Monday, March 12, 2007

Podcast roundtable discussion

Hi everyone-
I've been talking to John about starting a MNgameday podcast. I'd like to set-up an organizational meeting with anybody interested in participating in the Twin Cities area. We can start the discussion here and continue it at a local watering hole.

There are a number of issues we need to decide.

1) How long? How often? We need to produce the show on a regular basis, nothing kills a fan base like inconsistency. The problem is for every minute of recording it takes at least 2-3 times that in post-production (my job). We could either have a 1 hour weekly show or possibly twice or thrice weekly half hour shows.

2) Where? We need a location that is large enough to sit four-five people comfortably along with microphones, a mixer (about the size of a laptop), a laptop and all the necessary cables. I needs to be available consistently and QUIET. If you have a house with kids or pets, it probably won't work. I know I can't keep my dog quiet for five minutes- let alone an hour. I have a friend with studio space, but I don't know if he'll let us use it for free.

3) Format- after picking out the time and place we can start thinking about the general format for the podcast and assigning duties. I.e.- who covers the weekly news, who collects listener questions, who is the host, who does post-production, etc.

4) Money- It will cost ~$300 to get us started. I will be splitting this cost with a friend who is going to be running a pet related podcast. This set-up will include a mixer and decent microphones, stands, cables etc. to get two people talking. I'm sure we could scrounge to get a couple of cheap microphones so we could have four people going at once. To upgrade, it'll cost ~$100 per decent microphone + stand + cables. If anyone can make donations- equipment or otherwise ($)- we should see what we can scrounge up between us all.
Additionally, if things go well enough that we receive some revenues from advertisers, we need to decide where that will go (how much towards the site, equipment, etc.) . I'm not super optimistic about that but you never know.

Anyway please post with your ideas. Also, if you interested in participating please let me know. I will go about scheduling a meeting later.

cheers,
Bryce

2 comments:

Mr. Smith said...

Bryce,

My name is Kyle and I'm another writer at GameDay and am majoring in sound engineering. If you need any suggestions or help I'd be happy to lend a hand.

One reasonably priced microphone I'd recommend is the Studio Projects B3. Studio Projects is a chinese company, and while they're pretty hit-or-miss on different models but the B3 is great for the price:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/B3Mic/

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