[meincrannie]

Caught the podcasts and it is pleasing to hear an Australian Mac podcast from what is considered the premier Mac publication. Keep up the standards and I'll keep listening.

[Tintin au Japon]

I've really enjoyed the podcasts so far and I'm really looking forward to this site going fully live.

My only small grudge against the podcast is the same I have against many podcasts - volume level: MJCP speaks nice and loudly and clearly into the mic, but some of the other speakers have sounded really low and dull. I turn up my iPod volume to catch what they're saying, and then I'm deafened by the next thing someone else says.

I laughed long and hard at the beginning of the first podcast. As MJCP started speaking I was saying to myself, "What the hell, is he American?" and it's all I was concentrating on, and then he addressed the issue straight away as if reading my mind. Very funny.

[Simon]

I agree, it's good to hear Aussies talking about Macs, looking forward to how this show grows and develops.

I just listened to the 4th podcast, I found the panning of the voices (obviously to give some separation) is far too harsh, particularly when listening with headphones.

[meincrannie]

Yeah a little more production style would minimalise this harshness.

[the gaffer guy]

Have to agree that the audio quality of the podcast was really poor.
I have been driving a great distance to work over the last week and have been listening to many podcasts and i had to give up on the Macworld one. I had just finished listening to the Mactalk podcast and it sounded all clear and fine, scrolled down to Macworld and it was really soft, the people who called in were very hard to hear and I ended up giving up.
I hope that you guys can really improve the sound. Considering you are coming from a commercial background it is almost 'expected' that your podcast would be produced better than a group of guys who are 'fans' and doing it off their own backs.
Good luck for the next one.

[MJCP]

Have to agree that the audio quality of the podcast was really poor.

Thanks to everyone who has commented about the podcast. We're working hard to get the sound quality issues addressed and hopefully will be able to give you a much better-sounding podcast experience in the very near future.

[Some Random Bloke]

Sound quality issues aside, I'm enjoying the podcasts, keep up the good work.

[mac rant]

BEST MAC PODCAST ON THE NET, by far.

Lets get realistic...
Audio quality is something that eludes even broadcast professionals with millions of dollars and professional speakers who actually know how to keep their voices at a constant level.

Yes, there's room for use of compressors (a whole art unto itself).
And stereo is a bold move as it more than doubles volume & quality problems already discussed.
...Not to mention quite a problem for me with only one working speaker in my car!

BUT LEST'S FACE IT. After what? 4 episodes, this is easily the BEST Mac podcast on the net !!

Keep up the style and content guys.
Hope you can keep the comments as candid as they have been when you get more sponsors.

JUST THE RIGHT mix of news and tips... brilliant... and thanks

[hogscape]

Love the podcasts.

I only found them after the site was up and swiftly downloaded all 5.

Always interesting and entertaining - sometimes laugh out-loud-funny.

I can't compare with other podcasts - never having heard one before - but I can say that I eagerly await the next one.

Keep up the outstanding work!

[CarlK]

Hi all, just had to add that i like the podcasts too.

However the audio quality is killing me.
As a novice podcaster also i have a little tip that i heard on the Mac Review Cast.
It's called Levelator a sweet piece of freeware that evens out the different audio levels of each guest. It really is a powerful yet resource friendly app that does one thing and does it brilliantly well.
Check it out, apply it and we'll all be happier for it

Keep up the great work - you're onto a winner with the site & the show.

[MJCP]

As a novice podcaster also i have a little tip that i heard on the Mac Review Cast.
It's called Levelator

Brilliant! I just applied it to Episode 6 and you're right, it sounds a bajillion times better. We'll be using Levelator from now on.

Thanks.

[MJCP]

Keep up the style and content guys.
Hope you can keep the comments as candid as they have been when you get more sponsors.

