Editing – Dead Air, Annoying Habits, and Getting Over Perfection

by Christy on January 14, 2010

A long time ago, when I first started working in radio, I was absolutely terrified of dead air. The silence. The lack of either music or speech going out through the transmitter to the radios of my faithful listeners.

It took only 2 or 3 seconds of dead air for me to begin to panic. Yes, yes, I know that doesn’t sound like much to you if you’ve never worked in the medium, but it was a huge deal to me, and it is to most people just starting out.

When you’re doing spoken-word products, however, there are moments in which a few seconds of silence isn’t the end of the world. Sometimes over-editing can be far worse, because if you take out all of the natural pauses of your speaker, allofthewordsruntogetheranditbecomesveryhardtoprocesswhatisactuallybeingsaid.

You will find that this is particularly true of recordings of live seminars or presentations.

Unconscious Habits Quickly Become Annoyances

When you’re editing a recording of a live event – yours or someone else’s – you will typically find that the speaker falls pretty quickly into a pattern that has nothing to do with the words. Most speakers have little verbal habits – a way of taking in a breath, a word or phrase that is repeated often, or a longish pause in speaking – about which they are entirely unconscious, but that when you’re editing become annoying quickly. This annoyance factor is true of audio-only as well as video recordings, but it’s much more noticeable in audio-only situations.

If you are editing your own presentations for packaging as products to augment your business, then take a step back from the editing program and give yourself a good listen. What is your thing?

(Yes, everyone has one. I’ve been a public speaker for most of my life and I one too! Well, more than one, but my brain seems to pick one per presentation. Go figure.)

Listen to yourself unedited. Why do you do that thing you do? Are you making sure the audience is still with you? Have you forgotten where you are in the presentation and are using some word or audible habit to cover? Or are you just one of those folks who has a vocal/verbal filler habit all of the time? (You know what I mean … the person who says, “You know?” or “Right?” or loud exhalation through your nose or something else that you – likely unconsciously – use to fill space, because most people are very, very uncomfortable with silence.)

If you hear something that you always say to make sure people are listening, you can choose to teach yourself to instead look for their nonverbal cues to tell if they’re listening, rather than demand a response from them in your speech.

If you are covering for a lost train of thought, consider having better notes for yourself next time.

If you make weird breath noises, you can choose to work to become conscious of them yourself and stop it.

Back to Editing

But still, you’re working with something you’ve already recorded, and now you need to decide what to do with it. Spend hours and hours engaging your OCD sense of perfectionism and edit out every single “You know?” or breath sound or silent gap. Or ignore all of the annoyances and just put it out, unedited, as it is. Or something in between?

I’d advocate for the middle way. Why? Because …

  • Editing out all of the annoyances will inevitably make the final product sound stilted and unnatural. The glitches are part of the human experience. Besides, the hours and hours it will take for you to make it perfect are not really worth it. There is no such thing as a perfect recording. Really.
  • Leaving everything in is just as extreme as taking everything out.  But in this case, you end up not with a stilted, unnatural-sounding product; you end up with a product that annoys your customers. Annoying your customers is not good for the bottom line.

Taking out some of the instances of an unconscious catch phrase or noisy breath and leaving others in will produce a recording that feels genuine and is listenable. That’s what you’re after, since in this atmosphere creating online audio products for an online audience tends to be as much (or maybe more) about the person presenting as it does about what they have to say. You want the person in the recording to sound human and real as well as someone who intelligently and articulately delivers content worth listening to.

How do you achieve this balance?

Practice. And forgiveness.

You will make some really poorly-edited recordings at first. That’s just the way it is. Deal with it. But make sure you get a little better with each new recording. No one expects perfection, so forgive yourself for not being perfect, get over yourself for wanting to be perfect, and get better at what you’re doing.

Over time, you’ll instinctively realize that this “Right?” should stay, and that one should go. And you’ll remove the ugly one and leave the one that serves as an identifier of your unique voice.

