Pipeline Podcast 23 March 2005

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

It's now up with the RSS feed. And, I just noticed, Jonah did a spectacular job updating the column at such a late hour. So you have preview images and everything! http://pipeline.comicbookresources.com

This week: A mini-interview with Chris Eliopoulos, brought to you through the glory of a Mac and Audacity sound editing software.

-Augie

[ADD]

Nice work, Augie, and the audio quality is excellent. I'd love to hear more interviews like this.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Thanks, Alan. I especially appreciate that coming from someone who knows something about the world of radio. =)

If the volume was at all low, blame that on the original source material. When I compressed the audio, all the hissing and static came back. So I went with slightly lower volume, but higher quality. Life is a trade off.

And I'd like to do more interviews. I've had a couple of offers and suggestions in recent times. We'll see where this goes.

-Augie

[ADD]

Having tried to record audio in my own home, I'd be interested in hearing what sort of setup you're using, particularly where you're doing the voice work and what sort (if any) of soundproofing you're using.

Parenthetically, having two small children in your living room with you as you try to record tends to reduce fidelity in sometimes amusing ways.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

It's a simple set up on my end. I use the free cross-platform program called Audacity. It's not 100% stable, but with short podcasts it isn't a problem. Save your work often when you edit.

I'm on a Mac, using a powered Sony microphone. (*) Nothing fancy. There's a windscreen in front of it. I close the bedroom door -- that's all the soundproofing I do. I don't listen to myself in the headphones as I record it. I've found that when I do that, I slow myself down to a crawl. It's odd. There are also latency issues involved with recording on the computer. The headphones are always a fraction of a second behind you.

With Audacity, I can cut out the dead spots, any excessive "uhms" that slip out, and the mistakes and retakes. Compression keeps the volume level up and the sound quality fairly even.

Now, when I have background music with the podcast, it gets a little more complicated from the computer's side of things. I use a program called "Wiretap" that records all sounds going through the computer. Then I have to reroute all the Audio Out to my headphones -- so I can hear the music I'm talking over -- and have everything else ready to go. Some sound files I'll just play in iTunes. Others I'll have loaded up in separate QuickTime windows. Wiretap drops an AIFF file (Mac's version of .wav, basically) on my desktop, and I can import that into Audacity for editing.

As for the background noise of children: Timing is everything. Wait for a nice summer day, send them outside to play kickball, and then record quickly before they get thirsty. ;-)

-Augie

* I've used Windows and Linux with a similar set-up. I upgraded around Christmas time to the powered microphone, which is when the podcasting started. Before that, I just used a Radio Shack mic. It did the job, but I always had to boost the audio volume big time. The processes are all the same.

[Deathstroke]

Arggh...all this technobabble...

[Christopher Burton]

Thus concludeth the interview...

That line cracked me up, Augie. I laughed out loud. :D

And these Franklin Richards stories sound cool, too. I'm intrigued by the hint that Mr. Eliopoulos (I typed that just to see if I could) drops about Reed Richards. I have an idea, but I'll wait to see if I'm right.

[Chris Eliopoulos]

That line cracked me up, Augie. I laughed out loud. :D

And these Franklin Richards stories sound cool, too. I'm intrigued by the hint that Mr. Eliopoulos (I typed that just to see if I could) drops about Reed Richards. I have an idea, but I'll wait to see if I'm right.


Well, Augie saw the story, so he knows, but he's sworn to secrecy! :)

I still think I sound like a goober!

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Good job, Chris B. I circumvent the whole spelling thing by just referring to him in the method he prefers: "Mr. E."

Sounds like a Bond villain, doesn't it?

And Chris E. - You don't sound like a goober. We just didn't have a full studio set-up to work with and, well, you need some media training. ;-) My bigger problem is sounding like a radio guy when I'm having a normal conversation now. UGH

-Augie

[KingMixer]

I've got to get me an Ipod so I can hear the show. I'm so behind everyone.

-Mark Smith

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

You don't need an iPod for this. It's just an MP3 file. You can listen to it on your computer, even through your web browser. If you have an iPod, it'll make great listening while you're out of the house, but otherwise there's no shame in clicking on the link in Tuesday's column and either downloading it to listen to in WinAmp or MusicMatch, or just letting it play through your browser.

-Augie

[Chris Eliopoulos]

That line cracked me up, Augie. I laughed out loud. :D

And these Franklin Richards stories sound cool, too. I'm intrigued by the hint that Mr. Eliopoulos (I typed that just to see if I could) drops about Reed Richards. I have an idea, but I'll wait to see if I'm right.


Well, if you go to the Pulse, you can view the first installment in its entirety.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

It includes that unspeakable bit of business Chris talked about on the podcast, to boot.

He's such a pig. ;-)

-Augie