Just Talking

The Mallet Tour

Christopher — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:30:44 +0000

I know this podcast isn’t anything revolutionary. I have my returning listeners and am slowly working to expand my audience along with the content I offer each week. One interesting trend I’ve noticed with each episode is a growing number of people requesting a particular guest on an upcoming podcast. Sure, compared to most of my guests, 3 or 4 people asking for a featured interview isn’t too monumental, but there has been a noticeable trend of people asking for “Phoenix”. It’s time I give into the demands of the listeners. Co-host of the Post Game Report, Marc Washington is my guest this week. You might know him as Phoenix410. If you don’t know him, you’re in for a treat and if you do know him, then prepare for a side of “The Mallet” that you have never heard before. And will likely never hear again.

Just Talking – Episode 21: The Mallet Tour

I’m not particularly fond of the term “Internet Famous” but if ever there were a person to qualify within the few communities I participate in, Marc Washington is Internet Famous. Also known as Phoenix410, Marc is a co-host of the Post Game Report (of which I also co-host) and has generated an enthusiastic following with his personality. This episode features a rare look at the Man behind the Mallet as we discuss the Talking About Games community, his unique approach to podcasting, Beyonce and much more. Enjoy.

Run Time – 1:20:10

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One Lump or Two

Christopher — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:40:07 +0000

I’m going back to the Diabetes Online Community for Episode 20 of Just Talking. As mentioned yesterday, my guest is Haidee Merritt. She’s on twitter – @BirdWingPress. She has a book – One Lump or Two?. And she makes sweet lamps, they can be found over here. Last year I purchased her book and whenever I get a coffee table in my own place I look forward to having it featured there for my future house guests. I always enjoy having a member of the DOC on my podcast, even if we’ve never spoken before, there’s always that one ice breaker that I know will never fail. This time around we got to start with her book and go from there.

Just Talking – Episode 20: One Lump or Two?

This week I’ve found an International Phenomenon to join me for a lively discussion. Haidee Merritt is an author, an illustrator, a publisher and she also has Type 1 Diabetes. This episode features discussion on those topics and much more including her new found love of lamp shades, our impressions (not too positive) of the current season of 24 and shipping costs to Australia and Japan.

Check out Haidee’s website – www.haideemerritt.com – for information about her book, blog and her adventures on Etsy.

Enjoy.

Run Time – 1:06:52

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Swear To Me

Christopher — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:33:09 +0000

Fun fact: my first official episode of the Post Game Report featured Rob Workman (@theDCD) and all of his shenanigans. If you’ve listened to any episodes of The Gamers Garage then you can imagine how that might be a rather shocking experience. Thankfully that episode didn’t scar me too badly and I gave Rob an invitationt to come on my podcast. I learned a lot this week about the passion and energy required to be a video games journalist and ultimately what it takes to pursue your goals. You’re in for a treat.

Just Talking – Episode 19: Swear To Me

This week I’m making my second pit stop in The Gamers Garage and welcoming Rob Workman on to my podcast. Also known as theDCD, he has been a video game journalist for years, contributing to a number of notable websites. Our conversation is pretty heavy on the video games but Rob provides a lot of great anecdotes that anyone can appreciate. There’s lots to get to this week, so we better not delay. Enjoy.

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Exclusive!

Christopher — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:11:04 +0000

It takes a lot of time and energy to build up a reputation that can be channeled with a single word. I don’t want to extend the hyperbole to drawing a similarity to names like Prince or Madonna, but if you know anything about video game podcasts, you know who Godfree is. I made sure to get in contact with Godfree well after Community Vibes 5 was over. As you will hear, he was a busy man over the past few months.

Just Talking – Episode 18: Exclusive!

Unofficially dubbed the hardest working man in independent podcasting, I am joined this week by Danny Pena from GamertagRadio.com. You might know him as Godfree, the man with a video game podcast over 5 years old. We spend a good portion of this episode talking about Gamertag Radio, its origins, and the unique blend of hip-hop culture that his podcast brings to podcasting. We also highlight Gamertag Radio’s prized possession, Community Vibes. Enjoy.

