Two technical questions

[shelholtz]

Hi, anybody.

I have two technical problems that are driving me nuts. One, in fact, is driving both me and my co-host nuts.

1. Why isn't our album art showing up in iTunes or on the iPod? Near as i can tell, the RSS code is exactly right. It's at http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz/rss.xml

2. My co-host and I record the show over Skype. (He's in Amsterdam, i'm near San Francisco). I use a Mackie mixer: Microphone into the mixer, computer audio out into the mixer, both back into the computer via line-in for recording. My co-host hears himself echo badly. We've reserached the crap out of this and can't find a way to resolve the problem. Anybody already dealing with this?

Thanks!

[JohnnyWB]

1. Check ou this thread from the Libsyn support page:
http://libsyn.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1121

2. Are you both using headphones? I have a buddy that uses his notebook PC speakers when we Skype and I can hear myself.

Hope this is of some help.

John

[cybercooler]

When you record skype, make sure you're recording device (in the windows mixer) should be set to mic, If you have it set to mix out, I've had people say they hear an echo on their end (although I don't on mine).

[Craig]

1. I never could get the <iTunes:image...> tag to work, although it was a long time ago that I tried. Here's what I'm using that does work:

<itunes:link href="http://www.godcast.org/images/itunes/behindTheScenes.jpg" rel="image" type="video/jpeg">Behind the Scenes</itunes:link>

You might want to add a line with this format to your RSS and see if it works. It's worth a shot. That plus add a space before the /> at the end of what you have. It shouldn't matter but who knows.

2. If it's only his voice that's echoing and he's the only one who hears it then he's probably picking up his own voice coming back from your end somehow...the latency from Skype is causing the echo on his end (but not on the recording end so you won't notice it). Are you using open-ear headphones? Is there any other way as part of your setup that the sound coming out of the computer could be making it over to him?

Craig

[BrianGentry]

#2 is dead simple: You're feeding him the output of your board, which has your voice via the mic *and* his voice because you're mixing his voice in via the output of the computer into the board. So he hears himself "locally", then he hears what you are feeding him, which is you *plus* him. This "echos" because skype has latency, as it is traveling over a "slow" network (the Internet).

There are at least three solutions to this problem:

1. Do a "double ender". In English, this means that you record your voice (and only your voice) on your end, and he records his voice (again *just* him) on his end. One of you then ships a sound file to the other and the other then combines the two recordings to make a "perfect" mix, since the sound quality of both parties will be from local recordings. This will produce extremely high quality results. Probably the easiest way to do this is to feed yourself from your mixer into the line input of your computer. Record from this same input. In order to hear your cohost, monitor through the computer's sound output. That way you can hear yourself and your cohost.

2. Send him a "mix minus". This is fairly simple. You will monitor via your board's headphone (or control room) outputs as normal, mixing both you and him into your monitor. However, that's not what you'll feed the computer. Instead, send an AUX output to the computer's line input. This aux output should contain *only* you. Dial up the gain on the aux knob on your mic channel and it will be fed to the aux output, which you feed to the computer's line input. That way, he'll only hear you, but you'll hear you *and* him. This will work as a "double ender" if you then record on the computer from the line input. YOu'll record only you. He must then record himself the same way and you must eventually mix the two files together.

3. Exactly as in #2, except for the recording. Instead of recording on the computer, instead record *exactly* what you hear from the board. Still send the AUX output to the computer as a mix minus so he hears only you. Send the main outputs or record outputs of the board to a different recording device. This could be another computer, a stand alone digital recorder, or even an MP3 recorder like the IRiver. I've been stunned by the audio quality of my cheap $100 IRiver 790, even when recording music via my mixing board.

Solution #2 is probably the best quality output, combined with the best way of you monitoring yourself. Solution #3 allows you to mix in real time and still get a pretty good recording, though your cohost's voice quality will be limited by Skype. Solution #1 will definitely work and will produce a high quality final mix, but you might have to do some messing with the setup as you may hear yourself echo if your sound card has any latency, etc.

I hope this helps.

Brian.

[shelholtz]

Brian, this is great; thank you!

