TLS Podcast - Episode 2

Pixel

The Pixie King
TLSPodcastLogo1.png

TheLifestream.net Podcast - Episode 2 with Ryu, Carlie, Trainer Red and I

News
1.12 500th article on TLS
6.42 Matsuda's mission statement
11.50 Final Symphony concert in Germany

Featured Discussions
14.40 Are FF stories getting more mature?
41.55 Are pre-rendered FMVs needed?

Featured Music
Terra in Black by Ailseen from http://ocremix.org/

Special thanks to Michael Lloyd as Sephiroth

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Lex

Administrator
If no one's done it by the time I wake up, I'll do it. You should really just have posted this in the Podcast thread though.
 

Pixel

The Pixie King
Each episode has its own thread in the news section. The one in the projects section is for attempting to organise stuff.
 

Fangu

Great Old One
Hahaha "shall I give you dis pear" hahahaha I laughed :lol:

Really nice podcast guys! I love having Carlie in it <3 Truly Carlie, you have a lot of excellent points. This one is a bit more quiet which is more to my taste. I also like how it is shorter, but that's just me. The discussion around XIII and XIII-2 and mature stories made me want to jump into the call :lol: Ryu I think you do a great job as host but I think you do better as a panel member because you sorta ask the questions AND answer them :lol: But I love how you guys mix it up and try different things, it's how you find the winning formula. Which you are very close to, these podcasts is a wonderful idea.

(I had 1/3 left of the podcast when I wrote this.)
 

AvecAloes

Donator
Good job guys. It's tighter and cleaner, and I've really enjoyed listening to it :)

I loved the audio of the FFVII commercial...if I hadn't known that it was for FFVII based on the podcast, I wouldn't have guessed that it was advertising the game at all. It definitely wasn't a faithful representation of what was in store for the player :P

Edit: I've got a post ready to publish, just have a question about the podcasts on iTunes, which I stated in the active project podcast thread.
 

Pixel

The Pixie King
I think we were all just kinda tired, so it had more of an intimate feel, less talking over eachother.

Forgot to get the tentacled one to put it on itunes. :/
 

Pixel

The Pixie King
I think next time I'll try hosting again. I know we can get it even tighter. I editted a big chunk out that kinda covered stuff we went through last podcast, and sort of meandered a bit.

It was kinda last minute too, so a bit disorganised. We'll address these problems next time.
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
I'm listening to it now. It's a shame that the quality of Ryu's voice is low. I guess it was the same last time, but it's more noticeable now that he's hosting. What is the limiting in the quality; internet connection, microphone? I'm just wondering if it's something we can fix.
 

Pixel

The Pixie King
I'm listening to it now. It's a shame that the quality of Ryu's voice is low. I guess it was the same last time, but it's more noticeable now that he's hosting. What is the limiting in the quality; internet connection, microphone? I'm just wondering if it's something we can fix.

I wonder that myself, since Im guessing its the same mic I got him for the audiobook recording. Maybe sitting away from the mic, or its set to record all around, rather than direct mode, which records whats infront of it.
 

Carlie

CltrAltDelicious
AKA
Chloe Frazer
The "Shall I give you dis pear?" part was hilarious, great job Pixel and everyone else on it, I had a lot of fun doing the podcast.
 

Ryushikaze

Deus Admiral Parsimonious, PHD, DDS, MD, JD, OBE
AKA
Tim, Ryu
I wonder that myself, since Im guessing its the same mic I got him for the audiobook recording. Maybe sitting away from the mic, or its set to record all around, rather than direct mode, which records whats infront of it.

A mix of being slightly farther away from the mic and being the host of the skype record.

I do need to figure out a better position for my mic, but my current computer setup sort of prevents it, given my office couch doesn't have wide enough armrests.
 

Geostigma

Pro Adventurer
AKA
gabe
I'm listening to it now. It's a shame that the quality of Ryu's voice is low. I guess it was the same last time, but it's more noticeable now that he's hosting. What is the limiting in the quality; internet connection, microphone? I'm just wondering if it's something we can fix.

Being the host of the call does take up quite a bit of bandwidth and can definitely impact voice quality for the speaker but can also potentially cause issues with others voice quality as well if the hosts net is not up to snuff :monster:
This is also of course compounded with many users connecting into the call.

