Based on a few requests I’ve received and feedback from my last webcast, I will be hosting an online session on interview skills at 8:00pmET on Monday, June 9. The session will cover techniques to prepare for and lead an interview for an audio recording, video recording or live event.

Space is limited so be sure to register.

Note: If you register and discover you cannot attend, please be sure to cancel your registration so that someone else can attend.

Ahh… a workshop on creating content that people want to consume. This one was led by the MGImedia team (makers of CommandN.tv) including Amber MacArthur, Jeff MacArthur (yes, Amber’s brother) and Chris Dick.

I’m going to start off with two counterpoints so I can get them out of the way.

Why is it that so many people feel compelled to push making revenue directly from the production around web-based content? Specifically, this clunky word monetize — even worse, monetization. I have yet to attend a conference or session that specifically promotes the idea of producing and distributing content to build and strengthen a personal or corporate brand. I’ve decided to leave the discussion of how to monetize your content out of my post.

While content is extremely important, I disagree that content is king. Newcomers are often indoctrinated into the concept of content is king at the expense of context and delivery. While it is true that absence of content is a killer (Whitney Hoffman has dubbed content-free speech as oral kegels), strong content without relevant context and accessible delivery is going to be victim to the ’skip’ button. Scott did acknowledge in his talk that bad video will derail good content.  Jeff brought up a great point with respect to content and frequency — there should be a direct correlation between the strength of your content and the frequency of your production schedule.

Okay… that’s out of the way, now.

This session was full of great takeaways:

• The equation E² = education x entertainment.

• Engage your audience.

• Lighting will make a huge difference in your video. Use a bounce board to reflect light on your subject. The larger the board, the softer and more natural the light.

• Use a tripod to ensure a steady shot. For hand held use, zoom out and get close to your subject to avoid magnification of the shake.

• Every image you use should tell a story. Use the rule-0f-thirds to make your composition more interesting.

• Attention spans are short and YouTube imposes a ten-minute limit on all videos.

• Serve a need; fill a niche.

• Stick to a production schedule.

• Make sure your camera has connections for an external mic (1/8″ or XLR).

• Every camera has its strengths and weaknesses.  Any brand will do.  Prosumer cameras have great default settings to get started.

• A lot of what you will do will be sweat equity.

Amber, Jeff and Chris were able to draw on a lot of experience and creative collaboration for producing interesting content. This audio guy is ready to fire up the video engine and start experimenting.

Note: the presentation will be available on mgimedia.ca.

I produce a number of different podcasts. Each one is different from the others in content, delivery and style. Today, I learned something about doing different multiple, unique shows.

It had been a while since I recorded a new interview for the Portrait format of Electric Sky. My approach is very much ingrained, though, and I did my usual research for what is typically a 10-15 minute interview for a final edit of 9 minutes (give or take 15 seconds). Great.

Then, I went to do the interview.

For Portait, given its very tight format, I’ve developed a specific flow and interview approach that works well within my production framework. What I learned is that when you take a break from that approach (it’s been nearly nine months since my last fresh interview for the show) you realize during the interview that you’re out of practice and the way you’re leading the interview is going to mean a lot of fancy editing.

That means, for the first time in about 40 episodes of Portrait, I’m going to have a measurable amount of editing to make it tight. Don’t misunderstand me. My guest was brilliant. I’m just out of practice with my questioning to keep things focussed for a 9 minute final cut and that resulted in about 26 minutes of audio to work from.

Your podcast is a muscle. Exercise it!

Based on a number of conversations I’ve had recently, I’ve decided to host a webcast on audio mixing.

This webcast will explore:

• audio mixing for creative effect
• how audio frequencies can impact your mix
• using your ears to mix for your listener

Instead of demonstrating and supporting specific software packages, I will be discussing concepts and providing overall guidance.

The event is free and limited to 15 people. Because space is limited, be sure to attend if you do register.

Click here to register.

Please let me know if there are any other topics you’d like to be considered for future webcasts.

I just turned off a podcast interview I was listening to after offering the host about 10 minutes of my day (the interview was apparently 30 minutes long). I shut it off because the host broke what I believe to be a very important rule of interviewing: respect. In my opinion, the host made a number of significant mistakes that broke this rule. Here is the summary of the mistakes and how they apply to the ‘trifecta of interview respect‘.

RESPECT FOR YOUR GUEST

Presumably you invited your guest to your show because you want to hear him or her say something and you want to share it with your audience. That makes the interview about your guest, not about you. If you have a book coming out, or an event you’re hosting or participating in, offer those points in your show intro or extro. Don’t sell yourself during the interview (and no, this was not the famous Sarah Lacy incident from SXSW).

RESPECT FOR YOUR LISTENER

Don’t breath on the microphone — even if you have a cold. If you’re using a headset, position the mic away from your face just above your mouth and out of the path of your nostrils. If you discover that you were ‘breathing on your guest’ during the interview, don’t release it. Drop the interview or ask your guest to re-record it.

Also, if you’re doing an interview in a professional and niche space, cut to the chase. Starting the interview with three minutes of joking around on a topic not related to your podcast wastes your audience’s time. You have the opportunity to trim this out before releasing your interview. Take advantage of that time.

