GCRN Awards Debut and Starting Your Own Geek Podcast

This is Jason David Frank, and you're listening

to the Geek Cash Radio Network. Welcome to another

edition of Altered Geek Unlimited, episode 23.

I'm your host, Steve Megatron Phillips, and unfortunately

this week there is no co -host. Why is that,

you may be asking? Well, a few people had to

work, a few people were not around, and a few

people were recording new podcasts on... or a

new test podcast on Geekcast Radio. So overall,

it's just me. So I apologize if this episode

may ramble at some points. I'm going to talk

about some things that I know about and that

may interest other people based on previous episode

comments and content similar to that. Let's get

into the episode and see what happens. So I want

to jump into the GCRN awards. Now I know some

people may be wondering what that whole thing

has to do with and I'm going to make it very

simple. This is our first kind of foray into

the the world of the awards. We've done the top

100 animated series, we've done the top 100 animated

films, there's yet to be an unnamed top 100 of

some kind that will raise the ante as it were

this year, and another wars tournament that will

do the same. So this is another experiment in

that same vein of Being able to give you, the

listeners, fans and friends of Geekcast Radio,

another avenue to be able to make yourselves

heard. Now, when I say the awards thing, I also

have to preface this by... I wanted... I have

this set con to my head of what I wanted to do

with the awards, and what my technical know -how

is. Unfortunately, they don't mesh up very well.

My overall goal was I really wanted to set up

where people could click on the images themselves

to vote. Unfortunately, I don't quite have that

capability yet. I'm going to look into it for

next year, as well as how to incorporate fan

votes to decide what goes in the nominees category.

So this year it's kind of a best of, whether

it's something the hosts like or something that

we felt was standoutish compared to other shows.

So again, apologize if things don't pop out there

that people may want to see. Next year, like

I said, this will come out a lot better next

year. This year, this will debut on February

1st for voting for the entire month of February

until the March GeekCast Radio episode where

we reveal all the categories and have the actual

award show. So there are many different categories

in this award show. We have film, we have cartoon,

we have television, we have tech, and we also

have GeekCast radio -related stuff. Now, there's

also 30 different categories to vote in. Why

30, you ask? Well, the film category actually

takes up about 15 of it on its own. Cartoons

takes up one. That will be more thought out in

the future, but I couldn't go without an award

show without mentioning something about the animated

series kind of medium. Again, this was something

we wanted to get out and we didn't want to make

it too overly complicated. I know with 30 categories

it sounds that way, but it's not. Television

has seven different categories. Tech has three,

and Geekcast Radio has four. The ones for TV

that will be listed are best TV drama, best TV

comedy, best TV sci -fi, best TV action adventure,

best TV leads, like lead character of the show,

best TV fails, meaning shows that have either

fallen off the bandwagon, almost WTF moments,

stuff like that, and best TV intro, which, let's

face it, not a lot of TV shows have that anymore.

So there's that. The Geekcast Radio ones are

Best GCRN Core Podcast, Best GCRN Partner Podcast,

Best GCRN Review Podcast, and of course the Best

GCRN feature. Again, we'll explain these a little

bit more when it gets a little bit closer. We're

almost to that point, but it's almost there.

This podcast itself will encompass the cartoon,

the TV, the tech, and the GCR and stuff, while

NY Weekly will cover all the things that are

in the film category. Next year, I foresee this

to be a huge, expansive award show, but the goal

with this is we want it to be able to have more

of a say than say the Oscars or other things,

where it tends to be kind of... lopsided based

on what critics like instead of what people like.

I know in some categories it could be true what

wins, but I find myself disliking a lot of what

wins. But I'm also a bias geek, so you know,

take it for what you will. So I think I've rambled

a little bit long on the awards breakdown, so

I'll be right back after this. Already welcome

back to altered geek unlimited We're gonna jump

into some media news Based on feedback from the

last episode We got I don't know if it's because

the last episode was such a trainwreck or because

Which again not to get off on a tangent. I apologize

for that like I mentioned at the beginning of

the other episode. There were a lot of edits

that had to go into that episode to get it to

the point that you heard it. There was a lot

of crackling, popping stuff going on. Danner's

audio was missing. Normally I'm able to use the

master track, but the call recorder, because

it botched up, it kind of added the pops, and

then it of course didn't record Danner. There

were points, obviously, that were pointed out

that we didn't know exactly what Mike was referring

to at points because Danner was answering them.

