2014-03-23: Ixzion is now the showrunner for the MagCast. Thanks to Fayorei for all her hard work!

I am the new showrunner of the RPGM MagCast.

These are the rules of my format. If you can not follow them, you will not be allowed on the MagCast in the future.

1. You must be willing and able to give me quality mp3 files within 1 day of the MagCast session. Example: We record Monday at 1pm. As long as you get me the file by Tuesday midnight, that's OK. Wednesday is not acceptable.

2. The time for the MagCast is always Sundays at 6pm CST/7pm EST.

3. I will only allow a max of 4 people onto the MagCast, excluding myself, at any given time. The positions will be first-come, first-served.

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So, we were goofing off last night and the possibility of a podcast for the site came up. I thought it could be really cool to just go ahead and try that out.

People mentioned Hypercam as a method of recording, which is a great idea, but as some other folks mentioned, desync, etc. Also, a quality issue really. Podcasting is audio-only, so that's an emphasis on that. From a later-listed source: "The best microphone you can get for each cohost (even the cheapest mics will produce better quality than Skype.)"

Anywho, knowing this, and having looked at the possibilities(me and someone else had already been looking at possibly doing a book/reading podcast that's still in the works), it seems like a TON of podcasts just use Audacity. Audacity is a free program that works across any OS I believe(I know it does on Mac and Windows), and I'm unsure on Linux.

So here's my thought, since we'd want everyone's voice to be louder rather than way too quiet compared to other people, sans artificial editing if possible- anyone who wants in the podcast just records their own voice on Audacity, hence, there shouldn't be problems if at all(same as the Let's Races, just using a free program to record their own mic while in Skype). Best part? If there is, there'd be the option to trim and move audio around. Levels could also be adjusted, as to not jar people listening to someone super super quiet in comparison. It just gives a lot more audio quality to the final product, as well as the ability to have a flexible product for editing, etc.

Now, if you can't access a computer somehow and still want in, I'm sure accomodations can be made- but honestly, for the sake of quality I think just doing Audacity recordings will be enough. Of course, I'd be more than happy to show how to get the program, and how to basically configure it. It's pretty point n' click.

Anyways, here's an explanation on the topic:
http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/tap029- ... ble-ender/

I learned a bit about Audio production in my major at college(Communications Media), so if you have any questions, let me know~

More importantly than all that though, since I know people are capable of just sending in recordings and all that... we're gonna have to decide absolutely whether or not we want to have a gaming focus and stuff like that. I think personally, a good format might be just talking about whatever recent nerdy current event might be good. Stuff like new tech, new games(or games currently being played), new movies, what have you. You don't have to sit there and go to every new movie or buy every new game, but I figure we do a lot of that anyways. Of course, there aren't going to be super strict podcast topic rules. Whatever we end up talking about, ya talk about.

Secondly, who all would be interested in participating?(I'd like to start with regular Magonians first!)

Third- personally, I feel it'd be REALLY, really cool to launch the next version of the site with episode 1 of the podcast. So when we're closer to that, I'd just set a day where most people are free. I'm not just going to pick an arbitrary day and deny folks. I'm more than willing to head this up, particularly because I believe I have the most time to probably do this since I don't do much by way of projects with recording aside from my own personal LPs(with nothing special really), and I currently caretake by way of pretty much around-the-house stuff... and even then, it'd probably be a part-time job afterwards; however, I'd love at least one co-pilot who would not mind helping to edit via Audacity and also just be willing to be someone who can be there if I for some reason am otherwise pre-occupied on the selected night(doc's visit, vet, some kinda event I can't miss(plays, shows, etc), etc.) Time is something TBD for reals later, since it's so early. I am thinking probably something like 10 EST/7 PDT to allow people their nights of course, and to let people get off work and crap.

Fourth- Podcast name? So far we've come up with "Mag Chat" in Skype I believe. I think that's a pretty awesome name, but that's in no way the final name. Suggestions would be cool.