Run Time – 1:03:17

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The Lambeau Leap

Christopher — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:30:15 +0000

Along with posting links to each new episode of Just Talking here and on the my personal blog (http://tobesugarfree.com) I have also been posting episodes over at The Gamers Garage. Gamers Garage overlord Crash gave me an opportunity to expand my audience. As a small token of appreciation I brought Crash on for this week’s episode of Just Talking. He’s been involved in podcasting for a long, long time. Any time I have the opportunity to sit down with a veteran of the podcast genre, believe me, I am taking notes. If you have any interest in podcasting, you should too.

Just Talking – Episode 17: The Lambeau Leap

One of the working titles for this week’s episode of Just Talking was ‘The Art of the Podcast’. Joining me for an hour of fun is Josh, also known as Crash from The Gamers Garage. He has been involved in podcasting for over 3 years. Simply put, he knows his stuff. We get into the ins and outs of podcasting for a majority of this episode. Topics included: what makes a good podcast, the joys of a diverse podcasting team, how to distinguish yourself from competition, and what other podcasting itches he would like to scratch. We also find time to talk about competitive gaming, Community Vibes and the pain and joy of seeing Brett Favre in a Vikings uniform. I hope you enjoy this one.

Run Time – 1:11:33

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The Art of The Edit

Christopher — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:21:36 +0000

It’s been a while since I put up some unique content on this blog that didn’t involve linking to an mp3 file. Sorry. My bad. I figure if I’m going to come back with something it needs to be good. I decided to break down how I edit my podcast. From raw .wav file to published mp3, I will highlight the steps I take to get to the final product. I’ve included some screenshots to help paint a clearer picture. All of the editing is done using Audacity. If you use a different program the specific steps might be different, but the theory should still hold.

Figure 1. Levelator

The first thing I do is get my audio ready for editing (Figure 1 – Above). Recording with Pamela over Skype generates a .wav file. I use Levelator to balance out the audio before I begin to edit the podcast. When I record, my audio comes in louder on the raw file compared to everyone else on the podcast. Levelator does all of the heavy lifting and produces a file with audio levels that are consistent throughout the podcast. There will always be an occasional spot that might require some manual tweaking, but I always put my audio files through Levelator before doing any additional work.

For Just Talking, I know the podcast will consist of 3 specific files: the intro, the interlude/outro, and the main podcast. To start, I add each file to a new project in Audacity. A simple click and drag will do the trick. In the beginning, this is what the project will look like (Figure 2 – Below).

Figure 2. Files Added

The rest of this post will walk you through my particular style of editing. I have a vision of what my podcast should sound like in its final form and this post will show you how I get from (A) to .mp3.

Figure 3. Intro

The first order of business is the intro (Figure 3 – Above). I let the music run for 30 seconds before I begin to fade it out. My voice doesn’t come in for another 2-3 seconds after the fade starts. The other point of interest is the silence before the podcast begins. To ensure a smooth transition immediately to audio, there needs to be a kind of “warm up” period before things get going. without that silence the first couple of seconds of audio will be lost. It took me a month of editing Post Game Report before I realized what was going on. Typically that’s where the host will wait for a few seconds of silence before things get going. If needed I will generate a quick 2 seconds of silence before I get going.

Once the intro is synced up to my liking I move forward with the rest of the podcast. Unnecessary silences are removed, bleeps are added where necessary and I try to find a good spot for a quick break and add a brief interlude to the podcast. While the actual recording of Just Talking is a continuous conversation, I made the decision early on to break up the podcast into pieces based on my perception of the conversation. If there was a major topic change anywhere from 13 to 18 minutes after the intro or most recent interlude then I will find a spot and put in a quick break. The process for adding an interlude, or any other kind of audio break, is not particularly complicated (Figure 4 – Below).

