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Podcast audio help

My girlfriend works for a current affairs magazine here in the UK, and one of her responsibilities there is to produce and edit their podcast. She's a journalist, not an audio person, so, understandably, she gets mixed results. The magazine don't want to spend very much money on the podcast, so it's just recorded in one of the conference rooms of their offices on £50 mics.

They've recently moved offices and the sound in the new recording place is (you can listen to the show here, episode #107 is particularly problematic) quite terrible. So I said I'd try and get some tips for her on how she can improve the recording quality.

I'd appreciate any advice that can be given. The magazine won't pay for new microphones or anything like that, so it's just practical tips about what can be done to soften the recording environment, or to control the recording. She has a hundred other jobs at the magazine, so the show has to be recorded and edited really quickly, and they'd never consider getting in a dedicated professional to do it – so that's the basic context of my question.

Extra info: the mics are 3 Behringer C3, the recorder is a Zoom (not sure which but probably lower end than H4N), and she's not sure what the Mixer is. Not a lot to go on, I know! The show is edited in Audacity, and the magazine won't pay for better software.

(I know that the moral of this story is that publications should take sound quality more seriously with their productions, but, putting that aside, anything that can help her make the show sound better would be much appreciated!)
 
Get the interviewer and interviewee closer to their respective mics. However, getting close is likely to cause problems with essing, plosives, etc. So a pop shield for each mic would almost certainly be necessary, as would more precise positioning of the mics. No other way I'm afraid, even with better mics.

G
 
Get the interviewer and interviewee closer to their respective mics. However, getting close is likely to cause problems with essing, plosives, etc. So a pop shield for each mic would almost certainly be necessary, as would more precise positioning of the mics. No other way I'm afraid, even with better mics.

G

Cheers sir, will pass along.

In terms of getting rid of some of the roominess of the sound, is it worth investing in soft crating or similar? Or wrapping things in blankets? The recording space will never be dedicated to the task, so anything brought in would have to be portable, but I wondered whether some more absorbent materials would reduce the echo noticeably..?
 
In terms of getting rid of some of the roominess of the sound

Find a space that sounds less roomy.


is it worth investing in soft crating or similar? Or wrapping things in blankets?

They won't spend that kind of money, according to your original post, so the question is moot.

The recording space will never be dedicated to the task, so anything brought in would have to be portable, but I wondered whether some more absorbent materials would reduce the echo noticeably..?

In order to adequately control the sonics of the room and do it "portably" takes lots of money or lots of time. I get the feeling that they won't let your lady friend spend a lot of time prepping (multiple sound blankets, etc.), and, of course, they won't make any serious investments, so again, this is all a moot point.

Here's some ideas that they can't afford.

AcousticCurtain_Screen.jpg


portapack3.jpg


portable-vocal-booth-03.jpg
 
In terms of getting rid of some of the roominess of the sound, is it worth investing in soft crating or similar? Or wrapping things in blankets?

I'm not sure what you mean by "soft crating" but decent sound blankets will out perform anything except permanent acoustic treatment. My previous suggestion of getting closer to the mics will reduce the room sound as the closer to the mics you get, the more direct sound you record and the less room reflections. Although you then run into other problems I mentioned.

G
 
Thanks guys - all good points, albeit there doesn't seem an easy solution!

By soft crating I meant that foam egg crating that seems to be used as a dampener on a lot of sound studios. I guess they might allow her to buy some of that or some sound blankets, I just don't think they'll replace the mics because they bought them fairly recently. But the guy in charge of the magazine has been complaining about the sound quality, so it seems reasonable that if he wants to improve it he'll have to shell out a little...
 
If you want to try ghetto, I would suggest:

1. Get a briefcase, turn it on its side, cover the top with a towel. Ensure it has some kind of soft, foam lining.
2. She needs to be as close to the mic as possible.

This looks ridiculous but as a ghetto solution, I would suggest it might be worth a test.
 
By soft crating I meant that foam egg crating that seems to be used as a dampener on a lot of sound studios.

Err no, it's not used by any studios. It was quite common for hobbyists to use that egg crate stuff because once painted/covered it looked a bit like some of the acoustic materials that real studios use but egg crate has virtually no useful acoustic treatment properties.

But the guy in charge of the magazine has been complaining about the sound quality, so it seems reasonable that if he wants to improve it he'll have to shell out a little...

Yep, seems a little bizarre. If he wants better then he needs to get better (equipment and equipment operators). It's not a complex rule, it's pretty standard for virtually any endeavour. I'd have thought any rational businessman would have understood this?

G
 
Err no, it's not used by any studios. It was quite common for hobbyists to use that egg crate stuff because once painted/covered it looked a bit like some of the acoustic materials that real studios use but egg crate has virtually no useful acoustic treatment properties.

G

Sorry, I didn't realise egg crate referred to a specific thing (I just assumed it was to do with the bumpy patterns). My egg crates are always made of cardboard... What I was talking about is acoustic foam but even a cursory Google search tells me that proper studio quality stuff is way too expensive.
 
Completely by chance, I've started a new job where I have to produce a series of podcasts. We're running up against a bit of an issue with down-the-line recording and I've been trying to find a solution. I posted this on MacRumors and got nothing useful back, so I figured I'd try again here:

Hi guys – I'm trying to find a solution to a problem that's been coming up. I produce a podcast and we frequently have to speak to guests who aren't able to come into our very low-tech studio. Historically, we've been using call recorder software on laptops to record their calls and that sounds ok with Skype (though pretty desperate with phonecalls). Recently we've been encouraging guests to record themselves on their phone whilst talking to us via their laptop, and then send us the MP3/WAV file of the recording, and that's produced much better results. The issue which arises is that often our guests want to use Skype on their iPhone, which would be fine if we could run a voice recorder app in the background, as they're out and about.

So my question is this: is there a way that I can make a voice recording whilst running the Skype or phone app? I don't need to record both ends of the call, just the person who isn't in the studio. I suspect that there may be privacy laws at play here but any tips on this issue would be greatly appreciated!

Also, any other ideas for workarounds in terms of getting a better quality recording from our interviewees would be good to hear!
 
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