The editorial of Australian Macworld is, has always been, and always will be independent of the influence of advertisers. Our advertisers understand that a key part of the value of Australian Macworld is our independence and the fact that the audience recognises us as independent. If you start selling positive comment for cash, the audience quickly picks up on it and abandons you in favour of someone independent. Our advertisers get that, and they don't ask or expect any special treatment. The podcast will be no different. That's a promise.

[CarlK]

No prob MJCP.
Just remember to apply it to a wav or aiff file before you edit for best results.
So for me i capture using Wire Tap orAudio Hijack Pro if I'm capturing a Skype conversation. Or maybe using a Zoom H4 if I'm mobile. Either way depending on the settings i may need to then convert the resulting file from mp3 to wav. Use iTunes for this job. Then into Levelator. And then into GarageBand.
Export from GB into iTunes as an mp3 and then onto the server/site.

Geez that sounds harder than it really is

[MJCP]

Have a listen to Episode 7, available now. Something went wicked wrong with Paul Zucker's audio right at the start, but it improves a lot. I used Levelator to fix the sound on this one, and I think it sounds better than previous ones. I'd be very interested to know what other people reckon.

[CarlK]

Have a listen to Episode 7, available now. Something went wicked wrong with Paul Zucker's audio right at the start, but it improves a lot. I used Levelator to fix the sound on this one, and I think it sounds better than previous ones. I'd be very interested to know what other people reckon.

Yes much much easier to listen to.
Can you tell us your hardware and software set up for the podcasts?

[MJCP]

We're spread out all over the country, so we do the podcast each week via Skype. However, rather than trusting in the vagaries of VoIP each participant records their own audio separately in Audacity (22050Hz, mono). Each track is saved as an AIFF and uploaded to our ftp server in Melbourne, then whoever's editing (for the past few weeks this has been me) grabs all the tracks and assembles them using GarageBand.

This week I added an additional step to the process. I assembled just the voice parts, no music or effects, and exported that as an mp3. Then I converted the mp3 to AIFF and dragged it onto a bit of freeware called Levelator. The output from Levelator I dragged back into GarageBand and added music and effects.

The idea for recording all the separate audio tracks locally I picked up from the BRAN podcast, though they do a few things a bit differently, like they save the tracks as Ogg Vorbis instead of AIFF.

Because we're all recording separately, we all have different hardware. The guys who generally sound the best (David, Ian and Keith) have some pretty solid-quality audio gear like Rode Podcaster microphones and mixing consoles and the like. I usually use a Plantronics headset, but I left it in Melbourne last time I was down there so I've been making do with a Logitech that isn't as good -- it's tricky to stop the microphone picking up what's coming through the headphones.

Hope that more or less answers the question.

[CarlK]

So why not just capture all of the audio at once using Audio Hijack Pro or Wire Tap?
Wouldn't that save a lot of time and hassle.

[David Holloway]

So why not just capture all of the audio at once using Audio Hijack Pro or Wire Tap?
Wouldn't that save a lot of time and hassle.

It's a valid question Carl but Skype doesn't provide anywhere near the quality to do that. By recording locally, the quality of each individual track is so much better.

Matthew mentioned Keith and I use the Rode Podcaster. I purchased one after writing about it for AMW and love it and the fact it's an aussie product is a bonus. I also got hold of the Mic Thing ( http://www.smproaudio.com/index.php?option...=view&id=47 ) for the January issue of AMW and was so impressed I got one - the Episode 7 podcast my end was done in a room close to traffic with a fan running but the Mic Thing basically eliminated the lot.

[MJCP]

So why not just capture all of the audio at once using Audio Hijack Pro or Wire Tap?
Wouldn't that save a lot of time and hassle.

It would, but it would also cause a lot of hassle. By having everyone on separate tracks, we're able to keep things a lot cleaner. Since we're on Skype we often interrupt or talk over the top of each other -- there's a lot of false starts and the like. Separate tracks means those things can be cleaned up, the interesting bits retained and the false starts eliminated.

And, of course, there's the quality issue I've already mentioned.