((( GLENN AUDIO )))

An earlier post on my MakeShift Mixes blog sited how great the Red Bull Music Academy was for all they offered not only in terms of on-site instruction and curriculum but on-line as well.

After listening to a few podcasts though, I admit, I was slightly miffed to find out that musical examples given throughout the lecture series’ were edited out for “copyright reasons”.

When will big (and small) music learn that we now live in a digital age? If someone wants to rip that song out of a lecture series by grabbing the video and taking out the audio, they will!

Then again, is this perhaps one of the better ways to lure people back to your site? What do you think? Marketing touchdown or fumble?

It’s not as though we all have a LOT of time on our hands these days, I think everyone understands that. But how many “ums” and “uhhs” are too many and how many are too few?

When editing a podcast, try to listen to it from an audience perspective, taking the vantage point of someone who is listening for the first time. Try backing up your playback by about 3- 5 seconds to hear whether that pause seemed natural or rushed (bill[EDIT!]is founded on junk science)
If you NEVER edit out those ‘thoughtful speech fragments’, do consider those times when you’ve had to listen to politician’s sound bite on the radio and how inane and boring it can be (though the linked example’s not THAT bad). Then multiply that feeling by 5 or 10.

Try to find a balance between the first and the second for a natural sound.

Whether you’re producing something for radio, internet or just having a speaker at a conference and not recording it at all, some form of what’s known as limiting is useful.

A peak limiter essentially controls the volume of the audio signal so it never goes above a certain volume. Typically limiters are set just below maximum because their method of controlling volume levels can be quite agressive and may actually work to make the sound worse.

In our signal chain, a limiter could be placed either between the main output of the mixer and the speakers (black path below) or between the record output of the mixer and your recording device (dark green path below). Either method will help to eliminate distortion (crackling, noise, etc) from your final destination. Some mixers will incorperate a limiter before the final output stage.

Okay, I’m not going to criticise people for not giving me much feedback on this site. Chances are if you’re actually reading it, you don’t have much knowledge of audio in the first place, so what would you comment about?

Besides, I’m talking about feedback in the audio sense; when what is playing out of your monitoring source, typically speakers, is reaching back to the microphone and is getting re-amplified. Then that process just continues to happen until you get that awesome ringing sound.

I bring this up because it’s a common issue with conference audio and can be helped substantially with a very simple solution; put the speakers IN FRONT of the microphone.

While early reflections (the first sound waves reflected off the walls) may arrive back at the mic position, in general moving the speakers in front of the microphone position (podium, panel table, etc.) will dramatically decrease the amount of sound coming back and if you’re using a cardiod microphone, you should reject most sound from behind the mic source.

Happy conferencing!