WTF EX

I certainly do not claim to be a podcasting expert by any stretch of the imagination. Even after doing this for a bit over four years now, I still run into random tech problems and sound quality issues that I can not always perfectly troubleshoot, though I do the best I can.

The spontaneously-combusting XLR cables are not my fault, though. I swear.

I know it has been well over  a year since the last podcast episode (if you could call it that) for this blog, but I made it a point to say that shows here would be when I have something to say, and I would not do them just for the sake of doing them. That being said, I actually have an idea for a show to do. It is incredibly “meta” (and specifically about podcasting), but that is OK with me if it is OK with you! You have read before how I have upgraded equipment over the years, and what my typical workflow is for producing a show. That was a while ago, though, and a few things have changed.

I really want to do an updated version of that, but more from the audio end of it rather than a text-and-images description. It fine and dandy to talk about it, but what does it all sound like…? Sure, you could compare the earliest episodes of Daizenshuu EX‘s podcast to some of the most current ones, but that would be a pain to do.

What I am planning on doing is recording a few segments, under very controlled (read: “ideal”) situations in terms of surroundings and acoustics, to showcase exactly what my different microphones really sound like, and how that makes a difference for the listener. With myself more than anyone else you will be able to tell how upgrading and tweaking a few things can make a huge difference — it’s no secret that my regular male co-hosts Jeff and Julian have amazing, deep, booming, perfect radio voices, where-as I have to over-compensate.

Not that I can’t form a coherent sentence, or anything like that. Oh, Hell… if you’re reading this blog, you know what I’m talking about!

In a nutshell, I have a pretty good idea of how that part of the show will go. You will hear the different types of mics, positioning from them, what the most basic of software can do to help with it, blah blah blah. What about the other side, though? Is there anything about the behind-the-scenes production that you are interested in learning about? Not necessarily the tech behind things… but the research, methods, reasons, schedules, time-sinks… that kind of stuff.

In general, is there anything about any of the shows I am involved with (Daizenshuu EX, lo-fidelity, vgconvos) that you are curious about? Why we do the things we do and how we do them? Let me know! I will probably pull Jeff on that later segment to answer with me, because he’s just such a swell guy.

Jeff and I have streamed our recording of lo-fidelity live a few times. We do so over on my Stickam account through a second computer (my laptop) while his is busy with the normal audio recording for the show. Up until last night, we’ve always just done it where the laptop picks up the audio through its internal mic, since the mixer is outputting to the Mac for audio recording.

Well, the mixer has the main-out as well as the tape-out. I busted out my audio cables last night and did a proper line-in to the laptop to complement the video feed it was serving. The feedback from the audience was great (being that the audio was great… no-one ever said the show was great ), so next time we broadcast, we’ll be doing it “correctly” again.

That gets me wondering, though… what do we gain from broadcasting it live?

I’m well aware of the effort it takes to build and maintain that “sticky” audience that we all so desire, and little things like fixing the audio on a live stream go a long way. How about that live stream, though? What purpose does it serve? Quite frankly, it seems pretty egotistical… people love us so much, they want to watch us as we record our shows! Aren’t we so flippin’ great?!

I don’t really think that about myself, though. No, seriously. If you were hanging with us last night, you heard me complaining about Jeff and his amazing radio voice and how much of a struggle it is for me sometimes to get into the range I want to be in. There are plenty of things I don’t like about my various shows, so adding a video stream on top of that just seems crazy.

I think it works for lo-fidelity, though. Jeff and I have both been podcasting for a few years, and we both edit our own main shows. We know the effort it takes. We know what goes into it all. Due to all that, this particular show is far more conversational than the one I do for Daizenshuu EX, and so it works well for a live stream… no random dead-air (not much, anyway ^_~), no confusion over what’s happening next, no piece-meal recordings (with the exception of the ahead-of-time Anamanaguchi interview), etc. We are able to get immediate feedback, too, and while we definitely gear it toward being a damn solid audio program and really just video stream because we can… it’s nice to pull in a couple random live things here and there, like someone’s off-the-cuff Top 5 list to go along with our own.

