Myself and my friend John Dennehy have put together a test version of a Mahon Tribunal podcast.
It’s about 30 mins long and weighs in at 39mb and represents Q1 – Q159, up to the yellow hair comments on Bertie Ahern’s controversial first day of evidence in December. We shaved about 10 minutes off the actual time it took to ask the questions.
Do bare in mind it is a test podcast, and we are looking for feedback. Comments and criticism are welcome. There are some small errors, but it is accurate overall.
Needs a laughter track 🙂 The only negative is that Bertie’s volume is a bit low but theres a nice natural flow to his naration. It could do with a small bit of compression, just to iron out any extreme changes in sonic dynamics, which distract from the words spoken.
Thanks Gamma, yes Bertie is a bit low in it alright. Compression in what way?
I be using Garageband.
Compression reduces the dynamics within a soundwave. Imagine an extreme situation where you started off shouting and suddenly dropped to a whisper, a compressor could help even out the dynamics so that there was little change in volume between both parts. In the case of your podcast specifically, theres nothing that extreme but by removing the small amounts of undulation in the dynamics of the recording it will help add clarity to what youre saying and gives it a bit of punch. I’ve uploaded two example files for your inspection. Both are a small segment from your podcost but one has been heavily compressed:
Original:
http://www.box.net/shared/4q6j75o0s0
Compressed:
http://www.box.net/shared/7qsnjp1no8
The compressed version isnt just louder, its more intense. It has that big radio presenter vibe going on. Both voices are now nearly as loud as each other. Its a little over compressed but you get the idea. I also noticed that your original recording level was quite low. If you can, try and record at a higher gain as this will improve overall sound quality.
Now doing it within GarageBand is a bit of a mystery to me, I don’t know nothing about that Macintosh stuff 🙂 What I’ve read though leads me to believe it comes with a very basic form of an in-line compressor. There’s also more complex free AudioUnit Compressors out there for you to download, but maybe the built-in one might work out for you. This web page my be of some help:
http://www.thegaragedoor.com/edit/comp.html
But it its all gone over your head dont worry about it. The most important thing is to get a good initial recording level. Hope this helps 🙂
Interesting Gamma. I will record the next at a higher gain, and both at equal volume. The compressed version certainly does have a better sound to it.