I tried to cut that out as much as possible,

but in the TV shows discussion, that's where

it fell flat. And I apologize. I probably should

have just dubbed my voice in there to say the

name of the shows because I knew what they were.

But. There's that. So getting into the media

news, again, so I don't go on that 10 minute

tangent there, we won't do it in the 10 minute

blitz segment. That will be more so questions

that you guys supply that we can kind of bounce

back and forth and do it that way. Once more,

the media news. Well, there's a new indie magazine

which is launching in February, which is actually

local to my Flint, Michigan area. It's called

Indiebration. So it's like indie film celebration.

It's a magazine that is going to encompass a

lot of different level stars. Some of them you

may not consider actual stars anymore or would

be considered BC or D level stars at this point.

They were never A -listers. But it's not necessarily

so that they can cover what everybody else covers.

It's covering stuff that's... any level of stuff

that basically you could find in the theater

that's low level or stuff that's not in the theater

but maybe in other mediums so it's it's gonna

be interesting when it gets launched uh... they

do have this of face book page uh... which i'll

have in the show notes and i'm actually designing

their website uh... so Be sure to check that

out when it gets all done that will launch. I

believe at the end of this month For the magazine

launch Jumping into the next bit of info Fox's

Gotham series is basically going to be a giant

Batman prequel and As I've said this before I

almost don't care And the reason I'm kind of

that... I know it's kind of horrible to say that,

but I think that they're almost kind of missing

the bandwagon on it a little bit. For one, Fox

has it. I don't foresee it lasting long. Just

Fox's track record with things that they don't

necessarily give a shot isn't quite... there

for me. I don't know. I don't trust them more

or less. So there's that. I'm hoping that it

lasts a while and we can kind of see what direction

it's actually going to go in. But I don't see

it lasting long. It's supposedly, how they were

talking about it, is going to focus on Commissioner

Gordon. But the thing about it is... is they've

just kind of let the cat out of the bag. It's

a giant Batman prequel because, which we kind

of figured it would go there eventually, just

not this soon. They said that the production

will start soon on it, but it says Bruce Wayne

will indeed be a big part of the show, saying

that we will arc young Bruce Wayne from a child

to the final episode of the series when he puts

on a cape. So, essentially, we're going to get

10 more years of Smallville. And I wasn't enthused

with Smallville. I think the way that that show

kind of went down, it was kind of boring. I understand

why they were going through some of it, but I'm

sorry, it should not have taken that long to

put the cape on. It's ridiculous. I don't know.

I just couldn't get into it. The concept, in

theory, is great. The execution was poor and

I think partially CW milking the crap out of

it was was one aspect the other aspect was The

fact that it again you could have kind of like

the Justice Society, but you couldn't have Superman

put the cape on and you couldn't mention Batman.

I mean it again But they're gonna basically pull

a small small though with this But it says that

Bruce will That that when we see him early in

the series. He'll probably be around the age

of 12 They're saying that they're also going

to have the penguin the Riddler Catwoman and

the Joker will be involved in some form which

Why? If I mean I could see the penguin more so

because you know Cobblepot. He's kind of crying

Lord anyway the Riddler At this young stage of

Bruce Wayne, I mean I guess that they aren't

going to reveal them right away I'm guessing

it'll probably be like a mid -series thing where

they start Having Edward Nigma show up kind of

like in the new 52 comics in the zero year And

I'm sure Catwoman will show up the same and then

the Red Hood will show up and become the Joker

But they're they're stating that the Famous rogues

will be introduced and we'll see how they get

to become what they are It's gonna be like a

giant operatic soap opera it's I don't know I

I have high hopes for it, but I don't really

have any Reason to care about another Batman

prequel It's that's probably the only thing about

the new Batman verse Superman or Justice League

movie or whatever they're calling it Has me kind

of enthused is the fact that they're not going

back and telling another origin story like they've

done numerous times Everybody knows the origin

of Batman. It never changes. Yeah, they changed

Superman a little bit, but Batman doesn't really

change It's his parents get brutally murdered

and then he kind of goes on that training trip

so it's I really don't care about that in essence.

I'd rather they just threw him into it or you

know took off from where it's or turn Zero Year

into the actual series. Don't start it when he's

a kid, start it when he's later on, and just

built the suit. Kind of like they did with Arrow.