The best solution is actually to have no one host lol.
For instance I admin on a Team Speak 3 server for AbsolutionGaming thats hosted on my buddies fiber connection, so everything comes in crystal clear because all accounts connecting in are not bearing any of the load.

Of course mic quality and accessories (do you have a pop filter?) and positioning will have a slight impact but I'd dare say bandwidth is the highest contributing factor.

I havent had a chance to sit down and listen to the cast yet but this bit has me intrigued

41.55 Are pre-rendered FMVs needed?

Cant wait to see what your thoughts are on this point, but would also like to see what the rest of TLS thinks as well.

I for one think going forward that they should be around still. Yes games already look very very nice but all things considered Current gen technology is very old, and next gen (PS4/Xbox) is optimistically going to be on par with a 2009-ish high end gaming rig.. So gaming could still look ALOT better especially considering how good high end rigs make games look today.

Pre-rendered scenes give console that chance to look as good as a PC game but with the glory of having a big screen tv project the imagery. As we all know SE is known for there excellent pre-rendered scenes and I for one cant wait to see what they can pull off next gen.
 

Pixel

The Pixie King
I would usually host the call because its usually a decent connection, but it was dropping on the recording night. I talk the least, so it makes sense for me to host the call.

I used variable bitrate when encoding, so its a smaller filesize. Though I dont think it has much of an effect on the audio quality, since it wasnt perfect to begin with.
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
I finally found time to listen to the whole podcast. I'll write up my thoughts, though I'm aware that this episode suffered from disorganisation. I hope the topics and recording schedule of the next episode are announced in advance :)

I think you need to stick to the topics a lot more. Yes, still. This episode was a little better than the first in that regard, but not by much. Final Fantasy XIII isn't even mentioned on the podcast's front page article, for example, yet you were talking about it for what felt like ten minutes. I completely forgot what you were actually supposed to be discussing at that point.

I'd still like to see the length of the show come down a bit. My idea of a perfect length is about 40 minutes, divided into three clear segments of 15, 10 and 15 minutes. The first should be used to introduce all the guests, state what is going to be discussed on the show, and then get straight in to the first, pre-selected topic. The second pre-selected topic should be discussed in the second segment. The third segment could be a bit more flexible. My idea would be to open it up by reading out a listener's comment or question, after which a discussion of the topic they brought up would take place. Then the host would encourage listeners to submit something for the next podcast, thank all the guests, and sign off. That would make it feel more interactive.

I wouldn't personally play any music at the end, unless a specific piece had already been brought up in discussion. Seeing as the show begins with the opening theme from Final Fantasy VII, how about closing the show with the music that plays at the end of the game?

I don't think every guest needs to speak about every topic. When I took part in a Nordic football podcast a couple of years ago, I spoke about Finnish football at length, and then stayed almost silent when the other guest spoke about Norwegian football, chipping in with no more than a single question in about fifteen minutes of discussion. It would have been silly for me to do otherwise, as I knew nothing about it and thus had nothing to add. If I were hosting it, I would ask people onto the pod who have specific areas of "expertise". That could just mean that they have played a particular Final Fantasy game a lot more than most others on TLS have, but it could also mean that they are a member of TLS staff with a specific responsibility. It would have been great to discuss the 500 articles milestone with Tres, for example. And I'm sure Tetsujin would have had some interesting things to say about the concert he attended. As another idea, if we have a community event coming up, then invite the person who is running it so they can talk about what's happening. That would give the pod a stronger connection to the rest of TLS. Once you had your panel of "experts", you could go straight to them when a topic relevant to them is brought up, rather than just throwing it open to the floor, which leads to jumbled discussion.

Ryu: don't mention how long you have been recording for, because parts will be edited out. You said you were coming up to the hour mark when, on the finished podcast, you had only been going for about 40 minutes. I also agree with Fangu that you are better utilised as a guest than a host.

I know I brought up some of those points after the first podcast, and I'm sorry for repeating myself, but they are the biggest issues I have. It's fine if you decide you don't want to change the way you're doing it; I won't keep pushing them on you :) I just think it's important to get the format right, and there's no better time for experimenting with it than in these early episodes.
 
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