I did my last live show in Davis last night, and it was certainly fun and surprising for many. I planned this show more than probably any other, and had so many cool things set up that it… almost all fell apart. Cue the hysterical laugh - hahahahahahahahahahahaha!

As I stated in my previous post, I planned to play a discussion between PZ Myers and Ken Miller, an interview with Shawn Kaeppler who I’m going to work for in Wisconsin, and several other secret things that shall soon be revealed. Well, I recorded the interview with Shawn on wednesday, and the computer recorded over it with the Miller-Myers interview. It has never done anything like that before! When there’s a “Track 1″ in the folder, the next time you record, it makes another track called “Track 2.” Weird. Shawn had a meeting in Wisconsin during the live broadcast, so he was unable to do a second, live interview to replace it. So instead, I briefly mentioned what I would be doing in Wisconsin by myself. Which worked, though.
Of course, the Miller-Myers interview went well, except it didn’t record well. I was doing a conference call on Skype, which worked fine during testing, but for some reason, screwed up during recording. Ken came in just fine, but PZ cut in and out. The skype conference call did not allow me to adjust volumes separately, and for some reason, every now and then the sound would get wobbly. It could be an issue of computing power, in which case I could do the recording with a second computer, or come up with a better pre-recording dual-call setup. Which I will. I’m constantly experimenting, trying to push the boundaries of what I can do with the little stuff and expertise I have. It may have been the program I was using to record - I wasn’t using my really nice recording program that I usually use.

So when it was broadcast, the conversation was difficult to follow, and there wasn’t the time to adjust the levels appropiately. This weekend, I’m going to go through the recording and boost PZ’s voice, and when you can’t quite understand what he says I will voice-over. The conversation was great, and there were good points brought up by all, and I couldn’t bear to have people listen to it and not pick it all up! Thankfully, sometimes Ken repeated what PZ said to respond to it. I’m leaving to go have dinner with my folks tonight, and a few other friends and family members from back home, and when I come back Saturday night, I’ll be going through and fixing this interview so it is more presentable. It should probably be posted Monday.
To top it off, I had a double-surprise at the end of the show, Ariela was on at the end, and she didn’t quite know what was coming. Nor did she know that three people were on the phone in the background, who were supposed to be listening to come in at the end. ‘Course, that didn’t work, either (another bizarre case of a tested setup failing!), and the people couldn’t hear us and were having their own conversation. So when I put them on, they just kept talking, oblivious. When I talked to them after the show, turns out they were talking about the same thing we were, by coincidence. I won’t say what it was just yet. I want it to be a surprise for the listeners, too! But I’ll leave that akward situation in the podcast - it was just so much screwup that it was just plain funny.

I still have a long way to go to make things really polished and professional, and then maybe someday I can make something of this hobby and it could be a side-career. When I get to Madison, I am planning on continuing my show on a radio station there, but until then I won’t have good microphones or a soundproofed studio. (Right now, the best thing I have is a closet with clothes to dampen sound.) I have some good recording equipment, I just need a microphone of my own and I can start doing more podcasted science until I get on the air again. I am also considering finding a sound engineer to help me assemble reliable arrangments of equipment to make every show come off great.

Finally, since I know where I am going to be for 5 years or more, I will be seeking contributors/co-hosts/correspondents. I want to create a team of folks doing what I do but who specialize in different areas. I was reluctant to start this before I knew where I was going to graduate school, for the reason that I didn’t want to have to skip off and break up a cooperative media relationship. Speaking of which, the last few interviews I did in Davis were all about media relationships, as I traded interviews with This Week in Science and Radio Parallax. These will go online soon, I’ve just been so busy packing up to be able to post-edit them before I leave! You can check out their shows to hear me over there, or, if you are coming from their listener pool, this post should explain why they aren’t up yet. We have 11 days until we’re driving across the country!

Kirsten Sanford and Justin Jackson, Douglas Everett, and I are all looking to network and stand together, and Kirsten’s techie partner, Marshall, is setting up something that might make this easier/more possible. Expect a few more collaborations in the future. I’ll be sending MP3 news stories to TWIS, for example, as they just started accepting them to expand listener participation. But to do this once I reach Madison, I’ll need a microphone.

I haven’t pointed this out much at all, but if you’ll look to the left, I have a paypal donation button. That button goes to a special place that pays for the podcast hosting, and new equipment like, well, a microphone of my own! It also pays for guests. Now, I don’t pay my guests, but as you may well know, I send jars of honey to them for coming on, and I have to pay to ship it to them, which adds up. My goal is to make the show self-supporting and independent. I don’t want to do ads! Heh, maybe I should do a pledge drive or something. I’m considering making a cafepress mug or shirt, but I was hoping to hold off on that for now.

Each dollar donated makes the show that much better - better sound, better music, more guests, and more opportunities to experiment even more! Heh, if each listener donated one dollar I could not only get a pair of sweet studio-quality microphones, but I could also pay to host the podcast for two more years!

Until my show continues, I’ll be blogging alot more. I often come across interesting news and not bother to write about it because I talk about it on my show that week. Plus, I’ve got a lot of things I would like to write up about how I’ve been recording and doing my show. Program and product reviews, wiring setups and suggestions for other podcasters who are looking to try out some new things. The recent shows will go up after I get to my new home, and then until I get going, I’ll start uploading my pre-podcast shows. Episodes in negative numbers! Yeah!
Thank you everyone who has listened to my show, and endured my experiments, foibles, and got treated to some really good stuff that’s come along. Things can only get better!