#ringr — Public Fediverse posts

This week’s recording sessions: Real Humans S01E06 Sly Leo and Children of the Dog Star, Episodes 3 & 4.

I feel like there’s always a little drama behind the scenes. Honestly, I could do without the drama.

To explain this week’s drama, let me give you a little infodump on how we record the podcast. It’s gone through many iterations over the years, and perhaps on a later PBF* I’ll fill in some of the historical gaps, but for now, let’s just talk about the current technology.

One of the tricks to getting better podcast audio is to record the participants separately, each recorded locally on their computer. Those separate files are combined in the edit for the final podcast. We currently use an online tool called RINGR which establishes an audio call between the participants, and, through code running locally in each participant’s browser, records and uploads the audio at the source.

It’s a decent service, and we’ve had pretty good luck with it for over two and a half years, but things can and do go wrong. The most common problems are little glitches in the Internet that result in dropped calls or, sometimes, mysterious “stops” in the recording.

It’s these “stops” that caused this week’s grief.

So here’s what happens: As the host, I initiate a call, which sends out invites to the participants. At the designated time, all participants, including the host, join the call.

As the host, I can see the status of the other participant(s), and waveforms for their and my audio. There is a big “Start Recording” button in the middle of the window, offset against a pleasant blue/green background. When you hit that button, it (rather intuitively) changes to “Stop” and the background changes to orange. It’s very effective and you absolutely know when it’s recording.

Now, when you stop recording the call is still connected, it switches back to blue, and it presents you with two new buttons “End Call” (which makes sense) and “Resume Call” (which doesn’t really make sense, since you’re still in the call.) In the background, the Stop Recording button has caused it to finalize the recording files, and complete the uploads to the server.

If you “resume” the call, the Start Recording comes back, and if you start recording, a new set of files is created, but they are still part of the same overall session. We use this all the time for our trailers because it gives us neat, separate files that can be included in the previous week’s episode edit.

Sometimes, as mentioned, we get the mysterious stops. Mid-recording, it just stops. Essentially it behaves exactly as if I hit Stop. There is one welcome difference: There is a distinct alert tone that plays in my headphones when that happens. Even if I didn’t see the screen turn blue, I hear the tone and we know to stop and regroup.

It’s happened a dozen or more times. The participants briefly decide how far back we’re going to regress the conversation. I resume the call, and start recording. It’s a little more work in the edit, but not much.

This time, it happened like that, with the mysterious stop happening about 6 minutes into the discussion, and while we handled it in the usual way, the outcome was very different.

What I got was the equivalent when you think you’ve pressed “Stop” on a video camera but continue to record your feet as you walk away and then, when you want to actually record something, the recording stops at the point you think you’re starting.

When I downloaded the files, I knew the file sizes were off. The first section looked fine, but when I listened to the end, it went like this:

Eugene: “So, John, what did you think about “Unchained Woman?”
John: “I liked it, it moved along…
Eugene: “Hold, hold, hold!
John: “Hey, it stopped recording. Why did it do that?”
Eugene: “I don’t know, it just beeped at me and stopped. We can resume and restart the recording. Hang on, let me hit the “Resume Call” button…
[end of recording]

There’s another file, but much too small, I listen to that, it goes like this:
Eugene: “Ok, call has resumed… can you hear me?”
John: “Yes.”
Eugene: “Good, well, this will be an easy one. We’ll just start with me asking what you thought about it.”
John: “Ok, sounds good.”
Eugene: “Starting the recording… now.”
[end of recording]

Sometimes when you’re recording a podcast you can just feel when the conversation is lively and fun, and other times, you feel it’s a bit flat, but either way you never want to have to do it again. There’s always this hanging cloud in your mind where the spontaneity is gone, and you try to make sure you say everything you did last time.

Our discussion of Unchained Woman was a good one. How could it not be? Sand squids, Jamie Lee Curtis, styrofoam rock-kicking androids, and stucco-covered spacewalls, the episode had everything you need for a good discussion.

Gone. All gone in a puff of technological smoke.

We’re not pressed for time, so we’re going to wait a couple weeks, and even record a different episode, before we re-record Unchained Woman. It’s a just a royal pain.

*Patrolling Beyond Fusion (Did I really need to explain that?)

https://fusionpatrol.com/2024/01/21/unchained-woman-unrecorded-patrolling-beyond-fusion/

#BehindTheScenes #BuckRogersInThe25thCentury #ChildrenOfTheDogStar #PatrollingBeyondFusion #RealHumans #RINGR

This week’s recording sessions: Real Humans S01E06 Sly Leo and Children of the Dog Star, Episodes 3 & 4.

