Beds Blab - an experiment in amateur podcasting in Bedfordshire

Learners and staff at Develop Bedford create a mixture of interviews, reviews, quizzes and music features. Main feature is an interview with a volunteer on The John Bunyan Boat. This episode is hosted by learner, Matthew, and member of staff, Sukhi. Use the episode's Chapter Markers to jump to just the parts you want to hear.Any feedback and comments gladly received: bedsblab@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page. Thank you!Thank you to The John Bunyan Boat organisation for making us at home and allowing us to record our podcast on your boat! The John Bunyan Boat facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/johnbunyanboat/The John Bunyan Boat website for booking cruises: https://www.johnbunyanboat.org/CreditsMain intro and outro music: Makaih Beats, Love Chances Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats/Fake_Love_makaihbeatsnet/LoveChances_makaihbeatsnetQuiz 1 background music: Flutey Funk, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/All other music and songs by inept beatzzz (AKA Ben Yates). Check out inept beatzzz on SoundCloud for more of this kind of nonsense.Tick-tock sound effect used in film review: http://www.orangefreesounds.com/tick-tock-sound/Radio static sound effect: Recorded by SailorMoonFan. License: Public Domain http://soundbible.com/2099-AM-Radio-Tuning.html

Learners and staff at Develop Bedford create a mixture of interviews, reviews, quizzes and music features. Main feature is an interview with a Bedfordshire tutor. This episode is hosted by learner, Matthew, and member of staff, Paul. Use the episode's Chapter Markers to jump to just the parts you want to hear.Any feedback and comments gladly received: bedsblab@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page. Thank you!Credits:Main intro and outro music: Makaih Beats, Love Chances, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats/Fake_Love_makaihbeatsnet/LoveChances_makaihbeatsnetQuiz music: Flutey Funk, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Short music clip at start of interview: Yung Kartz, Been Awhile, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Yung_Kartz/September_2018/Been_AwhileMusic after Kazoo quiz: Too Cool, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Tick-tock sound effect used in film review: http://www.orangefreesounds.com/tick-tock-sound/Radio static sound effect: Recorded by SailorMoonFan. License: Public Domain  http://soundbible.com/2099-AM-Radio-Tuning.html“We have a cat”, “Get my insulin” and short music before interview, all written by Ben Yates

Lydia Newman is a young social work student in the second year of her BSC social work course. In this episode, Lydia shares her experience of being on a work placement where she gets to help the lives of young people in a learning centre. Techie stuff: This interview used the same set up as episode 5 - two dynamic microphones plugged into a Zoom H4n. I used the 4CH mode on the Zoom which meant that it recorded the two mics on one track and also recorded using the Zoom's own internal mic. I was pleased with how the interview went; Lydia is a really good quest, speaks well and has interesting things to say. I was confident about the equipment and set up after how the recording of episode 5 had gone.After the recording I discovered that I had a monster-amount of editing and fussing to do. For some reason - I still do not know why - both mics sounded really quiet. In episode 5 the set up did not pick up any ambient/background noise. This time - again, I do not know why - the two dynamic mics were picking up so much background noise - the chair I gave Lydia was a bit creaky and every creak was heard, in a next-door room there were two people quietly working but you can still hear them.I tried out Levelator and Auphonic (two free software programs which help balance audio levels) on the recording. At first I was happy with the sound produced but when I listened back the next day on a different laptop I found some major sibilance at the start (loud "S" sounds). I was amazed at how painful it was to hear some of these "S" sounds. I worked on turning down the amplification on about five "S" sounds at the beginning. You will hear that my surname "Yates" now sounds a bit odd as a result. In the recording I originally say "...sunny spring day..." in the introduction but I actually cut out the word "spring" because of the amount of work trying to make it sound less deadly. A puzzling moment in this experiment - not quite back to square one but a bit confused about using the equipment at the moment. If you would like to comment or provide feedback on the Beds Blab podcast or are interested in being featured in a future recording, please email bedsblab@gmail.com. Background music: Love Chances by Makaih Beats from the Free Music Archive. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence. 

