Category: Podcasting

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The Crazy Canucks #4 – We Are All Cardiac Canucks

Episode #4 of The Crazy Canucks is up and ready for download.

Everyone gathers together for this episode, fresh from a 5-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks earlier tonight. The last four games have been such an impressive display by the Canucks that it’s really tough for anyone to really put a grasp on them (except for Dave), but we all know that they have been some great battles. It doesn’t matter if we won them or not because they were all pretty great, but luckily we took 3 out of the last four.

We take a look at some amazing OT wins over St. Louis and Nashville, talk about the showdown in Dallas, and another impressive win against the Hawks before the boys finally come home for a few games. We’re still getting used to the new look for the Canucks, but these recent games have really impressed all of us.

Record as of this podcast:
6-4-1 (2nd in the Northwest Division)

There is also some mention about the debacle in Philly, and some discussion about those Canucks who have moved on to different teams in the NHL. Of course, we take a moment to point out that no one can dispute the magic happening in Pittsburgh, even though it’s totally un-Canucks related. Oh yeah, and can we get the PPV games in HDTV and the radio broadcasts in FM? Great, thanks.

Be sure to send us your comments and questions down below or email us! feedback [at] thecrazycanucks.com

33:00 minutes
The Crazy Canucks

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Giving RadioZoom its own legs to stand on

Back in March, Andrew from Geek.Farm.Life was gracious enough to purchase the “radiozoom.net” domain for the podcast. He’s in a reverse situation than myself, living in Indiana with his American wife, and a long time listener of my podcast. I’ve posted about GFL before, so be sure to go read that to find out more about his podcast.

Until last night, the domain was a redirect to the site that I had setup within this domain. That’s much easier to market to listeners rather than saying “blah-blah-blah slash blah-blah-blah”. I’ve been content with the setup for some time, but the slight confusion of the podcast name combined with the actual URL for the podcast episodes was starting to bug me. It doesn’t give the podcast enough of a brand, at least for me, if you tell people one thing and they end up seeing another.

It took a few hours to propagate down the DNS chains, but the domain now has full control over the site. All the old links to old episodes still work. The change has allowed me to move forward with ideas that I couldn’t implement otherwise. These are more noticeable behind the scenes, and that really matters to me more than you. This also means that it’s less I have to think about while falling asleep at night.

Once again, many thanks go out to Andrew for helping to make this possible. Go check out RadioZoom.net and see for yourself.

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The Vancouver Salos

The Vancouver Salos [credit: VCOE]Because of a comment thread on Vancouver Canucks Op Ed on this post, Alanah whipped up this creation. I laughed my butt off when she emailed this to me. Too crazy to post on her site, but too hilarious to not post here. Rebecca was the one who started this, but I just perpetuated it. It’s more truth than fiction, but strictly platonic, Sammy. I’m a happily married man.

It all started with an episode of The Crazy Canucks. I said that it seemed like we were being called the “Vancouver Luongos” with the way that the media talked about team as the season got under way. With my favorite boy from last year, Carter, now with Columbus, I’ve been searching for someone to fill his place in terms of my favorite player. Perhaps this is a bit too much of an extreme, but I have to say that the last few days has made this guy rise to the top of my list.

Be sure to check out more on The Crazy Canucks podcast. We’ll be recording episode number four later this week. Been a crazy last few games on the road, but at least we’re up in the wins and points columns. Can’t fail to mention that a lot of that is in part to Sammy “The Friendly Ghost” Salo.

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RadioZoom Episode #116 – Interview with Aberdeen City at Richards on Richards

Something for you to listen to over the weekend, episode #116 of RadioZoom has been posted.

This episode goes mobile as Rebecca and I spend some time with Aberdeen City before they take the stage at Richards on Richards in Vancouver. They were in town on October 17, 2006 on their North American tour, opening up for Electric Six. Answering an email that Rebecca sent them, they arranged for us to be on the guest list and hang out in the green room before the show started.

We get into a variety of topics, including life on the road, their brief time in Vancouver, what it’s like to tour with Electric six, and so on. The whole atmosphere is very laid back and unscripted. You get to hear the whole interview from beginning to end, with only minor editing to make all the segments flow together. Call it what you want, but this is podcasting. There are no rules. (FYI: some explicit language is used in this episode)

On a technical note, this is my first time using Levelator in an episode. This was very useful with the raw audio that I recorded of the interview. I’ve been impressed with what it can do and recommend checking it out for yourself.

