First English MintCast out!

Post by **clem** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 7:01 pm

Hi there,

So here we are.. the very first podcast about Linux Mint !!

Congratulations to both of you for releasing this first episode and good luck for future episodes.

Note: I first thought there was something wrong with the MP3 as it's only 1.5MB but everything was fine with it and I had no problem listening to the podcast.

Criticism (constructive hopefully):

- don't hesitate to use jingles at the beginning and at the end of the show, people love them

You can also separate your podcast into different sections (news, main story etc..) and have jingles for these.

- take your time, relax and talk to each others more (maybe if you didn't know what each others were going to say before the show). But in fairness you've done really well already. You should have heard Michael and I when we first tried.. it was pathetic (especially Michael... ah no, especially me)

- If I was an Ubuntu dev I would hate you

In fairness Mint is not Ubuntu done better, it's Ubuntu made different.. different vision, different pros and cons and half of what you see comes directly from those Ubuntu devs.. so fair play to them.

- Bananas are great, no doubt about that.

Clem

merlwiz79 · Post by **merlwiz79** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 7:43 pm

Though I haven't listen to it yet.(don't have mp3 support installed yet), I am sure you are doing a good job.
The website site looks nice.
I think this will take off and do well.

frank392 · Post by **frank392** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 7:59 pm

TOTAL lack of taste, next time have some one to review it before you up-loaded. and the burp totally unnecessary, keep it for your wife. you do not need to disrespect the people that are listening to you.

Husse · Post by **Husse** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:31 am

Sorry - both podcasters and Clem, but this should not have been posted.
Apart from the lack of seriousness the sound quality is so poor that I did not listen to it all. I don't hear to well and I could only just about hear what's been said and the effort I had to make was to much for me to continue.
I know it's not easy....

d00p · Post by **d00p** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:50 am

Sorry to say that but i couldn't understand a thing. katasuka is talking WAY too fast and cause of the sound quality i dont even know what they were talking about...(Original MP3 File has much better sound than the remastered mp3...)

plus: we already have a podcast website since April this year http://www.linuxmint.de/podcast.html (it's just not being used cause there was no podcast)

frank392 · Post by **frank392** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:10 pm

katasuka wrote:

im not gonna say anything to this... except, id like to see you do a better job

at least you could say sorry.
and next time ask for help, ask people to review it!, I don't know what made you think that Mint is you guinea pig?, and that you can release something in the name of a community, that the only thing that have done, is try to deliver the BEST. and boy that podcast of yours is soooo far from that.

ASK FOR HELP!!! no need to be so arrogant.
and this is not personal, is about the way you are behaving, and your lack of professionalism. take some time listen to other podcast (good ones) you will learn a lot from them, ask them questions they are willing to help.

sorry but that is my opinion.
thank you for trying, but please ask people to review it first.

Husse · Post by **Husse** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 6:34 am

Hey sherry19
You have to put up for criticism
This is a beginning
Fix a few things and you may be on track...
1) Sound quality - I could not understand/hear what you were saying apart from a few words
2)Editing - if you had removed the giggling, burping and long pauses in the introduction it could have been a useful start
3)Let someone listen to it before posting (preferably someone in the Mint team)
4)I tried to get the podcast going earlier and I know it's not easy (failed because of my irregular working hours, the team could never get together

)
So - if you fix the sound quality and make some editing I'm more than willing to listen
Don't feel to bad about it.

900i · Post by **900i** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 7:34 am

My critique for what it's worth.

1. As we are a FOSS community, can the podcast be in OGG and not MP3 format.

2. Slow down and enunciate clearly, I could not understand what sherry was saying half the time. But that could be the result of the poor sound quality.

Good first attempt, that took some bottle (guts).

Post by **clem** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:15 am

Although I agree with most of the critics I am really happy to see that project started and very thankful to see you try. For this reason I would like people to help and give constructive comments to encourage you to do better instead of convincing you to stop.

The sound quality is not great but that's easily addressable. My main advice is not to write down everything you're going to say. Just outline the main topics, relax, eventually drink before the show (not too much ok?) and don't be afraid of the microphone.. it's better to hear someone thinking of what he's going to say than somebody making a mistake in saying what he learnt by heart. It takes a great deal of confidence to actually not work with a script but that's how you get a great podcast... just know what you want to talk about and just talk... don't have it on the paper.

PS: I tried that myself with Husse and Michael, and trust me I know how hard it is...

Good luck with that project. Make sure to include other people if they want to participate? (Skype? VoIP? etc..) Don't give up. The main thing is to be more confident and as it crazy as it sounds you actually need less preparation and more relaxation for this to work.

Clem

Post by **clem** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:19 am

As for publishing it, sure.. how else would you get feedback? I've made it an announcement twice for it appear at the top of the forums but somebody (a moderator, or yourself?) doesn't seem to agree with me

In my opinion it's still not ready for public release so I would have kept it in the Mint community (forums, blog, etc..) for feedback but not on distrowatch..

Anyway it's not that important. Good luck with the future episodes and to everybody else, help this project the best you can either by helping improving this podcast or by making another one. Either way do not discourage each others.

Clem

carlos · Post by **carlos** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 11:06 am

I just want to remind everybody, one of the main reasons this forum is so great is because there is a level of decorum when it comes to posts. If you criticize or disagree please make it constructive. If you need a lesson in this, I'm sure our fine moderator Scorp123 will be more then happy to teach you in the fine art or getting your point across

I just finished hearing it, so here are my criticisms. First off, as its been said before the sound quality is definately bad. You might be able to improve this afterwards, but this also might come down to your hardware. I know post audio processing is good, but if it goes in bad, its very difficult to make it good afterwards. Do a couple of searches online on how to improve it, also you might want to make home made wind screens, one of the reasons Sherry sounds bad was that when she spoke the mics were catch the sound of her breath being forced on the mic. THere are very cheap DIY alernatives to doing this, it can help.