Ravi Duggal has been working with young people for many years; whether as a team leader with the Princes Trust or his current work at Develop Bedford. In this episode of Beds Blab, we get to learn about another project Ravi is involved in, working at RAF Henlow with a youth club. What lessons has Ravi learnt about how to engage and inspire learners? Play this episode and find out. Techie stuff: This interview was recorded in the same way as episode 4; two dynamic cardioid microphones recording into a Zoom H4n. Headphones were used and a Behringer headphone amplifier was connected to the Zoom. The two mics were held on table-mic-stands and these stands were sat on blocks of foam to help stop knocks and vibrations getting into the recordings.Ravi is recording into the highly recommended ATR2100 dynamic mic while I record into a much cheaper-by-price JTS/TM929 dynamic mic. Ravi speaks about 15cm from his mic and seems to sound quite clear. I try to use the podcast-advised mic technique of speaking a fist's-width from the mic and talking past the mic rather than directly at it. I think that I sound a bit "muddy" at times. Whether this is due to the recording or this is just a feature of my voice, I'm not sure.I edited out a few "erms" but I was surprised at how little background noise I could hear. When I was recording I saw a headphone cable striking the table a few times but I could not pick this up in the final recording. I think this is an example of why dynamic cardioid mics are advised for podcasting as they pick up less ambient noise. No building work or traffic noise in this recording - so as near to being a clean recording as I have had so far.I used a new recording for the introduction, recorded on the ATR2100 dynamic mic and I also recorded an outro, saying goodbye. The tone of my voice sounds so weak in this outro that I thought about re-recording it. In the edit I have actually added 6db of bass to my voice - probably needed a lot more!I changed the music in this recording. Editing the four previous episodes I got to hear the previous music so often and it was starting to grate. I put a short musical interlude in the recording, just as a experiment really - I hope to find out if a listener will find this interlude as random, unnecessary and distracting or pleasant and natural.So, overall, I feel that this recording is a development from the episodes before. Agree? disagree? Help me!!Background music: Been Awhile by Yung Kartz from the Free Music Archive website. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Yung_Kartz/September_2018/Been_Awhile

In this interview we learn more about Michelle Burton, a Pastoral Support worker working on Develop’s Children in Need project. Michelle talks about what she does, her path to the job she is doing now, how she supports young learners and how the course she delivers can help young people make positive changes in their lives. The Children in Need project is a 9 session course called “Like It, Live It”. It is funded by Children in Need but is run by Develop. The course helps young people develop their confidence, team working skills and mental wellbeing. Techie stuff: A big change in this episode as I try and use a recording set-up which is advised by podcast experts. I use the Zoom H4n as my recorder for the interview. This is sat in the middle of the table between myself and Michelle but it is not using its own internal microphones to do any recording. Instead I have two dynamic cardioid microphones plugged into the XLR ports on the Zoom. One of the microphones is a JTS TM 929 microphone – which is a relatively cheap (in price) mic I bought from the Bedford Music shop. The other microphone used was an Audio Technica ATR 2100 (Michelle speaks in to this one).  So many books, articles, podcasts and videos I have studied have recommended this microphone. It is regarded as having good quality for an affordable price but also its adaptability is recommended because it can be used as a USB microphone plugged into a laptop or used as an XLR microphone when you start moving up in complexity of your podcasting projects, connecting to mixers.In this interview I had the two microphones set up in table-top microphone stands. These are cheap stands (in price) with big heavy metal bases (looking like ugly weights from a dumbbell) and a simple upright pole connecting the microphone. The stands I had had limited adjustability in terms of heights – I needed to get the ends of the mics as close to my and my guest’s mouths. Many podcasts set-ups I have seen while researching the topic seem to prefer boom arms which can be clamped to a table and swung into almost any position. Not yet sure if I should change to these.My mic stands do not have shock mounts. Shock mounts are little rigs suspending the mic with rubber bands. If the stand is knocked or the table is bumped the shock mount should absorb this and prevent an ugly sound going into the recording. To make up for not having a shock mount I placed each mic stand on top of two layers of foam.Also in this set up, I used a small Behringer headphone amplifier. This connects to the Zoom and then myself, Fiona and Hannah each have a set of headphones which plug into the amplifier. Using the amplifier you can adjust your volume. I thought that I could get away with a headphone splitter when working with multiple headphones (a simple little device which plugs into the audio jack/headphone port and then has five output ports for multiple headphones to be plugged into). The downside of using a splitter is that the volume shrinks with each headphone plugged in. The Behringer headphone amplifier I use is relatively cheap and works well to keep volume up and I will continue to use it for these kinds of interviews. The kit took a bit of setting up but not too long and I had some things pre-prepared, such as mics already in stands and cables attached.No road noise this time but still ambient noise - a builder hammering away at points during the recording. Oh-my-days. What can you do? Music: Love Chances by Makaih Beats from the Free Music Archive. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence. 