I don't know, that would be, you know, novel

concept. Arrow's doing well, that, you know,

that bodes well. At least he puts on the damn

costume. Superman never puts on the costume in

Smallville, so to me, it's... Getting too worked

up. I think I've talked on this too long. So

yeah, after last week's episode, they kind of

let slip that Michael Douglas is Hank Pym in

Ant -Man. Anybody that cares to actually give

me some of an update on who Ant -Man is and what

the two differences are between the Hank Pym

and Scott Lang versions that Paul Rudd's playing.

I have no idea anything about this character

at all. I Know that he's kind of supposedly like

the launch of the third tier of the Marvel universe

Which you know is fine and dandy and everything

I I don't have any problem with it I'm not a

huge Marvel fan as I've stated before I like

Superman or not Superman Wolverine Iron Man Spider

-man and and the sword but I don't particularly

care for all the secondary tertiary characters,

but that's also because I don't know anything

about them. Whereas DC, I know quite a bit about

a lot of their characters, even if they're not

the most familiar. So anybody that cares to kind

of link me to that and kind of so I can get an

idea of what or maybe even a good comic resource

that would tell me what I need to know. to kind

of understand this because I again I know it's

big news I just I don't understand anything about

it so moving out of something that's not TV there's

been claims around that the Nielsen readings

are outdated and pushes for cross -platform metrics

acceptance and it's from This was a statement

by Kevin Reilly, Chairman of Entertainment for

Fox. Same basically that their TV ratings are

going to fall flat and the same time a year ago

it was down nearly 20%. So they're basically

calling so that it doesn't just rate the TV stuff,

it takes into consideration the video on demand,

digital and otherwise. stuff like Hulu, Netflix,

Comcast On Demand, all those different mediums

taken into consideration because people that

face it don't necessarily watch things when it's

fresh. I myself, I don't normally care. Some

shows I care to watch, some shows I don't. It

depends on when they come on. Like Supernatural,

I never miss an episode. It's always on at 9

o 'clock on the day that it airs, so I watch

it. That's just been a tradition since we started

watching in Season 2. But then there's also shows

like Revolution, Continuum, stuff like that.

I may not necessarily either A, have the channel

that it comes on. So I have to find other methods

to watch the TV show Which I may or may not be

proud of I just I wish that cable didn't cost

so much so that I could actually do the right

thing but And it's only with select shows that

that happens most of the time I try and catch

stuff on Netflix or On demand on Comcast because

thankfully they've gotten rid of the six commercial

breaks It's just one now. My only pet peeve with

Comcast is the fact that you start watching a

show and You have to stop it for whatever reason

you can't go back to where you were Later on

in the day or if it goes too far you can't Like

if it resets you can't fast forward into where

you were. It's just I don't know. It's annoying.

So yeah, there's that There is a National Lampoon

vacation TV series in the works. Rumor has it

that ABC is working on this new comedy where

Chevy Chase and Beverly D 'Angelo will be reprising

their roles in the show as the Gruswolds. I rather

like this idea. Instead of trying to reboot the

vacation franchise with Ed Helms like they were

talking before, I I honestly like this concept

better because To me the vacation films. Yeah,

the kids were in it. It was about these two It

really was so to ruin the vacation series by

recasting it's it's like It's like putting at

homes and doing the naked gun series all over

again You can't screw with a classic Just leave

it alone create something new. I don't know,

but don't reboot stuff constantly It's I mean,

yeah, it may not be the greatest like cinematography

compared to nowadays as far as like quality wise

of picture not necessarily like the story, but

It's neither here nor there ABC has been tasked

with it from my Terra Nova's Aaron Kaplan Who

will be executive producing the TV series in

the vein of vacation, which it doesn't have me

too enthused having Terra Nova's guy in there

Considering that show got cancelled, but again

that was Fox and it's this is ABC and ABC tends

to keep their things around a while So maybe

but it's in development for 2014 and 2015 They

don't have any writers or anything on board yet

But they're talking about that they're gonna

have the Chevy Chase and Beverly D 'Angelo as

the grandparents forced to raise their grandchildren

Which would be even funnier if I think it kind

of spawned from that old Navy commercial Where

they kind of parried it and had all the different

old Rusty's and Audrey's or most of them anyway

And then had the new young Rusty and Audrey which

was kind of funny so that may have been what

spurned this whole idea and concept but I can't

say I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't watch it

like I do Last Man Standing with Tim Allen and

it's because of who's in it and then for me it's

who's in it and then the what it is like Last

Man Standing is like a reverse home improvement

so it's it's kind of funny whereas this I would

definitely watch this But yeah, show it out on

that and let us know what you think on that.

