Increase volume
The most common problem with lecture podcasts is that the audio is too weak. It happens again with the brand new series at UCSD by Matthew Herbst about the Byzantine Empire (feed). The lecture can barely be heard. Technically it means that the sound operates around 77dB, whereas the standard for good listening is as high as 90dB. For podcasts, it is my experience, 90dB is more like a minimum, which means that anything weaker than that cannot be properly enjoyed.
The utility to help you is MP3Gain, which is free and easy to use (download). You can view the files in MP3Gain and then increase the sound level up to a maximum of 100dB - which I recommend. A gain from 77 to 100 as I managed with Herbst's lectures makes a world of differences. If you have sound as low as 60dB, I think you may suffer from distortion when it is cranked up to 100dB. Yet, 75dB is as low as I have found any podcast to come.
Convert to mp3
Occasionally you will get content in a format that does not suit you. With VLC media player (aka VideoLanPlayer), you can convert almost any format to anything else (download). I have used this to convert one audio format to another, as well as converting video to audio. Conversion takes about 10 seconds. It has happened when I converted video to audio, the conversion to mp3 did not succeed (empty file). What I did then was first convert to mp4 and then the mp4 to mp3. Removing silence or noise
When you have audio files that are dear to you but contain sections that are a nuisance, you can use Audacity to simply cut those away (download). This is excellent for editing lecture recordings especially at UCSD. They start with silence and then have all the noise of the audience entering the lecture hall and this may go on for minutes until the actual lecture begins. You can import a file into audacity and identify the bad sections and simply delete them.
More advanced tips for podcast listeners:
Preference settings per podcast,
iTunes 9 - help for the podcast listener,
Suggestion for the advanced podcast listener,
Devising your own podcast feed - Huffduffer,
Using playlists for podcasts.
4 comments:
Hi Anne--
Thanks for the great tips. Love that MP3 Gain!
MP3gain is indeed one of the most useful and simple utilities. In order to be able to apply it, you will have to have mp3 as a basis and in order to get there you will have to convert from time to time. So, do not discard the VLC player
Anne
This tool is very dangerous. I tried boosting one series of the MMW1 lectures, and the ping that occurs at the begining and end of the lecture was made much to loud, and I hurt my ear. I really suggest only boosting the UCSD classes by a little bit (3 db's=double the volume) at a time, and trying it before boosting any more.
That is true. I also skip that ping (I hate that ping)
While you are at it, you could use Audacity to cut it out
In the mean time I have found that the series about the Byzantine Empire has gone as low as 73dB. This one should not enhance further than 90dB
Anne
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