Webcast Academy

Hello Jeff & co. This is my introduction. Looking forward to the conversations. For more deets, visit my website at cephalopodcast.com. Thanks!

This was our first attempt at recording a call. We think it turned out pretty well considering the problems we had over the last few days figuring how to get the settings correct.

Liz and I plan on hosting webcasts dealing with high school reform, technology and the realm of 21st century learning. So our first recording has Liz sharing some of her positive interactions with department chairs at her high school in a meeting she had today.

We enthusiastically await your feedback!

I used a small piece of a skpe conversation that Lee and I had while she was helping me with WireTap Pro. The first attachment is the segment edited and the second attachment is the same audio unedited.

There are 4-5 places where her speech is slurred. It really bothers me but I was unable to correct it. I hope someone else has some ideas about how to avoid the "slurring sound" or how to fix it.

I opened the aiff file from wiretap pro in audacity and then in both cases exported as mp3 files to post here.

OK, this is pretty primitive. A D-, but as my son did at the age of 2 1/2 when he turned on a new Mac clamshell notebook, I clapped my hands and said 'I did it!'. The recording was made using the iSight camera mike, as my other M-audio proved to be too low in Sunday's webcast, on a G4 desktop with 450 mhz processor and 1 GB of ram. I followed the instructions on the MacDev Center recommended in the Book of Webcasting. I downloaded Audio Hijack and Soundflower, played around with the configurations until it (almost) worked.

The next step for me is to get another USB interface, possibly even a mixer or pre-amp, and try this again. It might be that the lack of processing speed prevents a quality recording. As always this is a journey and I'm happy to have made the first step.

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Hello Everyone,

I have created a page in the Book of Webcasting on basic Audio Editing in Audacity. It is simply a "how-to" and an introduction to editing in Audacity. Hope to follow up with a screencast soon. 

Lee 

I just came accross an interesting feature at FeedBurner. It's called BuzzBoost. It gives you a little Javascript that aggregates other blogs you write, so you can share them on other websites without duplicating the post. Howeve I still haven't been able to get it to point to a particular post. It just displays the latest n posts. Inserting the script below displays the latest 3 posts from my blog (because I have configured it to display 3). I wonder what will happen when I post again. Will it continue showing these 3, or will it show the latest 3. We'll find out soon. Those who are keen on trying this out can register for Feedburner's free service: http://www.feedburner.com

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Hello, Finally posting an excerpt from last Sunday's Skypecast for the class of 1.2. This is the part when Jeff had logged of for a while. I had to do a bit of editing. I reduced the volume of my voice and amplified the voices that were coming from the other end. It has come out quite decent, except for the echo just at the end. I think that was the time when I was logged onto both the Skypecasts.

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Good! ... I had breakfast while the attachment was uploading....

I've posted this MP3 file because I'd much appreciate comments, tips for improvment. I regard it as an exercise for the assignments here.

Details

I recorded the interview, conducted on Skype, using PowerGram. PowerGram records in ogg, so I transferred to Audacity (straightforward) did minimal editing and then saved (exported) as MP3.

Questions:

1. Are PoweGram recordings of good enough standard for webcasting?
2. What might have caused the echo in Paul's recording? (There was no loudspeaker).
3. How can one avoid getting echo?

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Will explain attached file as soon as it has been successfully loaded.

Webcasting Setup:

Hardware

• PowerBook G4
  
• Mac OS X - Version 10.4.7
  
• Memory - 512 MB DDR SDRAM
  
• Wireless AirPort Extreme
  
• Shure SM-57 microphone
• M-audio FastTrack
  

Software

• Nicecast - streaming and recording
  
• Skype
  
• WireTapPro - recording
• Audacity
• GarageBand
  

I have used a Planetronics headset with mic and mic mute/headphone volume controls, a usb LogiTech mic, and am now experimenting with an M-Audio FastTrack recording interface (mic pre-amp and digital converter) with a Shure SM-57 mic.

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My audio introduction. I'm a member of the class of 1.1 and am really looking forward to working with each of you.
Download Audio (748 kb, 1:35)
My web page contains links to posts, pictures and links to some of the things I'm doing online.

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The Webcast Academy does not have the ability to decide weight for Book Entries. The CMS academy offers the option shown in the attached picture while the WCA does not. The weight of a page decides where the page is shown in the order of the list on it's parent page. Please let me know if that option exists in the WC Academy and I am just not seeing it. Thanks.

Jeff and all other academicians,
This is the link to the screen cast on windows management:

http://webcastacademy.net/screencasts/desktopmanagement/index.html
I confess I couldn't find it by clicking around the site, but, helpfully, Jeff gave the URL is the evoline 2002 list posting.

Dennis

Cursor froze in the first half of this message, so I decided to post and continue here. This has happened before and I suspect - will not use it - the apostrophe! - that seems to sometimes freeze the cursor.

Jeff sent a message to the evo 2002 list reporting that he had done a screencast on window management. I have not found this yet,
BUT I must look again.

Practising Skpye interviews - did a trial, using Audacity, BUT, my voice - very good recording - interviewee - pretty faint. This was using a headcast, but separate mike (non-USB).

At same time, recorded trial conversation with PowerGrammo.

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Thanks to Jeff for picking up from this blog my difficulties in getting to the Academy webcast and coming up with one of his great screencasts explaining, step-by-step what to do.

Thanks also, Jeff, for answering my query to the webheads list about windows management. I haven

Here's my introduction. I look forward to working with the class of 1.2. Cheers!

Download mp3

Hi - Here's where I live!

You can't post attachments to a blog response. It appears that in order to post my pictures, I need to be posting in my blog rather than responding to Paul's blog entry. Is that true?

In the end, I may have made these pictures a little too small. How do you all decide on a good size (both size and file size) when you post pictures to a blog?

Yikes! My recording today seems to have recorded everything double or with an echo. At first I thought it was just that it recorded stereo so I split the tracks and deleted one but listen to how terrible it sounds. I'll try again tomorrow.

Class of 1.2, Workshop#1b
August 2, 2006
Download mp3 (23.5MB, 51:22)

Class of 1.2, Workshop#1a
July 30, 2006
Download mp3 (26.1MB, 57:00)

Chat Transcript Below

Check out the Book of Webcasting
for links to the latest screencasts

Quick Links to recent Audio Introductions
Cheryl
Trevor
Randy
Susan
Jeff
Paul Reid
Paul Ellerman
Carla (by Erika)
Erika (by Carla)
Parag

Alice
Liz (with photo)
Lee
Dennis
Doug

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During today's webcast academy session, someone mentioned that it would be neat to see what its like around where we lived.  So here are three pictures I found on Flickr that describe, Ottawa, Ontario, the Capital of Canada to me.

Skating on the Rideau Canal (World's longest Skating Rink) in the Winter

The World Famous Tulip Festival

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