Portland Podcasting

GigaVox Levelator - the most important thing to happen at Portable Media Expo 2006

2006-10-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

I didn’t make it to the Portable Media and Podcast Expo down in Ontario, California this year. I went last year, and had a great time. Met a ton of people at various stages of their podcast careers. Some have faded away, and others have found success. I came home with lots of thoughts about my approach to podcasting, and ultimately, because of all that, shifted to an occasional podcast when appropriate, like Dave Winer’s Morning Coffee Notes, rather than holding myself to trying to do a regular “show” like Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code.

At any rate, I’ve been following PME via the blogosphere this year. Paul Colligan has provided pretty good coverage from the angle of someone interested in the commercial possibilities, and the “portablemediaexpo” tag on Flickr has had lots of photos to get a general feel for the event.

Even though I wasn’t there in person, I wanted to write about what I feel is the most significant thing to happen at PME this year - GigaVox Media released “The Levelator” - a free application for Windows and Mac that acts like a compressor/limiter, and does some fancy RMS normalization. Doug Kaye teased us with the promise of an app like this last year at PME, and the wait was worth it.

If you’ve ever recorded a podcast with two or more people, or various sound clips, and tried to get them all to sound equally loud (levels) using something like Audacity or Adobe Audition, then you know it’s a time consuming and frustrating process. The Levelator does all of that for you like magic. Really. Magic. Simply drop your audio file on it, and it will churn out a file with near perfect levels. Basically, it does in software post-production what it would take thousands of dollars of audio equipment and a skilled recording engineer to do “live”.

I’ve tried it on some audio files I had laying around, and hadn’t published because I needed to fix the levels, and hadn’t found the time to do it manually. The Levelator works like a charm. I’m really impressed so far, and I’m going to recommend it to all the people I know who produce podcasts.

If you do audio production, give it a try, and see if it earns a place in your workflow. It definitely has in mine. Many thanks to Doug, Michael, Bruce, Malcolm, Paul, and all the others that probably had a hand in this amazingly useful tool. And thanks for making it free. GigaVox Media and the Conversations Network continue to make enormous contributions to the world of podcasting. You guys rock!

Portland Social Media Association

2006-09-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

The Portland Podcasting group is being rebirthed as the Portland Social Media Association - we'll have the website www.portlandsocialmedia.com up shortly.
The PSMA will help us move beyond discussions of just podcasting and into the many other developing and excting social media areas; like,

videoblogging
photoblogging
blogging
wikis
social media services
social bookmarking
massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) - i.e. Second Life
social networks
viral video

So, in order for us to get started, we've put together a survey we'd like you to take - there's only two questions, so easy! You'll find the Portland Social Media survey at SurveyMonkey.

Mailing List

2006-08-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

Are you on the Portland Podcasting mailing list? If not -- here is the form:

http://www.deltaparkproject.com/meetup/

happy+middle - Vodcast

2006-08-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

Suburban Fight Society

From the creators of the Delta Park Project comes - happy+middle.

happy+middle is a weekly sketch comedy vodcast that aims to mildly amuse you. Based in Portland, Oregon the show is a lot like SNL only it isn't on TV and isn't released on Saturdays.

The crew is made up of 3 improv actors; a professional videographer/editor; a former television producer and a dietitian (of course).

The first video is called 'Suburban Fight Society' and is a Fight Club spoof centering on a group of suburbanites who get together in a garage to talk, laugh and hit each other with chairs.

You can find the show at:

http://www.happymiddle.com

and subscribe to the feed at:

http://feeds.happymiddle.com/happymiddle

OMSI Podcast

2006-08-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was thinking, "I wonder if OMSI has a podcast?"—the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Yep, they do.

Hey kids (if there are any reading), have any questions you really want answered by a scientist? Well, submit your quesitons and one will answer it on the next podcast (great idea!).

GoDaddy Launches Podcast Service

2006-08-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

The new service, Quick Podcast, offers podcasters hosting and publishing services starting at $5 a month.

read more | digg story

July's Meeting Recap

2006-07-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

We had a great meetup on the 12th at Urban Grind coffeehouse. Jason from the Delta Park Project gave us a sneak peek into what Anna and him are cooking up for you later this summer - you'll love it.

Diane from CraftyPod made an appearance; which was great because she'd been trying to come out for a while. CraftyPod is the perfect podcast for those into making stuff. The podcast covers a lot of ground and the topics change each show; great for those uber-craftsters just fiening for challenging projects.

