Diary of a Podcaster Part 12
Ever had what you thought was a great idea for a podcast that looked good on paper but turned into something quite different, once you started recording? Well I had that experience on Sunday evening and today I am dealing with the results. It all started with an innocuous Twitter conversation (don’t many things I hear you say) which highlighted a minor cultural difference between the US and the UK. Having recorded with an American co-host for many years this is a common occurrence, so I decided to make it the theme of the next Contains Moderate Peril podcast. I initially thought of several fun examples that could be discussed; the British obsession with the weather, cheese-rolling and Morris dancing. However, rather than take a scattergun approach, I decided to list specific categories in the show notes. Subjects such as school, work, food, social customs and public holidays were added for discussion and I believe that is where thing started to go wrong.
Braxwolf and Syl kindly joined me for the recording and being respectively American and Swiss, are eminently equipped to contribute to the proceedings. What became clear after about thirty minutes of recording was that the discussion was becoming a bit dry and formal in tone. I was hoping it was going to be lighter as the initial Twitter discussion had been. So, we then focused on some more fun examples and the tone of the debate shifted. However, it has become clear in the editing process today that the show is a little uneven and I have decided to record some further material at a later debate that focuses on the trivial rather than the serious. Certainly, I attribute no blame to my guests and think I perhaps tried to impose too rigid a structure on the recording session. Syl has also stated that perhaps the listeners should be given more credit and may be content with a more formal discussion. This is a good point. However, for the time being this show remains under development and will be re-edited with additional content and released in the New Year.
In the meantime, this situation presents me with a gap in my current podcasting schedule, such as it is. I’m currently publishing a new show once a month, usually toward the end of that period. Due to some positive feedback I received recently regarding some material Brian and I covered in 2015, I’ve decided to produce a compilation. Yes, it would appear that if in doubt, a clip show can save your bacon. Ironically, that is indeed one of the subjects that will be making a return. Our discussion of bacon and eggs was great fun to record and found an audience upon its initial release. So, I’ve decided to produce a food based “greatest hits” show that will include the aforementioned topic as well as the follow up debate we had about fruit and vegetables. I shall record a new introduction and some framing links placing the various discussions in context. Whether it works or not remains to be seen and will more than likely be the theme of the next instalment of Diary of a Podcaster.
I recently decided I’d had enough of the endless deliberation and procrastination and so I started producing a weekly podcast again. As of today the second episode of Season 10 of the Contains Moderate Peril podcast is available on all major platforms. I must admit, although I was confident that a few people would listen to the show, I was completely taken aback by the overall reaction. The Contains Moderate Peril podcast was warmly welcomed back by previous listeners on social media and the statistics for the first show have been most positive. For myself and Brian, recording the show is like putting on a comfortable pair of shoes. Last night’s recording went okay and I think after a few more episodes, the recording and editing process will be an efficient process. Keeping each episode to an hour or under means that the conversation stays on point.
My personal podcast journey started back in 2010 when I effectively invited myself onto the Mordor or Bust podcast. The three of us who were involved in the production of that show were learning as we went along. I recently listened to an old episode and despite our enthusiasm, it is quite rough around the edges from a technical perspective. I think that the biggest mistake that I made at the time was not investing in a better quality microphone. I sound like I’m at the bottom of a well. It’s hardly surprising as I was using a very cheap analog desk microphone which I think only cost a few pounds from PC World. Roll on eleven years and I’ve been invited to be a guest on the Beyond Bossfights podcast. It’s nice to be back in the saddle again, so to speak. Up until now, I’ve been using my Razer gaming headset for any previous podcast recordings but I’ve decided to take the opportunity to overhaul my technical setup.
Life is often about the things we’d like to do or wished we had done, rather than the things we’ve actually achieved. My last post in this blog series was back in 2nd October 2018 and the last podcast that I published was in January 2019. Since then most attempts to produce more content of this kind have come to nought, as spare time for both recording and editing have been in short supply. However, I did manage to record some material on the 22nd of December with my long-time co-host Brian. The idea was to release the finished podcast as a surprise show at the end of the year. However, due to real world commitments, that deadline has not been met. Now there’s a surprise. I do intend to finish editing the show and may add some extra material to make it a little more topical. But overall, I am not too upset by this delay, because in the process of organising this podcast, I discovered a quick and convenient means of recording via Discord. Something that has been seen as Holy Grail of podcasting over the years.
I’ve been pondering a new podcast project for a while, since Contains Moderate Peril ended a year ago. As I’ve discussed in previous posts, I want to create a movie-based show and have been considering of late exactly what sort of format to adopt. I don’t go to the cinema often enough these days to produce a contemporary review orientated podcast, plus I don’t find a lot of mainstream releases to be sufficiently engaging. Despite looking and pursuing discrete enquiries, I haven’t been able to find a co-host who is sufficiently knowledgeable, motivated or available to do a regular show producing the audio equivalent of long form criticism of films and the movie industry. So, it’s been a bit of a chore to try and work out which niche to explore. However, I have now a clear idea of what I want to do.