I feel like there’s always a little drama behind the scenes. Honestly, I could do without the drama.

To explain this week’s drama, let me give you a little infodump on how we record the podcast. It’s gone through many iterations over the years, and perhaps on a later PBF* I’ll fill in some of the historical gaps, but for now, let’s just talk about the current technology.

One of the tricks to getting better podcast audio is to record the participants separately, each recorded locally on their computer. Those separate files are combined in the edit for the final podcast. We currently use an online tool called RINGR which establishes an audio call between the participants, and, through code running locally in each participant’s browser, records and uploads the audio at the source.

It’s a decent service, and we’ve had pretty good luck with it for over two and a half years, but things can and do go wrong. The most common problems are little glitches in the Internet that result in dropped calls or, sometimes, mysterious “stops” in the recording.

It’s these “stops” that caused this week’s grief.

So here’s what happens: As the host, I initiate a call, which sends out invites to the participants. At the designated time, all participants, including the host, join the call.

As the host, I can see the status of the other participant(s), and waveforms for their and my audio. There is a big “Start Recording” button in the middle of the window, offset against a pleasant blue/green background. When you hit that button, it (rather intuitively) changes to “Stop” and the background changes to orange. It’s very effective and you absolutely know when it’s recording.

Now, when you stop recording the call is still connected, it switches back to blue, and it presents you with two new buttons “End Call” (which makes sense) and “Resume Call” (which doesn’t really make sense, since you’re still in the call.) In the background, the Stop Recording button has caused it to finalize the recording files, and complete the uploads to the server.

If you “resume” the call, the Start Recording comes back, and if you start recording, a new set of files is created, but they are still part of the same overall session. We use this all the time for our trailers because it gives us neat, separate files that can be included in the previous week’s episode edit.

Sometimes, as mentioned, we get the mysterious stops. Mid-recording, it just stops. Essentially it behaves exactly as if I hit Stop. There is one welcome difference: There is a distinct alert tone that plays in my headphones when that happens. Even if I didn’t see the screen turn blue, I hear the tone and we know to stop and regroup.

It’s happened a dozen or more times. The participants briefly decide how far back we’re going to regress the conversation. I resume the call, and start recording. It’s a little more work in the edit, but not much.

This time, it happened like that, with the mysterious stop happening about 6 minutes into the discussion, and while we handled it in the usual way, the outcome was very different.

What I got was the equivalent when you think you’ve pressed “Stop” on a video camera but continue to record your feet as you walk away and then, when you want to actually record something, the recording stops at the point you think you’re starting.

When I downloaded the files, I knew the file sizes were off. The first section looked fine, but when I listened to the end, it went like this:

Eugene: “So, John, what did you think about “Unchained Woman?”
John: “I liked it, it moved along…
Eugene: “Hold, hold, hold!
John: “Hey, it stopped recording. Why did it do that?”
Eugene: “I don’t know, it just beeped at me and stopped. We can resume and restart the recording. Hang on, let me hit the “Resume Call” button…
[end of recording]

There’s another file, but much too small, I listen to that, it goes like this:
Eugene: “Ok, call has resumed… can you hear me?”
John: “Yes.”
Eugene: “Good, well, this will be an easy one. We’ll just start with me asking what you thought about it.”
John: “Ok, sounds good.”
Eugene: “Starting the recording… now.”
[end of recording]

Sometimes when you’re recording a podcast you can just feel when the conversation is lively and fun, and other times, you feel it’s a bit flat, but either way you never want to have to do it again. There’s always this hanging cloud in your mind where the spontaneity is gone, and you try to make sure you say everything you did last time.

Our discussion of Unchained Woman was a good one. How could it not be? Sand squids, Jamie Lee Curtis, styrofoam rock-kicking androids, and stucco-covered spacewalls, the episode had everything you need for a good discussion.

Gone. All gone in a puff of technological smoke.

We’re not pressed for time, so we’re going to wait a couple weeks, and even record a different episode, before we re-record Unchained Woman. It’s a just a royal pain.

*Patrolling Beyond Fusion (Did I really need to explain that?)

https://fusionpatrol.com/2024/01/21/unchained-woman-unrecorded-patrolling-beyond-fusion/

#BehindTheScenes #BuckRogersInThe25thCentury #ChildrenOfTheDogStar #PatrollingBeyondFusion #RealHumans #RINGR

This week’s recording sessions: Real Humans S01E06 Sly Leo and Children of the Dog Star, Episodes 3 & 4.