I think Diane understood everything we said; it's tough, sometimes we cover a lot of ground when the conversations starts going. But, if you're looking for more information, tips and hints on growing your podcast or video podcast, make sure to check us out - we meet once a month at the Urban Grind coffeehouse in NE Portland.

Spam and Forum Changes

2006-06-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

I've been deleting a couple of nasty porn spam posts from the forums about once a day, and I'm tired of it. I had changed the permissions so that only registered users could post, so the spammers just registered and kept posting.

So now, I've made it so that only Moderators can post to the forums. "But," you say, "I'm not a moderator! How am I going to post?"

Simple. Go make yourself a moderator. I made the Moderators group "open", so you can join it by logging into the forums, and going to the usergroups page. Choose to join Moderators, and you should be good.

Now, this gives you a little extra power with regard to what you can do on the forums, but our community is tight enough that I trust you guys. Any abuses will cause me to change my mind. And if the freaking spammers join the Moderators group to continue to post, well, I'll have to take more drastic action.

Let me know if you have any questions.

2006-05-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

Cool.

May's Meeting

2006-05-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

May 10th is this month's Portland Podcasting meeting at the NE Urban Grind coffeehouse at 7pm. After missing two consecutive meetings, I'm excited to be able to finally attend again. I know Jason Ruby has a great question to ask everyone and get your feedback on, but other then that nothing is planned. Well..not nothing (double negative?!), we'll be hanging out drinking coffee, and talking about podcasting.

If you're new to podcasting or a pro, make sure to make some time to attend this month's meeting.

Took down the wiki

2006-05-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

I had an instance of MediaWiki running at wiki.tinyscreenfuls.com. I used it for miscellaneous things (presentations, lists, etc.) for myself, and also for Blogging Academy and the Portland Podcasting community.

The problem is, spam got to be too much of a hassle. At first, it was only a couple of vandalisms per week. I'd simply roll them back, and ban the author. But this week, the volume has increased significantly. I know I could lock down access to it, but I don't want to mess with it right now, so I just took it down.

It will probably come back at some point, in a more secure form, but for now, it's one less thing for me to worry about.

Want to know the ironic part? It never got that much traffic, and MediaWiki enforces the rel=nofollow tag on all links, so it wasn't generating the spammers any Google juice. Not sure what, if anything, they were getting out of it, but they won't be using it at all any more. :-)

Doug Kaye's "Recording Phone Calls" Session from Podcast Academy is now live!

2006-05-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

At Podcast Academy last year, by far the most informative session (for me) was Doug Kaye's session on "Recording Phone Calls and Live Events". He taught me everything I know about how to do a decent recording of a phone or VoIP/Skype call, and got me on the right track to be able to do it well.

Here's an excerpt from the summary:

The phone is a fairly complicated piece of technology, Kaye explains. Speakers' voices can be captured at different points via couplers, hybrid interfaces, or ISDN hardware, each of which can be processed with varying degrees of control. Kaye shares "Uncle Doug's Cheap Trick" for recording in a conference call style so that all speakers come through at similar levels. More expensive gear such as a telephone hybrid can produce a professional sound using a "mix minus" approach to separate individual speaker tracks.

I use "Uncle Doug's Cheap Trick" to simulate "mix minus" on my mixer at home, for Skype calls. I end up with my voice on the left channel, and the callers' on the right channel, making post processing and fixing levels a breeze.

At work, I use a handy-dandy little box from ARTcessories called "MyMonitor". It's meant for musicians, but just happens to simulate the effect of "mix minus" (sending your voice but not the callers' back down the line to them), at a cost of $60 (compared to a specialized telephone hybrid device like the Telos One at $700).

If you're a podcaster and/or anyone who has ever wanted or needed to record a phone or VoIP conversation, don't miss this IT Conversations podcast from Doug!

Tim Germer - Podcast Rock Star

2006-04-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

Tim Germer - Podcast Rock Star
Originally uploaded by JoshB.

Blurry at Podcast on the Floor.

Future of Podcasting Workshop

2006-04-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

Future of Podcasting Workshop
Originally uploaded by JoshB.

At Podcast on the Floor.

KATU News and Weather podcasts, Other Portland Media podcasts?

2006-04-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

I noticed (via a post by Betsy over on Metroblogging Portland) that KATU news now has audio and video news and weather podcasts. Nice! I'll check them out, and see if they're worthwhile.

