I have just finished editing and finally published Episode 5 of Talk Ultra, a Marathon des Sables special.

Why am I posting?

Well, to be honest, I am really proud of what Ian Sharman and myself have achieved in ‘just’ five episodes! Don’t get me wrong. The show isn’t perfect. But the MDS show in particular combines many aspects that I wouldn’t have thought possible so early in a new podcast.

Our show includes 7 interviews in total. Why 7? Well, we have a ‘Meltzer Moment’ with Speedgoat Karl, we have the audio between Ian Sharman and myself and then on top of this we have 5 separate interviews.

From a listeners perspective it is difficult to understand what goes into the process of producing a show. Believe me, it is time consuming, technical, sleep depriving but ultimately rewarding.

I believe in podcast terms we have broken some new ground with episode 5. What is key, is the inclusion of 2 French interviews. I wanted Talk Ultra to be global and certainly introducing this aspect to the show certainly helps. Technically it is a difficult process. I am very fortunate for this episode that my partner, Niandi is fluent in French.

So, how did we do it? Take a breath…. Here goes!

Firstly, we arrange the interview. Obvious I guess but this is not always straight forward. We are often working across different time zones and languages. With the interview in place and a time set aside, the preparation begins. This usually involves an hour or maybe even two preparing questions, doing research and then generating a ‘show notes’ document. This helps me, or Niandi in this case have a structure and a direction for the interview.

The interview takes place and the ‘conversation’ is recorded in my studio via several pieces of software. Calls are made at my end using Skype. Ideally we prefer to call landlines as this usually provides better sound, however, sometimes we need to phone mobiles. For our MDS special, we called Patrick Bauer on his mobile.

After the interview I have an audio stream that I then ‘split’. The audio is converted to ‘mono’ and then the edit process begins. This is a tidy up process removing ambient noise, improving sound, removing mistakes and tightening up the audio so that it sounds as best as possible in the show! Normally the process would stop here, the file would be saved as an Mp3 and then I would ‘add’ this audio to my ‘final edit’ when putting the show together.

For our French interviews, this process was magnified by several 100%. Of course, we had an interview, but it was in French. So, we play the audio back, Niandi translates and I write the English dialogue. When this process is completed, I then write a script to coincide with my questions.
With a script sorted, we then repeat the process and record audio between Niandi and myself. I ask the questions in English, Niandi answers in English. Armed with a new recoding file I then merge this with the original French interview. A complicated process! I remove Niandi’s French questions and replace with my English ones. I then drop the sound level of the French audio and over dub Niandi’s English answers in line with the French response. At the end we have a new Mp3 file that hopefully gives a feel of the original interview and provides an insight that may not have otherwise been available.

I appreciate that the finished result may not be perfect! If I was critical I would say that it lacks the ‘interaction’ that you would get with a normal interview. But it’s a start and one that I am happy with!
I feel that with episode 5 we have broken some new ground and I would appreciate any constructive comments.

You can listen to Talk Ultra on iTunes, at talkultra.com or via Libsyn.

Now then, with another show done, I need to go and run…..

Many thanks for your ongoing support of me and Talk Ultra.

Ian