The RaceDepartment Podcast (S1, E3)

[Paul Jeffrey]

The third episode of the new RaceDepartment Podcast is now live!

In this latest instalment of the brand new RaceDepartment Podcast, Paul Glover presents a number of real and virtual motorsport topics for our panel to discuss. In the latest episode Davide Nativo, Paul Glover and Paul Jeffrey debate the place of Formula W in world motorsport, chat about our thoughts from the recent Formula One Australian Grand Prix, trade opinions on the value of career / story mode elements to sim racing games, and a whole lot more besides!

So, what are you waiting for? Get yourself over to your podcast streaming service of choice, download, listen, subscribe and help us spread the word amongst the podcast listening racing community!

To help you access the various locations of this latest podcast, you can check out the useful list below of just some of the places you can listen to and download the new episode. Of course, if you missed the RD Podcast excitement last time out, you can still catch up with all out broadcasts too…

Podcast Links:​

• Anchor​
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Spotify
• Breaker
• Overcast
• Pocket Cast
• RadioPubli
• Stitcher

Do you have any special requests for future episodes? Do you want to share your thoughts, comments and feedback on what direction the show could take going forward? Please do let us know in the comments section, and at the RD Podcast sub forum location.

Like what we do at RaceDepartment? Follow us on Social Media!

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[Heikki21]

Thanks a lot guys, I really enjoy your podcast! The last (bonus) episode was a real pleasure to listen. All these stories of the past about Toca Race Driver, Geoff Crammond etc. reminds me of my beginning of simracing and childhood. My No.1 Podcast atm

 

[Paul Glover]

Thanks a lot guys, I really enjoy your podcast! The last (bonus) episode was a real pleasure to listen. All these stories of the past about Toca Race Driver, Geoff Crammond etc. reminds me of my beginning of simracing and childhood. My No.1 Podcast atm

 

[MarkR]

I was brought here by the Career mode thread. Just one question. Why a Podcast rather than a video stream of this chat? I think you'd get far more engagement with video - just an opinion of course!

Edit: more ironic now as Paul has replied with...a video meme.

 

[MarcG]

I was brought here by the Career mode thread. Just one question. Why a Podcast rather than a video stream of this chat? I think you'd get far more engagement with video - just an opinion of course!

Edit: more ironic now as Paul has replied with...a video meme.

A Podcast WITH Video would be cool for those that want to watch something but not "rather than", how else would I be able to listen to Paul Jeffreys dulcet tones whilst on my tractor at work?

 

[MarkR]

A Podcast WITH Video would be cool for those that want to watch something but not "rather than", how else would I be able to listen to Paul Jeffreys dulcet tones whilst on my tractor at work?

Time to get a better tractor! I though they all had air-con and 4G/WiFi these days while the sat-nav did the driving? My cousin seems to watch a lot of 'talented' ladies whilst 'driving' his.

 

[Paul Glover]

I was brought here by the Career mode thread. Just one question. Why a Podcast rather than a video stream of this chat? I think you'd get far more engagement with video - just an opinion of course!

Edit: more ironic now as Paul has replied with...a video meme.

Podcasts are audio only, I listen to them on my commute or when in the car. We have enough video content on our other channels, we wanted to do something different.

 

[Paul Glover]

A Podcast WITH Video would be cool for those that want to watch something but not "rather than", how else would I be able to listen to Paul Jeffreys dulcet tones whilst on my tractor at work?

Exactly this.

 

[MarkR]

Podcasts are audio only, I listen to them on my commute or when in the car. We have enough video content on our other channels, we wanted to do something different.

Fair enough, it was just a question. You know the listening stats, if podcasts work for RD great.

 

[Mark Ratzenbacher]

Please improve the sound quality.
Jittering, different volume levels and bad micophones can easily be improved if cared about.
While I am already at constructive criticism: a table of contents with time reference would also be good for the podcast.

 

[Paul Glover]

Please improve the sound quality.
Jittering, different volume levels and bad micophones can easily be improved if cared about.
While I am already at constructive criticism: a table of contents with time reference would also be good for the podcast.

Hi Mark, which episode did you listen too?

It's never going to be perfect, as we are not in a studio. But the levels are tweaked after recording and any hiss sounds etc are removed. Overtime the audio will naturally improve, for instance I do need a new microphone but things like that cost money. Remember, we are volunteers and have other things to pay for.

When recording my mic is on a seperate audio stream and the others are in the same one, I get the levels as best as I can. I have listened to the latest episode myself and do not find myself having to adjust the volume on my headphones and think it sounds good.

Another challenge is, when recording my mic is always 'open' - So you can hear when I hit the mic arm. Again, I will do something about it overtime, until then I remove what noises I can.

Happy to take on your feedback if you can provide a bit more detail.

Cheers

 

[Mark Ratzenbacher]

hi Paul,
ok, heres some more feedback you can hopefully build on.
There are tools to improve like specialized broadcast limiter/compressors, you could record each participant on seperate channels and adjust them seperately to achieve an overall more balanced sound. Some of these tools are available for free even, you have to learn how to use them though.
For example Mr. Jeffrey sounds like a call from oversea with high dittering and/or low bitrate and due to that unnatural modulation he´s much quieter at times. Mr. Nativos voice is better , but still lots of hisses due to digital jittering.
Your voice is the loudest and clearest, sometimes ducking the other voices.
The quality is changing if i listen to different parts of the podcast, which lets me assume you are uploading the audio in a compressed format and then podcast platform changes the format again ?

What conference tool do you use and what software do you use to record and tweak ?