The same goes for silence. Sometimes a 2 or 3 second pause is good for the brain. It allows just a bit more processing of the thought just spoken, before jumping to the next concept to be presented. Give your audience that breathing room. They will have no idea why they like it, but they will like it.

What are your editing challenges? How do you face them? What do you wish you knew how to do better? What don’t you know that you really want to learn?

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Back Online and Raring to Go!

by Christy on January 11, 2010

In case you didn’t notice, I had a bit of a hiccup for the past several months here on the Online Sound Advice blog. I’ve still been around. Helping people with their audio trauma … hanging out on Twitter.

But I didn’t blog.

It’s a long story but suffice it to say that I’m back. And I’m roaring into 2010 with a plan and a will to succeed.

If you poke around the site, you’ll find newly-refreshed service plans. I’m here and happy to lend a hand with your vexing audio difficulties. And, if your difficulty is that you just need someone to do it all for you, well, I can help you there as well.

Even better, I have 3 shiny new products planned (so far) for release this year. The first one is nearly recorded, and the other two are ready to roll. They’ll come out in due time and I’m really excited about each and every one of them and the ways in which they can help you create stronger, better-sounding audio products right out of the gate.

Here on the blog, I’m going to be posting new entries a couple of times a week, and if you have something specific you would like me to cover, please feel free to ask in the comments or email me. I want this to be useful to you, and I haven’t quite yet mastered the whole mind reading gig.

At any rate, the blog is on again, Twitter is still a-blazing, and all is well with the world.

Coming up next:

A quick view on editing out those annoying bits from your recording and why it’s good to leave some of them in.

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Loving the Sound of Your Own Voice

by Christy on August 20, 2009

This is almost a part two of my last post about USB headsets. Almost.

One of my other core issues with USB headsets is that you can’t hear yourself. You can’t hear what your voice sounds like going through the microphone. There’s good reason for that, but it’s still a bad idea if you want to make good audio recordings.

Why They’re Designed This Way

You’re going to have to forgive some geek-speak to understand this. Because you will run into this term now and again, I think it’s okay to explain it here, so please bear with me.

There’s a principle in audio production called “latency.” A synonym for it is “delay.”

Have you ever been on a telephone call (particularly an overseas call) in which there is a delay between the words you speak and your voice echoing back to your earpiece?

That’s latency. Less latency is better when it comes to good sound production.

It’s the time it takes for the sound you create to travel out to the equipment that’s turning it into a signal that can be transmitted, and then travel back to your ears through the listening portion of your device.

Okay, enough with the geek-speak.

The reason understanding why latency matters is the explanation for the reason you can’t hear yourself in a USB headset.

The electronic circuits that send your voice to the computer through a USB headset just aren’t sophisticated enough to send it back to your ears fast enough for you to hear yourself without feeling like you’re trapped in an echo chamber (or on a really bad overseas telephone call).

Because this is an expensive problem to fix, they don’t. And thus, you cannot hear yourself in the earphones of a USB headset.

Why You Should Care

Despite my attempt at cleverness in the title of this post, this is not about enjoying hearing yourself talk. It’s about listening to the sounds you are creating and making them the best sounds possible.

You need to be able to hear what’s coming through your microphone for three basic reasons.

1 – Background noise.

The noises made by your ceiling fan, your A/C vent, your child three rooms away, or the cat contentedly purring on your desk. You need to know if the microphone can hear these sounds, and eliminate them before you start recording.

2 – Mic position.

If your breath is hitting the mic in the wrong way, you suddenly start sounding like Sylvester the Cat. It’s call sibilance, and it’s really annoying to have to listen to as an audience member. If you can hear yourself, you can reposition the mic before you start recording and eliminate it.

3 – Gain.

As I’ve said elsewhere, gain is sort of a synonym for volume. You need to make sure that the signal you’re sending to the computer for recording is neither too loud nor too soft. If it’s too loud, you get what’s called “clipping”. It’s a horrible distorted noise that makes listening impossible. If you’re too soft, you’ll have to artificially boost the gain in the editing process and you’ll end up adding all sorts of hiss and other noises by doing that.

