Podcast Evaluation

Looking back on my podcast, my main thought it could’ve been planned out better and I believe could’ve been better quality.

Equipment

Now the only piece of equipment I had used to capture the audio was just my iPhone 11, at the time I felt it was the only thing really necessary because of how high tech it was, personally? I think in a better planned situation it could definitely be used for that purpose with much better quality, at the time I hadn’t considered the room we were in. I believe the sound just would’ve been better if we were in a smaller, more condensed room, and if I had gotten some extra equipment, mainly just some microphones, not one for every person just two or three max to pass around the room and make the quality a little more consistent. The room we were in I thought made the audio kind of echoey, which, while not a huge problem for being able to hear, I think it just makes things sound a little more amateurish.

If I were to go back with the knowledge I have now I would’ve been more considerate of those aspects, my first thought for the podcast was for it to flow well enough and have the conversation be something interesting.
Now, that’s still a priority but I should’ve also considered the former points I raised.

I think with a little more planning it could’ve been better, though I don’t think the outcome is necessarily bad, I just think it has a LOT of room for improvement

Creating Music

Being given the task to create music tracks that could potentially be used in work such as our podcast, I had to think on how exactly I would approach this, for one I’m not a musician so I would prefer to go in the direction using samples to create a larger piece, considering limited resources due to having to use what I can during lockdown I turned to a free program called BeepBox to create the piece.

BeepBox is a good program for beginners at music (like me) to create some sort of piece, it gives you access to do stuff like this (note this is from someone like me who can barely use the program, so imagine what a pro can do)

https://www.beepbox.co/#8n31sbk9l00e03t3um0a7g0fj07i0r1o3210T0v1L4u00q1d1f7y0z1C1w2c0h0T1v1L4uc0q1d2f6y2z1C0c0A4F3B5V9Q0506Pd474E0912T1v1L4u01q1d5f6y0z1C1c0A1F2B5V6Q20a0Pe64bE0171T4v1L4uf0q1z6666ji8k8k3jSBKSJJAArriiiiii07JCABrzrrrrrrr00YrkqHrsrrrrjr005zrAqzrjzrrqr1jRjrqGGrrzsrsA099ijrABJJJIAzrrtirqrqjqixzsrAjrqjiqaqqysttAJqjikikrizrHtBJJAzArzrIsRCITKSS099ijrAJS____Qg99habbCAYrDzh00b4ic00000000000000000000i000000004h4h4h00000p211FE-aayeELA2eg8QR-zCQRpqyUzKbXyeMzPsWCHakn4tNvshS4urDkR00arQvjM800

Making of the podcast

My making of my podcast started off with a brainstorming of ideas, I needed something that I could talk about fluently with the people I was with, without needing a script of any kind, (personally I chose not to do a script due to how stilted and unnatural it felt, rather wanting to do it completely naturally so I could get what I felt would be the best dialogue).

Eventually after talking with my co-hosts, we came to the conclusion of making it about anime and manga, something we were all into and could talk about with each other.

The day was scheduled for when we would all have met; at one of the other hosts house, we did it later at night so we could get a quieter backing. It was recorded on my iPhone 11, which I thought would’ve provided decent enough audio for what the course asked for.

As for music, personally I didn’t want to add music to the podcast, for me it feels unnecessary and in any podcast I listen to I just want the conversation, I don’t need; or want, any added audio.

The Elements needed for a Podcast

There are 5 major elements needed for a podcast,

1. Focus on a central idea
Every podcast has something it’s trying to convey, it can vary from politics, media to talking about a particular topic. The core idea is the reason why any podcast exists.

Good podcasts have their main idea defined and clearly understand what they’re there to say, if you want to make a podcast about food but spend the bulk of your recording discussing what you did last night you’ll be sending a message to listeners that they should go elsewhere for cooking content.

2. Play to an audience
Podcasts has the ability to target a specific niche in whatever subject possible, unlike traditional radio broadcasting that has to try and appeal to as many listeners as possible in a limited amount of time. This makes knowing your audience crucial.

This goes beyond the basic of “don’t swear on family friendly content.” Good podcasters know what their audience is looking for.

3. Regular schedules
Listeners have expectations of content creators. Like with television programs, having a release schedule that your audience can trust is necessary for maintaining viewership and engagement.

4. Show structures
With so much ability for content creators to target specific audiences, it can be hard to tell if a show is going to cover what the audience expects. Having structure on your content can aid listeners know what to expect and keep them engaged.

5. Authenticity
Podcasting is an extremely intimate medium, the singular relationship between the podcast’s host(s) and the listeners is something that a good hosts embraces by opening up and speaking from a place that is genuine, they talk from vulnerability and sincerity.

Podcast

The podcast I chose to do was recorded on my iPhone 11, I figured the audio quality would be decent enough considering the phone.
This was recorded at night when I was finally able to meet with friends, we chose to talk about anime and manga, notably we talk about Junji Ito, a stand out in the horror genre for his unique works and artstyle.

The Podcast can be listened to here:

Podcast ideas with Bruno

For Unit 5 our task is to create a narrative podcast, one that makes clever use of sound design and music. We need to come up with 3 ideas for a podcast and then the group chooses their favourite of the 3, which will be the one we’ll do.

1. DnD style podcast, playing a small session of Dungeons and Dragons during the podcast?
2. Literature discussion podcast? Choosing a story as a base topic and going from there.
3. Interviewing members of the college and student body?

Sound design and Foley

Sound design is an incredibly important part of film making, though not often something that would immediately come to mind when someone thinks of the crucial elements of a film, it brings a scene to life properly.

A form of sound design is called foley, foley is a practice that makes sounds for scenes out of typically very unrelated items, foley in sound design can be used in a variety of ways, such as clothes hanging in the wind, footsteps and the sound of shattering glass.

Sound effects are much simpler than foley, where the sound is made by the same thing that’s in the scene, for example if the engine noise of a car in a movie is recorded using a car engine.

A notable scene from a movie that makes good use a sound design is in Back to the Future:

Polar Patterns

The polar pattern of a microphone is the sensitivity to sound relative to the direction or angle from which the sound arrives, or easier worded how well the microphone “hears“ sound from different directions. The most common types of directionality are: Omnidirectional, Cardioid and Supercardioid.

a microphone might sound great in practice, but if the polar pattern is not going to complement the sound source or recording environment, it may not be the most suitable.

Difference between Condenser and Dynamic microphones

The difference between a dynamic and a condenser microphone is a dynamic microphone is better for capturing loud, strong sounds (drums or loud vocals), particularly in a live setting, whereas a condenser microphone is used to capture more delicate sounds and higher frequencies (studio vocals)

Dynamic Mics use a diaphragm, voice-coil and magnet to pick up and convert sound waves into an electrical signal, dynamic mics are the industry standard for being sturdy and nigh unbreakable.

Condenser Mics on the other hand, use an electrically charged diaphragm which is caused to vibrate by soundwaves and are much more fragile, condenser mics have a cradle to stop it from making contact with the stand which would in turn make it pick up the vibrations from around the room.

Source used: https://bothners.co.za/dynamic-vs-condenser-mics-a-basic-introduction/