I wonder who over there is working on podcasting, and if we could get them to join us at a meetup? I love to see podcasting taking off like this! :-)

Oh, and head over to Betsy's post at Metroblogging about PDX-specific podcasts, and give her some recommendations!

EDIT: Looks like KGW has a podcast page, but it's all recycled AP stuff - nothing local that I could find. Yawn. Couldn't find any mention of podcasts on KOIN.com.

Any other local "old" media outlets trying to get into podcasting? I know I've talked to the Oregonian about it a couple of times, but haven't seen anything from them yet. Post a comment or over in the forums if you find more!

Evoca web recorder podcast publisher thingy - like Odeo

2006-03-27T14:24:00.000-08:00

Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch points out Evoca - a new web service that appears to have Odeo in their sights. Lets you record and publish audio straight from your browser (or a phone), and even automates the creation of a podcast feed for you.

Probably not for everyone, but might be useful for some. ~~Check it out~~ or don't, and let us know what you think in the comments below, or on the Forums! :-)

EDIT: Jason points out some pretty scary wording in the Evoca Terms of Agreement that basically says they will own your content (and possibly soul and firstborn child) if you use the service. Check out Jason's comment, and caveat podcastor.

Sigs and Avatars Enabled on the Forums

2006-03-17T08:51:00.000-08:00

Even though the vote was a tie, Paul was persuasive enough to get me to enable signature blocks and avatar images (no uploads) on the Portland Podcasting Forums.

Knock yourselves out! :-)

Do you want to turn on signatures in the Forums?

2006-03-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

Over in the Portland Podcasting Forums, signature blocks are currently disabled. I did this because they generally add too much noise, IMO, and I personally don't like them.

But, people have asked, and since this site belongs to the community, I pass the question on to you.

Do you guys want to turn on signatures (and avatars - the little images next to your name) on the Portland Podcasting Forums?

Post a comment or otherwise let me know, and if you want it, we'll turn it on.

Oregonian articles on Podcasting are Available

2006-03-10T09:06:00.000-08:00

The newspaper article that Steve Woodward of the Oregonian interviewed me, Tim, and Jason and Anna for (there are two parts - one called "Meet the Pod Squad" and one called "Podcasts Made Simple") is now available, on the Oregonian's website OregonLive, and they should be on the cover of the "Living" section of today's (March 10, 2006) dead-tree (paper) edition of the Oregonian.

Check them out! They do a great job of telling Jason and Anna's story, and Steve did a good job of filtering through all of the technical geek speak I gave him when he interviewed me and only sharing the relevant stuff. :-)

A Note from Tim on Momentum

2006-03-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

Here's a note from our fearless leader, Tim Germer, that was sent out to our mailing list. Reposted here for posterity:

Hey Guys and Gals!

I hope last night's meeting went well. If you have the chance, please click on over to the Portland Podcasting Forums (http://portlandpodcasting.org/forums/index.php) for those "offline" discussions. Also, the wiki is always in need of your expertise and attention (http://tinyscreenfuls.com/wiki/index.php?title=PortlandPodcasting).

In regards to our Meetup.com presence, we made a move away from Meetup.com a couple months ago, and I've found a majority of people in the group in agreeance with that decision. Though we've lost some functionality and visibility Meetup.com provided, I feel we're now free to solicit help from our members to help build-out our online presence. I think we've gained momentum in controlling where we all want to go.

With that said, I don't feel it's right to re-birth a Meetup.com group named "Portland Podcasting _________". I say that because I would hate to see confusion degrade the momentum and success the group has experienced.

If personalities and motivations are bubbling with excitement about podcasting/video 'casting/personal media/money making ideas I'd suggest you open a dialogue with the group in where you'd like us to head. Any member that has an idea or who wants to lead demands our complete attention and consideration. Thanks ya'll! ;)

Best,

Tim Germer

There have been a couple of messages sent from the old Meetup.com system by a person that isn't really part of our group. Please ignore those messages, unless you're interested in getting together with that person, and forming a separate group from the Portland Podcasting Association.