54:51 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Followup thoughts on Levelator

My initial post about Levelator was more to raise awareness about this application.  As I said before, this is a brilliant concept for podcasters and audiophiles everywhere.  It’s a drag and drop program that compresses, levelizes, and limits your audio, all on its own.  What more can you ask for than that?

Within minutes of making that first post, Doug Kaye dropped by my blog and offered some thoughts on what I can do to make my use of it better.  Ignoring the pretty cool fact that he is one of the orginal podcasters, I thought it was great that one of the main guys behind this application was quick to offer solutions on Levelator.

I have an episode of RadioZoom that I will released later today, if not tomorrow, in which I have my first venture into utilizing this program.  I am very impressed with what it did to a single AIFF of nearly 38 minutes of audio that I recorded with my mic and minidisc.  It was a mobile interview, and this application just cut my editing time by over fifty percent.

The quality is just as impressive.  It gives you solid sound that can take hours of tweaking, depending on how precise you want your audio to be.  I can get pretty picky some times, but this is an answer to that for sure.

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The Crazy Canucks #3 – Seven Games Down: The Jekyll and Hyde Canucks

Recorded and released tonight, episode #3 of The Crazy Canucks is up at ready.

Everybody’s here for this episode as we are now five games into the 2006 season. We go through our first impressions of how the lines have been put together, who’s standing out, and who needs to step up. We can’t fail to mention something about the goal and the guy who stands in front of it to block pucks… or something like that.

There’s a lot talk about now that we’re seeing how this team is performing on the ice. A lot is happening on the bench, and based on some listener feedback, we dig a little deeper into the man calling the shots behind the bench.

Record as of this podcast:
3-3-1 (3rd in the Northwest)

Looking ahead to the next few games to round out the week, we give some of our insights as to what we can expect from St. Louis and Nashville match ups.

Got something to say? Leave a comment or email us, feedback [at] thecrazycanucks.com

32:47 minutes
The Crazy Canucks

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Team 1040 Podcasts: Vancouver Canucks Hockey Games

Rebecca and I missed the game last night between the Canucks and Oilers, and for good reason. Thanks to J.J from the Canucks Hockey Blog, I was able to get him to txt me the final score. 2-1 Edmonton for the final. Not the prettiest of games, and I’m sure we’ll discuss this on the episode of The Crazy Canucks that we plan to record tonight.

I did subscribe to the Team 1040 AM Vancouver Canucks Podcast that I stumbled upon a few weeks ago. At first, I thought it was just the talk shows that they do about the Canucks, which was completely true. They took “Canucks This Week” and sent it out via podcast, commercials and all. Not a horrible listen as you get a little caught up with highlights from Tom and Shorty.

To my surprise, after the first game of the regular season, all three periods of the game against Detroit showed up in my iTunes. These are exactly what you hear on the radio, but this isn’t AM radio quality. The sound is excellent. Dare I say it, but the commercials even sound better when it’s not coming across at 1040 kHz. Could have swore that I just heard some plastic crinkling in the background. Maybe it’s the sound of Larschied’s beer cups?

The downside is the size of the mp3’s. I’m listening to last night’s, final two periods right now. The 2nd came down at 128kbps, almost 58 minutes long, and 52.5MB in size. The end of the period just saw the audio go dead, so there was about 18 minutes of “dead air” as they transitioned into intermission. The 3rd period was even bigger, downloading a 256kbps mp3 at just over an hour in length and 113 MB in size. (Like the 2nd, the end of the 3rd period podcast had almost 26 minutes of “dead air” tacked on at the end.)

That’s a lot of space being eaten up on the hard drive of my laptop or my iPod, not to mention the time it takes to download. Perhaps this is something that can be changed in the future. I’m thinking that a standard of 96kbps would be an excellent sample rate. That would bring the size down considerable. (Hmm, maybe I should send Team 1040 an email with a link back to this post.)

Team 1040 AMListening to this as I write this post, there’s a commercial running for their podcasts. I should also mention that they do the same for the BC Lions, but I haven’t checked that out.

