PHP Abstract Podcast Episode 2 – Backup or Die

Hi,

I am unable to listen to this episode of this podcast because of the most unbearable and annoying background noise ever. Gave me a head ace after the first minute. I don’t see how you missed it.

So please fix this issue or I simply will be unable to listen in the future. I hope future episodes do not have this issue. I give you benefit of the doubt since the first episode is fine.

Thanks,

Will

My apologies for the background noise. Just days before I recorded the podcast, I trashed the fan on my laptop experimenting with Zend_Search_Lucene and indexing some large quantities of content. I’ve figured out how to fix the noise now, and new podcasts should be much better in quality.

Hi,

Great, glad to see you already know about the issue and are taking steps to correct it.

I will continue to listen to the podcast. Good job!

Take Care,

Will

After listening to the first couple of abstracts, I sense that at times you might be asking speakers to record themselves. In that case, control over the sound quality is impossible.

Since this one is with a Zend employee, you could have used some sort of ‘standard’ set-up (if you have one yet!). It sounds as if there’s some sort of feedback happening; perhaps Matthew was monitoring the recorder’s output with a mixer and managed to mix the monitoring back into the recorder input along with his voice.

Do this:
mic -> mic preamp -> recorder input -> (plays through while recording) -> recorder output -> monitoring system -> headphones

The monitoring system should not mixed with the audio going to the recorder input. It’s most easily achieved by completely separating input and monitoring.