Also, sorry if this is the wrong forum for this. I figured since the other v6 topic was here, that this would be the place to go. Also... "General Discussion" as a place for a podcast topic.

TL;DR
I'm heading up a podcast for the Mag

-First episode ready for release when new version of the Mag launches
-Audacity will be a requirement, for better audio quality and less risk than a group recording, as well as easier editing
-What kind focus should we have(currently current tech stuff, games, movies, whatever leads off from it, games in general, bloorahah)
-What day will be decided a bit closer to an actual recording
-Tentative time 10 PM EST/7 PM PST(actual podcast being 45min to an hour?)
-Podcast name(as of last night, Mag Chat was popular~)
-Looking for someone to be the co-pilot of editing and recording quality(tm)

Link on podcastin'
http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/tap029- ... ble-ender/

This is a good idea, Fay. Thanks for taking point on it. I'm working on the site as fast as I can. I'll inform everyone of progress when I think the time is right.

I think it would be easier to just have someone set a virtual audio line to just catch both their voice and the skype call all in one single audio file. Having everyone record separately and dump it on someone to sync up 5+ audio files. I already do that with video AND audio with the races... and it's not very fun.

And seeing as Magchat is kind of already a thing, Magcast might be better.

But yeah, this might be a really good idea.

I get what you're saying, but then my voice will be the most crisp and recognizable. I'm not saying I can't do that- I totally can, but that also risks skype call echoing and glitches and stuff. I don't mind a bit of extra work. THOUGH IF FILES ARE NOT IN HEADS WOULD ROLL. Nah, I'm kidding. I realize it's a bit huge to request everyone send up files, but I think having everyone with equal loudness and therefore, clearer helps the whole audio only thing. I'd never have the patience to edit a Let's Race though. The video as well is just too much!

MagCast sounds really good. Then you have the nice tie-in with all the other social stuff. Mag Chat, MagCon, MagCast, huh.

The other night we were having a discussion in the chat and thought it would be a good topic for if we ever did a podcast. Fay mentioned that she's been writing down some topic ideas here and there... which is awesome.

I was bored last night at home, so I though that if we ever did this thing and started uploading them to youtube, we'd need some kind of title card to go along with the video. So I got on photoshop and poked around for a bit. I got Ix in on it too and this is what we got so far;



I wanted to use something game related, so I settled with a PS1 controller seeing as the mag was original centered around RPG Maker 1, a PS1 title. I actually had to MAKE that controller as all the PS1 controllers online I found were just crude pictures of the actual controller and not like a more icon-ish look I wanted. So everything in this image is 100% ours.

Thoughts?

The controller icon is impressive considering you two made it. Though somehow it looks like it's being twisted/warped in space. Maybe 'cause the face buttons are at a different angle than the d-pad. I don't know how much effort it would take to fix that, though, so for what it's worth, it looks good.
(Actually, for all I know, the warped angle was intentional.)

Good catch. I fixed it and edited my post. Not sure how it got that way, but yeah, it's an easy fix.

The way I made it was I found an outlined drawing of the controller in a scan of a PS1 manual. I simply made a new layer, went back to the original layer, used the magic wand tool and sampled all the areas, and went back to the blank layer with the area from the first layer still selected and just filled in with a color of my choosing. Then I just smudged out all the text on it so it is simplified. Then just free transform and distort to get it in that shape.

Reminder from le chat:

Get Audacity if you don't have it(I feel like a teacher, lol). I'll cover how to use it with anyone who doesn't know how this Saturday night around 5 CST(6 EST). At 6 CST, I wanna try to get a practice recording. We'll be using Skype, with Audacity to record your own sound only. I'll fix everything up in editing- you just gotta record yourself(hey, if it turns out nice, we have a lolpilot). The big red button and the stop button. And then, export as an MP3. And stuff. I'll make my next post about how to export as MP3. I'll also be covering that in a Google Hangout, once again, at 5 CST this Satuday, Sept. 15th.

