Trailblazers

In Season One we encountered Emperors, Dragons, Liches, and much more! Season Two changes from a world of exclusive fantasy, to a world that combines fantasy and sci-fi elements to deliver an adventure featuring conspiracies, a city forever shrouded in darkness, and a world of bio-engineered citizens. This is not your average dungeon crawler!

This episode covers the editing techniques I use to edit an episode of Trailblazers. This includes examples of what audio sounds like before and after I edit it, as well as estimations of how long the process takes and how much of the audio is left after all is said and done. We record the episode. We use a free program called audacity that allows us to record our audio. Christian and I both use the “U37 USB Studio Condenser Recording Microphone” made by CAD. Tim uses the “Q2U USB Microphone” made by samson. After the episode is recorded Christian & Tim export their audio on the insane quality preset. Exporting turns the audio recording into a usable file, in this case we use mp3. Christian & Tim send me the mp3 over google drive. I import Christian & Tim’s audio file into audacity. This takes about 1 minute for every 60 min of audio, per each individual audio file. I sync the audio. Syncing the audio is simply aligning the audio so we’re not talking over each other, and involves me removing a few seconds off of the beginning of the audio of some of the files to line them up. I then navigate to the end of the audio to make sure the audio is aligned correctly, and if it isn’t I go back and make any needed adjustments. This takes about five minutes. I apply noise reduction to each audio file separately. This removes the background noises usually generated by the microphones we use because they’re not top of the line and generate a bit of a hiss, and because none of us are in noise canceling rooms (those are usually small rooms with padding on the walls to reduce almost all background noises). This takes about 1 min for every 27 min of audio, per each individual audio file. I apply a function called “truncate silence” to the entire project. This removes silences over a certain length and reduces them down to about a quarter of a second. This takes about 1 min for every 7 min of audio. I edit it for content. I start a the beginning of the file and hit play and listen to the entire episode. I edit out UMs, places where we stumble over our words or misspeak, places where we talk over each other, jokes that don’t land or out of game speech that I feel aren’t worth keeping in. I move audio around if we recorded a portion out of order. I add sound effects & music and edit them. I extend silences between speech if they need to be longer than the quarter of a second truncate silence made them. As well as a few other such things. During this time I also silence the audio of people who aren’t talking which is very time consuming. If I didn’t have to silence the audio this would take maybe half the time, for every one person speaking I have to stop the playback and highlight the other two files and silence them. Editing for content takes about 1 min for every 27 seconds of audio. I equalize each audio file separately. This makes our voices more pleasing to the ear, each person has their own personal sound profile that requires different equalization. For example I boost Christian’s bass and treble, while for Tim I boost his base but lower his treble. This takes about 1 min for every 34 min of audio, per each individual audio file. I compress each audio file separately. This makes the quiet spots louder and the loud spots quieter so that you never have to adjust the volume while you listen. This takes about 1 min for every 68 min of audio, per each individual audio file. I import the intro music, outro, and advertisement files. This takes about a minute. I then place them in the appropriate places and small bits of silence as buffer before and after the ads. This takes about 5 minutes. I write and record the intro, and repeat steps 5, 7, 8, and 9 to it. In other words I apply noise reduction, edit out the retakes and silences, equalize it, and compress it. Then I put it at the start of the episode. This usually takes around 13 minutes. I export the project into a single mp3 on the insane quality preset. This takes about 1 min for every 16 min of audio. I upload the mp3 to podbean, a service I use to manage the RSS feed that podcasts use. I fill out the episode information like show notes, season information, etc. This takes about 1 min for every 16 min of audio. So when all is said and done, from importing christian & tim’s audio to publishing the podcast takes about a little less than triple the length of the raw audio. That’s a gross estimate because those ratios can change depending on how long the audio is, they aren’t really flat ratios. The final edited episode is little less than 50% as long than the raw audio we recorded. Episodes with a lot of combat takes more time to edit and result in a smaller percentage of final audio length. That’s because there’s a lot of things that happen in combat that are uninteresting and need to be edited out.

Listen to learn how we are remastering Season 1 and some episodes of Season 2.

