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Audio Podcast questions
bebarce
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I decided to add audio to my website and I was wondering if I could get some feedback on whether or not i'm going in the right direction.
The first podcast is here http://www.moviestupidity.com/?p=497
I've been told already that it is good, but it sounds too much like i'm reading.
I just put up another one (working my way backwards) http://www.moviestupidity.com/?p=470
I hoped that with this one I was sounding less like I was reading and more like it's coming naturally. What do you think? Am I going in the right direction? Is it getting better or should I just give up on these?
Also I'm using Audacity to edit the audio. Any recommendations on tweaks I should be making to the audio in order to make it sound better/clearer?
The first podcast is here http://www.moviestupidity.com/?p=497
I've been told already that it is good, but it sounds too much like i'm reading.
I just put up another one (working my way backwards) http://www.moviestupidity.com/?p=470
I hoped that with this one I was sounding less like I was reading and more like it's coming naturally. What do you think? Am I going in the right direction? Is it getting better or should I just give up on these?
Also I'm using Audacity to edit the audio. Any recommendations on tweaks I should be making to the audio in order to make it sound better/clearer?
bebarce on
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edit: Also, if you're going to be using a script, try to remove heavy repetition of words like "stupid" unless you're using the word repeatedly to make a point. That you even take on "and stupid" seems like you wanted to make a point but... it doesn't come across either from the initial writing or your vocal performance.
If i were you i would try having a loose out line and then improving things from there. Just make sure you always come back to the outline and you can edit bits that don't go as well. This will make things seem more organic and easy to listen to.
edit 2: finished listening to the first cast. There are some moments where you stumble over your words and a second take would be much appreciated.
2. I think my over use of the word stupid in that first article was unintential, but not uncommon of me considering the nature of the site. I've been accused of overusing the same descriptor before, when someone commented that I said "fucking" too much. I'll try to keep an eye out for repetitious word usage from now on. Fortunately running through other articles, it's used far less. Thanks!
3. I tried the outline thing, and it was painful. I have a stuttering problem, so when i'm speaking naturally to someone it comes out alright. Nervousness brings it out in full, and until i can get over "fearing the mic" I'm afraid i'll have to stick closer to the script. For the second one though, if I was feeling the script was unnatural when spoken I did improv a bit more. Hopefully there is a noticeable difference in quality between the first and second.
4. I plan on doing a second take of the first one, but I was hoping to get some feed back first on the difference between the first and the second. That way i'm not just repeating my mistakes if I am heading in the right direction. Also if the recommendation was that I should flat out not do these anymore, I would have taken that into consideration as well.
The words are funny, but the delivery is still more based on you just trying to hand the audience the words, rather than presenting your own performance, which is actually probably more important than the words in getting people to laugh when telling jokes aloud. You can tell the dumbest joke in the world and still get laughs, or the cleverest, funniest joke and get no reaction, depending on how well you can deliver it to an audience, the emotion and feeling you put into it.
Now, that might entail having to do a bunch of trial-runs reading through the script to yourself just to get it memorized enough where you're not worrying about checking the script over all the time, so you can just focus keeping your audience engaged with your performance. If you're delivering it just to yourself in your bedroom closet, you don't get the benefit of the immediate feedback and energy of an audience, so it's going to be harder to get better at the performance aspect if you're just relying on feedback from the internets waaaaay after the fact to tell you how you're doing.
If you can get the delivery natural enough to the point where it sounds like Batman just came up in conversation between you and a friend and you just happened to go on a 20 minute rant about how friggin' retarded Batman is, it'll be so much more fun and engaging to listen to, and probably a lot more fun to actually sit down and do.
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You could go for very podcast-y and get a partner and make it way more conversational. Even the most information driven podcasts I listen to tend to have at least one person to bounce off of. If you listen to Stuff You Should Know, Stuff You Missed in History Class, or Radio Lab, you have some good examples of scripted podcasts broken up by banter. One thing about making it much more casual is the listener becomes way more forgiving of a stumble here and there.
The individual ranting can work, and what comes to mind is Marc Maron's WTF and the Paul F Tompkast. Both have the benefit of being professional comedians, but some finesse with the speech will hopefully come in time. The tompkast has a secondary character, which is actually a guy on a paino playing live music as Paul rants, which is a pretty wonderful mood setting device. Marcs is just framed with an opening and has alot of gusto and emotion, pregnant pauses, spoken from the heart.
Anyway I think AoB has some good suggestions, I just wanted to give you some example podcasts. I don't think you should give up, Its a good start. I think a good podcast adds a lot to a blog, and if you grow and refine your skills, you'll have some great content.
I've only listened to the first podcast and it was alright. I will admit that my attention drifted a bit because it was essentially a giant monologue. Maybe break it up in to sections like the Guy at Red Letter Media (not a podcast but you'll get the idea). The sections don't even have to be anything amazingly meaningful, just something to be a bit of a wake up call and draw the listener back in.
I'll listen to the second one sometime soon and get back to you with what i notice from that one.
@Angel_of_Bacon - It looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me. As it was, I'd had about 1 hour worth of audio with me screwing up before edited it down to 20 minutes. Another big problem is that i kind of have to run through it on my own. I believe i'll get more and more comfortable with practice, but I don't know if i'll have the immediate feedback to play off of.
@Iruka - It goes back to the same problem. I don't have anyone to bounce this stuff off of. I do want to try and come up with a way of adding a bit of production value to these. I was originally looking to just give an audio alternative to reading my articles for the lazy, but I think I need to create a more completely package, even if it means uploading articles seperate from audio. I love Radio Lab, i'll have to check out the others. Currently I guess I've been going at this more like Brian Dunning does from www.skeptoid.com
@Nappuccino - Keeping the attention is where it's at. I was thinking about Plinkett (of RLM) while recording this and realized how useful it was doing a monotone slow speaking voice in a way that sounds purposeful, rather than my monotone slow speaking voice which is unfortunately completely unintentional. Much like with Iruka's recommendations, I'm not exactly sure yet what I can do to create this break up or loosening of the audio, while still keeping it an audio.
I mean there is the possibility of going even a step further and creating video, but as I got further and further from a written blog, it will become more and more difficult to create content that has any value to it. I don't want to cry an excuse about lack of time, but realististically moviestupidity has always been a creativity project, more than a potential for a money maker. My time is divided between looking for a new job, looking for a second job, doing side work, doing my primary work, doing moviestupidity, and actually lately i've had a somewhat secret project I've been considering that might hopefully become really popular and function as a money maker.
All of this occurs at 11pm and after until I collapse from exhaustion usually by 3-4am before I'm awake again up at 7am for my regular job.
you could try skyping with people maybe? I don't know if it would be feasible to record that and edit it down - it might take a lot of work - but that's one way of getting that vibe.
Listening to skeptoid, despite the subject matter its still a pretty fact based informational kind of site. There's something very old-school radio about just reading an article in a presentation like that. I'd rather read it (I found my self tuning out of his podcast and just reading the article, as I can read much faster). You've got an opinion blog, but you are presenting it more like the boring facts of batman, charisma is needed somehow.
As far as I know, a lot of gaming podcasts are a conference call, so I know you can get someone else in on it without needing them at your house. If you can find anyone to try it with just a few times, it might be a beneficial experiment.