Our plan is to keep on rocking the monthly meetings at Urban Grind, and our online community here at PortlandPodcasting.org. We're always up for new ideas and suggestions, so come join in the fun! :-)

"The Oregonian" article on Podcasting to run March 10

2006-03-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

I was contacted by Steve Woodward, a reporter for the Oregonian, to be interviewed for an article on podcasting that he was working on. I went downtown last week and had a great, excited chat with Steve. I recorded the audio (with his permission, of course), to make the interesting parts of our conversation available as a podcast. I'm working on that, and it will be coming soon.

The article is going to run in The Oregonian on this Friday, March 10, on the cover of the Living section. I'll link to the online version as soon as it becomes avaialble.

Fellow Portland Podcasters Jason Ruby and Anna Johns (Delta Park Project), and Tim Germer (Northwest Noise) were also interviewed. It should be a great article - can't wait to see it. :-)

Portland Podcast March Round-Up

2006-03-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

Podcast Stars!

The March Round-Up (Meeting, Conference, etc.) is almost here, so I'm firing off the ceremonial "what do you want to dicuss at the meeting" type email. So, what topics or areas of interest would you like to discuss?

Second, are their people that would love to present!? All you guys and gals and very smart, so feel free to jump up on the stage and let us know what you're working on or have accomplished (it doesn't have to be a feat of technical wizardry).

I was thinking of setting up tables that mimicked the layout of our forum - so we'd have a [1] Shoot the Breeze table a [2] Podcasting Hardware table a [3] Podcasting Software table, etc. and I would like one person there, with a laptop, to take notes into our Wiki of the discussions taking place. Sound like a good idea?

Pandora coming to PDX March 6 and 7

2006-03-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

Just noticed this on the company blog for Pandora - a way cool music streaming service, where you give it examples of music you like, and it streams you a customized playlist of stuff you'll also like. Very slick.

Anyway, the guys from Pandora are coming to Portland:

I'm very excited to announce our trip next week to our friendly neighbors to the North. I'll be heading up to Portland, Oregon for a couple days of musical exploration and conversation - March 6th - 7th. The main event of the trip is a 'town hall' get together at Music Millenium (801 NW 23rd Avenue) on Tuesday evening at 6pm to talk radio and digital music. Terry Currier, the longtime owner has generously agreed to host us at this indie music mecca. I'll be joined by Rick Emerson, a much beloved local radio personality, active blogger, and longtime music industry commentator for a provocative discussion on 'radio in the digital age.' Peter Carlin, journalist for the Oregonian, and a thoughtful writer on media will moderate, incite and lead what will
hopefully be a lively and informative conversation about the impact of the digital revolution on the modern music industry, with a particular focus on radio.

It should be great discussion. I hope you'll come by to join the conversation.

Check it out if you're interested. Sounds like there needs to be some podcast representation there in the discussion, especially right here in our own backyard

EDIT: Looks like the Pandora folks have added some more stops to the itinerary:

We have couple other events planned as well, including a meetup at Mississippi Pizza (3552 N Mississippi Avenue) on Monday evening at 6:30pm. After this I'll be heading over to Goodfoot Pub then possibly Ash Street Saloon to check out the local talent at their weekly open mics. Company is welcome. The more the merrier.

Last time I headed up I5, there were six of us packed in a van with the PA system and more music equipment that we should have been able to fit. This time I'm heading out with a laptop, boxes of T-shirts and caps, and empty bags that I hope to fill with a wonderful and eclectic collection of local recordings. I'm hoping to come away with a better understanding of the local music scene, and with armfuls of great new music for our musician analysts to sink their teeth into.

FeedBurner Feature Refresh

2006-02-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

TechCrunch is reporting on FeedBurner's new functionality, to be launched this morning. Of most interest to me is the following:

e) Podcasters - better feed level download tracking. In addition to subscribers we now identify the number of people that actually downloaded a particular podcast. This will get even more robust in the future as we provide download numbers from the podcast on the site and sum that with the feed based downloads. This release is feed based downloads only.

Sign up with TextPayMe, get $5 free, help me earn an Xbox 360

2006-02-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

Some of my blogger friends (like Chris Pirillo) have been talking a lot about a new service called TextPayMe, that lets you send PayPal-like payments to people using SMS text messages. So you can split your dinner bill among friends, or whatever else you need.

When you sign up for an account, they'll give you $5 free in your account (just like PayPal did in the early days).

In addition, if you sign up through the affiliate link below, and I get 36 people to do so, I'll get a free Xbox 360.

I figure there have to be at least 36 of you that are interested in getting $5 free, so help a geek out, and clicky clicky! :-)