What To Do About It

Start listening to yourself.

Step up from the USB headset to a proper microphone. If you’re not ready to go the full-blown professional route, go for a USB microphone (I have some recommendations if you’re interested).

Once you have the USB mic, you need a decent set of headphones. Yes, your iPod earbuds can be used, but they’re not going to serve you well in the long run.

Why?

Well, they’re lousy with closing your ears to outside noises (which you can confuse with sounds coming through the mic itself) – the geek term for this is “sound isolation” – and they don’t have a wide enough range of sounds they can reproduce for you to really hear everything that’s going on with your recording.

I’m a huge fan of the Sony MDR-7506 studio reference headphones.

Sony MDR7506 Headphones. Excellent bang for the buck.

Sony MDR7506 Headphones. Excellent bang for the buck.

No, they’re not cute and dainty, but they’re one of the best dang set of headphones for the money you will find.

DISCLAIMER: If you ask 10 sound geeks for a recommendation for a good set of reference headphones and you’ll get at least 12 answers.

Disclaimers aside, these are one of the most widely-used headphones in the professional recording industry. If you watch the special features on movies, look for the sound people; more times than not they’re wearing these headphones. I certainly have. And if you go into a professional music studio, you will find at least one set of these lying around.

Why?

Because they’re good, and given what they do, they’re reasonably-priced. You can find them for around $100 if you know where to look (hint: click link above), and while yes, $100 is real money, it’s cheap for professional-level audio equipment.

Let me sum up

Being able to hear the sounds you are creating through the microphone are critical to recording success. If you can’t hear what you’re recording, dollars to donuts, you’ll waste a tremendous amount of your valuable time re-recording.

Why spend your time re-recording when a modest investment in your business can eliminate the need?

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Why You Can Do Better Than A USB Headset

by Christy on August 10, 2009

Don’t get me wrong. USB headsets play an important role in online communication. It would be impossible to engage in a coordinated SOCOM attack without your headset to keep your troops in line. They’re also quite handy for quick skype or oovoo conversations. Sure, you look a little dorky, but they’re relatively cheap and they get the job done.

But. . .

Well, they’re just not the right thing if getting top draw recordings of your thoughts/wisdom/teaching is what you’re after.

Why?

It’s simple. That’s not what they’re designed to do.

Yes, yes, I know you’ve seen Madonna and Garth and any number of other superstars belting out tunes from the stage using a headset microphone. Perhaps you feel a bit in touch with your inner Madonna wearing your headset to talk on skype. That’s fine.

Still, the difference between your headset and Madonna’s is huge.

The trick is in the mic capsule itself. Your $50 headset has a very low-quality microphone in it. It cannot capture the dynamic range of the human voice, much less translate it into an electronic signal that can be used in recording.

Just for the sake of argument, let’s say you want to do the Madonna set-up. Well, you’re looking at about $300 for the headset (the metal part that you wear), and the belt pack (the little box that holds the batteries and the antenna that transmits the signal from the mic – which is not included in this setup). Then you need another $200 to $400 for the base station that receives the signal from that wireless pack. Now you need to pick the tiny microphone capsule that is the mic itself. You can pick from many options, most of the decent ones starting around $300 for just the tiny mic itself.

So you can look like Madonna and have the same mic quality as Madonna in a headset for a measly $800 and up.

Oh but wait, that’s still an analog signal. You have to translate that analog signal to digital. There are many ways to do this, but personally I find the simplest way to do that is with the Mackie U.420d mixing board. (This is the board I use to translate my professional mics to the computer.) So another $280 there.

You don’t need to be Madonna

I don’t line all of that out to scare you. The fact is that if you’re recording teaching or podcasts or audiobooks, you don’t need that sort of rig. Really. You don’t.