Tideblazers is a mini-series taking place in the Sea of Thieves word, using the Sea of Thieves TTRPG system. Our pirates will find themselves smack dab in the middle of adventure as they seek to claim the reward money for figuring out what is behind the strange new phenomena that has begun to ravage the seas - the mysterious FLASH! Want to find out what happens next? Visit www.TBlazer.net to find a list of the ways you can listen, or search "Tideblazers" on your favorite podcatcher.

Trailblazers is a actual-play podcast but it's so much more than just the recording of a bunch of guys playing a tabletop RPG. It's edited and produced to reflect something more akin to a TV show or an audio-drama. Join us as we encounter Emperors, Dragons, Liches, and much more! Note that you're about to listen to the first few episodes of this podcast where I'm still getting my editing bearings, the production improves with time and you'll be greatly rewarded for sticking with us through the production hiccups/ If you want to jump straight to a polished production consider turning into Season 2. It also has a different feel to it as we change from a world of exclusive fantasy, to a world that combines fantasy and sci-fi elements to deliver an adventure featuring conspiracies, a city forever shrouded in darkness, and a world of bio-engineered citizens! So if sci-fi is more your thing give it a try.

Clockwork Soldier: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Clockwork_Soldier.jpg Clockwork Servant: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Clockwork_Servant.jpg

Alexandra Mahone: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/Alexandra_Mahone Emperor Valerian Mengsk: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Valerian_Mengsk_1.jpg Praetorian Guard Face Plate: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Valerian_Mengsk_3.png Fenix Augustgrad (The Rider): http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Fenix_Augustgrad.jpg Horned Men: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Horned_Men.png

Land of the Horned Men: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Land_of_the_Horned_Men.jpg

Ashlands: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Ash_Lands.jpg Sinspawn: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/de/99/1a/de991a294512aeb9f2846de5f59510f2.jpg

Sorry for the short episode, there was a host of technical problems. Bodak: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/d2/68/a2/d268a2542f160036163ed0046ee09d23.jpg Attic Wisperer: http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs20/f/2007/297/e/c/Attic_Whisperer_by_nJoo.jpg Scarlett (Blood Golem): http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Skarlett.jpg

Necrocraft: http://th01.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2011/127/9/c/9c160a19a8d44884c4954ff6eda5a95e-d3ftb0z.jpg Marionette: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:The_Marionette.png

Ghul: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Ghul.jpg Bone Golem: http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/azurecobalt/70410/227701/227701_600.jpg Cacodaemon 1: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n9RXuCngrGg/UqEcUfqXG2I/AAAAAAAAAUQ/WoSZBbsaWXY/s1600/Cacodaemon.jpg Cacodaemon 1: http://th08.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/334/6/0/let__s_do_doom_pt3__cacodaemon_by_mechanubis-d5mlt0g.jpg

Wendigo: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/pathfinder/images/5/56/PZO1116-PreviewMonster10.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20101009035348 Anub'rekhan: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Anub%27rekhan.jpg Succubus: http://pathfinderwiki.com/mediawiki/images/thumb/0/0d/Succubus.jpg/250px-Succubus.jpg Man in the White Suit: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Man_in_the_White_Suit.jpg

Map: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:World_Map_%28names%29.png Clockwork Dragon: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Clockwork_Dragon.jpg

Oroku Saki: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Oroku_Saki_2.jpg Jackalwere: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/96/a9/ca/96a9caef8cc645e526fed78000fa55c6.jpg

No pictures this episode.

Setsuko: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Setsuko_1.jpg Soldier: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Vet.png

Jaren: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Jaren.jpg Tanlu: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Tanlu.jpg

Jaren: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Jaren.jpg Specialist Gordon Ramsey: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Gordon_Ramsey.png Chainsaw Maniac: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Chainsaw_Maniac.jpg

Specialist Gordon Ramsey: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Gordon_Ramsey.png Fenix: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Fenix_Augustgrad.jpg Valerian: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Valerian_Mengsk_1.jpg Praetorian Guard Face Plate: http://pdd.wikia.com/wiki/File:Valerian_Mengsk_3.png