My Podcast: Techtrum

[simon275]

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been around on the forums much lately. This is due to being busy with university work. Also I have started my own Technology Podcast called Techtrum. Techtrum is a weekly technology podcast that covers tech news, software, hardware and games. Some of the stories have an slight Australian focus but most of the information is geographically neutral.

So far we have one episode up. We are still working out the sound issues and so the first episode is a pilot. Once we fix our sound issues and do half a dozen episodes we are going to submit to iTunes.

Please take a listen and leave a comment on the site at http://www.techtrum.net

[OvRiDe]

Very cool!!! I have wanted to do something like this for a while, where you get a few techies together and just discuss things, I really dig the format.

As for your sound issues, are you using Skype? Its tough to get really good audio doing it in this fashion. I do have a suggestion, that I picked up from some other podcasters. One pretty easy thing you can do is still use skype or any other VoIP service to have your conversation, or you can even use a cellphone. Here is the trick, each party on the podcast records their side of the conversation. When you start the conversation make sure you each use some sort of audio marker simultaneously. Then when the conversation is over. Each person sends their side of the conversation to one person, and then using Audacity or Adobe Audition, etc etc you can marry up all the conversations into one file. Other benefits is each person can be an individual track, so that you can control the different sound levels so that one person might not be any louder then another.

Hope this helps, and keep up the great work. Looking forward to hearing more of these!

[simon275]

Yes we are using skype. I have a good recording program Power Gramo. James my co-host a friend from university needs to fix up his mic also. It might though be a problem as you suggested. Next time I will get both of us to record at each others end. I record in Audacity.

Once we get it all strealined and setup I would like to get some people from here to be on the podcast and part of the panel. You would have to know your tech though. ;)

Thanks for the tips +rep

-Simon

[Luke122]

Yowza.. just started downloading, 30.7mb mp3? Huuuuge. :)

[simon275]

It is like 30mins long. :)

[Luke122]

Word.. :D

I like the fact that there's more than one person, and the content is very good, though the quality is pretty shaky. :) I would listen to this. :D

[simon275]

As for your sound issues, are you using Skype? Its tough to get really good audio doing it in this fashion. I do have a suggestion, that I picked up from some other podcasters. One pretty easy thing you can do is still use skype or any other VoIP service to have your conversation, or you can even use a cellphone. Here is the trick, each party on the podcast records their side of the conversation. When you start the conversation make sure you each use some sort of audio marker simultaneously. Then when the conversation is over. Each person sends their side of the conversation to one person, and then using Audacity or Adobe Audition, etc etc you can marry up all the conversations into one file. Other benefits is each person can be an individual track, so that you can control the different sound levels so that one person might not be any louder then another.



What do you mean an audio marker? Could you give us some more information please? Thanks.

[OvRiDe]

Sure thing.. An audio marker would be something that exists in the same spot on all of the recordings. The simplest thing to do is all say a word simultaneously at the very beginning of the recordings. Then when you go to compile the different tracks together, you can just line up the word that was spoken simultaneously on each of the recordings and everything should be synced up. I hope I am making sense, does it?

[simon275]

Episode 2 is up. We have fixed up the audio problems so James and I sound much better. We used your suggestion Ovride of recording at both ends and syncing up. Also the file has been encoded at a lower bitrate so it is only 18.9mb in size but it still sounds great. I would love for everyone to go and listen to it and let me know what you think by leaving a comment on the site.

techtrum.net

[OvRiDe]

WOW!! Major improvement. The sync is PERFECT. I really enjoy listening to these. You guys are doing a GREAT job!

The only thing that stands out but again this is just extremely nit picky is: The sound levels between you and James are just a bit off. He is a little louder the you are, and he may need to move his mic back just a hair. Might be able to do a little adjusting in your sound editing program, but it is extremely minor. I am listening to it as I type and actually the more I listen, the less it stands out. So never mind :D

Again top notch! Keep up the GREAT work!

Thanks again for sharing!

EDIT: You guys were talking about the Photoshop Online Web application, you should also check out
Splashup -- http://www.splashup.com/

[simon275]

Thanks for that Ovride we are slowly making it better and better. We are looking maybe getting a 3rd person on and getting a good panel chat going! So if anyone is free next weekend let me know!

[crenn]

I'm free next weekend, but would you want to risk it? ;)

[xRyokenx]

Sweet, dude. By any chance can you put it on Zune too?

[simon275]

Sweet, dude. By any chance can you put it on Zune too?

Sure we will look into putting it on the Zune Marketplace.

Crenn pm me your email and we will start talking about getting you in on the panel of the podcast for this weekend.

[xRyokenx]

Sure we will look into putting it on the Zune Marketplace.

Thanks dude. 8):up:

[simon275]

Get it now.

http://www.techtrum.net/

Episode 3 is now up. We had some sound issues but James my co host managed to fix it up mostly.

Once we hit 5 or 6 episodes we will be going onto iTunes and the Zune Marketplace hopefully.

Currently we are looking for a cool opening jingle for the show. So if you send us one at techtrum@gmail.com and it is Open Source or CC you will get a shoutout on the show.

Topics this week are:

Tech News: Apple beats Walmart in music sales, April Fools Day Surprise! Storm Worm and iPhone Rumors

Software: Microsoft extends OEM XP for 2 days.

Hardware: 9800GTX

Games: New Nokia Gaming Service, 72% of Americans play games and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

[simon275]

Episode 4 is now out! Please take some time to listen to it!

http://techtrum.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/techtrum-ep4-13-04-08/

------------

Topics covered this week are:

Tech News: eBay AU now only accepts Paypal and COD, New Laws mean your Boss could can read your Email, Rumor: Microsoft to open retail stores and Australian’s Stay Clear of Mobile Internet.

Hardware: IBM Power6 Processor

Software: New TrixBox release

Games: Army of Two(Xbox360), Assassin’s Creed(PC) recap

[crenn]

eBay hasn't implemented that system yet, they actually are starting the service in June:
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23550638-5014108,00.html

Regarding the mobile internet, here's an example of the cost. My phone has a $30 data plan.... that gets me 80MB. Other countries (ie America and UK) don't have download limits for their normal broadband, they have the Fair Use Policy (Needs to be confirmed).

Interestly, I found this: http://www.netspeed.com.au/netspeed.cfm?action=i_13

[simon275]

Hmm Thanks for that crenn. Yeah so they can justify throttlign and stuff like that. Australia though does have super low population dentisy even in metro areas.

[crenn]

The australian internet system has it's pros and cons. But I think they should lower prices and bring back unlimited downloads.

[simon275]

The last time I remember we had unlimited downloads was on dialup. Once Telstra finishes hooking up it's newly laid fiber line to Hawaii things should improve speed and bandwidth wise.

[crenn]

I know for a while ISPs like internode had unlimited.