Wizardgold News but went with audio because I started to record after the light was gone and I don’t like the image you get when working with lights rather than natural light. Although if I was to use my video camera rather than the iSight camera I could have made some adjustments I suppose. Then again there are video adjustments possible in iMovie also.

Any way the upshot is that I did it in audio only. I recorded and turned it into a podcast in Amadeus again. The second podcast all done in Amadeus and I like it. Slight different way of working that’s all.

I talk about using a service called Knowem to be able to quickly see where I have my user name out there. It checks about 120 sites and I can then click on to sign up at the various sites. Basically it is to profect my user name and identity so that no one else can register Wizardgold and use it nefariously. I see there will be a Facebook name thing happening this weekend also. Will you be getting your name registered. Will there be people doing bad things to try a bit of Facebook cyber squatting, I wonder.

In the podcast I give a bit of news about the 20 Questions sites. If you would like to be featured in a podcast talking about whatever you fancy or more specific with thePhoto20Q, Video20Q, Writers20Q, then contact me using the form below. Lets talk !!

With the new 2.8 WordPress, last night I updated most of my sites. Only with one of them do I have a problem.  The text is not showing up in the posts on the site yet are still there in the database. I have exported out the posts also to keep them safe while I do what I have to to sort the problem out. Weird that it only messed up on one of my sites.

As I say in the podcast there will be no Round table meeting this evening. Mostly because of the fact I am working until 10pm and the rest is due to it seeming that it has all been done in the other podcasts. I listened to IMP, Mac OSKen and MacBreak Weekly and Vexed Tech podcasts and there is not much more to say. So I will stick to the Mac 20 Questions style of podcast which is about real users using the computer for real.

Bloody microphones.
I have spent the morning trying to clean up the sound from my microphones. I have a Samson C03U condenser mic which is a top quality microphone. I also have a Behringer B2 Studio mic connected to 1002 Behringer mixer, also top quality.
Despite this I was getting a couple of problems. The first is that when I record in the office I get a high pitched interference noise which is from all of the computer equipment running in in there. I can ease that problem by going upstairs and using my studio are. I have curtains and soft furnishing hanging to kill the echo and I can l easily be rid of the high pitched sound just by recording there.

But with all of the settings available on the hard ware and then in the software it can be a devil to get the sound nice and clear in the final recording. There are loads of settings on the mixer. Three settings on the mic and the in the software there are too many setting to enumerate. It is driving me nuts.

Over and over I have been testing different tries. First to get as clean as possible from the mic with minimum settings then have the mixer sending the sound right to the computer. I will get to the bottom of this, at some point in time. I will update this post when I feel I have got there.

Just started a new blog in the last couple of weeks in which I chat to Mac users about how they use their Mac’s. Going really well with it and have interviewed 22 people so far. 18 interviews have been published as podcasts so far and I have more interviews lined up for later in the week.

I should hit 25 podcasts later in the week.

I will put a list of the podcasts done so far in here shortly but now it is way past time for hitting the sack.

Don McAllister Interview

I have just upgraded the Libsyn account for Spondicious and BravaChat. This is an account separate from the Wizardgold account which I use solely for Wizardgold Betting trader podcasts. I now have 500mb uploading limit per month between the two accounts for my podcasting.

I was wondering if I should have just had the one account but the difference is only 25 mb per month and I think I like the stats to be separate anyway.

As far as the stats are concerned I can tell you that I have on Wizardgold between 2500 and 3100 per month of the podcasts. That includes new downloads of older episodes as well as the downloads of the newer episodes of my Audio and Video Wizardcasts. I have had nearly 40,000 downloads in total which I think is not bad for the niche market I appeal to with Wizardgold. On top of those numbers I could add the times that my videos at Youtube have been looked at. For example the video I did of trading the under 2.5 goals market in Betfair had been viewed 11,019 as of today. Not as many as that girl in England that has made videos of how to fo make up and been viewed millions of times, but hey, mascara doesn’t suit me.

Still want to do more with the podcasting and blogging and to that end I would like it if you could help by filling out a survey for me. Just hit the button below…. Thanks

I got the HF100 eventually after Fedex made a pigs ear of getting it to me. I should have had it eight days ago and they said it was badly addressed. I rang on Friday and I don’ think they were sure where it was. Rang again yesterday as it had not arrived and they had told me Monday. On the tracking page on the Fedex site it appeared as being in a local depot so I was waiting with baited breath for the arrival today.

It is a grey import so it is for NTSC TV’s but I don’t think it matters as I will be recording HD & I can make PAL later if I want. I think that will only affect me if I want to view some film directly on the TV, which is possible I suppose but it is more likely that I will be editing the footage in the iMac before doing any viewing.

I have been playing will all of the buttons so far to see what it does and it is all fairly simple, there is even an easy mode. I think focusing could be a problem area although there is a way to adjust the focus sort of manually.