That doesn’t really address the bigger question of added-value, though. So I guess it’s best to ask you all — the ones who are following me enough to be reading this blog. Do you have any interest in video feeds of the podcast recordings? What do you find interesting / disinteresting about them? Know that we don’t have the time or resources to put on big productions, so if and when we stream anything, it’s just going to be… yep, some folks sitting around mics recording a podcast.

Really curious, though!

This is a subject I am heavily conflicted on.

Ever since the dawn of Daizenshuu EX (and VegettoEX’s Home Page and Ultimate DBZ Links Page before them), I have done anything and everything in my power to keep things as “real” and “transparent” as I can with the site. I have never asked the community for anything, and do not expect anything in return for running the site. There have been plenty of generous “donations” over the years (for example, our buddy godofchaos has been hosting the podcast for us free of charge, and we’ll be porting over the forum to his server in the near future; many years ago our old buddy Scott, or SREDBZ, used to host our website for us). We’ve even had prize donations for website contests. These have always been unsolicited, mean the world to us, and make the community a better place.

I’ve had people ask about monetary donations in the past, but I’ve always struck them down. This is for fans, BY fans, gosh darn it! Things are a little different now. I’m not a 16-year-old punk kid starting a links page. The wife and I are lucky to be two educated adults with full-time, well-paying jobs, but there’s no denying what the current economic situation is.

Time to be a little realistic. Especially with our first home purchase entering the picture, one can’t help but wonder what a couple extra bucks would mean.

There are new guide books coming out. There are new CDs coming out. Shipping from Japan ain’t cheap. Equipment could use replacing and upgrading. Thinking about trying some new conventions.

Despite never having done so in the past, I’m seriously considering putting up a PayPal “Donate Now!” button over on Daizenshuu EX. Part of me feels… ya’ know, so what? Tons of other websites, blogs, and podcasts do this (including some of my favorites). I even paid for a premium version of a podcast for a while before it unfortunately passed on, and I didn’t think twice about supporting it. I tossed a couple bucks over to the CO-OP guys right after they got laid off from 1UP.

The other part of me freezes up and feels like a total sell-out. It goes against everything I’ve tried to do in the past. I feel like we are in such a (comparatively speaking) great, financially-secure place… what right do I have to ask anyone for anything, even indirectly like this? What reason do they even have to take me seriously?

So I guess that’s what my question is. What reason(s) do you have for even taking such a request seriously? If you saw that button pop up, how would you feel? How do you think the rest of the fanbase and community, the ones who don’t take the time to respond but are just as important, would feel? What would you like to see done with any donation you may or may not make, regardless of how little or grand it may or may not be?

I’m definitely waiting to hear your responses. It’s not as important or dire as I think I’ve made it out to be, but your thoughts and responses are genuinely welcome. I’m going to cross-post this on the Daizenshuu EX forum (there’s obviously a larger reader base there right now), but please feel free to leave blog comments. If you would rather privately send your thoughts, go ahead and just send them on over to VegettoEX@aol.com.

Thanks so much, everyone!

So this weekend marks the re-debut of Lo-Fidelity, the music review/appreciation podcast that Jeff and our buddy Brad started up over a year ago and put on hiatus after about ten episodes. Jeff has been talking about getting back into the groove of podcasting on his own for a while, and Lo-Fidelity was going to be the way he would do it. After a search for a permanent co-host for himself going forward, he ultimately approached me and asked if I would be willing to help out and do such. I agreed on the one condition that Brad continued to be involved with the show in some way, shape, or form. Anyway, “Episode 11” came out this weekend, and I am incredibly psyched to be a part of it. Now that yet another internet audio product with my voice is out there, I thought it would be a good time to re-evaluate everything that I am working on, what the original goals were for those projects, and where I would like to see them go.