This would be ideal for someone who is a transplanted Canucks fan who wants some sort of play-by-play action to feed their need. Sure, it’s time shifted and you’ll have to do everything you can to avoid hearing the outcome of the game before you get around to listening to this, but there are some great advantages. Fast forward through commercials (standard TV break is two minutes) and skip the intermissions. There are kinks, but I’m sure they’ll get those worked through.

If you’re like me, you just want some recap on the action while going about your day. Sure, we got the score at the end of the game last night, but I would have never known how close the Canucks came to tying it up at the end of the 3rd with a pulled goalie. TV highlights can’t fill the void that Shorty gives you when the game is on the line in those last minutes before the final horn. Not too bad.

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RadioZoom Episode #115 – Six Song Donut Spectacular: October 2006; Miss 604 Take Over

People have requested it, and she stepped up to the plate. Rebecca takes over RadioZoom for episode #115 and the October edition of the six song.

I am no longer a podcast virgin. I took over all aspects of RadioZoom for Episode #115 as John sat in the wings, being a very gracious co-host, podcast mentor and trainer.

The focus was on the Boston-based band Aberdeen City since I’ve been invited to interview them [miss604] before their show here in Vancouver on Tuesday October 17th. I then selected pod safe artists (from music.podshow.com) who all hail from Boston, MA to keep with a bit of a theme and tribute to my old stomping grounds.

I hope you enjoy and PLEASE leave us some feedback; comments, concerns, rants, raves.

35:16 minutes
radiozoom.net

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The Crazy Canucks #2 – So Let the Season Begin

I was too busy with everything to make a post about episode #1 of The Crazy Canucks when it was released, so I encourage you to go check that out for sure.

In the meantime, we published episode #2 last night.

Finally! The 2006 NHL season has officially started, and we present some thoughts about how the first four games for the Canucks have gone. DaveO was unavailable for this edition, but we covered a lot of ground without him.

Recording took place just after the 2-1 (SO) loss to the Minnesota Wild earlier tonight, so we talked about the game a little since it was fresh on our minds. Additionally, we also cover the issue of being known more as the “Vancouver Luongos”, who else is impressing us this early in the season, and the changes we’ve seen on the bench, namely Vigneault.

Be sure to chime in with your thoughts by leaving a comment or sending us an email, feedback [at] thecrazycanucks.com. Good, bad, agree, or disagree, we want to hear from you!

28:52 minutes
thecrazycanucks.com

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The Levelator is an interesting beta program

I have to stress that point. This program is in beta, so do not count on stability to be one hundred percent. If you are an audio nut, then you’ll want to consider adding Levelator to you audio editing tools.

Do you believe in magic? You will after using The Levelator to enhance your podcast. And you’ll be amazed that it’s free (for non-commercial use).

So what is The Levelator? It’s software that runs on Windows or OS X (universal binary) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It’s not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It’s much more than those tools, and it’s much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler’s application window, and a few moments later you’ll find a new version which just sounds better.

Have you ever recorded an interview in which you and your guest ended up at different volumes? How about a panel discussion where some people were close to microphones and others were not? These are the problems the post-production engineers of Team ITC solve every day, and it used to sometimes take them hours of painstaking work with expensive and complex tools like SoundTrack Pro, Audacity, Sound Forge or Audition to solve them. Now it takes mere seconds. Seriously. The Levelator is unlike any other audio tool you’ve ever seen, heard or used. It’s magic. And it’s free. [gigavox]

I was half inclined to use this on the podcast that I released today, but time was a bit more of a factor. However, I did a slight trial run this afternoon and met some not so good results. I’m not saying this is a horrible program, but maybe you shouldn’t do what I did.

When it installs, try going with the defaults. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I didn’t want desktop shortcuts and all that junk. When it installed, I have no idea where it went, but some careful searching found it. On top of that, when I dragged the AIFF of the episode of RadioZoom I released today[rz#114] into the program, it hung. I tried to cancel it and quit out, but no going. That’s when it beach-balled and showed progress like it was doing something.

When I force quit out, and you can start to see the stupid things starting to happen, the program went away. Something somewhere was still doing something because my hard drive space was being eaten away. I even quit down to where no other programs were running and relaunched the Finder. Eventually, whatever it was, stopped and all my eaten space came back.

So, I stress that this is a beta version of the program, but a great concept for a utility. I haven’t had the opportunity to really see if it works, but I thought I’d pass on the word about this.