Not to nitpick was doubtless a tough edit because of my audio issues, but the force is strong with you guys again (you're predicting my answers before I give them). Based on a bit of an echo I heard there is about 3 seconds early on you guys.
That said there's usually enough silence and we don't overtalk each other that much, so others might not notice it. You and Ryu are perfectly synced. I'm the one who is off.
Not to sound like I'm making excuses but I do try my best to make sure the audio is in sync as best I can with every episode. The audio issues were
MASSIVE this week. I'm not kidding when I tell you that I put in a good 8 hours editing this show between Friday night and Saturday morning/afternoon. In addition to the prep time for the show and the actual recording that was nearly 12 total hours put into this one episode. Compared to other episodes, which usually take 4 hours to edit, and about 6-8 total with prep and recording, it is usually not NEARLY this much time. I'm not bitching, I'm just being real. At some point my hobby starts becoming an annoyance to my wife and son who are wanting to spend time with me on the weekend. Usually, when editing the show, I don't listen to the whole thing while editing. There's a few reasons for this: 1) Audacity runs SUPER slow when making edits as it is and I can't afford to buy better/more efficient audio editing software. 2) I don't want to spend my whole weekend trying to put this thing together.
In lieu of listening to whole show while editing, I look for certain clues that there are issues. Without being able to show you a visual representation, I'll do my best to describe. This week because of the huge amounts of echo from your track, I could easily see where the echoes were because they were running right over the top of Ryu or I when we were talking. There are also clues I look for to identify background noises. Another thing I do is every time I see where an exchange takes place between people, I listen to those exchanges to identify if the audio is off sync or to see if there's something I should remove. If it is off sync then I make changes to re-sync it. There may be times in every episode where I might miss something from time to time but I do my best to try to catch all of the errors and fix them.
As I have mentioned before, I believe the out of sync issues happen as a result of some flaw in the Audacity program itself. I think they mainly start to happen when I start trying to cut out background noises and echoes from the tracks. There is a command I can use to replace those pieces of audio with silence. I think that the program doesn't do this perfectly. Instead it is usually short just a few moments of audio. Thus, putting the track off sync after a while. If I had the cash, I would certainly purchase a different type of audio editing software. I don't know if the Adobe audio editor runs any faster or more efficient but that would be my pick of choice.
Sorry for the mistakes man.
Flintlock said:
I didn't think this ^ issue was too bad. I listened all the way through and only noticed it two or three times.
I enjoyed the episode. Kinda lost my concentration half way through, but that'll happen with a two-hour episode. I picked it up again after a short while.
I have some feedback you can read out, which I'll email to you, and some "internal" feedback, which I'll post here.
It was a lengthier episode for sure. I think the Retrospective episodes will always run long. I actually just discussed this with JT and Ryu after we recorded this episode, in fact. I think as the games start to get longer we will start splitting the episodes in two. I could easily see where these episodes could start pushing 4 hours or so. So, we would record the full show and then I would split it in two in post edit.
I'm looking forward to reading your email, Flint!
Flintlock said:
I know we all do this for a hobby, but I wanted you to be a bit more professional at times. When reading out the story summary from Wikia, for example, you could have agreed who would read which part in advance rather than saying "Mike, you wanna take it from here?" every few paragraphs.
I guess, I don't think much of this. There are other podcasts I listen to where these types of cues are left in. If they truly are a problem, I can easily go in and start removing them. It's no big deal to do so.
Flintlock said:
When you were discussing the music, it might have been nice to play a few snippets without dialogue instead of just having it in the background, which sounded a bit strange.
Yeah, so I've been struggling with the music in the Retrospective series. I want to run music from the games, I am just never sure how the best way to do it would be. I have thought a time or two about just running music constantly underneath the whole show but I haven't gone that route. Instead, I've been kind of trying to slide the pieces in at certain points in the show. It's probably not working as well as I think it should. Putting a few snippets in the music section would probably be a pretty good suggestion. I'm open to other suggestions as well.
Flintlock said:
Ryu was full of interesting observations but when JT was reading out his final thoughts on the game, I really hoped he would be quiet for a bit. Sorry.
LOL! To me, that's just Ryu being Ryu. I don't let it get to me. He's a walking encyclopedia on the series. I like hearing his input. This is something we can tweak going forward though.
Flintlock said:
Still, I'm looking forward to the next one, and I might go back and listen to the FFI retrospective now, since I didn't before. I could even join you at some point in the future, if you want - I've played and completed almost all the games from IV onwards and I'm always happy to chew the fat about them. Also, did you need me to host the next regular podcast episode, Vader, and if so, when?
We actually just discussed this after recording this episode too. Yes, we do want others to join in on the discussion and playthroughs. We know that there are certain people on the forums that enjoy certain games. We are looking into inviting them to do the playthroughs and then joining us for the podcast recordings. An example would be you for Final Fantasy IV, Lex for Final Fantasy V, Fangu for Final Fantasy XII, etc, etc. I will definitely reach out to you when we start getting towards FFIV. Also, keep an eye on the Retrospective Podcast announcement thread. We actually keep that updated with what game we are playing and the expected completion dates for each.
As for needing you to do the next show, no, I should be able to do that one. It is post Thanksgiving. I may need some help as we get towards Christmas though. I'll let you know! Thanks for volunteering, I really appreciate it!
Also, did you need me to host the next regular podcast episode, Vader, and if so, when?