Mother and daughter, Fiona Cameron-Mackintosh and Hannah Ovenden, share their experiences of playing the sport they love; rugby. They talk about the joys and pitfalls of a a highly physical sport and also give advice on staying safe and enjoying the game. This episode was recorded in Fiona's home and was watched by one of her lovely cats. Techie stuff: This was another new step for me and something I had really wanted to experiment with; sticking a chunk of podcasting kit in a couple of bags and taking it around to record in someone's home. There wasn't really a suitable table available so I improvised and put the three dynamic mics and their stands on a large pouf - about the height of a coffee table. The three of us then sat on the sofas around the pouf. The problem this had was that we all had to lean forward to get our mouths close to the mics. Three sets of headphones were plugged into the little Behringer headphone amplifier. As before, I plugged the mics into the Zoom H4n. The Zoom H4n has just two XLR ports to connect mics. I had bought a connector which joins the XLR cables from two mics into one cable which then connects into the Zoom H4n. This was my first attempt at recording with three mics.In this recording I have two JTS TM929 dynamic cardioid mics - which Fiona and myself use and are using the connector which combines their XLR cables into one port on the Zoom - while Hannah uses the ATR2100 dynamic cardioid mic. The ATR should be the better quality mic and should record better, it is definitely more expensive than the JTS - over twice as much. I think that I can identify this in the recording but not totally sure. And not sure if combining the two JTS mics into one cable affected their quality. Hmmm.I know that during the recording I tried to make sure that I was speaking close to my JTS mic - almost touching the windscreen. I did notice that Hannah was speaking a little further from her ATR so maybe it is a compliment for the ATR that it recorded her well at a further distance than the JTS or maybe just a compliment to Hannah's clear and confident speaking voice. Fiona, at times, was speaking about 30cm from her mic and this was understandable because of all the leaning forward, but again I think that I hear her fine in the recording. During the recording one of Fiona's cats jumps on to the pouf and sits and watches. I can't hear this in the recording but I did pick up when we try to reach out to the cat and brush one of the metal mic stands. So, not much ambient noise picked up this recording except some breathing noise.At one point a phone went off and I stopped the recording. I carried on recording but later found that I had pressed the wrong button on the Zoom and had lost the first part. Grrr. Fiona and Hannah kindly and patiently agreed to re-record the opening part. Bless you. (What an amateur)Music: Love Chances by Makaih Beats from the Free Music Archive. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence. http://freemusicarchive.org/music