And I can't leave this out. This is monumental

for voice actor fans, animation fans, voice actors,

whatever. It's I know that voice. I myself have

not yet seen it. I'm waiting for the DVD because

unless somebody wants to gift it to me, I...

I don't really want to buy it twice. That's more

so my thing. TFG1 Mike wrote up an awesome review

of it on Geekcast Radio. That will be in the

show notes as well, exactly where that is. It's

a voiceover documentary by John DiMaggio, all

about the voice acting industry. He does face

-to -face interviews with the voice actors of

characters that we know and love. talking about

what they like about it, how they got into it,

the wonders and beauty of the voice acting and

everything else. It's got a huge list, a huge

list of cast members that are all over the place,

all over the spectrum. It's got Kevin Conroy,

it's got... Mark Hamill, it's got Rob Paulson,

Maurice LaMarche, just, you've got Tara Strong,

June Furet, it's basically anybody who's anybody

in the voice acting industry is in this documentary.

I definitely would recommend it, again, unless

somebody wants to gift me the iTunes or Amazon

one. I'll have to wait till DVD, but I I Really

want this this film when it comes out. I plan

on buying the DVD. I don't care how much it costs.

I'm gonna buy it but If you're interested on

any of that go ahead and check that out in the

this Okay, so coming back we have Well, let's

get into some listener feedback. There wasn't

very much last episode. Again, like I said before,

I hope it wasn't... I don't know. I hope it was

unintentional. I hope it was just because the

episode was just so bad you guys had a hard time

getting through it. Or busy. As my life seems

to be lately. So, Caleb Browning says... Fun

TV talk appears that our TV tastes are very much

aligned with one another Well, that's good to

know at least you won't be bored by us walking

dread says I thought the 10 -minute blitz thing

was cool, and it reminded me of a geek version

of Pardon the interruption From ESPN. I can't

say I'm familiar with it Mike actually came up

with the concept so Glad you like it. I hope

it works out more in the future We'll try it

out with different things and kind of see how

it how it goes Justin Washington says finally

finished listening to last episode. I'm not going

to lie It was hard to completely grasp what was

going on at times I think I got it for the most

part though the TV talk was great. I love to

see more of it Don't worry you will Whether it

be actual hardware TV or television TV shows

you'll see more of it He says when Mike was talking

about the classic shows he watches I was not

sure which one he was referring I think one was

Friday Night Lights, but I didn't know what the

second one was I think if it was animation, I

think it was Legend of Korra, but I'm not a hundred

percent. I can't remember now But it was Friday

Night Lights. He was talking about And he also

says I was also surprised no one mentioned Doctor

Who community Game of Thrones orange is the new

black alphas walking dead I almost said Walking

Dread. Those are some of my favorite current

shows, though Alpha's is not really current anymore.

I watched a little bit of Arrow and was not a

big fan. Based on what you said, it gets better,

so maybe I'll go back to it. Also, no shame in

liking Vampire Diaries. It's the worst title

ever for an actual good show. So I have to preface

this with saying I've never seen much of Doctor

Who. I just... It's something that kind of...

Bothers me but Community I have seen it's all

right, but it's that kind of dry comedy although

I will admit I like it better than the office

or Park and Rec I just those I can't stand the

community. I actually find it genuinely funny

when I watch it Game of Thrones I just I don't

get into that whole era So that's another reason

I haven't watched that. That's something my wife

would more so like. Orange is the New Black.

She actually really liked that show. I've watched

a few with her. I'm neither here nor there on

it. I really don't care. I've at least gave it

a shot, so you can't criticize me there. Um,

Elphas, I've heard of it. I think it's a sci

-fi show. I could be wrong, but it's not one

of those things that hit my radar. And Walking

Dead, I find it very... very overrated My wife

watches that one consistently since the first

season I myself have watched some of it with

her here or there just because I'm in the same

room so To me, I just I don't get the whole zombie

craze. I like Resident Evil. It's about as zombie

as I get Vampire Diaries, I don't particularly

care for anything with vampires Mostly because

the whole Twilight thing kind of soured that

aspect for me. I'm not saying I wouldn't like

it, I just would actually have to watch it. So

I'll probably, I'll give that a shot. I'll see

how that goes. And as far as Arrow's concerned,

I definitely recommend the show. I myself, I

know we've given it a lot of praise to it, but

season one, I will admit, is very hard to watch.

Watch the first six episodes, and then I just

was like I can't watch this anymore You can pretty

much pick up if you've watched some of arrow

You can pretty much go and pick up right at the

beginning of season 2 and it recaps the last

episode of season 1 In the beginning of season

2 and you kind of get the gist of what's going

on If you're a little confused just watch the

very end or watch the last episode of season

1 but season 2 it kind of picks up with a A whole

new vibe to it So it's it's actually kind of

nice Not only pacing but in background information

and explaining How they're going to kind of evolve

in the TV version of the DC universe? Which if

this is true, and I know that they're doing the

flash show and then they're gonna do Gotham I

know Gotham's different network, but it would

be nice to see them all cross over at some point

Kind of like flash will and you know, they they

bring Barry Allen and but uh, they don't actually

You're not gonna ever see him in the costume

at least initially in arrow it's he's gonna be

his own show But yeah, I definitely would recommend

arrow and the midseason kind of got me psyched

for the show like hardcore psyched for it. So

I Checked that out And then Justin says about

the ten minutes blitz that he likes the idea,

although he doesn't know if news is the best

option for that format because we tended to rush

through the news stories to get to our comments.

So he really wasn't sure what the story was about.

I can kind of get what you're saying there, so

I can see where it would be a little hard to

kind of keep up and actually be able to go over

it properly, in a sense. We were just more so

testing it last episode. We didn't really have

any information to input into it, so that was

kind of what we used as a sideline thing. Unfortunately,

half of it you couldn't hear anyway because,

again, Daner's audio was missing. He says some

question he could see working for it is favorite

current apps people aren't using or websites

you advise checking out. Yeah, I kind of like

that idea. We'll have to bring that up in a future

episode of the show. Maybe we'll cover those

things. I'll just wait until I have backup for

that. So yeah, that's the end of the listener

feedback. Welcome again to the 10 minute blitz

The only question we have in here this time and

it's gonna be under 10 minutes. I hope The only

thing we have in here this this particular episode

is from Justin as well He says what TV shows

haven't you seen? That you have always been meaning

to get to you for me. That's kind of a A little

bit of a difficult question because I'm so very

picky on what I watch. That's kind of a tough

one for me. Okay, I've seen quite a few different

shows and tried them out. I don't really know

what I would put in there. I've seen a variety

of things. I guess I should probably watch Sherlock

because Mike's been really strongly pushing for

me to watch it because he finds it really good.

I guess I should probably check that one out.

I've seen Castle before. I've tried Breaking

Bad, couldn't get into it. Person of Interest

is okay. I like the concept. I didn't care to

continue watching. I tried Revenge, didn't like

it. How I Met Your Mother, it's exactly what

it is. I'll watch it if there's nothing else

on. That's more so one of those things. Same

thing with Community. The Michael J. Fox show

I didn't really get into all that much. I really

need to find a show. I guess I should probably

try that the the Sherlock show I should probably

try I've been kind of wondering about Sleepy

Hollow, so I might actually check that out. I

might try elementary just because again. It's

another Sherlock Holmes thing, but it's One of

those modern time versions So I might give that

a shot as well So I guess that really wasn't

a good enough answer for you guys I should probably

do a little bit more research on it. I guess

we can touch on it again when Mike comes back

Because I really have to dig and find something

that I care to watch The problem is I've seen

so much different stuff whether it be on regular

TV or Animation I just I kind of already have

singled out and watched what I wanted to watch

more or less so it's But again, I mean, I could

be just head and rear, you know, kind of locking

myself away from shows that could be good. So

I mean, I guess try and persuade me more or less

of something to try and watch. I'd be willing

to give some shows a shot and give you guys what

I think about it after I've watched them. I'd

be willing to do that. Tried watching The Tomorrow

People, though. The first episode was okay. It

kind of reminded me of Jumper a little bit. Like

X -Men and Jumper kind of put together. Ending

of the first episode was kind of not surprising

to me. But then again, who knows? I don't know.

It could be fine. I'll try and continue it after

the first episode. Just depends on timing. And

now our feature presentation And getting into

the final discussion of the episode I believe

I will touch on podcasting I noticed a couple

episodes back and kind of throughout that people

were saying that they've listened to a lot of

podcasts and saying that either they can feel

very forced or very bad or they would like to

actually start their own. So in this episode

I will talk to you about starting your own podcast

as well as things that you should probably check

out to kind of get you on that geeky road. So

let's start off with software. People may lead

you to believe that you need to spend a fortune

to actually be able to podcast. That is not correct.

I used to use this program GoldWave when I first

started, back when I was doing a lot of fan dubs.

I don't barely do any anymore, unfortunately.

I do enjoy it, I just haven't had the time to

devote to it. But I used to use that, and that

was okay, but then somebody turned me on to Audacity.

Audacity is free. It is, I believe, currently

in version 2 point something or a beta version

of 2 point something. But it's actually a very

versatile and heavily modifiable freeware program.

And you get it from audacity .sourceforge .net.

Free of course and then it also in you can record

you can edit you can You can't really do multi

-track. I mean you can but it's kind of very

You can't really drag or drop. It's it's more

of it's there so But you can do certain audio

effects and everything else But if you're intending

on saving it as an mp3 you have to actually download

the lame empty MP3 plugin, which they also give

you a link to on that website. But that's actually

what we used here at the GeekCast Radio Network

for the starting of it. I used to edit All Things

Transformers, which was my first podcast, which

we've decided we're officially going to kill

this year. Because it's the 30th anniversary

of Transformers, we're going to jump through

that whole hoop. the show properly on its seven

-year anniversary or no six -year anniversary

I'm sorry it was started a year before Geekcast

radio so it's Geekcast radio will turn five it'll

turn six and then we're going to send it on its

merry way but again I digress so yeah the software

we actually used it on the beginning of the network

it's Funny thing enough is Mike actually used

to record his side of the audio and I used to

record my side of the audio before we had call

recorders. And we used to mix it in there. It

is not easy to mix in Audacity because things

don't necessarily line up. If you're just recording

yourself or adding an intro, outro, or like a

couple of other things, it's fine. If you're

using like a... which I'll get into later, a

call recorder. You can actually import it into

there after you've added your intro clip and

then have the entire conversation there and then

add your outro clip and then you should be fine.

But it's also good for short recordings as well

or just really anything if you don't want to

spend the money. Now, also on that free gravy

train, this is my second recommendation. Some

people recommend getting call recorders. Some

people think they can record on your end. It's

actually preferable to do both. If you're recording

a podcast with other people, it's actually not

a bad idea if both of you have a call recorder

running so you both can record the entire call

on your end in case someone else's call recorder

dis... integrates during the record. I've had

it where Mike Blanchard, TFT1 Mike, and I will

record both of us using our own call recorders

in case one of them is better than the other.

uh... audio quality wise in case there's hiccups

or something else because i know sometimes the

skype it gets a little buzzy or uh... depending

on people's connections uh... it it can fizzle

out on certain people at certain times uh...

like if you're loading other programs you have

dropbox or you have uh... various other things

running on the internet uh... while you're doing

skype it doesn't like that too much so uh...

it can sometimes affect that uh... but you can

get mp3 skype recorder uh... you can google it's

uh... it is free if you'd like it's i'm sure

i'm going to forget to include in the show notes

despite me saying it here uh... so go ahead if

you want to know and i will post that but you

can pretty much google it's a free plugin uh...

you just install it run it you can do stereo

mono up to a hundred ninety two k whether it's

It works really well. I've used it on more than

one occasion, so there's that. Third thing I'd

recommend is, if you're going to do separate

calls or separate recorders on the calls, I would

use Dropbox. Why do you use Dropbox, you ask?

Well, we recently just started doing that. We

used to use our FTP buffer account, which sometimes

we'll refer to during the show, and people are

like, what's the buffer? It's where we used to

dump all of our files when we'd do separate records

or have other people edit. If you install Dropbox

on both your PCs, for those that don't know,

I'm sure most people know because it's usually

integrated with phones nowadays, at least if

you have Android, you can dump files related

to the podcast or for editing or for the separate

calls or whatever into this... single folder

and it synchronizes to both your computers so

once somebody deletes the file it goes bye bye

or somebody adds a file it says hello on the

other end so it's kind of a nice feature to have

when you're podcasting. Just don't let it run

while you're actually doing the call. Now the

next thing I'd like to touch on is audio hardware.