The camera has a wireless remote control which I wasn’t expecting. So that is nice for when I have the camera on a tripod and I am filming myself in an interview situation. just have to point the remote at the camera and away it goes.

I also got in the post today a 16GB SDHC card, so that was good timing. It is working well in the camera and so I will probably get a couple more of them at the end of the month when I have more money in Paypal.

I am keen to make a home made steadicam as soon as I can. I want to make it in the fashion of the Steadicam Merlin. Looks easy enough from the videos I have seen on YouTube though, Not sure where I will be able to get the ball and socket part I nned though for the handle, I will have to do some searches. Some people have used a Manfrotto ball head for a tripod. There is a decent enough steady cam that can be bought from Ebay though and could save me some hassle of making one. Made in India but if it does the job, why not.

Here is the YouTube video.

In this podcast I talk about how good micro stock is for earnings when you stop adding new images. When you want to or need to take some time off from uploading. Feeding the beast is the phrase coined on Lee Torrens Blog – Microstock Diaries.

I talk about HDR photography and I have included some small tips and tricks to help you along with the stock photography business.

Lastly I have put in a request for funny stories that you might have regards being a photographer or whatever. I will post funny stories in a Podcast and in return I will put a link to your website and of course you can include a plug in the audio too.

Enjoy the Spondicious Podcast number four Contact me and tell me what you think. Use the contact form below or post a comment on the site

Podcamp Barcelona

This weekend coming is the Podcamp Barcelona and I will be doing a session there for Podcasting virgins. That’s right a beginners session for podcasting. I have been talking to the host person in charge today and we and not sure about the feasibility of doing a hands on session due to technical constraints but if it is possible then there will be some hands on.

I will be covering microphones you might use and how you use to get the best sound, software that works well to make a good Podcast, obviously I will be a bit biased there with being a Mac User. About how to get a Podcast hosted and put on iTunes. Why you might use a service like Libsyn instead of your regular hosting to put your content online.

With regards software there is of course the old reliable Audacity that does just about all you need and is available to All platforms. I have on my Ubuntu machine also. I will mention Levelator which is another free program. Personally I use Garageband to start with and then put it in Amadeaus Pro to do some wave level tweaking. Then I turn it into a WAV file to drop onto levelator to get the sound just perfect before putting it back in Garageband to enhance it and add jingles etc.

One of the things I like in Garageband is the way you can enhance your voice and have a software gate. What the gate does is to cut off some sound so that you don’t get the sound of a dog barking outside or a car going by but you do get the voice in full still but you have to get close to the mic to do it. So long as you use good mic technique to avoid the pops or have a pop filter in front of the mic you will get a great sound.

I will mention that it is good to get close to the mic and even get in an environment that will lose the echo that you find in some rooms. I know of podcasters that record in the wardrobe  or underneath a blanket or sheet. Just got to have somewhere that has soft furnishings.

I will mention about scripting and whether it is a good idea or even suitable for the type of podcast. Personally I make a script but leave myself free to ad lib and deviate from it if I want to.

Types of podcast – one person informing or chatting about a subject matter that he or she knows a lot about, two or three people talking in a conversation mode about various subjects. More people than that as a round table type of podcast perhaps with one person in charge so that participants are not talking over each other. Video podcast with the host or host talking into a camera, either a web cam or a top quality HD machine, doesn’t matter, so long as the content is good. Then there is the screencast as per the Screencastsonline of Don McAllister for example.

Other news

Today I signed up with Wizzardmedia who are the owners of Libsyn and they have a way to upload video to multiple sites – I counted 19 of them in one go and it is with a partner called tubemogul. I signed up with all of them and I plan to do some video soon. I have already dome some video podcasts but lately it has been more with audio. Nice to be able to cut the time need to upload the content by using just one site. It seems that as soon as it realises that I have uploaded a new video into my libsyn feed it will spread the love and put in on other sites.

I have just listened to the Spondicious podcast number Three on sites other than my own so that I could experience how it sounds and how it is accessed by listeners.

It didn’t sound too bad at all. So I want to make a note of my workflow of making the podcast. Partly to remind myself how I did it for next time and to let others know also.

I started with the script because I like a nice tight podcast. I don’t like it when you get a bunch of bozos in a virtual studio with no one really in charge and talking over the top of each other, repeating themselves and not have a proper direction.

The script is fairly loose though because at the same time I don’t like the sound of a podcast when it sounds like it is just being read from a script. The podcast can sound a bit dead and lifeless when done that way. So I read it as I go and make some of it up as I go too. If the off the cuff bits fit in then that’s just great.

I wrote the script on the iMac because that is where I have the best keyboard. I then move the file to the laptop and head upstairs to the studio. My studio is based around a Mac Mini with a G4 Processor in it. I have a mixer desk attached to it via a Griffin thingy which I connect to the USB of the MacMini. Then I have a studio top quality Behringer condensor microphone plugged into the mixer.

