April Fools 2008: OTCast Episode 01 -- "A Bit Chippy"

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Asher
I've done this before in recording WoW raids, it's not hard or that time-consuming at all. CERTAINLY nothing like a 15+ hour effort for a 40 minute podcast.

surely you have a copy somewhere...

[Asher]

I haven't played WoW in about 2 years...

What is so bloody difficult.

Start up a Teamspeak/Ventrilo session, turn on Sound Recorder to capture system output. Turn on background noise elimination in the groupchat software, before you start make sure everyone's sound-checked properly for volume, then begin. Then delete the boring parts where you talk about Civ. Then encode to mp3 (takes a minute) and post.

[Locutus]

If it's so 'bloody' easy why don't you demonstrate? Rather than just being a self-righteous troll who pretends to know everything about something he's never done in his life, back up your baseless claims with some actual evidence. It's apparently quite trivial, so it shouldn't cost you much time or effort. Until you provide any kind of proof, you're full of it and your 'advice' isn't worth the bandwidth used to post it...

Do you really think you're so f*cking brilliant you're the first person in the world to think of trying something other than Skype? That it hasn't been tried with every VoIP software known to man? FYI we don't even rely on any VoIP at all for capturing the actual sound, we only use that for communication. We capture mic input directly and run some post-production filters on that which are far better than what any VoIP package can hope to do on the fly. It's still quite insufficient.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Locutus
If it's so 'bloody' easy why don't you demonstrate?

Because I don't care to waste my time. I bill hundreds of dollars an hour for my software skills, there's no way I'd volunteer my time to do this **** because you guys can't.

Rather than just being a self-righteous troll who pretends to know everything about something he's never done in his life

I have recorded group conversations before, it is not hard or time-consuming if you're not mildly retarded. In fact, it's downright easy.

It's apparently quite trivial, so it shouldn't cost you much time or effort. Until you provide any kind of proof, you're full of it and your 'advice' isn't worth the bandwidth used to post it...

What kind of "proof" would suffice for you? What an asinine demand. Truly.

If I did waste my time producing the drivel you guys find fun, you'd say "but how can we prove you did it so quickly!!!!" or "how can we prove you didn't have help!!" or whatever other lame excuse you want.

Do you really think you're so f*cking brilliant you're the first person in the world to think of trying something other than Skype?

Because you've avoided the direct question twice already (three times now), the answer IS obvious.

That it hasn't been tried with every VoIP software known to man? FYI we don't even rely on any VoIP at all for capturing the actual sound, we only use that for communication. We capture mic input directly and run some post-production filters on that which are far better than what any VoIP package can hope to do on the fly. It's still quite insufficient.

This is part of your problem, you have no idea what you're talking about.

It's so simple that it has apparently eluded you.

Start up TeamSpeak...get everyone to join the channel. Do a mic test to ensure the volumes are normal.

Record the output stream.

Cut/paste the audio you don't like.

ENCODE.

There is no reason whatsoever this should possibly take more than 2 hours to do for a 40 minute show unless you're as competent with producing podcasts than you are maintaining the forum software here.

[LordShiva]

Given teh potential upside in terms of man-hours, perhaps teh next (WTF is) PolyCast or ModCast could use Asher's suggestions as an experiment. There isn't much to lose.

[Wiglaf]

They'd intentionally screw it up though and then spend 30 minutes giggling about Asher being gay and arrogant about everything. Then they'd move on to whipping the Siddiqui until he starts saying something useful about Civ4.

[Asher]

The general rule of thumb is to do the opposite of what I say.

I told them when they hired UR it was a huge mistake, and it took a ridiculously long time for them to concede that it was...

[Locutus]

Again, no evidence = you're full of it. Stop wasting our time. In fact, if your time is so precious and valuable why are you wasting a good portion of your life trolling some lousy outdated internet forum?

This is part of your problem, you have no idea what you're talking about.

Oh, sweet, sweet irony.

Start up TeamSpeak...get everyone to join the channel. Do a mic test to ensure the volumes are normal.

Record the output stream.

Cut/paste the audio you don't like.

ENCODE.

This is EXACTLY what we do on a weekly basis and it sounds like crap if we don't add 10-15 hours of post-production. If it's so incredibly simple (a) it should be quite trivial for you to prove your claims and (b) please explain to us Oh Great Master of All Human Knowledge what on earth kind of extra steps are we taking that makes our quality grossly unacceptable when it's crystal clear for you?

