Today we’ll discuss the EQs practical use. While it might not be as important for general podcasting purposes as it is for music, there really isn’t any reason for you to not at least try it out. If you’re unsure on the terms used in this post, then read my previous post on EQs. More →
In music production the EQ, or the equalizer, is perhaps the most important element besides the tools producing the sounds themselves. If you’re doing spoken word for podcasting you won’t have to deal with the same issues someone mixing an entire song has to however, that is, to adjust the frequencies of the separate sounds to make them all fit together in the spectrum. But it’s still a useful tool.
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I’ve talked about how to minimize noise in your podcasts by using different equipment and tweakingthe usage of these equipment. But one factor that also plays a big part in the production of noise in recordings is the environment itself.
Look around the room where you record your podcasts. Most likely you will identify things inside the room that produce noise that can be picked up by your microphone. For example, the air conditioner emits a hum that can be an annoying background noise. Turn it off when recording and just turn it back on when you’ve finished recording your take.
Refrigerators are another appliance that produce noise. Make sure that the room that you record in doesn’t have one inside. The hum of some refrigerators are not particularly loud but it can still be heard by people who have sensitive ears so give them a break and don’t record near a refrigerator.
One of the things that you should do is to answer some questions yourself. How long do you plan to hold the interview? Are you going to let the interview play out or are you going to edit it? How will you edit it? You should also be ready to give your interviewee information — like who the audience will be and what are the expectations for the interview. You should also provide this information in the pitch letter that you will send your potential interviewee.
There are interviewees who may ask for some of the questions beforehand. This is a perfectly safe request for most “friendly” interviews. A good tip is to start off the interview with a killer question — one that immediately grabs hold of the audience’s interest. After a couple of intriguing questions you can ease back and ask background questions afterwards.
Being one of the many contenders for podcasts, Microsoft’s Zune should be a target for your podcasts as well as the all-present iPod. The Zune is a portable digital music player that has an added wireless feature with a whopping 80 GB or memory with a specific and continuously expanding market as the iPod. With the Zune selling as of latest figures, over a million units, the market is truly an enticing target for your podcasts should you want to expand your audience. There are some pre-requisites to setting up Zune to market your podcasts More →
I found an article on podcasting with Linux this morning, and thought I’d share it with you. It’s old, but still worth a read. The core of the article deals with Audacity and recording interviews with Skype, which of course can be of interest to non-Linux users as well!
The article claims that you will need a second computer for recording both the voices from Skype. I definitely don’t see the need for this. I don’t know if Skype has the proper recording features now (as I said, the article is old), or if something like Audio Hijack isn’t available on Linux, in either way it could be solved with some creative routing with a proper audio interface.
Today we’ll talk more about the de-esser, or more specifically, how you can make one if you haven’t got one. Many early de-essers used in broadcast were actually not de-essers, but homebrew stuff. And it’s not as hard as it sounds. You won’t have to touch a single screw. You will need a compressor and an EQ.
The trick is to “tune” the compressor to react to certain frequencies where sibilants occur. The easy way to find this is to take your EQ, boost one of the bands, drag it cross the frequency spectrum and listen to where the esses occur. Perhaps try around 5-6kHz.
