Newsroom Connect

We’ve wrapped up production on our first podcast. It’s being hosted in our local news section here. Please be sure to give it a download and let us know what you think.

First podcasts are always tricky for two reasons. One, is technical, i.e., getting audio levels right, mixing properly, etc. The other is more people-oriented. You see, the newsroom staff liked the idea of a podcast, but when it came time to actually record, almost no one wanted to sit in front of the microphone and speak.

For most people this has to do with how we think we sound versus how others hear us. However, we’ve got some quality mics and a decent mixer board so I can eliminate a lot of the harsh frequencies as well as editing the occasional stutter, long pause or other unwanted mess-ups on the part of the person being recorded.

However, once people got in the sound room and realized we were pre-recording and weren’t doing anything live, they calmed down a good bit. For instance, the sports guys were very resistant at first, but once I let them have about ten minutes of warm up time, they fired off a great back-and-forth for over ten minutes, showcasing a pretty good dynamic.

Up and to the right, you can see a picture of the software I used to do the mixing and mastering of our podcast (Adobe Soundbooth).

Let me know what you think about the podcast either in the comments section of this post or over at the comments section for the local news entry of the podcast.

Hey, readers. Figured I’d give you an update on things around the newsroom. The project that is consuming a good chunk of my time is our soon-to-be, dedicated sound room.

We’re converting our old photography darkroom into a recording area, but every single room in our building has two main problems: super-thin walls and air vents. Two very non-ideal things to have in the mix when you’re using quality microphones (as they pick up everything) and a mixer board.

As you can see in the photo to the left, I’m not completely done with the room, but I am making some progress. The floor was reflecting a lot of sound from within the room, so I rolled out some carpet. First problem solved.

The four main walls are the second biggest problem. Due to their thin nature and all the activity we have in the offices here — people talking on phones, walking down the hall, etc. — a lot of sound was bleeding into the room. We don’t want to put out a recording and in the middle of an interview, for example, you hear fax machines and phones ringing.

I’ve been hammering four-inch-thick insulation to the walls, which we’ll eventually cover with suitable material so it doesn’t look like you’re sitting inside a giant piece of insulation.

But by far, the worst sound culprit is directly above the desk with the microphones.

The vent, seen to the right, has got to be the biggest challenge. Every room in the building has one — if not a couple — and when air starts blowing through it, it really gets in the way of a quality recording. However, all hope is not lost: we should have the air blocked off within the next day or so, so the last potential problem should be eliminated.

So, as you can see, I’m working to get our dedicated sound room up-and-running. When it comes time to provide you, our community, with one of our first products from there (our weekly podcast), I want the quality to be what you would expect and not what you hear in a lot of bare bones podcasts, i.e, lots of white noise, off audio levels, random noise bleeds, etc.

If you’re an audio guru and have any tips to give me in terms of sound proofing, be sure to leave a comment.

Welcome to our new blog at the Sun Journal, “Newsroom Connect,” edited by me, Jason Lauritzen, online editor at the Sun Journal. So, you may be asking, what’s the purpose of this blog? Well, the heading reveals it: “connecting our newsroom with our community.”

This means going beyond having a twitter account and Facebook profile — those are the bare bones of a social media skeleton and merely a community stepping stone. Rather, we want to truly reach out to those in our community and ask what you’d like to see in the paper, on our website, when we’ve missed something (in print and/or online) or what we could do better.

You may be asking, “What’s coming up in the future? What new initiatives do we have planned?” Well, I’m glad to share some of those with you:

1. A weekly photo slideshow published online composed entriely of user-submitted photos. You can email pics from around the area to sjcommunity@freedomenc.com. Make sure you include your name and any relevant info for pics you’re submitting, i.e., who else is in the pic, what is going on, the date it was taken, etc.

2. Ask the newsroom a question. You can email me at jlauritzen@freedomenc.com with any questions you have for our newsroom. You might want to ask a reporter a specific question or wonder how a certain process at the paper works. I’ll compile a list of questions and answers for posts at this blog.

3. A weekly audio podcast. We’re in the process of assembling segments, setting up microphones and getting all the other pieces in place to give you, our community, a free, weekly podcast. This will be further down the line as we’re aiming for a certain level of audio quality and getting into the flow of working around every one’s daily schedules to record will take some effort.

That gives you an idea of what we’re planning for the more immediate future. I encourage you to comment on this post and follow the blog.