I understand you are volunteers, i´m not a professional audio-engineer (just 25 years self-taught and professional experience as it-admin hosting many audio/video-conferences ), and from that experience i tell you its hard and tiring on the ears to listen to these podcasts. Don´t forget, its not about the content. A rough table of contents could help to re-listen to several parts after a while, without having to skip forward and backward like if i had a cassette-player. Cheers !


.

 

[Paul Glover]

hi Paul,
ok, heres some more feedback you can hopefully build on.
There are tools to improve like specialized broadcast limiter/compressors, you could record each participant on seperate channels and adjust them seperately to achieve an overall more balanced sound. Some of these tools are available for free even, you have to learn how to use them though.
For example Mr. Jeffrey sounds like a call from oversea with high dittering and/or low bitrate and due to that unnatural modulation he´s much quieter at times. Mr. Nativos voice is better , but still lots of hisses due to digital jittering.
Your voice is the loudest and clearest, sometimes ducking the other voices.
The quality is changing if i listen to different parts of the podcast, which lets me assume you are uploading the audio in a compressed format and then podcast platform changes the format again ?
.

Unfortunately as things stand we cannot record each channel separately, doing so would cost money and that is something we do not have. Ideally I want to get to that stage, but we have to start somewhere.

The audio is uploaded in MP3 format, this keeps the file size down, the file is not changed when uploaded.

What you're hearing is Paul Jeffrey's mic, it's a headset and is the same on his videos. Not sure what Davide is using, but after the first week he has made improvements. Again, it all comes down to money.

What conference tool do you use and what software do you use to record and tweak ?

We are currently using Discord and I use Audacity to tweak.

I understand you are volunteers, i´m not a professional audio-engineer (just 25 years self-taught and professional experience as it-admin hosting many audio/video-conferences ), and from that experience i tell you its hard and tiring on the ears to listen to these podcasts. Don´t forget, its not about the content. A rough table of contents could help to re-listen to several parts after a while, without having to skip forward and backward like if i had a cassette-player. Cheers !

Not knocking your point, but I have listened to it three times now. I have no issues with it, I also listen to a lot of podcasts.

It's early days, overtime things will get better. If you look at many Youtubers etc they all have to start somewhere and things improve, as the listener base increases etc. We are hoping to drive some revenue from this at some point which will hopefully allow us to pay for a service that will allow me to split all audio streams, unless you know of another way?

 

[MarkR]

A rough table of contents could help to re-listen to several parts after a while, without having to skip forward and backward like if i had a cassette-player. Cheers .

This I agree with, especially if there are several subjects per podcast. I came here to listen to the Career Mode discussion as part of contributing to the other thread discussion. It was tricky to find that discussion. Only needs to be the main discussion change times imo.

All said in support of you developing the podcasts!

 

[Paul Glover]

This I agree with, especially if there are several subjects per podcast. I came here to listen to the Career Mode discussion as part of contributing to the other thread discussion. It was tricky to find that discussion. Only needs to be the main discussion change times imo.

All said in support of you developing the podcasts!

I've found a app that will allow me to add chapters, bonus is that it's free! My kind of app.

Next episode for sure will have them.

 

[Craig Dunkley]

just a few words to say that it was another great listen ..thanks guys

 

[Mark Ratzenbacher]

Morning!

Good equipment and knowledge how to use it is always a must, if you want good results. Spending thousands on a simrig and then using headsets (which always use small mic-capsules which cost a few euros, no matter how expensive your headset may be just sound awful) while wanting to produce a quality(soundwise) podcast is naturally a bit unbalanced Invest and get rewarded immediatly !

We are currently using Discord and I use Audacity to tweak.

Discord is designed to use low bandwidth hence quality is low. Try your Teamspeak server and record a short test session with a few guys and compare if it improves.
Check for De-Esser Tools and again experiment with Compressors included in Audacity, also look for free VST´s. There are many good ones out there and tutorials to use them as well.
It´s like driving, don´t expect to get rockstar-quality from the start. But you will get big improvements once you get it going.

Check what your Podcast-platform uses as audio-playback-format. Adjust your output audio-format befor you upload accordingly. The lower the compression rate, the better. Try 192 kbit/s, not lower. But it depends what Stitcher is using to play it. No use to upload higher quality then they play, as they will re-compress it.

Not knocking your point, but I have listened to it three times now. I have no issues with it, I also listen to a lot of podcasts.

Check the battery of your hearing aid ? just joking ,)

It's early days, overtime things will get better. If you look at many Youtubers etc they all have to start somewhere and things improve, as the listener base increases etc. We are hoping to drive some revenue from this at some point which will hopefully allow us to pay for a service that will allow me to split all audio streams, unless you know of another way?

Referring to Bram there are millions of visitors, if there is no revenue, you (RD) probably need management consultancy ? Honest question, but thats sth. thats up to you guys from the staff.

Hope you got sth to work with now for the next weeks and coming podcasts.

Edit: little bit of google surfing brought up Zencastr. Take a look at it !

 

[Shovas]

Another good podcast guys, good job!

 

[GrimGreener]

I've never really listened to podcasts before - but I'm definitely prefer the audio only - they make a change to listening to Brexit on the car radio, and I can be learning about my hobby while at work Must find more subjects to listen to as I'm nearly through all the RD casts.

 

[Paul Glover]

I've never really listened to podcasts before - but I'm definitely prefer the audio only - they make a change to listening to Brexit on the car radio, and I can be learning about my hobby while at work Must find more subjects to listen to as I'm nearly through all the RD casts.

Check out a podcast called reply all, also another called paradise.