Today I did a little blog housekeeping. I’ve reposted the last five episodes of the Contains Moderate Peril on the podcast page, now that previous hosting account has been closed and the RSS feed is defunct. The files are held locally and can either be played via the embedded player or downloaded manually. There are also two episodes of the Burton & Scrooge Podcast still available on SoundCloud for posterity. The podcast page and selection of episodes available are for reference and as an example of my podcasting back catalogue, so to speak. I may not be actively creating content of this kind at present, but I see no reason not to promote my experience in the field. If circumstances change in the future, there may be resumption of service.
I made a hard decision today. I cancelled my Podbean subscription and have effectively closed the Contains Moderate Peril podcast. Despite relaunching the show last September, I simply haven’t had the time to collate content for discussion or organise recording sessions with co-hosts. Hence, we are now two months into 2018 and a new show has not yet been produced. Furthermore, the listener numbers for the episode posted between September and December last year were disappointing. Upon mature reflection, I have reached the conclusion that the podcast peaked in 2014 when we had a strong and established audience. Rather than chase my own tail trying to recapture something that may well have been a product of circumstance, it seems prudent to finally draw a line under this show. I’m a little sad about this situation, as it does feel like the end of a personal era, but it is time to move on.
Ever had what you thought was a great idea for a podcast that looked good on paper but turned into something quite different, once you started recording? Well I had that experience on Sunday evening and today I am dealing with the results. It all started with an innocuous Twitter conversation (don’t many things I hear you say) which highlighted a minor cultural difference between the US and the UK. Having recorded with an American co-host for many years this is a common occurrence, so I decided to make it the theme of the next Contains Moderate Peril podcast. I initially thought of several fun examples that could be discussed; the British obsession with the weather, cheese-rolling and Morris dancing. However, rather than take a scattergun approach, I decided to list specific categories in the show notes. Subjects such as school, work, food, social customs and public holidays were added for discussion and I believe that is where thing started to go wrong.
Podcasts are becoming an invaluable medium for the analysis and discussion of niche interests and bespoke subjects. Many of the shows that I regularly listen to bring professional quality documentary skills to bear on unique and varied areas of fandom. More and more podcasts are being made by informed and intelligent fans, offering in-depth material rather than just light weight banter. Simply put, I am spoilt for choice. Therefore, it is essential to have a suitable podcast management app to stay on top of such quality entertainment. Something that allows me to curate and organise those shows that I currently enjoy, as well as providing recommendations for comparable material that I may wish to subscribe to. For several years I’ve been using Podcast Addict on my Android devices, although I’ve struggled to find something comparable for my PC.
Last night, myself, Hannah and Chris (AKA Jaedia and Wolfyseyes) had an especially productive recording session. We managed to produce two hours of material in total and I’m confident that it can be whittled down into a coherent and enjoyable ninety-minute episode. What I especially enjoyed about this podcast recording was buoyant atmosphere and the flow of the conversation. I felt that we explored the various topics well and that the discussion felt natural. Ultimately, it will be the listeners who’ll determine whether this is the case or not but from my perspective the recording went well because the guests were a good choice. If you are pursuing a podcast format that has multiple hosts or regularly features guests, then it is important for there to be a rapport between all involved.
As I surmised, in its current state Squarespace has proven an inadequate host for my current podcast. After exchanging several emails with Apple support, I was informed that “the server for your episodes does not support HTTP HEAD requests. To enable streaming playback of episodes, ensure the hosting server allows HTTP HEAD requests and has byte-range requests enabled”. To cut a long story short, there is no scope for me to alter any of these things at present within the Squarespace dashboard. Nor did I want the work involved in using a third-party feed managing service such as FeedBurner. So, I decided to open up an account with a commercial hosting service. After some research, I determined that PodBean could cater for all my needs and at a competitive price. Submitting the new RSS feed was easy and Apple approved the podcast within 36 hours. As of today, the Contains Moderate Peril podcast is back on iTunes.
Whenever I encounter a word or term that I’m not familiar with, I will usually Google it. That’s the way I’m wired. I prefer to “know” rather than “not know”. However, it is not the concept of continuous self-improvement that I wish to discuss in this post but something else. Namely sociolinguistics. Earlier today I saw someone mention vocal fry on Twitter. I had no idea what that was so I checked on Wikipedia, watched some You Tube videos and finally read some newspaper articles. An hour later I was aware of not only vocal fry, but run-ons, uptalk, glottal Ts and the fact that the way we speak has a major impact upon our lives, just like education and class. According to sociolinguistics, the manner in which you speak has a major impact on the way you are perceived by others. Sadly, like so many other social markers, it can be used in a discriminatory fashion.
