The trials of podcast editing…
Most of the time, recording and editing a podcast is a pretty straight forward affair – you simply record the show, spend a few hours running through it, taking out the ‘errs’ and ‘umms’ (and editing my own input so I at least make some sort of sense!), put it all together with jingles and music and publish it – probably about 10 – 12 hours work per show.
However, on the odd occasion – usually due to some technical issues during recording – things become a little harder.
The latest show I recorded has been one of these. I actually recorded the interview on the 17th November – it’s a chat about Deadzone with Jake Thornton. The show was recorded whilst I was staying in a hotel, so the internet connection wasn’t the best, as I discovered when I came to editing.
The recording suffers from two issues: distortion and lag – the lag is the most annoying, as it inserts random half-second pauses throughout the conversation…usually several times a minute. It makes the editing process painful in the extreme, and I’m not convinced that the final product, once it’s been through the audio balancing software, will be usable anyway.
I was two weeks late in starting editing due to some magazine and college work deadlines, and real life has interjected several times since (it’s that time of year!)
All this, is of course. simply a list of excuses as to why you have been waiting 4 weeks for the next podcast episode. It’s coming, honest…just not as quickly as I had hoped…
Tales of The Brummie Dwarf 
Neil, Do not be so hard on yourself. What you produce is highly interesting of top quality and keeps my interest going in the hobby. If you were a full-time, highly paid BBC journalist with several guys with top of the range equipment maybe some criticism could be levied, I am guilty of not paying anything towards your costs and I will be looking to change my error. But carry on the good work.
John Sharman
As above. 10-12 hours a show?! i dont know how you do it! Much appreciated though. Dont beat yourself up over it. M & M is great, so well done! Also as above, it would be quite useful if there was somthing like a “contribution per episode” button on the site. say a flat 50p a time, pay if you want to. I feel like i want to make a contribution, but dont want to keep logging in each time to pay a small amount and am i bit shy of my wife lookig at the credit card and saying “This £10 payment is for what? A show you can listen to for free?!” See what i mean?
I did a small one man podcast before (for Car Wars from Steve Jackson Games). A show might be 30 minutes long and that was about a 2 hour process, so I understand your pain sir.
I’m like the others though – don’t kick yourself, and don’t make it work. If you enjoy 10-12 hours per show, great, but otherwise don’t worry as much about the ums and ahs. 🙂 We are human and so are you. 🙂