The for real deal is September 22nd, Saturday, 6 CST(7 EST). We'll be talking about us, and probably the Wii U after that. I imagine we'll get like 45 minutes out of that. We ain't censoring really, but we're trying to keep in mind to just be decent to other human beings, so mindful of some more extreme language. Also, it kinda sounds trashy to talk like that anyhow, and I know people from this site are CLASS. Anyways, this thing is about video games anyways so we shouldn't have problems. If you cough I will kill you(kidding).

Also, I'll be trying to make a little electronic intro in the iPad version of FL studio or something. Hopefully, I can transfer it just fine. I don't see how I couldn't- wouldn't be a point otherwise.

Any volunteers to talk during the intro song and say the name of the podcast? If not, I'll do it. I dunno. I don't think I have the best radio voice here.

HAVE FUN CAUSE AWW YEAH WE'RE GETTING A PODCAST.

I'll try to be there.
My brother-in-law and his wife are moving just down the road from me (my sister-in-law is right around the corner too! Fun times to be had for sure) so I will be helping with that. It could easily turn into family dinner and such.

Had a nice chat with Fay about this in the chat where we chatted about future chats. Science was done.

I really think the mag needs a Facebook *gasps* page and twitter and google+
Both YT and Twitch automatically update social sites for you. You don't have to try


It would give all of us a central place to put all our content and a place for our one day fans/followers to get all our content and news.

So uh... yeah. The end. by insultobot

It's all good! Like I said before, this thing is mainly just about getting everyone up to speed on stuff.

The social media thing is something that I do feel will help somewhat.

We have an email for the podcast, we have a Facebook Page, Google+ Page, and Twitter. These will mainly be for announcing episodes. Bot is also looking into how to livestream the audio of these, so that'd be something else to use them for.

I'll also be submitting these to the iTunes store(another reason to keep slurs away, cause, they absolutely have the right to decline us for that with content standards). We'll have to choose a rating, etc there(thinking the R equivalent for general swearing). If accepted(hopefully), it takes 1-2 weeks to show up on iTunes.

Other than that, hopefully we'll have something for the main page! hurray.

Also, here's the intro music:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/faeryl

Obviously, it won't be that loud during the podcast. We really just needed something simple, since talk is the main focus.
There will be a quick thing like THIS IS... THE MAGCAST... and then it'll go down in volume with quick show tagline that Lantis expertly came up with, and at least on topic at the top of the show. For the actual show, we'll just be talking sans music.

Two, I may be late coming in tomorrow to guide people. That's at 5 CST(6 EST) once again. And the pilot test is at 6 CST(7 EST), and we should be done by 7 CST(8 EST). I'm going to ask this here and hope people read, but also bring this up- for 6 weeks, I gotta take my lab to dog training. Is it possible for people to make Sunday instead of Saturday for this short period of time? I understand if not, and like I said- I'll be busting to get home right on time.

I'm free all weekend, just sayin'

Thanks! The dog training was a super huge oversight on my part, but I can make it work somehow if someone can't do Sunday. Though it'd be a bit later for several weeks if we do Saturday, and that'd mess Dray over. I'd work around it, but basically, they only offer the new to training course on Saturdays. So please tell me ASAP if Sunday doesn't work for you(this is temporary).

Also, can I have that lovely .psd and custom fontage from that graphic? I'm just trying to make some stuff for the social media using it(and if you don't mind, I'll edit in the magscot sprites and toss it back).

Here's the forever alone top of the show format. When I'm introducing people, they'd obviously talk. Unfortunately, no one was around. So after about 1:00 is irrelevant. The track continues on a very very low volume, and then fades out completely. Basically, I recorded it to be super long so we have enough track for any intro banter, and so if we have a ton of people there's enough time. If we have like two people, I can shorten it obviously. Not that it'll matter too terribly much.



Edit: And today, we didn't get to go... but will more than likely go next Saturday to start his training.

Tonight at 5 CST is the Hangout for Audacity setup, 6 CST is the test run.