I feel like there’s always a little drama behind the scenes. Honestly, I could do without the drama.

To explain this week’s drama, let me give you a little infodump on how we record the podcast. It’s gone through many iterations over the years, and perhaps on a later PBF* I’ll fill in some of the historical gaps, but for now, let’s just talk about the current technology.

One of the tricks to getting better podcast audio is to record the participants separately, each recorded locally on their computer. Those separate files are combined in the edit for the final podcast. We currently use an online tool called RINGR which establishes an audio call between the participants, and, through code running locally in each participant’s browser, records and uploads the audio at the source.

It’s a decent service, and we’ve had pretty good luck with it for over two and a half years, but things can and do go wrong. The most common problems are little glitches in the Internet that result in dropped calls or, sometimes, mysterious “stops” in the recording.

It’s these “stops” that caused this week’s grief.

So here’s what happens: As the host, I initiate a call, which sends out invites to the participants. At the designated time, all participants, including the host, join the call.

As the host, I can see the status of the other participant(s), and waveforms for their and my audio. There is a big “Start Recording” button in the middle of the window, offset against a pleasant blue/green background. When you hit that button, it (rather intuitively) changes to “Stop” and the background changes to orange. It’s very effective and you absolutely know when it’s recording.

Now, when you stop recording the call is still connected, it switches back to blue, and it presents you with two new buttons “End Call” (which makes sense) and “Resume Call” (which doesn’t really make sense, since you’re still in the call.) In the background, the Stop Recording button has caused it to finalize the recording files, and complete the uploads to the server.

If you “resume” the call, the Start Recording comes back, and if you start recording, a new set of files is created, but they are still part of the same overall session. We use this all the time for our trailers because it gives us neat, separate files that can be included in the previous week’s episode edit.

Sometimes, as mentioned, we get the mysterious stops. Mid-recording, it just stops. Essentially it behaves exactly as if I hit Stop. There is one welcome difference: There is a distinct alert tone that plays in my headphones when that happens. Even if I didn’t see the screen turn blue, I hear the tone and we know to stop and regroup.

It’s happened a dozen or more times. The participants briefly decide how far back we’re going to regress the conversation. I resume the call, and start recording. It’s a little more work in the edit, but not much.

This time, it happened like that, with the mysterious stop happening about 6 minutes into the discussion, and while we handled it in the usual way, the outcome was very different.

What I got was the equivalent when you think you’ve pressed “Stop” on a video camera but continue to record your feet as you walk away and then, when you want to actually record something, the recording stops at the point you think you’re starting.

When I downloaded the files, I knew the file sizes were off. The first section looked fine, but when I listened to the end, it went like this:

Eugene: “So, John, what did you think about “Unchained Woman?”
John: “I liked it, it moved along…
Eugene: “Hold, hold, hold!
John: “Hey, it stopped recording. Why did it do that?”
Eugene: “I don’t know, it just beeped at me and stopped. We can resume and restart the recording. Hang on, let me hit the “Resume Call” button…
[end of recording]

There’s another file, but much too small, I listen to that, it goes like this:
Eugene: “Ok, call has resumed… can you hear me?”
John: “Yes.”
Eugene: “Good, well, this will be an easy one. We’ll just start with me asking what you thought about it.”
John: “Ok, sounds good.”
Eugene: “Starting the recording… now.”
[end of recording]

Sometimes when you’re recording a podcast you can just feel when the conversation is lively and fun, and other times, you feel it’s a bit flat, but either way you never want to have to do it again. There’s always this hanging cloud in your mind where the spontaneity is gone, and you try to make sure you say everything you did last time.

Our discussion of Unchained Woman was a good one. How could it not be? Sand squids, Jamie Lee Curtis, styrofoam rock-kicking androids, and stucco-covered spacewalls, the episode had everything you need for a good discussion.

Gone. All gone in a puff of technological smoke.

We’re not pressed for time, so we’re going to wait a couple weeks, and even record a different episode, before we re-record Unchained Woman. It’s a just a royal pain.

*Patrolling Beyond Fusion (Did I really need to explain that?)

https://fusionpatrol.com/2024/01/21/unchained-woman-unrecorded-patrolling-beyond-fusion/

#BehindTheScenes #BuckRogersInThe25thCentury #ChildrenOfTheDogStar #PatrollingBeyondFusion #RealHumans #RINGR