There are myriad ways of setting up equipment to make your recordings sound really pretty good, without spending $1,000 on gear alone. It’s just that the $50 Plantronics headset isn’t the best option.

If you’re broke, go ahead and use what you have. Just be aware that if you want to keep on doing recording, you should save up for something better. There are a couple of USB microphones that are decent enough quality that you can consider it as a step up from the cheap headsets.

If, however, you are going to be recording a lot – particularly if you’re going to sell what you record – it’s worth the money and the initial setup to invest in quality gear and to learn to use it properly.

In this sort of arrangement, I mean a quality condenser microphone (unless you’re taking it on the road, then a dynamic might be a better choice for you), a proper stand for the microphone, and a sound board that will either go out to an Analog-to-Digital converter, or has that capability built into it (as does the Mackie I referenced above). In addition to this, you need to have software for your computer that will allow you to capture and then edit what you record – and this will vary depending upon whether you’re on a Mac, Windows, or Linux machine.

I know this can sound overwhelming…

…but I promise it’s really not that hard. If you’re so inclined, you can do the research yourself on the interwebs. If you have the time and the desire, there’s tons of information out there just waiting for you to click on it.

The other option is to find someone to help you. Yes, I offer my help in this area for a fee. So do many other people. If you catch me on Twitter, I’m happy to give you some quickie help then and there.

To Sum Up

If you’re not doing much recording – and are not selling any of it – go right ahead and use your headset. If, however, you want to do more and sound better, a USB headset just isn’t the best option.

Agree? Disagree? Comment away.

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What can good audio do for my online biz?

by Christy on July 23, 2009

Whether your online business is shiny and new or seasoned to near-perfection, the addition of occasional or regular quality audio content can shake things up as well as add new potential streams of revenue.

On the flip side, adding less-than-good-quality audio content can actually hurt you. In some cases, quite badly.

Let’s Start with the Flip Side

People who are truly part of your Tribe will forgive a lot of things. Because they are also likely True Fans, they actually care about what you think, write, and say. They want to learn from you, but that does not mean you can erect barriers to them and expect them to stick around.

Loading audio onto your site that demands that people must struggle to understand your words is like trying to type on a keyboard on which the keys have been rearranged. You can do it; but it’s such a distraction/hassle/pain-in-the-backside that you are so distracted trying to do it that you aren’t really paying attention to what you’re doing.

When people don’t pay attention to the content because they’re so incredibly distracted by the quality of your audio, everyone loses.

Your Tribe loses because they don’t get what they came for – your insight/wisdom/bad humor.

Your potential Tribe loses because they showed up to find out more about the buzz surrounding your innate coolness, only to be ridiculously disappointed.

You lose through loss of audience (existing and potential), revenue (through refunds and future potential sales), and self-respect (because none of us actually wants to suck).

Now for the Good News

As amazing and wonderful as the written word is (believe me, I’m a total word geek), there is quite a lot lost in the course of writing most blog posts. It’s not that they’re not communicative; in fact the really good blogs floating on the sea of the Web are very well-written. But they’re not meant to be the sort of prose that conveys emotion in the ways that a well-written novel does.

It’s a different form of communication, and as such, sometimes the power of the emotion you want to convey in your enthusiasm for your area of expertise can get lost in the midst of trying to bold or italicize appropriately.

By adding an audio component to your palate of communication tools – be it an occasional video blog, a podcast, the ubiquitous teleseminar, or an audio-based class – you are able to more fully express your unique vision, business, or teachings. You can add the specialness of “you” to the offering that may be missing when using only the written word.

Offering audio content also allows you to include things like interviews, example sessions that highlight how amazing your business offering really is, or teaching your Tribe new skills that utilize narrated screen navigation activity (you know, geeky stuff).

It also allows you to more easily convert your business model from one-to-one to one-to-many through audio classes, recorded teleseminars, and a general Mindful Biggification of your work.