This can be a little tricky. We've all, and I'm

not saying you have to spend a fortune, we've

all started out at the very, very bottom. Myself,

I started with a more or less $10 pair of headphones,

real junk, and the analog $9 Labtech or Logitech

microphone. It works, but... When you're recording

with other people that have higher -end equipment,

you're definitely going to notice the difference

For instance early on in all things transformers

version 1 .0 before we went 2 .0 and The TFG

one podcast the audio quality isn't that great.

It's because we all were at bare bones cheap

equipment again, none of us make money off this

it's just something we do because we love conversing

with other geeks and as our slogan is, unleashing

the geek in you. So it helps keep us up to date

and knowledgeable in all things geek too. Damn,

I keep getting on tangents. But I'm doing pretty

good. I'm not really rambling for a podcast where

I've made it past 10 minutes. So, if you want

to hear a really bad train wreck, listen to Pirates

of the Caribbean, Spotlight, and Mware. I screwed

that up orally. But yeah, the hardware, I ended

up eventually upgrading to a Logitech Clearchap

Pro USB headset. They don't make this particular

model anymore, it's old. I've had it since like

year one of Geekcast Radio, I upgraded it, it

was like 35 bucks. It's got a microphone on it,

and it's a nice USB headset. Only problem with

that is, when you have a USB headset, you can

either hear when people are moving their head,

because it tends to have like a little sound

like that. that will turn up on the record sometimes

and you really don't want that because it's distracting.

You can hear clicking. When you have the microphone

and you're actually using it, while it may be

nice to be able to press the mute button on your

headset to stop the mouthpiece, when you're talking

or when you're breathing, you're going to hear

it because the microphone's directly in front

of your face or in front of your nose. The other

thing that you can do to kind of alleviate that

is actually put the microphone almost above your

nose. The reason I say that is because it will

still pick up the audio from your mouth of you

speaking, but it won't pick up your breathing.

It can be a little annoying because you'll see

it in front of your nose, but you're not going

to pick up in there. and then you know stuff

like that so again it's it's just it's nicer

but then eventually I had the extra cash to invest

in a real microphone and then of course I asked

Mike from the show his thoughts and I kind of

asked around and I saw the blue microphones pop

up the most blue microphones They make the Nessie

they make the Yeti the Yeti Pro the snowball

Blue has managed to make a very very We'll just

say great product they've made such a superb

product for a USB microphone The audio quality

on it is like you're sitting next to the person

so when you hear it recording It's actually in

front of you and it's it's it's it's so crystal

clear and when you're recording with people that

have Lesser equipment you're going to notice

Or they're going to notice you won't notice as

much I mean you will a little bit on your headset

But again, I digress I'm currently wearing that

Logitech headset while I'm recording into my

blue Yeti It's not the Yeti Pro. It's cheaper

version, but it's it's THX certified I have a

shock mount and a pop screen filter in front

of it. It's kind of got one built in a little

bit. There's settings on it for gain. There's

settings on it to change whether it's the cardioid

or omnidirectional or bidirectional. You can

then put an actual headset into it. It's on a

nice steel stand. Nice big heavy microphone.

I've had thoughts of upgrading it eventually,

but at this point in time until I can actually

build my actual studio that I want to build,

this is what I'm sticking with. It sounds great.

So this is actually a $100 microphone. The pop

screen filter was like $20, and then the headset.

So you're looking at about $150 altogether if

you want higher end, just basic equipment to

plug into. And then rounding out to the final...

bit of stuff I'm going to cover for the podcasting

segment, this episode at least, is hosting. When

you're hosting a podcast, you want to, for one,

you want to find a host that's going to support

it. I see a lot of people use Podbean and stuff

like that. I myself, I don't find that very helpful.

Yeah, it's easier. but you're probably better

off buying or paying for a web host, buying your

own .com or .net or whatever you choose to use

and hosting your own files. The only caveat to

that is you have to make sure that the host will

allow you to do so. You usually have to have

the website which WordPress I would recommend

just because you can kind of keep up with it

and there are plugins where you can automate

the RSS feed which can be sent elsewhere. I made

the mistake when I started doing all this. I

did everything the hard way, that's just how

I did it. Now I'm doing things a lot more automated

because I don't have time to sit here and babysit

every element of the stuff. Early Geekcast Radio,

I actually hand typed all of the RSS feeds per

episode, so every time an episode went into the...