One question on #3, which looks to be our best solution. Will my co-host hear the audio I mix? We play audio comments from listeners to which we respond, so he'll need to be able to hear these.

Thanks again!

[shelholtz]

Thank you, Craig; I'm going to try that line in the feed.

I'm a big fan and regular listener to BTS, btw.

[shelholtz]

Hi, John. No, we're both using headsets.

I'm on a Mac (PowerBook G4), so the Windows settings aren't a factor.

Thanks, everybody, for your help.

[BrianGentry]

Shel,

I'm assuming you play the audio comments using your computer, route these to the mixer for level setting, then back out to the computer for recording and skype sending. If that's the case, I don't think this will work for you, as you are relying upon the mixer sending the output of your computer back to itself for recording. This would be fine, except that you're going to be sending you partner's voice back to himself again, so he's going to hear the echo.

Once again, there are several solutions.

1. Maybe skype (and windows audio) can be configured so that computer sounds that you play are routed to your partner via skype. This would be the easiest solution. I'm not sure how to do this, or if it's even possible.
2. Play the audio comments from an external source like another computer, MP3 player, CD player, etc. Feed this external source to a seperate channel on the mixer. Set the level of the comments with the channel fader on the mixer. However, that will only set the level in the final mix. For your cohost to hear the comments too, just turn up the aux send level on that channel until he can hear comments at a good volume for him, the same way you'll do with the aux send on your vocal channel that you are feeding him.

The idea of the "mix minus" is to send your cohost everything that you are putting into the main mix EXCEPT for himself. That's why it's a mix minus: It's the whole mix, minus the "caller" (in this case your cohost).

This might sound a bit complicated. It's really not too bad, as long as you break down each of the things you are trying to accomplish. For a really complicated setup, you should see what Leo Laporte (sp?) has. He's the former host of "call for help" on Tech TV, and now has a podcast called This Week In Tech (TWIT) which you may have heard of.

I got to see his setup on an online video cast from the "revision 3" site. Check it out here if you'd like: Systm Podcasting Episode (http://revision3.com/systm/podcasting/)
Caution: The video is HUGE and about 30 minutes long. THere's only maybe 1 to 2 minutes of discussion about the "mix minus", but he does go over his setup in pretty good detail for 8 to 10 minutes.

Hope this helps.

Brian.

[shel]

Thanks again, Brian, for taking the time to spell this all out for me. I've got it set up and am about to give it a try.

[BrianGentry]

Glad to help. Mixer setups are extremely fun IMHO. Let us know how this works out for you; I'm quite curious to hear if my advice actually made a difference in your setup.

Brian.

[Craig]

Thank you, Craig; I'm going to try that line in the feed.

I'm a big fan and regular listener to BTS, btw.
Let me know how it works out. And thanks for listening to BTS, which hasn't been so regular lately! I've actually got something like four new shows planned out but the Expo is keeping me busy and I probably won't be able to get to them until after it. I'm going to try and put something out tomorrow though.

Craig

[JasonVanOrden]

1. Maybe skype (and windows audio) can be configured so that computer sounds that you play are routed to your partner via skype. This would be the easiest solution. I'm not sure how to do this, or if it's even possible.


One way to do this is to have a separate computer on one end join in a Skype conference call with you. Then have this computer's audio piped into Skype. You can play your audio clips from this computer and you will both hear it and can then comment.

This works fine if you are doing a double-ender. The clips coming from the third computer won't be recorded on either end (which is probably good since the sound will be not as good over Skype anyway).

Then in post-editing you can just insert the original audio clip in at the appropriate spot (which should be silence on both of your voice tracks while you are "listening").

Let me know if this needs clarification.

Jason

[shel]

Craig, I wish I could be at the Expo, but I'll be in Hawaii instead. My wife is celebrating one of this milestone birthdays, and I figured I'd take her someplace where she wouldn't care so much.

I tested the mix-minus setup using the iPod (jacked into one of the mixer inputs) and it worked great. No echo. Recording to the Marantz PMD-660 I've been using for backup and field interviews. Thanks, everybody!