I know this flies in the face of the "less gear" mantra, but if you have a proper presentation mic, audience mic, mixer & 2 channel compressor you will eliminate the need for post-production. (Compressor is the most important piece of gear for this type of setup).
I am a hardware side guy using a 32 track desk and processing gear but maybe we could find some DAW software that would do this on a laptop with USB input? dbc. -- David Cook Quoting Fulko Hew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > On 3/27/07, Dave Donovan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > If I understand correctly, there are 3 barriers to making this > happen > > consistently for each meeting: > > > > 1) Equipment: wireless body mics, maybe a small mixer or > multichannel > > recorder. Remember that these presentations are often interactive > and to > > make it useful, it helps to record the audience questions and > input. I > > video taped one, but the lighting and acoustics in the large > council chamber > > made the tape pretty useless. Besides, video of a presenter > pointing out of > > frame wasn't very meaningful. > > I've been doing this now for the Toronto Perl Mongers for about 3 > years now. > (even though I haven't gotten around to publishing some recordings > for almost a year.) > > I've tried a few setups, and I'm sure our acoustic environment is > different, > but, here are my experiences.... > > I started with a cheap < $10 plastic lapel mic from Future Shop > (something > they sold for people who were trying VoIP/gaming style stuff from > their PCs). > I plugged that into my laptop. Oh... with 25 feet of extra wire in > between, and > I use Audacity to record it. I've found that the lapel mic I have is > good enough > to also pick up the audience questions (in our room), and with a > little bit of > post-processing, I can bump the audience up to intellegible levels. > > > 2) Someone to show up consistently with the equipment, set it up, > make the > > recording and pack up the equipment at the end of the night. The > trouble is > > there there aren't too many people who make it to _every_ meeting > and so > > getting the equipment to show up every time can take some planning. > > Yup. This is the biggest problem. So I've only missed 1 meeting in > the past 3 years. :-( > Well, OK 2 meetings. And at that time, a friend with a FLASH based > audio > recorder, recorded the meeting for me. (But he lugged in a mixer, > the recorder, > 2 mics, balanced cables, etc.) > > I tried a cheap FM wireless setup, but in downtown Toronto > (Young/Bloor), > It didn't work well enough. It only had a usable range of < 10 feet > (even though > out in the country I could get 30+ feet. And I wasn't going to go > out > an buy a 'real' > wireless setup, so I stayed with the cheap lapel mic. > > I wanted to (and still do) have another mic for audience questions, > but 99% > of all laptops only have a mono-mic level input, and I don't want to > carry around extra gear. I've looked for USB and Firewire input > stages, > but they are either too expensive, or line-level only neccessitating > an external > mixer, and then I'm back to having too much gear. And I haven't had > the > time to design/build my own (2 chanel USB mic level input device). > > > 3) Post production. There is a non-trivial amount of work involved > in > > getting the slideshow lined up with the audio track, and producing > the > > Podcast so that it's fit for general consumption. > > This is the biggest issue. > > I decided not to try to produce an audio/video podcast. > The slides if provided are available seperately, and you can't > see what might be done on the white-board, but you can read along. > > I've only had one person say, they wanted to see an A/V production. > Most people seem to be happy just to have even the audio! > > As for audio post-production, thats what takes up most of my time, > and why I haven't released anything lately.... > > For every meeting, I have to find the time, to listen to the whole > thing > again, trimming the front and the back. Bumping up the levels on the > audience questions. Sometimes taking out un-acceptable content. > Deleting umms, coughs, etc. where I can. > > And then I also have intro/exit music with voice-over. > > Then there's also the upload to the server, and updating the > web page and RSS feed files (but thats trivial in the big picture). > > So post-production of a 1.5 hour meeting is usually another 3 hours > of work. > > > The last part is where the out-of-towners could pitch in. I > suppose it > > could be as simple as this: > > Let's say we came up with a good wireless body mic for the > presenter and > > some kind of fairly omni mic for the crowd. They're both mono > sources so > > one could be piped in to the left channel and the other could be > piped into > > the right channel (basic multi-channel, avoids a mixer). > > Yup, If you have the multi-channel (mic level) audio input device. > Let me know if you find one. > > > Using Audacity, > > the post-production team could mute and unmute the audience channel > as > > needed to allow for audience input and snip out the irrelevant > parts to make > > it flow. Mix it back into one channel to prevent our listeners > from getting > > nauseous and that's it for Audio. I don't know what the Podcast > team used, > > but there is some software to tie the powerpoint presentation into > the audio > > and produce a podcast. Presto. > > > > We just need a group of individuals to commit to a component of the > plan and > > it can happen. It's been discussed on a few occasions and > different people > > have come forward at various times but it is time consuming and it > doesn't > > seem to materialize consistently. > > > > That's my understanding of where it's at. If someone wants to take > the > > reigns and muster the hardware and people, it can happen. > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