In this interview we get to learn more about the work done by a tutor working on Develop’s Children in Need project. The Children in Need project is a 9 session course called “Like It, Live It”. It is funded by Children in Need and is run by Develop EBP. The course helps young people develop their confidence, team working skills and mental wellbeing. Techie stuff: Just like episode one, this interview was recorded using just a Zoom H4N handy recorder. No external microphones were used; only the Zoom’s internal mic was used. The Zoom was rested on a little chunk of foam beside myself and Yvonne. We were both sitting around 50cm from the Zoom’s mic. No headphones were used by either myself or Yvonne to listen to ourselves as we recorded.The interview took place in a medium-sized room and a colleague was present in the room quietly trying to get on with her work and tidy up this classroom. You do occasionally hear these background noises and sometimes they are surprisingly sharp and loud – such as when some pencils are put down on a table. The room is also next to a road and there are traffic noises. These are distracting but I still feel that you are able to hear what Yvonne has to say clearly throughout the recording. From the interview-skills side of this piece I did not waffle quite as much with my questions and Yvonne did the majority of the talking; as it should be. This episode was recorded on the same day as episode one and so I had not yet fully appreciated just how much of an effect ambient noises have in recordings.  As in episode one, I did a little editing in Audacity and used the Levelator software to finish off the final project. While in Audacity the project is made up of seven audio clips. When this is project is saved as a wav and listened to, you notice the different audio levels between the clips. After using the Levelator these differences become harder to notice. Link to Luton Urban Radiohttp://www.lurlive.com/Background music: Love Chances by Makaih Beats from the Free Music Archive. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence. http://freemusicarchive.org 

In this interview we get to learn what a Bedfordshire IAG advisor does. I speak with Helen McHugh, an experienced IAG advisor.   During the interview, Helen mentions the Children in Need project and Study Programme. The Children in Need project is a 9 session course called “Like It, Live It”. It is funded by Children in Need but is run by Develop. The course helps young people develop their confidence, team working skills and mental wellbeing. Study Programme is a full-time education programme run by Develop where young learners can study towards maths and English qualifications as well as qualifications such as Childcare, ITQ, Introduction to Beauty and Employability.  Develop EBP is a company which provides learning courses for a range of ages, but predominately ages 16 - 19. Develop currently has training centres in Bedford, Dunstable, Hitchin and Norwich. (Probably should have covered this in the interview)Techie stuff: This interview was recorded using just a Zoom H4N handy recorder. No external microphones were used; only the Zoom’s internal mic was used. The Zoom was rested on a little chunk of foam beside myself and Helen. We were both sitting around 50cm from the Zoom’s mic. No headphones were used by either myself or Helen to listen to ourselves as we recorded.The advice I read about podcasting says that you should ideally have a microphone for each person involved in the interview, and experts suggest that it is good to use a dynamic cardioid microphone as this will just pick up what a person says and minimise background (ambient) noise.How distracting was the traffic noise for you?The interview took place in a small room beside a busy road. The windows were not double glazed and you hear spells of background noise from the road outside.Despite the problems, as an amateur I was actually quite pleased with the recording, in that afterwards, I could basically hear what was being said and that I had pressed the right buttons on the Zoom during the interview. I also liked just how quick it was to set up the Zoom and do nothing fancy. The introduction to the episode was recorded using a Blue Yeti USB microphone on its cardioid pattern. This section seemed to sound OKish before uploading but when I listen to it on the website I feel that it sounds a little different and not as clear, for some reason.From the interview-skills side of this piece I noticed that my questions were long and quite rambling. In post-production I cut out lots of sections and you may well notice some of the ham-fisted bits. I also actually had to cut out about a whole minute at the start when I went on a nerve-ridden ramble about getting Helen’s surname (McHugh) mixed up with the surname of Bruce Willis’ character (McClane) in the Die Hard films. Classy stuff.I edited the project in Audacity (free audio editing software) – moving some clips and music around, cutting out a few long pauses, adding fade-ins and fade-outs and finally exported the project as a wav file. I then put this wav file through a piece of free software called The Levelator which is recommended by some experts as a way to adjust the audio levels in the podcast. Finally, I converted this updated wav file to be an mp3 file so that it was ready to be uploaded and published. Without the Levelator the interview section of recording sounds very quiet. The downside to using the Levelator is that the traffic noise now sounds louder. The lesson here is to never use this room again with the Zoom recorder and also to experiment with individual cardioid dynamic microphones. Well... it's a start. The experiment continues..... Thank you for your patience.Background music - Love Chances by Makaih Beats from the Free Music Archive. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence.