Cheers and Gears Podcast #1: Sh¡t Hits the Fan

This podcast really is more fun than crashing a Solstice into a guard rail.

Enjoy!

Swag..

For this podcast, my comments were recorded using a mic pieced together from a magnet and one large Russet potato (thank you Sony).

Hopefully I'll figure out a way to come in clearer for the next podcast.

I wish I could've made this podcast, at least so I could drop a few of my opinions about Jalopnik and a few more comments on automotive journalism. Jeremy's very right in saying that Jalopnik isn't automotive journalism. Jalopnik is an online automotive tabloid. Something that, if they actually printed it and you saw it on a shelf before checking out at your local supermarket, you'd only buy it to have something to line your birdcage with.

Then again, given what seems to be the general M.O. of Jalopnik's parent company-thing-whatever Gawker Media, I'd almost bet they would probably take what I'm saying here as a compliment. I'd also keep this rant going, but it's 3:30 in the morning and I really have to get some sleep.

Ugh, Sorry guys, I have to give you a d- on your first podcast. I logged onto the link above to listen, excited to hear a dialog on automotive subjects and instead hear a bunch of guys rambling that reminds me of this one old movie about two long hair guys in their basement making a tv show and it was just stupid. The only redeming value of the movie was Tia Carrera who was in it.

This pod cast I never even got to the subject. The begining alone was to hard to listen anymore.

Sorry, but I want meat and potatoes, not joking around weak excusses. I know you guys can do way better than that.

>>"The G8 is the best car to perhaps ever wear the Pontiac Badge..."<<
>>"which isn't saying much"<<

Nice.

It's obvious you guys are still getting settled down, things will improve. Good luck.

It was a decent first effort. I actually fell asleep towards the middle after I put my head down, but it was more so out of fatigue than boredom. Nice reference to Josh. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

The background tune got old, I'd rather just hear the dialog, personally. Some consistent microphone quality would probably help as well (you already mentioned this, so I know you're aware). I've had good experience with http://www.musicians...56000000000]the MXL 990 condenser mic[/url], but it requires phantom power, which I get from an M-Audio USB unit. Might be overkill, but it's a very nice mic.

Some consistent microphone quality would probably help as well (you already mentioned this, so I know you're aware). I've had good experience with http://www.musicians...56000000000]the MXL 990 condenser mic[/url], but it requires phantom power, which I get from an M-Audio USB unit. Might be overkill, but it's a very nice mic.

Yeah, that's all on my end and I'm currently working on fixing it. The internal soundcard on my laptop sucks.

I have an M-Audio FastTrack Pro USB interface myself as well as a good Shure Beta 57A (not exactly an ideal mic for podcasting I know, but it was designed with vocals in mind aside from instruments), but I've been having some issues using the FastTrack lately (strange, loud popping noises in the background mostly). I've managed to get my smaller M-Audio Micro USB interface to cooperate with Skype earlier today, so hopefully that will alieviate some of the quality issues even though I still have to use the Sony Potato Mic with it.

I appreciate the effort and initiative, but we are not 4chan. That said, I do encourage further development of the idea.

I love it. This is exactly the kind of thing I love to listen to. Though I agree with PurdueGuy, having the background music on the entire time is rather annoying.

Firstly, I'm flattered people have listened to it at all! So thanks to everyone for their input.

I'll share what goes on after recording. I take a few hours and edit out pauses, the 'um's,' 'like's' and other bits of speech that people use in speech. I also cut out entire parts and rearrange them, or delete them.

I do this to a) clean up the discussion and b) adhere to a 45-minute time-limit. Many podcasts go on for hours, which I find intolerable and a reason why I don't listen to them myself. I put in the extra effort, because I actually have relatively high standards and know you all do too.

Since I am essentially the curator/producer of this gong-show, please send the criticism my way. I will address some right now.

Ugh, Sorry guys, I have to give you a d- on your first podcast. I logged onto the link above to listen, excited to hear a dialog on automotive subjects and instead hear a bunch of guys rambling that reminds me of this one old movie about two long hair guys in their basement making a tv show and it was just stupid. The only redeming value of the movie was Tia Carrera who was in it.

This pod cast I never even got to the subject. The begining alone was to hard to listen anymore.

Sorry, but I want meat and potatoes, not joking around weak excusses. I know you guys can do way better than that.

The first two-and-a-half minutes were something of a 'bloopers' bit, just to show people that organizing this sort of thing can be a challenge and that we're all idiots.

