The Retro Hour – Episode 11 (Piracy on the Amiga with Galahad/Fairlight)

I signed up (after lurking here forever) to say thanks for the podcast and interview. Really interesting stuff.

Always have good memories of Fairlight as I played their version of Hunter hundreds of times, at least. Maybe thousands.

[Phantasm]

Galahad did you do the interview in person or was it done over the phone?

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Galahad did you do the interview in person or was it done over the phone?

Done over Skype with a set of Turtle Beach PX11 headphones and mic

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Done over Skype with a set of Turtle Beach PX11 headphones and mic

Good to know you hadn't taken a trip to Nottingham and not looked me up lol.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Good to know you hadn't taken a trip to Nottingham and not looked me up lol.

I was surprised at the quality of the recording, I did a sound test beforehand to make sure I wasn't too loud or too breathey, but the end result was much better than I expected, it sounded as if I was there.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

I was surprised at the quality of the recording, I did a sound test beforehand to make sure I wasn't too loud or too breathey, but the end result was much better than I expected, it sounded as if I was there.

These guys know what they are doing, their podcast sounds absolutely awesome, which is unusual in most podcasts.

[Pyromania]

Great show!

[Amon_RA]

Originally Posted by Akira

These guys know what they are doing, their podcast sounds absolutely awesome, which is unusual in most podcasts.

Some of the guest recordings in other episodes just sound horrible to be honest... I skipped a few because of terrible echo, huge volume differences between the guest and the guys, etc...

[dreamkatcha]

Originally Posted by Amon_RA

Some of the guest recordings in other episodes just sound horrible to be honest... I skipped a few because of terrible echo, huge volume differences between the guest and the guys, etc...

That's your loss, but nevermind, you can catch them again next time they're on Oprah Winfrey's show.

[Amon_RA]

Originally Posted by dreamkatcha

That's your loss, but nevermind, you can catch them again next time they're on Oprah Winfrey's show.

Why do you feel the need to give a childish response on valid feedback?

I love the podcast, but I think it's important to also point out things that could be improved and make it even better. When you're not a native English speaker it's already difficult to understand certain UK accents, throw in some sound distortion/volume issues and it's game over. Just being brutally honest... The sound quality of the Galahad episode was excellent, and I hope future episodes will be on the same level.

[dreamkatcha]

Originally Posted by Amon_RA

Why do you feel the need to give a childish response on valid feedback?

I love the podcast, but I think it's important to also point out things that could be improved and make it even better. When you're not a native English speaker it's already difficult to understand certain UK accents, throw in some sound distortion/volume issues and it's game over. Just being brutally honest... The sound quality of the Galahad episode was excellent, and I hope future episodes will be on the same level.

It wasn't childish at all. The point is you'll die waiting for the perfect recordings of these fascinating industry insiders, assuming there was anything wrong with them in the first place.

I know if I was struggling to follow them I'd change my own set up, listen in a silent room on decent quality speakers etc, rather than shoot myself in the foot by skipping them entirely.

[Amon_RA]

Originally Posted by dreamkatcha

It wasn't childish at all. The point is you'll die waiting for the perfect recordings of these fascinating industry insiders, assuming there was anything wrong with them in the first place.

I know if I was struggling to follow them I'd change my own set up, listen in a silent room on decent quality speakers etc, rather than shoot myself in the foot by skipping them entirely.

People obviously notice, hence the reason why they praise the quality of the above mentioned episode, no need to minimize the problem and pretend it's not there... Blaming the listener for not putting in the effort to fiddle with their already perfect sound setup is a bit absurd. It's like releasing a magazine with horrible funky text colors and expect the reader to read the magazine under special light conditions, and preach that they will miss out on great content if they don't. It's not up to the listener to do the post audio processing...

I'm sure I'm not the only one who stops listening when the quality reaches a certain level, I'm probably just the first one to admit it in this thread.

Again, I love the podcast, and I'm not looking for ways to trash it, I'm just providing feedback on things that could be improved.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by dreamkatcha

I know if I was struggling to follow them I'd change my own set up, listen in a silent room on decent quality speakers etc, rather than shoot myself in the foot by skipping them entirely.

