Technical Notes

July 3, 2009:

We are using a Tascam US-144 interface (which is super easy to figure out), and a DR-VX1 microphone.  We record and edit the ‘cast using Audacity, which is a free downloadable program.  After editing, I drop the file into Levelator, which fixes all the volume issues for us.  Good thing, too, since I don’t have much of an ear for it.  Our podcast is hosted by LibSyn, then the feed is run through FeedBurner to create a better RSS link.  (I don’t like LibSyn’s blog template.)  LibSyn gives the link to iTunes, and then it’s downloadable for everybody!  This is the least expensive set up I could devise, while still giving a decent audio quality.  We tried my Logitech webcam as a mic, but it was awful.  If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment!

RQ

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July 23, 2009:

For “Episode 4″ MH purchased a second mic cable that matches the first one.  Now we have two of the same mic, and two of the same cord.  This provides a more consistent sound between our two voices.  Using the Tascam interface and Audacity, we are able to record in stereo.  I have found this helpful when listening to podcasts where two hosts are featured.  When the voices are similar, you can distinguish the speaker by which ear they are speaking into.  This episode had a LOT of technical difficulty.  There is a problem we’re having with Audacity — every once in a while, for no reason, it freezes and the program quits.  Without saving a backup. >:(  Audacity dumped us four times this week, which really sucked since we lost the first version (30+ minutes), then the second half of the second version (10+ minutes).  We were smart enough to start saving our file every 5-7 minutes after that, but you can tell that we were pretty annoyed by the end of the recording.  Then, we had to edit together all these little audio clips to make a complete show.  This week, I’ll be learning how to use Cubase LE4, which is the program that came with the interface.  Hopefully, we won’t have the crashing issues anymore.
RQ