RESPECT FOR YOURSELF

Don’t laugh as you ask your questions (at least a majority of them). Be confident in your style and your questions. Laughing out of context diminishes your credibility as a host, interviewer and expert in your field. I also recommend that hosts don’t use ‘we’ and ‘our’ when describing the production team of a podcast that ‘they’ produce on ‘their’ own.

Before I published this post, I listened to two more episodes of the podcast in question and discovered that this is a pattern.

Unsubscribed.

Having a portable digital recorder offers you the freedom to record anywhere you like. This also presents challenges. Nothing ruins a great recording the way electric and radio interference does. These types of interference can overpower what you are actually recording and can sweep across many frequencies including those which are home to voice frequencies. In techie parlance, you’re signal-to-noise ratio will be skewed towards the noise leaving you less signal to work with. You always want strong signal, ideally with no noise. If you have any noise, you want it in the fewest frequencies as with a very low level.

Here are a few pointers for picking a good place to set your sound recorder:

• Carry an extra set of charged batteries (I use re-chargeables) so that you don’t have to depend on plug-in power. If you record using batteries, warn any guests that you will occasionally be looking at your recorder to make sure it is still running and to make sure the batteries are still strong. Tell them not to be distracted when you do this (some people will think you’re not interested in what they’re saying or that they should be concerned if you’re looking at the equipment). If the batteries do get weak (I wait till my battery light starts flashing since that’s roughly my five minute warning), wait until your guest finishes their current thought before interrupting the session to change the batteries.

• If you do plug in to the wall at a ‘remote location’, listen to your digital recorder through headphones (if it offers real-time input monitoring) before you start recording to ensure that there are no grounding problems that will impact your recording. If there are grounding problems, unplug your digital recorder and run off the batteries.

• Don’t place your recorder too close to an electric outlet or electronic equipment.

• Don’t place your recorder too close to a radio device like a radio or cell phone, or a device that can give off radio interference such as a fluorescent light. If you can’t separate your recorder and cell phone, turn your cell phone completely off. If you can, don’t forget to turn off your cell phone ringer so that it doesn’t interrupt your recording session.

• In the case of a coffee shop, make sure that your recorder is out of harm’s way. Cups of hot coffee and tea, and glasses of water can really mess up a great electronic device (this is NOT from experience, thankfully).

Do you have any stories about remote recording, problem audio and digital recorders?

It was a full house in Studio A of Ryerson University when Jay Moonah kicked off PodCamp Toronto 2008 with a direct question: “How many of you are not yet podcasting?”. Well, I can’t remember the exact wording of the question, but it was along those lines. The last time I saw that many hands go up that quickly was when the crowd at the final game of the Ottawa Lynx sent the team off with ‘a wave’.

If I had to guess, 80% of the room was there to learn about becoming a podcaster which is probably why so many stuck around in Studio A for the Zero to Podcasting workshop when the Podcamp sessions began. The room of about 40 people were engaged in the discussion, sharing their thoughts and asking the kinds of questions that podcast veterans forget about all to easily once they establish a rhythm in their recording and production.

Rob Lee and Katherine Matthews (purldiving.com) kicked off the day, leading campfire discussions on picking a topic for your podcast, planning your podcast and selecting technology. Among other things, Sage Tyrtle (Quirky Nomads) offered her experiences on scripting her entire show and explained why she has made a conscious decision to not publish her scripts online. Scarborough Dude showed off his coveted iRiver 795 and explained how he uses it with his ‘pencil mic’ to record DicksnJanes anywhere and anytime.

Following lunch, Bob Goyetche and I led a workshop during which we recorded, edited, mixed and produced a podcast called ‘Hiding in the Closet’. It was not the kind of show the average podcaster would ever produce since the entire room contributed recorded elements including group sound effects (cheers, laughs, scowls, etc…), audio comments and fictitious listener phone calls. One participant was selected as a host who recorded intros for the show and individual segments, and a show extro. Derek Miller’s Fakeout was selected as the theme music for the show and then the entire package was threaded together in front of the room as part of a demonstration of Audacity.

As the show was put together, we repeatedly reminded the room that most shows are recorded and published with very little editing which doesn’t afford much of an opportunity to showcase the amazing things that can be done, easily, with Audacity. In fact, several veteran Audacity users approached us after the workshop to announce that they never knew some of the features that Bob demonstrated with just a keystroke or click during the session — features that could have saved them days of time over the last few years.

Before the day was over, we created a new account on Libsyn, added relevant information about the podcast in the account, uploaded the show that was produced during the workshop, added ID3 tags, created a post, published it to the site and then subscribed to and downloaded the show using iTunes.

As the day wrapped up, the group discussed some of the ways to promote a podcast including directories such as iTunes and CanadaPodcasts.ca. Our brains were all pretty full by that point and we could tell that everyone in the room (ourselves included) needed to shut down for the day.

