Behind the Scenes, or, the real reason the SH podcast updates so infrequently.

This week's issue of Strange Horizons is the last issue for 2007--our regular end-of-year hiatus is two weeks this year, for arcane calendaring reasons.  This week's issue also has a new episode of the podcast, featuring an interview with Maggie Hogarth, in which we have a great time talking about how the internet is affecting the relationship between writers and their audience.  This episode of the podcast nearly killed me, and I need to explain why, because I think it goes a long way towards explaining why there aren't new podcast episodes more often.

The podcast process starts with asking someone if they'd like to be interviewed and setting up a time for the call.  Our "digital broadcasting" operation is decidedly low-end.  When I first floated the idea of the Strange Horizons podcasts, it was on an experimental basis, and I didn't think it was appropriate to invest magazine funds in a project that I wasn't sure was going to work out.  So we record with Skype, which is either free or very cheap to use, and a headset microphone that I already owned.  I spent a small amount of money on call recording software that integrates with Skype, and figured out how to edit the audio using GarageBand, which came pre-loaded on my computer.  (Shameful confession: the real reason that the SH podcasts are all split in two parts?  The version of GarageBand that came with my computer has a finite file-size limit, one that works out to just under 35 minutes.) 

In a strictly technical sense, the interview with Maggie was much easier than any of the previous interviews--this was the first interview where Skype didn't drop the call even once, so we actually were able to have a long uninterrupted conversation.  About an hour and forty minutes, all told.  We talked on Saturday afternoon, and I really wanted to get the final version done in time for Monday's issue of the magazine, so I figured I'd set aside Sunday morning for editing.  I got up bright and early, set up at the kitchen table (we had a houseguest staying in my office) with my laptop and a fresh cup of coffee, and set to work.  And here's how it went from there:

• Open the "saved calls" folder and suddenly remember that the call recorder I'm using saves the calls as QuickTime, which needs to be converted to an audio format before I can do anything with it.
• Open the file conversion tools that came with the call recorder and realize that I have no idea whether I wanted to convert it to AAC, AIFF, or MP3. 
• Decide that it probably doesn't matter, and ask the conversion thinger to convert the QuickTime file to AAC.  Because it was first on the list.
• Several minutes later, notice that the AAC conversion program is hung and needs to be force-quit.  Try again, this time with the AIFF conversion.
• Again, after several minutes, see that the AIFF conversion has hung as well.  Force-quit, try again with MP3.
• Ten minutes later, that hasn't worked either.
• Delete the conversion tools, go to the call-recorder software site, download the updated version of the tools.
• Fire up the AAC converter.
• Ten minutes later, the AAC converter pops up an error message and quits.
• Five or six minutes after -that-, the MP3 converter finally outputs a file.
• Get a bowl of cereal and open up GarageBand, ready to import my audio file.
• The audio file takes about a year and a half, or at least another five minutes, to import. 
• When it finally finishes importing, it's broken.  Normally, audio tracks show up as cheerfully-colored bubbles (this is Apple, after all) in the GB display, complete with the audio waveform and all.  What is happening here is that I can hear the audio when I play the GB file, but the track is not showing up as a bubble.  I can't edit the track unless I can see it. 
• Try to save the file, figuring that maybe it's a display quirk that will be fixed if I quit and re-start the program.  At this point, learn that GB doesn't think there's an audio track there at all--it thinks the file is only six seconds long.
• Convert the QuickTime file into all of the other available formats, import each of them individually, get the same result each time. 
• Conclude that the problem here is just that the file is too long.  Wish that GarageBand would -tell- me that, rather than silently and inexplicably fail.  Remind self that this is one of the trade-offs I've made by choosing to stick with Apple.
• Start looking around for software tools that will split my large file into smaller files. 
• Remember that many software download sites are extremely sketchy, and decide that I want no part of downloading and installing software from sketchy sites.
• Ask my good friend Google to find me some advice on how to split large audio files.
• While reading through the (mostly useless) search results, notice that everyone seems to speak very highly of an audio-editing program called Audacity.  Decide to check out Audacity, since at the moment I would just as soon never speak to GarageBand again.
• Audacity is available at SourceForge--yay open-source people!  I trust SourceForce. Yay non-sketchy sites!  Download and install Audacity.
• First glance at Audacity reminds me why I stopped being a Linux person, lo these many years ago.  It's very functional.  It is, in fact, so relentlessly configurable and functional that I can't figure out how the interface works or what any of the options mean. 
• Importing the podcast intro wrap (music and "hello, welcome to the podcast!" chatter) goes smoothly.  I start to think, okay, this is ugly, but maybe it will do the trick.
• Importing the audio file of the interview also goes smoothly, except that it imported into a separate track, and I need it to start after the end of the first track.  I try moving the second track, but can't figure out how to make it move. 
• Ten minutes later, I've read through all of the menu options, and none of them seem to be useful for moving the audio track.  I've also read through all of the online documentation, which I have to assume makes sense to people who already know how to use this software.  I am not one of these people. 
• A second read-through of the menu options reveals something called "align", which looks promising.  After three or four tries, it looks like it's moved the track to where I want it.
• Press "play", preparing to edit, and discover that moving the track also sped it up, and Maggie and I both sound like chipmunks.  Decide that GarageBand wasn't that bad after all, that there must be some way we can work out our disagreement.
• After a little bit of trial and error, get enough of a handle on the Audacity controls that I can successfully cut the hour-and-forty-minute audio file into smaller, presumably more managable, chunks. 
• Ask Audacity to save the four smaller audio files.  It tells me that no other software can read its files, so I should maybe export to a different file format.
• Ask Audacity to export my four smaller files into MP3 format.  It tells me that it's missing the necessary .lib files for MP3 conversions. 
• Ask Audacity to export my files into AIFF, which is the only remaining option.  It complies.
• Try to import the AIFF files into GarageBand.  GarageBand says it has no idea what format those files are in, but it sure as hell isn't AIFF. 
• Try to import the files into iTunes, which has some file-converting capabilities.  iTunes, which I -know- recognizes AIFF files, won't even acknowledge that these particular AIFF files exist. 
• Stare blankly at the computer for a while.  Quit all the programs, shut the computer down, and go wash some dishes.  When that's done, start everything up again and try importing the files again, hoping iTunes and GarageBand were just being quirky.  No luck--they still don't recognize the files.
• In desperation, go back into Audacity and comb through the menu options and preferences again.  Here I make a great discovery--Audacity, since it has more options than anyone could possibly need, has an option for different styles of encoding AIFF files.  I have no idea what these encoding styles mean, but it's the only damn thing I can think of to change, so I change it, and re-export all four files.
• Hooray!  GarageBand now recognizes this as a valid file format!  Minor celebration ensues.  It is now mid-afternoon, and I am finally ready to start editing! 
• THINK AGAIN.  The newly-exported valid-format files?  Chipmunks again.
• Ask Matt to listen to the files, just to make sure I haven't entered into some weird hallucinatory state where I can't tell the difference between normal sound settings and broken ones.  Matt starts singing the Chipmunks Christmas song, which remains stuck in my head for the next two days, damn him. 
• In an attempt to diagnose whether the problem was in Audacity or in the file conversion, import the files into iTunes, and they sound JUST FINE. 
• Remembering that iTunes has mad conversion skillz, ask iTunes to convert all of these to a different file format. 
• Export out of iTunes and back into GarageBand, where the files sound perfect.

All of this is just to get to the point where I can edit the stupid files.  Editing the hour-and-forty-minutes conversation down to two half-hour podcast segments takes another three hours or so, then I have to tweak the sound levels, track down links for all of the stuff we referenced in the interview, put together the podcast information page, upload the files to the server, edit the XML feed, and notify the web team that the podcast info page should go live with the new issue. 

I'm not kidding, this took me all day.  I had other things I needed to get done on Sunday.  (I was able to get a fair bit of other work done during the bits where I was waiting for various programs to convert or import or export, but there's only so much you can do in five- or six-minute bursts.