The microphone makes a huge difference to the process and when you are getting serious with podcasting you should try a few out and see which works best with your voice.

So today I used Garageband first of all because of the ease in making the preliminary recording. I say my bit and sometimes I get it wrong – I fluff the words and what I do is just repeat it over again. With Garageband I split the track where I have fluffed it and then move the mouse over the ends of the mistake so that I cut out the mistake. Then I move the better recording up to the end of where I did the cutting. When I have that take sorted I go on to the next piece of the recording.

I add jingles to split up the podcast so that my listeners don’t get bored with a long boring monologue without breaks. I hope it makes it more interesting and easier to listen to.

When I had all of the parts of the podcast recorded I listened to it from start to finish to see if I missed any bad bits. Then I moved back to the iMac with the recording and opened it up in AmadeusPro to convert it into WAV file. This is because the next software is the Levelator and it does just one thing and does it well. It is a normaliser on steroids. Here are the details from the download site.

The Levelator adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It’s not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It’s much more than those tools, and it’s much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler’s application window, and a few moments later you’ll find a new version which just sounds better.

Have you ever recorded an interview in which you and your guest ended up at different volumes? How about a panel discussion where some people were close to microphones and others were not? These are the problems the post-production engineers of Team ITC solve every day, and it used to sometimes take them hours of painstaking work with expensive and complex tools like SoundTrack Pro, Audacity, Sound Forge or Audition to solve them. Now it takes mere seconds. Seriously. The Levelator is unlike any other audio tool you’ve ever seen, heard or used. It’s magic. And it’s free

All you have to do is drag and drop the WAV file on to the levelator and wait a minute for it to do it’s magic. In the recording today the voice track was no where near the audio level of the music added as jingles. After the Levelator did its job it was all just perfect level wise. I was impressed.

Back in AmadeusPro again and I listened to it again and did a bit of tweaking of where I had extra sounds I didn’t want. like when I breathe in as I about to speak. It is not vital to do that but I prefer to reduce the level on those by select the wave in Amadeus and reducing the level on that bit by 10db. It is easy and makes me happier with the final result. I also cut out the umms and errrs.

I save the file when done in a format to get it back into GarageBand. WAV or AIFF or MP3 all do the job and all that is left is to make the podcast enhanced. I add pictures and links so that a person lisening in iTunes can see them and click on live links if they wish.

I click on share to iTunes or to disk and I am left with a file that has the m4a suffix, that I can upload to Libysn. Sometime I will also make an mp3 version so that my blog readers can choose to download that instead. Not everyone is able to use the m4a version.

Once uploaded to Libsyn I just have to make a post with the file embedded in it. The RSS feed is already linked to iTunes so that within a few hours it is findable on iTunes.

I get the link off Libsyn for the direct download and post it on to my Spondicious Photography Blog. I make a post with the Podcast logo and make the picture a link to the podcast. Just click on it to listen.

I then go to all the places where I promote the blog and podcast and post either a link or post up the actual podcast file.

Job done….

I saw details yesterday for a Podcamp that is taking place in Barcelona in September. Just outside of Barcelona in El Masnou actually. I signed up for it anyway and I am hoping I can get the time off work to go to it. There will only be a few more days left before the Campsite closes anyway so – what the hell.

Not many signed up for it yet but it could ee interesting and worth a look. Blogging and Podcasting has yet to take off here in Spain and maybe this will be the push that it needs.

UPDATE:- I know now that I will have time off work – from the end of August until March how about that. The boss said that the camp site took in 25% less this year so will be ending everyone’s contracts at the end of August anyway. I am so looking forward to having soome time to do my illustration work. It has been a long stretch working 6 days a week since march.

When Istarted podcasting I used my Mac Mini and I kept on using if for some time after getting my first iMac because it is so quiet in use. I now have a new iMac and still I will be using the MacMini G4 version to do the recording of the podcast. I have it in the rooms upstairs where it is quiet and all I need to do it to work out a way of damping down the echoes from the tiled floor. I can put a screen around me when recording and maybe put a bit of carpet on the floor. That will help things alot.

As for software I am going to try putting Soundtrack pro on the MacMini because I really like the control I have over the recording and editing. If not I will record using Garageband or maybe Audacity. Audacity is the closest to Sountrack Pro for the waveform editing but Garage band gives me the enhanced version of the podcast ready for iTunes.

The Microphone I will use is the Behringer B2 Pro studio condensor mic which I have on the end of a boom in a shock mount. The Microphone is connected to the computer via a Behringer 1002 mixer. Excellent microphone and a nice little mixer desk. I have just bought a Samson C03 U USB condensor mic for use on the main iMac computer in the office and I have heard very good reports on the C01 U which is the predecessor to this one. I did think about getting a Snowball mic from Blue, but in the end I went with my first choice.