Super Secret Hint That I Probably Shouldn’t Tell You For My Own Sake

Adding audio content isn’t for everyone. Really, it isn’t. It takes time and effort to do correctly, and if you’re not willing to put in that effort and time I’d strongly suggest you stick to text-only delivery of your wisdom and wit.

The honest-to-goodness thing is that adding good quality audio content really can help you.

It can give you the opportunity to expand your business’s footprint without being a complete time suck.

It can give more people the opportunity to tap into your business’s core competency, usually for a lesser cost than one-on-one coaching does.

It can allow you to expand the horizons beyond what is possible with just you and your keyboard.

But again, if you do it, you need to be mindful about it. Your recording space, your body, and your equipment must all work together to not cloud your incredible content, but instead become almost invisible to listeners because it’s so good.

You really can do it.

If you choose.

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Success Story: Emma Newman of Post-Apocalyptic Publishing

by Christy on July 17, 2009

As I was in the process of setting up Online Sound Advice, I reached out to a couple of people I either knew or knew of (and admired/respected) to see if I could help them sound better.

In all cases, these folks have brilliant content. At least I think they do. What they didn’t have is brilliant sound. And whether or not we’re conscious of it, we – as listeners – don’t “hear” even the most amazing content if it is packaged in an audio format that annoys, hurts, or otherwise creates a hurdle to us accessing the content.

In other words, if your quality of your audio gets in the way of your content, your “right people”either won’t find you, or worse, won’t listen to you and will be deprived of your message.

So every now and again (always with permission) I will highlight someone with whom I’ve worked to help them improve and succeed in getting their message out in a way that can truly be heard.

Emma Newman – The Queen of Post-Apocalyptic Publishing

If you don’t know Emma, you are really missing someone special. So English that I’m convinced that PG Tips runs through her veins, Emma has written a “young adult novel” set in London 20 years after a massive apocalyptic event.

And for anyone hung up on the “young adult” part, just set that aside. It’s a marketing thing. If you like adventure, characters that stick, and the future-casting that can only happen in sci fi, you’ll like Emma’s book.

As is the case with many, many, many, many writers, Emma has been struggling to get a publishing deal for her lovely novel. She is querying widely, while simultaneously considering self-publishing. In the midst of this, Emma got the idea to podcast her novel in a serialized one-chapter-at-a-time fashion.

Her challenge?

She had no idea about anything to do with podcasting, recording, incorporation into her blog … much of anything beyond her personal ability to read the text of her book.

A second level challenge is that Emma is newly out on her own, building an ittybiz that has left her a tad cash-strapped. In other words, she didn’t have the cash to acquire a decent microphone.

Emma’s situation is not at all unique, and interestingly the solution we sorted out had only one piece of suggested gear for her to work to borrow … a music stand.

The Solution

First of all Emma and I got together on Skype, using the voice connection to enable me to hear her in her soon-to-be-recording-studio.

She was using a run-of-the-mill USB headset, and really hoped to not buy anything new in terms of microphones.

So I listened to her. I listened to her talk, what her voice sounded like. I also listened to the sounds in the room behind her voice.

Her Space

We talked about the room itself, and were able to establish that she did not have an overly “live”* room.

*A “live” room means that the sound is bouncing all over the place, usually enhancing the high end of the sound spectrum, and is possibly creating echos. It’s not helpful as a recording envionment.

Microphone Position

Next, we talked about her headset, particularly where the microphone boom was placed in relation to her mouth. She is thankfully one of the rare folks who somehow instinctually realize that the mic does not belong directly in front of your mouth.

When the microphone is directly in front of your mouth, on the same axis as your breath, you are physically assulting the device within the microphone that translates your sound waves into a signal. It is from this physical assault that we get sibilant s-es and popping p-s.

Her Body

At one point as we were talking, I heard her whole voice change. It became compressed and slightly higher-pitched. I asked her what had changed. She said, “Nothing.” So I asked her, “Did you just lean over onto your elbows or something?”

It turns out that she had, and the physical compression of her diaphram changed the tonality of her voice enough that even with a cheapo microphone, I could hear it really clearly.