I've not tried TeamSpeak specifically, as there are dozens if not hundreds of VoIP packages and I can't try each and every one of them myself, but I've tried other VoIP clients and Skype works the best for our needs. As for Teamspeak specifically, a simple Google search will reveal a bunch of reviews of the use of it for podcasting and all rate it as worse than Skype (e.g. this one rates it was no better than a cell phone call and this guy is using considerably more expensive hardware than we are). Even Leo Laporte agrees, and he's the creator of one of the most popular and respected podcasts (and podcast networks) in the world and has 40+ years of experience in professional radio. If you think you know better than him you're gonna have to give us more evidence than just your self-righteous baseless claims.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Krill
Dr Spike, Asher, Wiglaf and Wezil should get together on Skype and do this and if they came up with the goods Dan should host it.

I'd do it if someone else did the technical work. It seems Asher believes that is pretty easy, but others disagree. I'm not sure who to believe to be honest.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Locutus
Again, no evidence = you're full of it.

Again, asking for "evidence" in this situation is retarded.

The problem is so simple and you've made it so complicated and you've been so owned that you're resorting to this now. You're pretending it's hard because it probably is hard for you, just like some people find it incredibly difficult to read or do basic arithmetic. Some people just aren't cut out for technology...

Stop wasting our time.

You are the one involved in PolyCast.

In fact, if your time is so precious and valuable why are you wasting a good portion of your life trolling some lousy outdated internet forum?

Because it doesn't occupy large, contiguous amounts of my time. It's fantastic for commercial breaks when I'm at home or between tasks at work (or when I need to take a break to think about something).

It's one thing to be posting here, it's another to allocate a few hours to recording the most boring people on this site talking about nothing.

Oh, sweet, sweet irony.

If it takes you 20 hours to edit 40 minutes of idle chatter, it's definitely not ironic..

This is EXACTLY what we do on a weekly basis

...

I've not tried TeamSpeak specifically

I can see why you have trouble with this if you can't even comprehend what's being discussed in this thread. Maybe we should just count or blessings you're capable of anything...

as there are dozens if not hundreds of VoIP packages and I can't try each and every one of them myself, but I've tried other VoIP clients and Skype works the best for our needs. As for Teamspeak specifically, a simple Google search will reveal a bunch of reviews of the use of it for podcasting and all rate it as worse than Skype (e.g. this one rates it was no better than a cell phone call and this guy is using considerably more expensive hardware than we are). Even Leo Laporte agrees, and he's the creator of one of the most popular and respected podcasts (and podcast networks) in the world and has 40+ years of experience in professional radio. If you think you know better than him you're gonna have to give us more evidence than just your self-righteous baseless claims.

THE LEO LAPORTE? THE LEO LAPORTE?

Everyone! Everyone! LEO LAPORTE has proclaimed something, IT MUST BE TRUE. After all, he helps people remove SPYWARE from their computer on LIVE TV AND RADIO all the time.

Let's get one thing straight -- if you think name-dropping Leo Laporte in a tech discussion is going to win you brownie points, you couldn't be farther from the truth. It's like me name-dropping O'Reilly in a political discussion. They're talking-head tools.

Re: Teamspeak, there are three different codecs that are included into teamspeak. The default one is intended for gaming with 20+ people and as such as very low bitrates and has no emphasis on quality whatsoever. And because I actually know what I'm talking about, I know that one of the codecs that come with TeamSpeak is Speex. I'm sure you've no idea what the hell that is -- despite how clearly experienced you are in this incredibly difficult field that even THE GREAT LEO LAPORTE has issues with.

So let me educate you.

Speex is a professional-grade, market-leading voice codec. It powers the most popular corporate teleconference systems, the US Army uses it in the battlefield, has built-in background noise elimination features, Xbox Live uses it, Civilization 4 uses it for Leonard Nemoy/Sid Meier's technology intros, etc.

It is largely considered the best VoIP codec out there, as it can scale up to professional-quality (Civ4's implementation) to ultra-low latency, low-bandwidth versions (Xbox Live's, which permits up to 32 players to speak at once).

And given your arrogant comment earlier:

Do you really think you're so f*cking brilliant you're the first person in the world to think of trying something other than Skype? That it hasn't been tried with every VoIP software known to man?

I'm willing to bet you've not even tried this codec. Am I right?

[Asher]

WHAT WOULD LEO LAPORTE DO?

[Lancer]

You guys need to get a room.

[Asher]

I don't think Leo Laporte would say that. And he has 40 years experience in RADIO.

[Ming]

Pretty typical for Asher... all talk (trolling) but no action.

Enjoy your trolling... but at the end of day, that's all it is.
Maybe some day, you will put up. But highly doubtful.

[Asher]

I have volunteered to help this site before and I've learned my lesson to try doing that...

Knowledge is power, and I'm providing it for free and instead of listening to what I say, I'm summarily dismissed.

20 hours...unreal!

I'm not sure what you want from me in terms of "action", I can't force you guys to do things intelligently (Lord, how I have tried!).