Also, I know that my process had a lot of trial-and-error, and as a result it undoubtedly took a lot longer than it needed to.  That said, in order to get from the original recorded call to the final edited podcast, I had to jump through a lot of stupid hoops.  To recap: the sound file started life as a QuickTime file, was converted from QuickTime to AIFF, imported into Audacity (which converted it from AIFF to .aup), cut into smaller pieces, exported to the desktop (as which point it was converted to AIFF again), imported into iTunes, converted in iTunes to MP3, exported to the desktop, imported to GarageBand (which converted it to .band), edited back together, edited down to the right length, exported from GarageBand to iTunes (converting it back to AIFF in the process), converted by iTunes back to MP3, exported from iTunes to my desktop again, and only then was it finally uploaded to the Strange Horizons web server.

There -has- to be a better way to do this.

Comments

[David Moles]

Not that I don't feel your pain -- honest, it's because I feel your pain that I say this -- but after reading this my laziness in catching up with the podcasting revolution feels so much more justified.

[Susan Marie Groppi]

I have to assume that most people who do podcasts have an easier time of it.

[Liz]

I have used Audacity, and I agree it's not exactly a friendly hand-holding interface. I can solve one problem: there's something weird about the licensing that doesn't allow them to include the MP3 export libraries with the program. Installing the LAME codec appears to be the solution (and works fine for me under Windows).

[Mary Anne Mohanraj]

All I can say is that I went through similar pain trying to get some simple video of Kavi's first month from my Canon camera onto a DVD. I'm on a Mac. This should be easy! Doesn't everybody and their grandmother want to take baby videos with their camera and put them on a DVD???

After several hours of incompatible formats, useless downloaded programs, and missing audio tracks, I gave up in disgust. And that is why my parents have never gotten a DVD movie of their only grandchild's first month.

[Mary Anne Mohanraj]

Also, I love the SH podcasts. I listened to the one of you and Ben talking while I was taking a long train ride with Kavi, and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. It was just a little bit like being at WisCon.

[Miranda Gaw]

It seems natural, albeit horrible and awful, to have to go through about that many steps the first time one is doing something relatively cutting-edge with free or inexpensive tools.

Maybe next time you could:

Hang up mid-call.
Save call halves from QuickTime directly to MP3.
See if GarageBand can import them correctly

? FWIW, I record my podcasts directly into GarageBand, which works fine except that it's just a weird hard-to-use product that won't record my voice at loud enough levels... and of course someday we will look back at all these retro-tech shenanigans and laugh...

[Jed]

Sounds like an awful experience. :(

I have a couple of suggestions for next time, though I don't know whether these will be at all helpful:

1. Talk to the Escape Pod people (if you haven't already) and ask them for advice. I bet they have good tools for this. Though maybe not for Macs.

2. Record in smaller chunks -- maybe ten-minute segments. I know that's a pain, but I bet the process would go more smoothly.

3. Relatedly, maybe do a dry run before next time -- record a single five- or ten-minute segment (just chatting on the phone, or listening to music, or whatever) and go through the process to see if it works with a smaller file size.

...I assume you've already read Apple's page on creating a podcast with GarageBand? It sounds like the step you ran into trouble with isn't covered there, and they gloss over various important things, but figured it was worth mentioning just in case.

[Jed]

One other note: I just happened across a page giving instructions for using Audacity to edit podcasts. Don't know whether that's remotely helpful, but figured this too was worth mentioning just in case.

[Karen]

See, knowing you've got your hands full with stuff like this is why I have no qualms about taking on a heftier chunk of the fiction editing load :)

[Susan Marie Groppi]

Thank you, everyone, for the kind words and good ideas! Unfortunately, I don't know how much the good ideas are actually going to help--recording in smaller chunks is a good start, but I found in the first three podcast interviews that the interview itself suffers when the call is disrupted like that. It was actually really fabulous being able to have a long, single, uninterrupted conversation with Maggie. No lost trains of thought, no dropped sentences, it was nice.

Miranda's pretty much hit the problem square: I'm trying to do this on the cheap. I may look into upgrading GB in the next few months, to get rid of the artificial limit on episode length, but otherwise I'm still facing the problem of having to choose between cost and convenience, and I'm still probably going to muddle through with the low-cost low-convenience alternatives.

[Jed]

I forget: do you know about WireTap Studio? It kinda looks like it might be useful for your purposes. Costs $69; I gather that there's some kind of MacWorld discount available through the end of January, but I'm not sure how one goes about getting that. But even at full price, it might well be worth it just to reduce hassle.

But you may well have tried this already, I dunno.