Okay, this post entails how to set up Audacity.

First, download Audacity from here for your preferred OS(it's free woo):
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Install that all nicely. Now, MP3 exports aren't in there by default, so you need this page to help you out:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/fa ... i=lame-mp3

LAME(our MP3 encoder), is here:
http://lame1.buanzo.com.ar/

The site looks spammy, but it is LAME 3.99 for Windows.exe. The first file in the middle table. That's what is linked to from the official site.

And the instructions:


Now, as for recording. All you have to do is use the red record button in the program to start, and when done, hit the square stop button.

From here, I recommend first saving the Audacity raw file so you don't lose it. After that, go to File->Export.

-Select MP3 as your format
-Save, doesn't matter what the info tag data is, so just hit okay again
-It begins to render the file
-File is done, voila! Send me the mp3 via PM using some kinda file sharing service, like Mediafire or Sendspace.

Then, I edit everything together, pass off the MP3 to Bot and Lantis, and that's how podcasts are born.

I'll also be applying to iTunes for us with it. So woohoo.

EDIT:

We have gotten the first episode recorded! As soon as I get all the audio done, I'll be submitting the file to Bot to torrent, and I'll try to get us approved on iTunes. Before iTunes, I'll go ahead and put the audio file with a picture into a video for Lantis to upload to the Mag channel. And then that can be linked to whoever via the add to playlist feature on Youtube.

I also added the site mascot sprites to it. Once I finish our resident baddy, he will be added. I'll work on him later tonight.

I'll also post a link to the Podcast once uploaded to Youtube on our social media.

EDIT #2:

Podcast is finished! The video is rendering, and I'll be sending that to Lantis so he can upload it to the Mag's official channel. Once he does so, I definitely recommend adding it to a featured playlist(the sidebar) on your own Youtube channel. I definitely will be doing this!

TWO. In order to attempt to get on iTunes, we need an RSS feed. Is there any way we can get one going on the site's webspace? Or should I just make a Wordpress for it? I have no idea of what I'm doing, though, I do know many podcasts use blog platforms for their RSS feeds.

Here's the link. Web people, my brain is dumb.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/sp ... andfeeback
http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html#testing

Also, I'm uploading our first episode to SoundCloud. However, we only have enough space really for the one episode with free account limits. So we do need a better solution longterm to get that whole xml thing done. I don't know much beyond that.

So, until Lantis gets that file uploaded, here's the SoundCloud one-time-only Episode... ZERO.

http://soundcloud.com/the-magcast/the-m ... de-0-pilot

Here's our social media stuff, too.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheMagCast
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-MagCa ... 3663988951
Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/1145927303729 ... 5896/posts

Good work, Fay! The MagCast is sounding really good. I think that was an excellent first episode, too.

Hmm, an RSS feed? I've read a little about it, but I've never bothered with actually reading over it. I'm fairly certain that I would be able to create something to get the Cast up on iTunes, though.

Episode uploaded!



Also, thanks Ixz. I think it is stupid iTunes does that, but apparently we need to have a couple episodes in the feed anyways to get approved or whatever. Bleh.

Left a comment clarifying what I was wanting to say about Nintendoland.

Since I funked up, here's the fixed one.



I'm keeping the other up too, just so people can copy comments or whatever. It's unlisted, just use the link in this topic.

Sorry.

Everything turned out wonderfully. I'm really happy with it. I think after a few vids, we'll get the hang of it so that maybe everyone gets a chance to talk and we don't have those awkward moments when two people cut each other off at the same time and want to let the other person go and instead cause that weird silence...

Yeah, we're new to this, heh. We just gotta strike a balance. It's also hard with 6 people, but I do like the amount of varied opinions. I think that really helps.

BTW, the next month and a half of recordings will be on Sunday, 6 CST/7EST. Why? Because my poor lab needs to do basic doggie training on Saturdays, and the closest place was 1.5 hours away.

When they go back to Saturdays, I can rejoin. I had a blast in the first one though. Power on!