Jake

IDLE THUMBS KICKSTARTER!

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They should spend at least 10,000 dollars on mixing Goldblum noises into the THX test sound.

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Inappropriate comment about how the trailer and music gave me a Gravity Boner.

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In light of Chris' earlier post, this is kind of a moot point, but I was kind of stunned and a little annoyed at the response to brkl's suggestion, so here's some stuff:

Have you ever listened to an actual radio show, be it terrestrial or satellite?

They don't do this.

Have you? They totally do.

In Desert Island Discs (here's an episode on YouTube, for those of you outside the UK), for example, the interviewer is mixed slightly to the left, and the interviewee slightly to the right. It's not a particularly pronounced effect, because that would be jarring, but it's enough to give a sense of space (provided you're listening with stereo equipment – a lot of radio is listened to through single-speaker devices).

Anticipating any "that's an interview, those are different" responses, but insisting to refer exclusively to BBC Radio 4's output, Thinking Allowed is a discussion programme that does exactly the same thing. Front Row, too, although only for portions of it. And Start the Week. Pretty much everything on Radio 4, in fact. Granted, these are all from one source, but I would have thought that the BBC is a pretty good model for proper audio recording. I believe their engineers are pretty well regarded.

(Unfortunately, I don't believe iPlayer is accessible to anyone outside the UK, so these examples might be mostly useless. If people are interested enough I could record and upload some clips.)

Podcasts are essentially talk radio shows to begin with. There's no need to complicate it. Asking for stereo input from a quality standpoint is superfluous, and as for the function of one channel to the next, how is that going to better the experience of hearing guys fart around about video games?

I'm not sure precisely how prevalent stereo separation is in radio (outside of the BBC, I guess), but it's worth noting that the radio is a medium primarily listened to through speakers without much concern for stereophony (unless you're listening on your hi-fi), whereas podcasts are more often listened to on portable devices through earphones or headphones, which are automatically perfectly positioned for stereo (unless you're experiencing technical difficulties such as those mentioned by Miffy). I guess [citation needed] on both of those claims, particularly the former, but that's the impression that I get, anyway. Also, AM radio is generally mono anyway for technological reasons, so there's that. My point is that there may be more to gain through stereo separation in a podcast than on the radio.

As somebody already mentioned, stereo separation could help distinguish voices when everyone is speaking over one another. I can't say I have much of a problem with distinguishing voices most of the time, but "if it's ain't broke don't fix it" must surely apply to everyone's experience of the show, not just your or my own. Well, within reason – if it's going to fuck it up for everyone else in some way, don't do it. The bandwidth concern is probably the best argument against it: introducing another channel should pretty much double the file size, I believe. And I'm not sure there's necessarily enough of a problem for it to be worth the extra effort. Still, I think the vehement reaction against the suggestion was unfair and pretty knee-jerk. There are perfectly rational reasons to implement it, and if done properly it wouldn't be at all horrible; certainly not this nightmare scenario some people seem to be envisioning (if one can envision an entirely auditory thing).

Edited by JamesM

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The people who are fighting stereo seem to be imagining some crazy world that will blow their minds. Stereo became standard 50 years ago, folks! It's common place everywhere. The only place where it's lacking is in Woody Allen movies and podcasts, and that's mostly due to amateurs and bandwidth (in the latter case). Professional radio, even talk radio, is in stereo. You listen to it all the time (provided you listen to talk radio).

Someone needs to hack together a snippet of Idle Thumbs to show how unjarring it sounds, but also how it helps make it clearer who's talking. Don't wham one person 100% left, another 100% right, and the final guy in the middle. Keep them all centered with slight variation to the left and right for two of them, as James pointed out.

If there's ever been a podcast that could benefit from understanding who's saying what, it's this one.

Here's the example James posted, embedded:

ONhK9IgWCoI

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I'm more curious about how difficult this is to do, because my gut reaction-question is how much time/money this would cost compared to the actual benefit? Someone would have to do that work, right? Unless it's an equipment thing and it could happen automagically.

All in all, I don't really care. About stereo, I mean. Now holophonics... Make that happen!

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You damn people and your cited sources. I'll get you next time, Gadget!

(In my defense, in the years I've listened to talk radio I've never heard the stereo output used in any specific regard)

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I'm more curious about how difficult this is to do, because my gut reaction-question is how much time/money this would cost compared to the actual benefit? Someone would have to do that work, right? Unless it's an equipment thing and it could happen automagically.

The answer is that it would be free and easy to do.

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Since the channels are mixed down it's impossible to do a section with cross talk, but here's a small comparison section of Idle Thumbs.

Listen and then guess which is first, mono or stereo. Answer below.

Listen here

Mono is first

The stereo is Chris 10% left and Jake and Nick 10% right.

Edited by Thompson

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Cheers, guys, for helping me out. I didn't expect my little post to spiral into pages of argument... I'd love to have a little multitrack clip to play with and see how it could be done. Just an idea.

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A little bit of stereo separation in this type of recording creates a huge improvement in the listening experience, and all it takes is panning each channel a tiny smidgen on the mixer or in the DAW. You can do this once and never have to adjust it again (unless you have a guest on or something).

edit to explain further: a benefit of doing this is that when people talk over each other, you have each of their voices somewhat preserved. You can hear them both at once, without the audio information getting all muddled up. Using some separation will reduce the amount that the signals step on each other. It's all very technical.

Edited by tentaclesex

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Breckoncast is hilarious and sad.

The theme music is my favorite part.

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Yup, it is excellently crafted. :tup:

It is the best. I just listened to it for the 3rd4th5th time.

Edited by Erkki

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The accordion was great, made me laugh. :tup: Come back to us F. Nick Breckon!

So I was wondering, now that you're heading toward 400% of your original kickstarter goal, what changes for you guys, if anything at all? Gold plated mics, maybe?

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The accordion was great, made me laugh. :tup: Come back to us F. Nick Breckon!

So I was wondering, now that you're heading toward 300% of your original kickstarter goal, what changes for you guys, if anything at all? Gold plated mics, maybe?

We will paint one of the mics gold, for sure. We will call it "the good one."

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Can we have a "Behind the scenes" blast of the Breckoncast?

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Aaah, you quoted me before I corrected my bad math, I mean typo. Yes. Typo. :shifty:

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We will paint one of the mics gold, for sure. We will call it "the good one."
Even if it sounds all muffled because of the paint encasing the whole thing...

"The GOOD one." - "What?"

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Nickcast was confusing. Nick really sounded a lot like Nick, couldn't keep them apart.

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