The 'rambling' stuff is a warm-up, too, mind you. You can't jump to the topics right away without some play. We did two test podcasts beforehand, and cutting to the chase felt awkward. Whenever I interview people for news articles, you have to have some play.

I will say this, the BS at the beginning will be the norm. Some people like it, some don't. The issue with a place with C&G, that has a diverse audience agewise, is that you cannot please everyone. But, we'll be indicating when the 'real' talk begins, so you can skip the preliminary BS. That way, you can get to the meat and potatoes.

The background tune got old, I'd rather just hear the dialog, personally. Some consistent microphone quality would probably help as well (you already mentioned this, so I know you're aware).

Music will be a part of the podcast. But we're still experimenting on its use. We may have it break up certain parts, or Dan will fool with the audio levels a little more.

As for quality, Blake was having issues which were out of our grasp. I believe he's mitigated them.

I appreciate the effort and initiative, but we are not 4chan. That said, I do encourage further development of the idea.

The images are memes, but that's about it. We're discussing amongst ourselves how we were '4Chan,' and can't figure it out. If you could elaborate, that'd be helpful.

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We want suggestions on how to improve and all criticism that you can dish out.

We're doing this for the community, after all. It's a labour of love and we want to give you all a podcast that you can listen to, that gives a different experience than just reading forums.

Also, once things get going, we aim to have a guest each week from the forum. This will bring a different viewpoint in and since we have so many cool people on C&G, it'd be a shame to not do this.

I can understand the need for some kind of tune, though I'm not sure it needs to be there the whole time. I wasn't a fan of the particular tune you tried, it struck me as circus music-esque, and was stuck in my head in an irritating way. Keep experimenting, there's probably a better tune that will work fine.

I was struck by a bit of a feeling of the topics being a list of recent articles, and a feeling of "why would I listen to this when I can just read the threads?" It is a different experience, though, and as I listened, that feeling subsided largely. It may be worth considering developing some podcast-unique topics.

Ultimately how well this will work, and its draw, will just have to be seen over time as you polish things up. There's some potential, though I'm not sure I see myself making a point of listening regularly if there's not a unique draw vs simply keeping up on reading the threads on the forum/news for C&G. It's too easy for me to miss things when I'm listening to something, as I tend to start multitasking and end up focusing too much on something else that I'm looking at/reading/doing. That's not something against you guys, I've just never gotten into following podcasts in general, and tend to need something that requires more of my attention (like a video blog) to keep me from getting too distracted. If I did more driving it would probably suit me much better.

Thank you Pervez for the response, I will in the future, get past the foreplay and go right to the input!

After passing the ramble to get to the discussion, I would have to say that the music was distracting, you need a more nuetral background music that is just a nice filler.

In my own personal experiance, I would tend to take an approach of exploring a topic by stating the areas to be covered, the meat and potatoes and a wrap up hitting all the key points. With this said, one thing that does see to work real well for people listening is to sumerize each small section of the over all topic as you move through it so you make sure people get the jist of what you are wanting to get across to others with a final over all wrap up that keys people into the points you want them to remember.

KISS, Keep is simple stupid. This approach always works for me. Good luck guys,

I can understand the need for some kind of tune, though I'm not sure it needs to be there the whole time. I wasn't a fan of the particular tune you tried, it struck me as circus music-esque, and was stuck in my head in an irritating way. Keep experimenting, there's probably a better tune that will work fine.

I was struck by a bit of a feeling of the topics being a list of recent articles, and a feeling of "why would I listen to this when I can just read the threads?" It is a different experience, though, and as I listened, that feeling subsided largely. It may be worth considering developing some podcast-unique topics.

Ultimately how well this will work, and its draw, will just have to be seen over time as you polish things up. There's some potential, though I'm not sure I see myself making a point of listening regularly if there's not a unique draw vs simply keeping up on reading the threads on the forum/news for C&G. It's too easy for me to miss things when I'm listening to something, as I tend to start multitasking and end up focusing too much on something else that I'm looking at/reading/doing. That's not something against you guys, I've just never gotten into following podcasts in general, and tend to need something that requires more of my attention (like a video blog) to keep me from getting too distracted. If I did more driving it would probably suit me much better.

As far as topics go, unless we start making up news (which we can if you really want), there's going to be discussions of the week's big stories in the automotive world. With that said, there's going to be some original content, such myself and Blake's reviews, Blakes journalism topic, as well as we hope to get invite forum members to join us each week. I think having live conversations will also help add new layer of depth to the community.