Daizenshuu EX (www.daizex.com)

While a wee circa-sixteen year old child in 1998, I started up a fansite for a silly little Japanese cartoon. One of my goals when starting up the site (written right on the web page) was a completely egotistical, slightly delusional, and childish aim to become something like a “household name”. I guess I was looking to be an internet celebrity before they existed. As the years went on and I realized that this was going to be a hobby for me and I would be entering the “real world” and such, I became much more genuine with my intents and goals for the site. I wanted to do things that either: 1) no-one had ever done before, or 2) bigger and better than anyone had done before. Fast-forward many years to 2005, and the idea of a “podcast” is suddenly becoming serious business on the internet. Due to the site simply being so old and nothing more than a hobby, many of the things I wanted to do with it were simply impossible, but starting up this new portion of it would allow me to keep up with the times, so to speak, and bring something completely new to the table that few anime sites were doing, let-alone one-show-specific fansites. It has since been the main pet-project of mine (in general and for the website), but it has also allowed me to generate some pretty amazing content that I otherwise would probably never have done, so I am very thankful for that. As more and more time passes, I find myself incredibly conflicted on what I want to do and how I want to cover it for the website; the podcast allows me to explore any and all avenues and still generate compelling content at the same time.

Video Game Conversations Podcast (www.vgconvos.com)

In very early 2008 I decided to do two things: 1) put some of my new podcasting equipment to another use to get a good bang for my buck, and 2) be very greedy and get my friends to come talk about video games with me (this is the kind of stuff we sit around and talk about, anyway, so I thought it made sense to turn it into a show!). I also had a lot of random video game musings that I did not have an appropriate outlet for, so I figured a new website that I could both randomly blog on and also do a new podcast on would be a great idea. Jeff was itching to do some recording at the time (with Lo-Fidelity being on hold), and I somehow convinced Andrew to come record with us, as well. We have now been going for half a year, and I think we have a really good basis for something very nice down the road. I am happy with keeping the podcast monthly, and I do not see that changing at all. I love that I have a place to write random bits of gaming nonsense, and I love even more when one of the other guys also write content. As you have just read (and are possibly confused by), I am slightly conflicted in my goals for the site; I want to keep it this side-project with minimal effort, but I think there is a great basis for a larger entity that I would truly love to explore. Huh.

WTF EX (www.vegettoex.com)

Once we launched vgconvos, I thought it would be nice to have a single place online that I could link out to all of these projects I had. I created vegettoex.com as this place, and further decided to toss up a blog on it so I could have yet another outlet that would be my catch-all; if it didn’t relate to DB or video games, this would be the place to write it. I then decided (does my train of thought even make any sense?) that since I had this catch-all place, if I ever wanted to do a podcast about something else completely random, well, this would be the place for it. I so far have only done three episodes, and while I have enjoyed them, this is something I need and want to be very careful about. I certainly do not want this to be (and we slightly addressed this in the first episode), “Oh, Mike just likes listening to the sound of his own voice!” It certainly isn’t. Well… is it? It is also something that I have mentioned time and time again, but there is so much garbage out there in the world that it almost pains me. Most podcasts are terrible. Most panels that I have seen at conventions are terrible. While I never pretend to be the best at anything I do and expect to automatically have legions of followers, I do believe that the material I put out is well above the level of being “meh”, and this lets me put out non-DB and non-gaming better-than-“meh” material. I will absolutely strive not to do shows just for the sake of doing shows, and will make them worthwhile and enjoyable. I have tried to do many blog posts that follow that school of thought, and I hope to continue it with the podcast in the future. Just don’t expect much of a regular schedule! In the end, I expect to use the site more for its blog than anything else, and the podcast will be an extension of that for topics that can’t be covered in a simple blog post or otherwise need more “hosts” to discuss it.

Lo-Fidelity (www.lofidelity.info)

This has almost become a second-priority podcast all of a sudden! I told Jeff I was unable to commit to a weekly schedule, so for now we are shooting for bi-weekly and we will see how it goes. I absolutely adore the format and content of the show, and I want to help my friends with their podcast endeavors in any way that I can. I thought the “first episode” we did for the re-launch was extremely solid, and I am so happy to be a part of it. Furthermore, I love that all I have to do is just do my homework (listen to music), show up to record, and my job is done. I don’t have to edit, I don’t have to mix… it’s wonderful! I’m sure this is how Jeff feels about all the project he’s done with me!

I have basically created a mini-audio-empire for myself with three (what I consider) very solid shows, and a random extra tossed into the mix. What do I want to do with all of this, though? This is all just side-project hobby stuff for me. Sure, I have a “real life” job where I do similar things (including yet another podcast), but what does this contribute to the world? Am I accomplishing anything? What is the meaning of life? Who is going to win the Super Bowl? Why did I just ask a football question when I can’t care any less about the sport?