Back in April I decided to relaunch the Contains Moderate Peril podcast for reasons of brand continuity. At the time, I was hoping to get back in to the podcasting saddle and return to producing weekly shows. However, the recording session was fraught with technical problems with Zencastr crashing regularly. I was left with nine separate audio tracks that weren’t in sync which made editing a major problem. There then followed a wealth or real-world issues that I had to address that meant for the next three months the podcast was put on hold. Finally, at the beginning of August I managed to complete the post production work on the show and publish it via Squarespace. I was hoping that using this existing website as a host for the show would save some money and reduce the work load. However, like most plans, it didn’t exactly work out that way
Professor Beej recently tweeted about consolidating all his various blogs and online activities into a single entity. I naturally agreed with him and encouraged him to do so because I did something similar back in 2010. I had a gaming blog and a site for movies reviews plus a podcast to manage. It ultimately made sense to put all these thing in one place, despite their respective differences because the common factor in all of them was me. To coin a rather nauseating phrase “you are your own brand”. This is how Contains Moderate Peril came to be. In recent years, I’ve embraced this concept further and will now write or podcast about any subject that really takes my fancy. I try to stick to the things that I like but from time to time, I do stray in to wider real world subjects.
Although we at the Burton & Scrooge podcast are not driven by numbers, it would be nice to see the audience grow. We seem at present to have plateaued somewhat and maintain a robust but fixed listenership. Currently our back catalogue of shows is available via SoundCloud, iTunes and Stitcher. However it would appear that other directories and aggregation services are available, so it would seem prudent to ensure that we are listed with them. My colleagues tell me that the Google Play Store and iHeartRadio are beneficial to register with. I believe that there may well also be comparable services aimed specifically at the console market. However, as our show is more geared towards PC gaming, I don’t see the need to pursue these.
Over the recent weeks, it’s become increasingly apparent that the two new podcast projects that I’m currently working on are taking too much time to produce. Like many people, my leisure time is a finite commodity. At present I am writing daily, maintaining a presence in two MMOs, as well as trying to keep abreast of several TV shows and a growing list of movies. So far, despite a lot of work, the new projects have not yielded any satisfactory results. So, rather than produce nothing, I deemed it prudent to return to my previous podcast creation. Thus, the Burton and Scrooge Podcast has been reinstated and been given a production makeover. At present, both Brian and I are well disposed towards gaming and other pop culture subjects, so have plenty to discuss. We always find are recordings are more rigorous when we are enthused, as opposed to mildly interested.
Last weekend, myself, Syl, Braxwolf and Brian recorded an episode of the TGEN Tribunal. Being regular podcasters who all know each other, the conversation flowed well and overall there were no major impediments to the discussion. We used Zencastr to record the podcast which has its own inbuilt voice over IP service, so there’s no need for third party programs such as Skype. Zencastr has the added benefit of recording each participant on a separate audio track, that is then automatically uploaded to a designated Drop Box account. This makes editing in Audacity very easy, as all four audio files are perfectly synchronised. Or at least that’s the theory. The reality can be somewhat different.
A week on from my last post on this subject, I have decided to script the entire of my solo podcast. It won’t be one hundred percent verbatim but I need to get the lion share of my thoughts down prior to recording. I discovered over several recording sessions that I continuously think of additional points to add as I’m speaking. The net result is having to constantly stop and start Audacity, the program I use for recording, as well as having to research extra points on the fly. Again, I was not happy with the finished product as you could frequently hear the hesitation or more to the point, the frustration in my voice. So, I’ve returned to the idea of having well fleshed out notes with some sections such as the introduction, written out in their entirety.
I recently wrote in a blog post that I would be producing a new podcast this year and that Burton & Scrooge Uncut would be taking a break for the immediate future. Well in fact I’ve decided to record two new shows. In the meantime, Brian has already embarked upon his solo project and seems to have found his niche already. I however am currently bogged down in the pre-production process and because the format of the new podcast is different from those I’ve done before, it is proving to be a little more challenging than I initially thought. Since I find writing to be a practical way of ordering my thoughts, I thought I’d keep a podcast diary. I can therefore work through some of the issues that arise as well as produce a blog post, now that I’m back to writing daily.
Roger Edwards
I regularly receive random emails addressed to such august bodies as “the Contains Moderate Peril team”. They always raise a wry smile. Like there’s a team. That implies an organisation, structure and even a budget. As opposed to just me, screaming into the void and pouring money into a financial black hole. I don’t resent such emails. People are just trying to earn a crust, I guess. The only thing about them that frustrates me, is they never address me by name. A cursory glance at the “about” page of the website would provide them with my personal details. So I just delete them and think no more about them. Today I received one that did more than make me smile. In fact I laughed out loud and heartily. The email started with “Dear Burton”. Someone had found a few old episodes of the Burton and Scrooge podcast and had assumed this was indeed my real identity.