So we talked about the idea of her standing up to record her podcasts.

Why stand up instead of just remembering to not lean on her elbows?

It’s simple. When you’re recording you want to remove as many variables as possible, so that you get clean sound. For Emma, I suggested that not having to think about not slouching (which is solved by standing up) removes one such variable and allows her to concentrate further on delivering her manuscript clearly and cleanly.

So I suggested borrowing a music stand from the local parish to see how it works for her.

In the End

As it all wound up, Emma was able to record nice, clean audio of her reading her manuscript, no slouching sounds included, and learned how to post it all to her website using a handy WordPress plugin called PowerPress.

Now Emma is posting one chapter each week to her website. As of this writing, the Prologue and Chapter 1 are available for your listening pleasure.

Go. Listen. Enjoy.

One Final Note

Not all authors should read their own work. Seriously.

Sometimes it’s about the timbre of your voice. Sometimes it’s that you write far better than you can read.

Don’t let this caution stop you from trying, but get honest feedback (no, you mother is not capable of giving you honest feedback!) and if needs be, hire someone to voice it for you.

Not everyone can be Neil Gaiman.

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Help! My Podcast File Is Too Big!

by Christy on July 12, 2009

You’ve spent hours fiddling with the content, the script, the actual recording, and editing out all of your “um”s and “er”s from the recording. You’re ready to load your podcast for the whole world to hear.

Until…

Until you find out that your podcast has topped the 100MB milestone and your server is freaking out screaming, NO! Please, NO!

Your file is too big. What now?

Well, just as there are 100 ways to record your podcast, so there are at least 100 ways to get it out to your adoring public. Some are easier/better than others. I’m not going to be comprehensive here; that would create the longest post in the history of blogging. Instead, I’m going to give you some basic options that should help you manage your workflow.

You Start Before Recording a Sound

It can seem like a really great idea to just sit down with your computer and record your thoughts/wisdom/recipes/fan fiction/political views/whatever off the top of your head. Let me be clear on this point.

This is always a bad idea. Always.

Unless you’re … um … I don’t know, Oprah. I suppose her random ramblings might be interesting to people, but then again, she’s too much of a professional to be that dumb.

Just trust me on this. You need to plan ahead. Before you start recording.

And yes, this will help to keep the size of your podcast file manageable. Why? Because you are learning here that the ideal length for a podcast is somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes. Yup. That’s all.

Now if you’re working up teaching materials for a class you’re creating, that’s a different matter. And that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’ll write a post on creating teaching materials from an audio perspective another time.

If you know your podcast is going to be between 20 and 30 minutes in length, you can plan out your clock for the recording. Here’s an example of how you might do it.

Introduction – (0:30 to 1:00) in which you say who you are, why you’re here, and briefly what you’ll be covering in the podcast

Topic 1 – (5:00) Your first topic of interest.

Topic 2 -( 5:00) Your second topic – perhaps an interview with someone relevant to the topic of your podcast.

Mid-point interlude – (0:30 to 1:00) A musical interlude or advertisements if you have them – and you can create advertisements for your blog or personal business if your podcast doesn’t have advertising revenue.

Topic 3 – (5:00) Your third topic.

Topic 4 – (5:00) Obviously your fourth topic … perhaps another interview? You could even do the second half of the interview you started in Topic 2.

Wrap-up – (2:00) In which you thank your guest(s) and your audience and perhaps give a preview of the next scheduled podcast.

Outro – (up to 2:00) Music, adverts, “where to find us on the web” sorts of information.

Then you make sure to stick to this clock’s schedule. By doing this, you force yourself to not ramble (thus boring your audience), as well as to be focused in the items/topics you wish to discuss. There are many ways to tweak this sort of schedule, but it is a good framework when you’re getting going.

Creating this sort of framework for your podcast helps you to be organized, focused, and generally sound like you know what you’re doing from a content perspective.

