Category: Podcasts

Posted on

RadioZoom Episode #118 – Interview with Jim Ward of Sparta at Richards on Richards

I realize that I never blogged about this night, but listen to episode #118 and you’ll get exactly what I thought about this show. This was also a great test of Levelator, and the entire episode was edited together using Ubercaster.

Another adventure with the podcasting project, RadioZoom gets the opportunity to hang out with Jim Ward, front man for the band Sparta, during their one night visit on their current tour. Richards on Richards was the venue for this evening, and both Rebecca and I had a really great time.

We discuss a variety of topics, ranging from what life on the road is like, the making of the latest album, Jim’s prior experiences with Vancouver, a little bit of politics, and we discover a little more of what life is like in Jim’s hometown of El Paso, Texas. (Note: explicit language)

It was an amazing opportunity for the interview, and the performance that night was nothing short of being absolutely stellar. We take a moment back in “the studio” to reflect on the overall experience and review what we saw on stage that night.

59:48 minutes
radiozoom.net

Posted on

The Crazy Canucks #6 – Hanging in there

This one was a doozy. Problems during the recording almost lost the whole thing. Putting together everything that remained wasn’t the easiest thing. I stuck with it and got episode #6 published this morning.

This episode had a lot of bumps to work through before it was published, and this might be a good comparison to what the Canucks are going through right now. Unlike the Canucks, everyone was here for this one. That couldn’t stop a few problems from creeping up, but, much like the Canucks, we worked our way towards a stellar finish.

Record as of this podcast: 8-7-1 (2nd in the Northwest Division)

There were a variety things to cover, including the two losses against Minnesota and Colorado, a hard fought win in Dallas, injuries and changes to the defence, and we can’t seem to keep away from the goalie debate. There’s a lot here, so listen in to check out the latest brouhaha that The Crazy Canucks has to offer.

Also, be sure to check out the recently redesigned Canucks.com website. Looking good, guys!

The Crazy Canucks

Posted on

Ubercaster is getting ready for official release

I got an email from the folks at Ubercaster about the coming plan for the official release of their podcasting program for the MacOS.

Hi all,

after a long time of silence, we’re proud to announce the launch of
our Übercaster pre-order offer.

Until the end of the beta phase, you’ve got the chance to pre-order
Übercaster with a 15% discount off the regular retail price.

This means: Order Übercaster now and pay only $69 (US) instead of
$79.95. In addition to that you’ll get the following advantages with
the ordered license key:

– No expiration of the program.
– Free updates including v1.x
– Upload feature unlocked (disabled in the free beta).
You can automatically upload your shows during the release process.
Several network protocols are supported: in addition to FTP, SFTP,
WebDAV and .Mac, Übercaster also supports native upload to XML-RPC
services like PodShow.com, including the automatic creation of blog
entries.

Ordered license keys will be sent immediately.

Übercaster’s pre-order phase starts today and ends with the
introduction of Übercaster’s final release.
Podcasters are still invited to join the free beta test.

I’ve been using Ubercaster for all live recordings of both podcasts that I produce, especially The Crazy Canucks. For a beta program, it has worked really well up to this point, but the final encoding of any episode is still questionable. In fact, I’ve been exporting uncompressed audio files from the program and doing all final encoding of mp3’s with iTunes. My ear could pick up a noticeable difference between the two, but I need to make another comparison with the latest build.

It was only a matter of time before the testing phase would end and the final release of Ubercaster would be unveiled. In PC world, Castblaster is the Windows equivalent for recording podcasts in real time, and the price sits at $50US. I’ve never used it, but everything I have heard about it makes it very similar to Ubercaster.

Everything that I’ve done up to this point would make Ubercaster worth the purchase, more so if you can get in on the pre-order phase. In fact, I even got Rebecca comfortable with using it. The interface is easy enough to understand that training her was very easy. You can get a prime example of it here on her take over of the last six song on RadioZoom.

The one thing that is uncertain is how much longer the beta phase will be. The amount of new builds coming out during this pre-release phase has gone up quite a bit. I have yet to try out the latest version, but the stripping of the beta label for Ubercaster seems that it will happen later rather than sooner.

Posted on

Interview with Sparta confirmed for RadioZoom

Sparta (credit: Johnny Buzzerio)I’m super excited to announce that RadioZoom will be having the opportunity to interview Sparta when they are in town for their show at Richards on Richards this weekend. I have officially made Rebecca my go to public relations person for the podcast, and she has delivered big time, no doubt about it.

Like many fans of the band, I’ve been a fan of Sparta since the day they formed. No, I wasn’t one of those cool kids with my ear to the underground and knowledge of all things good. Well, maybe just a little bit, but when the forever memorable At the Drive-In[wiki] split up, Sparta was formed by three guys from the band. If you’ve ever heard the name The Mars Volta, that is what the other two members went on to. However, Paul Hinojos left Sparta nearly a year ago to join The Mars Volta.

In 1999, I went to my first CMJ Music Marathon in New York. The Foo Fighters were slated to play at the Bowery Ballroom in a somewhat early show, so a bunch of us stood in line for a few hours to check them out. More impressive than seeing them on stage was the opening band which none of us knew a lot about, and they were seemingly insane. Amazingly good, but insane.

Sad to say, I never knew who they were for months afterward. When we got At the Drive-In’s new album at KRUI a little while later, I started to piece it all together. That band I saw, with the afros and craziness on stage, was At the Drive-In.

I’ve been keeping tabs on Sparta since their first album, “Wiretap Scars“, and their two follow up albums have yet to disappoint me. Their most recent release, “Threes“, is available in stores now. I’ve had a listen through just a few times, so it is hard for me to really convey a decent review of the album. However, I assure you, it’s way, way good.

The most interesting part of doing this interview is the way Sparta has embraced new media. Their involvement with their website is very noticeable, connecting to fans in this highly digital age with podcasts and embedded videos to send out information to fans. My hope is to explore their reasons behind it and geek out with rock stars a little bit.

radiozoom.netIt is because of this that we think they have given the green light to meeting Rebecca and I for a brief conversation before their show on Saturday night. The scope of RadioZoom is always exploring new avenues, and the recent interview with Aberdeen City is a prime example of that. It feels good to be getting back into the realm of interacting with musicians, like I did during my time in radio, but we can try so many different things through podcasting that you simply can’t on the airwaves.

Posted on

The Crazy Canucks #5 – What the world needs now is more Ovechkin

Episode #5 of The Crazy Canucks was recorded tonight. I’ll also add that this was the first time with Rebecca fully in control of things, allowing me to take a back seat on the technical side and really have fun with the discussion. This won’t be the last time she gets to run the whole show for sure.  In the final edit, I ran this through Levelator as an experiment.

We go ‘Dave-less’ this episode as Alanah, JJ, John and Rebecca bring you this week’s discussion. The Ovechkins Capitals were in town on Friday and JJ shares his experience being at the game. From the awe-inspiring young Russians of the league, goalie showdowns, to shootouts.

Murmurs about the crazy schedules, that only bring players by once every election year, who we’d like to see more of and who we could really do without.

Nashville handed us a ghoulish defeat last night while we’re still getting used to the lines, players and Coach Viggy’s words of wisdom.

Record as of this podcast 7-5-1 (2nd in Northwest Division)

23:50 minutes
The Crazy Canucks

Posted on

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

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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

Posted on

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.