Zero to Podcasting continues at 10:00am today with the following agenda:

• Owning your online presence (30 min) — Campfire / Circle Discussion
• YourName.com (with GoDaddy) (30 min) — Workshop
• Your own WordPress site with a Libsyn back end (2 parts; 30 min each with break in between) — Workshop
• The Podpress plugin (2 parts; 30 min each with break in between) — Workshop
• Portable recording (30 min) — Campfire / Circle Discussion
• Next steps (2 parts; 30 min each with break in between) — Campfire / Circle Discussion

 

 Hiding in the Closet [1:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today, I put together a podcast using a piece of audio received in mail and a voice over I recorded in a train station.  I edited the five minute show together on the train, uploaded it using a wi-fi service on the train and published it before the snack cart went by.  (Click here for the result)

By the way… ping me if you’re on VIA train 648 en route to Ottawa.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for about a year, ever since I called M-Audio technical support to talk to them about my setup and the technician I spoke with had never heard of anyone with the same monitor recording configuration I’m using. In addition, I get a lot of questions about the high quality of my telephone interviews.

The purpose of this post is to explain how using a Delta 1010 and Skype (or SkypeOut) on a Windows XP system allows me to record phone interviews that send my own voice and my guest’s voice to separate recorded tracks in Cubase. The advantage is that, during both recording and post-production, I can then treat my audio and my guest’s audio independently (levels, equalization, audio processing, etc…). If anyone knows that a similar setup (using Cubase) is possible on MacOSX 10.x, please let me know.

I should start by saying that most podcasters WON’T have a Delta 1010 card. When I bought the unit for my music hobby, it was amazingly expensive for an amateur hack musician. I believe the card is now roughly $700, slightly more than half the price I paid many years ago — and still worth every penny.

WINDOWS XP SOUND AND AUDIO DEVICE PROPERTIES

I’m going to assume that your Delta 1010 card is already installed. Next step is to make a few specific settings in the Audio tab of your Sound and Audio Devices Properties (in your Control Panel). Make sure that the default playback and recording devices are set to M-Audio Delta 1010 Multi. Click on the photo to see my settings.

DELTA 1010 CONTROL PANEL

There are several tabs that need to be configured in the Delta 1010 Control Panel. The first tab to visit is the Pathbay/Router tab. Make sure that the following options are selected (click on the photo to see my settings):

• WavOut 1/2 under H/W Out 1/2

Next, mute the H/W In 1/2 Mixer Input in the Monitor Mixer tab of the Delta 1010 Control Panel. Muting this setting prevents a feedback loop when recording the input signal in these channels (click on the photo to see my settings).

The last tab to visit is Hardware Settings. Make sure there is a check next to Disable audio app use of Monitor Mixer and Patchbay/Router under Asio Options (click on the photo to see my settings). Truthfully, I don’t know if this exact setting makes any difference and yet I know my solution works. Like many project studio owners, I don’t mess with a good thing so I’ve never tested to see if having this option unselected messes things up.

SKYPE OPTIONS

Even though the Windows default device was set to the M-Audio Delta 1010 Multi in an earlier procedure, I’ve set my Speakers in my Skype Audio Settings (under Options) just in case I make a change to my Windows settings at a later time (click on the photo to see my settings). This forces the signal from the remote side of the Skype call to be pushed out the Monitor channel of the 1010. Note that this does not separate multiple remote Skype users; it puts all of the incoming Skype stream into one channel.

CUBASE CONFIGURATION

The Mixer In L Delta-1010 and Mixer In R Delta-1010 input ports need to be Active inputs and Visible in the working environment. To do so, make sure that these options are selected in the Device Setup window. Of course, these options are only available one the M-Audio Delta ASIO driver is selected in VST Audio subsystem (click on the photo to see my settings).

Once the Mixer input channels are activated, an input bus must be created so that the inputs appear as Input Routing options for audio channels. In the VST Connections - Input window, add a stereo bus for the M-Audio Delta-1010 Audio Device and select Mixer In L Delta-1010 for the left channel and Mixer In R Delta-1010 for the right channel (click on the photo to see my settings).

CUBASE RECORDING AND MAKING THE SKYPE CALL

To record your own voice through a microphone to one track and your Skype guest on another, create a mono audio track for your own voice and select Analog In 1 Delta-1010 (L or R, depending on which channel your microphone is plugged in to) and create a second mono audio track for your Skype guest’s voice and select Mixer In (L or R) Delta-1010.  Finally, check your input levels, arm both tracks for recording, start the recording, fire up Skype and make your call.

PARTING THOUGHT

I also own the M-Audio Firewire 1814 audio card which is made by the same company as the Delta 1010. Unfortunately, the drivers for the 1814 do not appear to offer the same power and flexibility. If anyone from M-Audio reads this, I’d love to know if you could add this fantastic functionality to the 1814.

I have received a number of requests to conduct my Audio Editing Techniques and Decisions presentation at PodCamp Boston.  In the session, I highlight five key editing techniques, demonstrate how to do them and discuss when and why you would use each type.

Why am I blogging this?

I am already delivering a presentation called What is the Sound of Your Brand? and I want to attend as many sessions as possible that weekend.  If interest is high (let’s say twenty-five people or more) leading up to the conference, I will present the editing session as well.

If you are attending PodCamp Boston and would like to attend my audio editing session, drop a comment on this post.