Recording

Next you go to the recording stage of things. The ideal here is to make sure there’s enough room on your hard drive to record your source sound at a high quality (a “high bit rate”). You want the raw sound to be as good as you’re capable of making it, because when you compress it later for distribution as a mp3, any imperfections in the source file will be accentuated. The fewer imperfections, the better the quality of your compressed mp3 file.

If you’re using a Mac, you can record with freebie software like GarageBand or Audacity. If you’re willing to spend a few dollars, I recommend Audio Hijack Pro.

If you’re on Windows, you can record with Audacity. Honestly, unless you want to move into the multi-thousand-dollar pro software, Audacity should do just fine for you if you’re on Windows. Plus, it’s free. Bonus.

Record your file in AIFF or Apple Lossless (for Mac) or WAV files (for Windows) at 24-bit and 44.1kHz (16-bit is fine too, but if you can pull off 24-bit, that’s good).

Editing

Do a “save as” and create a copy of your high-quality source file. Edit your copy. This is the place in which you can add effects if you want (please be sparing!) and get rid of the “um”s that you created in the source file.

This is also the time in which you can edit in your interviews that you’ve recorded separately, as well as those musical interludes.

One thing to consider is to record each segment of your podcast as a separate file, joining them together in the editing process. This gives you smaller files to deal with as you edit, which is simpler.

Compressing

Now that you have this wonderfully clean and shiny edited high-quality file, it’s time to prepare it for launch into the wide world.

It’s actually quite simple. In whichever software you’re using, export it as a mp3. (With GarageBand, you can do this as an import function going into iTunes. Just set the import settings in iTunes before you start the import.)

However you do it, you should end up with an mp3 file that is no larger than 40 (or so) MB. Yes, this is still a big file, but these files were never meant for emailing.

Releasing your Podcast into the Wild

You can distribute your podcast in an almost limitless number of venues. Of course there’s iTunes, which everyone knows. Do a bit of research and you’ll find the right venues for your podcast. Yes, I made “venues” plural on purpose. Your audience will best find your fantabulous podcast if you give them multiple venues through which to find you.

An option is to host your podcast on your blog. This will mean that you have hosting for your blog on server space that you pay for. Make sure that you have lots of server space on your hosting plan to ensure that your podcast can grow and grow in the coming years.

If you’re using WordPress as your blogging platform, there’s a lovely plugin called PowerPress for podcasts. It seems to work quite well, and has the bonus of having a highly-responsive creative team behind it that will actually answer if you tweet in their general direction.

Wrapping Up

That’s really all there is to it. And believe me, the most effective means of controlling the size of your podcast starts before you’ve recorded a single word. While you may have really large subjects to cover, there’s no reason you can’t organize your podcasts in such a way as to break it into multiple podcasts.

My thanks to @asiriusgeek for asking this question. Let me know if I’ve answered the question adequately, and what other questions are out there for you.

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A Foolish Grin and A Question

by Christy on July 10, 2009

First of all, I must say thanks to those of you who have come here, downloaded the e-book, given me feedback, asked me questions, and generally helped my fledgling ittybiz feel welcomed and loved.

Today, I was #followfriday-ed by the lovely and talented Sonia Simone (of Remarkable Communication, Copyblogger, and Marketing for Nice People fame). Here’s what she said:

Sonia_Simone_Tweet

I had the wonderful opportunity to help Sonia out with some audio recording difficulties she was having. I was happy to have been of help to her.

Needless to say, all of the wonderful kindnesses and encouragement has placed a foolish grin right across my face.

And Now, A Question

I want this blog to be a useful resource for all of you (and for anyone you know who needs help with the quality of their audio products and/or podcasts.  In order to make sure I’m getting off on the right foot, I need a bit of help from all of you.

What is it you want to know? What will help you most – right now?

Do you want gear tips?

Do you want to know how to fix a bad room?

Do you want to know how to create content you’re recording that works better for your listeners?

How can I most help you right now through this blog?