Figure 4. Interlude

1. Find the exact spot in the audio you want to break.
2. Generate silence for the preferred length. For my interludes i use 12 seconds of silence
3. Isolate the audio for the interlude that will surround the silence. The audio needs to be longer than the silence, obviously. For my podcast I use 20 second of audio
4. Manually fade in and out of each side of the audio. immediately jumping to music while someone is finishing or starting a sentence does not sound very good.

If you need to bleep some audio, the process is similar to adding silence for an interlude (Figure 5 – Below).

Figure 5. Bleep

1. First find the audio that you want to censor. Depending on how you want the final product to sound you can bleep out the whole word, or if you have good timing just part of it. It’s your call. Personally I will bleep out anything you wouldn’t hear on The Daily Show. They are a bit liberal with what Jon Stewart can say, but there is a pretty solid consensus on what still cannot be said on television.
2. Once you have the bleep-able portion selected, you want to generate a tone. I use a sine wave with an amplitude of 0.5. We don’t want to injure the ears of the listeners.
3. Audacity will then generate the tone for the selected length. Magic.

The outro is similar to the process for the intro. I find the exact point that the podcast will end (before any post show banter) and will fade the audio in up until that point. Overall the levels are lower on the outro music so any post show talk is still clearly heard (Figure 6 – Below).

Figure 6. Outro

When everything is finished, your final podcast project timeline might look something like this (Figure 7 – Below):

Figure 7. Final Timeline

The next step is generating the final .mp3 file. If you are using audacity, you will need the LAME MP3 Encoder on your computer. Follow these instructions if you do not know what I’m talking about. Before configuring the .mp3, you should format the ID3 tags for your podcast. ID3 tags help with the consistency of your audio files. I have a template saved so with each new file I only have to update the show’s title and episode number. The rest is already taken care of. Along with metadata, I have a specific naming convention for each file, but that isn’t a necessity for you. The final format of the file, however, is key. I will let you determine the what quality is right for you, simply put: the higher the quality, the better the sound, but the larger the file. If your podcast hosting service has monthly restrictions on data uploads, you will have to figure out what works for you and your budget. Regardless of the bit rate, ‘Constant Bit Rate Mode’ and ‘Joint Stereo Channel Mode’ are non-negotiable. (Figure 8 – Below)

Figure 8. Export

The final piece to editing my podcasts is often overlooked by some: the album art. The album art is key to making a first and lasting impression. Plus, if someone is going to spend an hour listening to my podcast, I want to give them a little eye candy. So far I have only found one way to include album art with a podcast. If anyone knows an easier method, please let me know (Figure 9 – Below).

Figure 9. Cover Art

1. Add the final podcast (.mp3) to iTunes
2. Edit the info of the newly added podcast
3. Under the artwork tab, add the desired image. 300×300 is the ideal size for album art, if you are making an image from scratch, keep those dimensions in mind.

From there, upload the file and promote as necessary.

This is how I work. Each person has their own methods for producing a podcast. Hopefully this will put you on the path to finding your own technique.

No Pressure. We're Just Talking.

Just Talkingship

Christopher — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:42:32 +0000

As a podcaster, assuming I can call myself one, I have developed a specific ear for what I like and don’t like in a podcast. Now that I know what goes on behind the scenes, I have a better appreciation for the higher quality podcasts available. One such podcast that I highly recommend is Talkingship. I have been fortunate enough to have appeared on a few of their Game Club episodes and this week I brought on one of the hosts, Aaron (aka Jitterbug) to wax poetic for an hour and some change.

Just Talking – Episode 16: Just Talkingship

Ahoy Matey! Joining me this week is Aaron Wise, also known as Jitterbug from the Talkingship Podcast. On his podcast, he and his best friend discuss beer, movies, video games, and pretty much whatever else they want. Naturally that provides the same direction for Episode 16. We cover his podcast’s origins, living in Colorado, and what is wrong with the Chicago Bears. We also discuss his newest podcast, Healthtippers. There’s a lot to get to this week, so let’s get to it. Enjoy.