the iTunes or the website. I was sitting there

in an RSS editor typing all the BS code in there

and all the information for the podcast and then

you still had to run the podcast through iTunes

and just add the art and the metadata. I'm so

glad I don't do that anymore, but I also synchronized

those RSS files by folder and used Google FeedBurner.

to distribute it. That's also a no -no. Don't

use a feed burner or distributor like that. I

would only recommend that if you're using something

like Podbean or somewhere where you don't own

it. where if you have your own .com or your own

domain and web host, you're better off using

like Blueberry's Podpress plugin in WordPress

to automate the category into an RSS feed and

using that because it will actually distribute

it directly from the website and you own the

feed at all times. I'm still in the transition

of moving everything away from feed burner. I

finally stopped handwriting all of the actual

RSS feeds and we're using the stuff from the

site that's already from the episode blog article

post. So there's that. You can get web hosts

as cheap as two, three bucks a month to however

much you want to spend. It just depends. I use

Media Temple. I really like them. I think our

promo code is GeekCastRadio or something like

that. Or GCRN. It's one of the two. I don't know.

It may not even be that. I haven't logged into

that in a while. But I use Media Temple. I actually

like them. I used to use iPower. I know somebody

that uses Yahoo. Yahoo tends to give you a lot

of 500 internal errors when you're on WordPress.

I don't understand why. just something about

it and plus yahoo modifies WordPress. I don't

recommend them at all. Same thing with iPower.

I don't recommend them either. They have a lot

of database issues back from when I had a PHP

website on there. I had so many issues I got

sick of them and I left. And that's when I went

with Media Temple and I haven't looked back because

they will... get back with you right away and

they will fix your issue as best they can. It's

a nicer home than anywhere else that I've had

this site. We actually moved the site from Media

Temple to Site 5 because of the growing hits

and the growing exposure. We needed more bandwidth

and so I moved to Site 5, which again, I don't

recommend them either because yeah, they migrated

the entire Media Temple account for free. But

the problem with that was is when they did it

They're Supposedly an unlimited web host you

get unlimited bandwidth unlimited data unlimited

everything Apparently unlimited isn't truly unlimited

Because we were getting so many hits and so much

bandwidth usage Which surprisingly we didn't

have that issue on MediaTemple Just saying but

again, I digress they Essentially told me I had

the option of and this was after a month and

a half of being with them. I could Optimize and

have the site cache itself, which I was doing

anyway, and I'm still doing The the the funny

thing about it is is they actually told me I

had to leave unless I wanted to pay I think it

was like hundred and some odd dollars a month

for a fraction of the space we were getting on

Media Temple. And I told them to bite me and

we moved back to Media Temple, which I won't

leave. I never have to. So just a little horror

story. So do your research when you're going

through that. The cheapest may not be the best

and the most expensive may not be the best. It

just kind of depends on what you're looking for

from the host. Notice that I'll be done, but

there's one other thing that I'll get into And

it has to do with paid software if you're going

to get paid software I Recommend Adobe Audition

if you have a PC I think People that have a Mac

use GarageBand. I'm not familiar with it. I know

you can get the Adobe products on a Mac, too.

There's definitely a difference. I used to use

Soundbooth. I still use it to some degree. It

kind of depends from episode to episode or what

PC I'm using. But Adobe Soundbooth is more basic,

whereas Edition is like Soundbooth mixed with

when Adobe acquired CoolEdit Pro, they mixed

kind of the two and came up with Audition. And

Audition allows you to do a lot of the razor

blade chopping of clips and you don't have to

re -render every time, kind of like Sombuth.

I know it's more expensive, but I like it better.

More features. So I think I've dragged this episode

on as long as it can be. I'm surprised I made

it to an hour, honestly, or over an hour. Thank

you for joining me. I'm sorry if this was a little

too tech jargony. I've been podcasting for six,

seven years now, so I was trying to relay any

information I can. So, I hope it helps. If you

guys got any more questions on podcasting stuff,

feel free to ask. I don't mind helping. I don't

mind guesting on people's stuff. If you want

pointers or you want stuff to kind of help you

out in some of it, I will make myself available.

I have weird hours, so I mean, I'll... Emails

I definitely will reply to or Twitter. I'm sitting

on social media on my phone all day Thank you

smart phones still hate sprint, but thank you

smart phones So In closing Thanks as always for

joining us here on altered geek unlimited you

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as always, get altered, get geeky with the Altered

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