Of course, on the Products and Services page, you can hire me to assist you in a one-on-one way. And oftentimes, that’s really helpful if you’re stuck, or you’ve tried things and those things haven’t worked (or haven’t worked as well as you’d hoped). But I want to make sure this blog is a helpful place too.

What do you want to know?

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Tips for Recording Teleconferences

by Christy on July 7, 2009

More and more online teachers, coaches, gurus, and regular folks are using teleconferences to get together with people in far flung places. There are dozens of teleconference providers, and all of them work on the same basic premise.

You call in to a designated telephone number, and the teleconference provider creates a virtual room in which you all meet. Some of them allow you to dial in from the internet; most want you to use the telephone.

Typically, the teleconference service records the conversation on your behalf; providing you with an mp3 or wav file once you’re done.  When this happens, you can’t control the recording process itself. What you have some control over is the input you’re giving it.

Here are some tips to help the audio quality of your voice on any teleconference.

Call using an actual land line

Not your cell phone (which has terrible sound quality, no matter what the adverts say). Not a VOIP line (which is subject to bandwidth fluctuations). And preferably not your computer (which enters an entirely other set of variables into the stream).

Use a telephone or headset that has a physical cord

I know it’s more convenient to be able to wander around the house as you’re on a teleconference, but if the sound quality of your voice matters to you for a recording, cordless phones and headsets are not helpful.

Why?

Simply put, you’re entering a variable into the recording stream that is subject to various sorts of interference.

For example, have you ever heard popping in the earpiece of your cordless phone or headset when you’re standing near the microwave as you’re reheating that cup of tea? That’s interference. And guess what … it may well come through on the recording.

Cordless phones and headsets operate over radio frequencies. Just as you can get static on your car radio, your phone can get static too. Rather than risking static marring your brilliant thoughts and advice, use a phone or headset with a cord.

Another reason for not using a cordless setup is that you will typically get better gain (volume) out of your corded phone than you will with any unwired device. You want your gain to be good and strong on the recording so that you are heard and understood.

One last bit. Hold the telephone to your mouth. Not below it. Not off to the side. Not pinched between your chin and shoulder. Speak into the telephone sitting up straight (or even better) standing.

Slow Down!

This one isn’t about equipment … well it is, it’s just that the equipment in question this time is your body and the way you use it. Specifically, it’s about your voice.

My high school history teacher loved to talk fast. His excuse was that the human brain can process information 11 times faster than anyone can speak. That may be true, but it’s not a good practice.

No doubt you know your subject very well. Perhaps you’ve talked about this before. It’s easy to just rattle off information … and by “rattle off” I mean to speak too quickly for your listeners to really hear what you’re saying.

Speak more slowly. Seriously. Unless you’re a born-and-bred rural Texan, I can pretty much guarantee that you need to talk slower. It’ll feel weird to you, but your listeners will appreciate it. They won’t know they appreciate it, but they will.

Believe it or not, you can solve somewhere between 80% and 90% of your recording problems with tricks and techniques that have nothing to do with microphones, mixers, or software. The room you are in, the position of your body, the way you use your voice – these are some of the biggest tricks you can use to improve the quality of your recordings.

One More Thing

Always remember that you’re not going to get studio quality on a teleconference. There are technological challenges that come from involving all of the switches and lines involved in the telecommunications system. And that’s okay.

Your audience will know that this is a recorded teleconference and will unconsciously adjust their expectations accordingly. What you can do is remove as many of the variables as possible to exceed those expectations.

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Questions? Comments? Join in below.

Let me know what it is you want to learn and I’ll do my best to help.

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Open for Business!

by Christy on July 3, 2009

After much work and a lot of help from friends, here I am. Online Sound Advice is open for business.

On the Products and Services page, you may download my shiny new (and free) ebook that will give you a good sense of what this is all about. Of course, I’m happy to answer any questions that you may have, and hopefully I can be of help to you now and again.

What is helpful to you? What do you want to know? How may I be of service?

Up, up and away!

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