I would toss the scripted idea and go with more of an outline of points you would want to discuss. Unfortunately you can hear that you were both reading and not really conversing, which I'm sure added to both of you being stressed. I wouldn't be to worried if you make mistake, if you sound relaxed and make a booboo here and there, it's more charming then sounding monotoned and like a robot.

As for the content itself, not bad for the first one, but 6min is a bit short. I know content is difficult to gather and make into a show, but so far not too bad.

So on the bright side, its your first time and there was a bit of tripping. But you all did it, and I commend you all on that achievement. With the help of the community you get this gong on the right track soon enough.

On a final note, I also think one of the reasons why people were so critical of podcast, its that its supposed to represent Linux Mint, and while it might have fell short of people expectations I think it would be better to call it the Linux Mint " Community" podcast.

Good Luck Guys and Gals.

frank392 · Post by **frank392** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 5:07 pm

@ sherry19
katasuka wrote:

first off, what crawled up your butt and died

shherry19 wrote:

we werent trying to degrade linux mint, but i dont know what was more degrading someone attacking us or our podcast i felt it was the other person attacking us that degraded linux mint more then us cuz we talked about how everyone was nice

frank392 · Post by **frank392** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 6:07 pm

frank392 · Post by **frank392** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 6:10 pm

@ sherry19

ok, peace? and Sorry if I sounded rude, was not my intention if you need any help please let me know.
same to Katasuka

Husse · Post by **Husse** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:46 am

Just a short remark

but what i asnt understanding is how people were saying not to post it but to have someone review it.....

I think that was me. This is easily done by posting it on a non public link so someone (not me please

have enough to do as it is) can listen to it and give feed back. The beauty of this is that it is someone not involved in the production that listens
When everything is ok just move to a public link, you can have a nonsense name first and a rename to something like edition 43 later

frank392 · Post by **frank392** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:20 am

@ sherry
Hi sherry ,
just one idea for your next pod cast could be the experience that you had with the first one, it is real, its fun, and even has the evil character of the story I guess that would be ME.

other thing is if there is a user group in your are try to get in touch with them and maybe, do an install fest of linux Mint with them and interview them after they run it a little bit.. BTW were are you guys located?.

other thing you may try to get an interview with boo and ask him about the next KDE edition? i bet he has a lot to say.

have a pleasant evening
Frank

frank392 · Post by **frank392** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:21 am

@ katasuka

that is a great Idea!!

frank392 · Post by **frank392** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:29 pm

@ sherry

thank you

I was thinking maybe you can ad a sub-section in the pod cast were you can comment on some resent news, like: new software uploaded to The Linux Mint Software Portal, new trick and tips on the section :
http://linuxmint.com/forum/index.php?f=42
and comment about the upcoming Daryna.
If i have more ideas I'll let you know
take care

belovedmonster · Post by **belovedmonster** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 5:27 am

Like everyone has commented the sound quality is pretty atrocious. You probably have a couple of cheap mics but really the problem is in the mastering. For starters the whole thing was way too quiet. I had to strain my ears to hear what you were saying, and aside from making it louder you could also make it sound a lot clearer with a little bit of tweaking.

I'd suggest going on google and searching for "mastering podcasts" or specifically "mastering podcasts Audacity" since thats the app I hope you are using to record with. You should find a whole wealth of information on these topics.

In fact, you say this is your first time, but theres 100s of websites out there to help newbie people get into podcasting so theres really no reason why you cant improve very quickly... Which is something you need to do

Buying a couple of inexpensive mics and making some shields out of an old pair of tights and a coat hanger will also help improve the sound quality a lot. One way to look at it is if you are going to bother spending hours and hours of your precious time doing this podcast then you might as well spend a few bucks on getting the equipment you need.

Also, who ever had their mobile phone on near the recording equipment needs to turn it off! The very first thing I heard on the podcast was someones phone causing interference.

And finally, it goes without saying that you should be editing out all unsavoury sounds, coughing, etc.

surfer57 · Post by **surfer57** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 8:47 am

Hello and happy Friday.....

I really enjoyed the podcast...it reminded me of Tech TV reporting which I thoroughly enjoyed...I liked your energy and enthusiasm and what others might consider political incorrectness....

I had no problem with listening or understanding and did not mind that it was six minutes...short entertaining and informative podcasts formats usually leave the listener wanting for more and looking forward to the next edition...

As far as polished performances, they will come with practice...the more podcasts that you do, the more relaxed and confident you will become...

If you need equipment, or assistance in pre or post production...perhaps the community can assist you...maybe a consideration of a podcast team of folks to assist you with production, content, etc....

I really like the idea of interviews with developers, (getting stories on what projects are hot, and upcoming enhancements etc) and what the community can do to help....discussions with new users, getting their input...are a couple ideas that would perhaps be appealing to the community....Also, maybe a time slot for some Mint instructions, solutions, etc possibly call it "Lifesaver MINT" or something like that...just thinking out loud...

There are so many directions you could go with your content...which might have you structure the cast as news and information with interaction between the two of you that would allow for adlibs etc....the structure would simply be the outline of the cast as others have suggested....it will also assist your listeners as they will grow accustom and look forward to whatever formula you devise and will have their favorite segments of the cast...and allows for tweaking as you go...you might continue to ask the community for assistance as stated for content ideas...

Again, I really enjoyed your podcast and am looking forward to future casts..Good Luck and God Bless...

Later,

surfer57