I'm sorry, but you can never understand what it is like not being a native English speaker.
I understand what Amon_Ra is saying, I also have had to stop watching or listening something at some point after the tenth time of rewinding and still not understanding, and it wasn't because I was in a poor room, or had shitty speakers, it's just has to do with understanding. When you introduce artifaction to the voice, a non-native speaker will have a harder time figuring the language out. This varies with your understanding of English, of course.
So his point is very valid.

I have to say I haven't heard all their podcasts because I'm not really that interested in the matters talked about, but those podcasts I heard sounded pretty good.

Originally Posted by Akira

These guys know what they are doing, their podcast sounds absolutely awesome, which is unusual in most podcasts.

That's because Dan W is a professional DJ. They use his Nottingham radio studio for the recording.

It sounds professional because, er, it is!

[rats]

Originally Posted by Akira

I have to say I haven't heard all their podcasts because I'm not really that interested in the matters talked about, but those podcasts I heard sounded pretty good.

Thanks! We would love to get you on one day Akira

We do understand the point with accents and being a non-native speaker. Sometimes it's hard for us to understand a guest with a strong accent lol

I usually contact and get the guests, the interview quality is usually down to a few factors.

- What software they are using eg Skype is not as nice as google plus (we found from bill herd).
- The mic they have avaliable. Dave Perry and a few others have used iPad mics or laptop which really don't sound amazing.
- If they use headphones or echo is created.
- Another aspect we cannot control is the quality of the connection on the guest end, causing artifacts drop outs and peaks.

We also do multiband processing over the whole show and record in a proper studio via a mixing desk. Dan is a Radio host and I am a sound engineer so we keep a high standard, Dan has sometimes been editing interviews for hours at a time to keep the quality high, he edits every show, every week!


As time goes on we will keep trying to improve it as much as possible, hopefully as we get bigger names they will be more used to interviews online. Got some guests coming to the studio soon as well!

Cheers Ravi

Ps. Thanks for all your kind comments glad you guys are enjoying it, so are we!

[danwood_uk]

Originally Posted by Amon_RA

Some of the guest recordings in other episodes just sound horrible to be honest... I skipped a few because of terrible echo, huge volume differences between the guest and the guys, etc...

That's really beyond our control, as it's down to the quality of the guest's set up and their Internet connection.

Ravi and I record our bit in a studio with £100,000s worth of kit, but with guests we're at the mercy of their home setup and connection. Volume shouldn't be an issue though as the entire show is run through a pretty beefy multiband compressor to compensate for any level difference (the waveform pretty much looks square lol), but the difference between our broadcast quality microphones and their home £10 headset probably sounds more apparent.

Bear in mind, many other podcasts are recorded entirely via Skype

[Galahad/FLT]

So, whats the 'readership' figures like so far for the podcasts? Are they steadily getting more and more views?

[danwood_uk]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

So, whats the 'readership' figures like so far for the podcasts? Are they steadily getting more and more views?

We regularly break the iTunes top 20 charts, Apple actually featured us as a "new and noteworthy" podcast on the front of the iTunes store last month, actually doing a lot better than we predicted by this stage Your episode has had almost 3,500 listens on Soundcloud alone, not counting other platforms.

[Methanoid]

Originally Posted by danwood_uk

That's really beyond our control, as it's down to the quality of the guest's set up and their Internet connection.

Ravi and I record our bit in a studio with £100,000s worth of kit, but with guests we're at the mercy of their home setup and connection. Volume shouldn't be an issue though as the entire show is run through a pretty beefy multiband compressor to compensate for any level difference (the waveform pretty much looks square lol), but the difference between our broadcast quality microphones and their home £10 headset probably sounds more apparent.

Bear in mind, many other podcasts are recorded entirely via Skype

If someone skips because of a little distortion I wonder how interested they really were...

Content anyone???

That's like not watching a TV show because it is not in HD. IMHO it's stupid but everyone is allowed their own (dumb) opinions!!

I wonder if they hang up on friends calling using a mobile as the audio isn't to scratch?

Originally Posted by Methanoid

If someone skips because of a little distortion I wonder how interested they really were...

Content anyone???

That's like not watching a TV show because it is not in HD. IMHO it's stupid but everyone is allowed their own (dumb) opinions!!

I wonder if they hang up on friends calling using a mobile as the audio isn't to scratch?

Indeed! The quality of the interviews is, for me, what makes this one of the best retro podcasts available.

I see from a bit of Twitter stalking that Tom Kalinski is hopefully coming up soon - that'll be a good one!