Rich and I would like to apologize for the sound quality issues with the last podcast. This is a problem that’s been getting gradually worse the last month or so and while we’d tried to figure out the problem, we didn’t find it in time for last night’s show. We would usually have used Rich’s recording or redone the show, but neither was an option last night. So we published it as is.
We did manage to do more troubleshooting today and it turns out the sound card on my computer was going out. I was using the internal sound card along with a Phonic firewire mixer to create a ‘mix-minus’ configuration which basically enabled us to get decent sound without causing an echo to be routed back to the person on the other end of the phone. At least as long as my sound card was working properly that is.
I had an M-Audio MobilePre USB sitting in a drawer and we’ve put that in the sound loop and taken out the dying sound card all together. We tested today and it sounds clear and let’s me add some additional sound conditioning on Rich’s sound. He’s working on improving the sound on his end as well and we may shift to a ‘double-ender’ recording format. That’d mean he records his sound at his end, I record my sound on my end and we mix it together after the fact. This takes a fair amount more work, but it may end up being what’s required.
Sorry for ending the year on a sour note and we hope you’ll stick with us despite the audio problems. Thanks for listening.