Talkingship is available on iTunes and can be found at http://talkingship.com

Healthtippers is available on iTunes and can be found at http://foodbeforepills.com

Run Time – 1:05:25

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Better Than Sliced Bread

Christopher — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:02:12 +0000

When I describe the American Dream 2.0, naturally it revolves around something involving the Internet. In one specific case, my former fake boss at Talking About Games, Jay Van Beveren took his experience as Editor in Chief and turned it into a job opportunity within the video game industry. Making the rare but coveted transition from outsider to made man, there was a lot to talk about this week when Jay came on my podcast. An episode like this is a particular joy because I know that finding 10 minute tangents are expected and we can just as easily find our way back on topic without missing a beat.

Just Talking: Episode 15 – Better Than Sliced Bread

Jay Van Beveren is living the American Dream 2.0. You might remember him from his stint on a podcast called ‘Uncle Gamer Radio’ or his current participation in ‘Remember When’. Now his business card now reads “Project Manager, Promethium Marketing.” Our discussion covers the success of ‘Remember When’, how his perspectives on the industry have changed with his current job and he offers up some details on latest pride of Promethium Marketing – Tweet Defense. Because Jay wouldn’t have it any other way, there are plenty of tangents in this episode. I hope you can keep up with us. Enjoy.

Tweet Defense is coming soon to the iTunes App Store, check it out here – http://www.tweetdefense.com/

Run Time – 1:05:14

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THE Editor in Chief

Christopher — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:05:24 +0000

Every week I grace this small slice of the Internet with a rather lengthy post about a random video game topic of my choosing. What you don’t see along with the blood, sweat and tears is the man behind the proper grammar. Spoiler Alert – It’s not me. Each one of my submissions is analyzed with a fine tooth comb by my fake boss at Talking About Games, Larry. Larry is the Editor in Chief of Talking About Games. He makes sure the text you read on that site has all kinds of sentence structure and other kinds of grammatical goodness. It’s not easy, but I’m glad he’s around to keep all of the writing staff in check…and in good standing with the MLA.

Just Talking – Episode 14: THE Editor in Chief

In an attempt to make up for the tardiness of my most recent editorial I asked my fake boss, Editor in Chief of Talking About Games Larry Marcum to come on my podcast this week. Larry and I talk about the transition to his current role on the site, the difference between an opinion and an opinion worth reading or hearing and what it was like to rub elbows with the heavy hitters of the Video Game industry. Also, Larry is a little obsessed with baseball. Once revealed, that topic required further investigation.

Run Time – 1:15:09

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Buzzword Bingo

Christopher — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:33:49 +0000

A while back I had written about my fun with cupcakes and monuments in our Nation’s Capital. Despite my inherent social awkwardness, eventually I managed to hold a conversation with someone that lasted longer than a two-word response and somehow brought up the fact that I had a podcast of my own. This was particularly interesting to one of the people I had met, David Hale (@lostonroute66). A couple months and a few dropped skype calls later, David came on for this week’s Just Talking to play Buzzword Bingo with me. For the record, David had nothing to do with the show title, but after listening to this podcast you will agree with my choice. We talk about a number of ways social media plays an impact with how the US Government does what they do, particularly the National Library of Medicine. After recording and editing this podcast, I have a new appreciation for the potential of the role social media will play in our future, hopefully you will to.

Wri-log-caster’s Note: The views expressed by David on this podcast do not reflect that of the Department of Health and Human Services or any other government agency.

Just Talking – Episode 13: Buzzword Bingo

B-19. This week I’m getting my “Gov 2.0″ on with some help from David Hale (@lostonroute66). He is a project manager and social media strategist for the National Library of Medicine which means we will be breaking out a lot of buzzwords and acronyms as we discuss how the US Government is starting to leverage social media including the pros and cons of using these various technologies. Other topics include South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW), the Semantic Web, something called “High Speed Highway Halo”, and finding the perfect cupcake in Washington D.C.

And just to be clear, the thoughts and comments expressed by David on this podcast do not reflect that of the Department of Health and Human Services or any other government agency. After all, we’re Just Talking.

Run Time – 1:14:25

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