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Other Podcasts (or, why GeekNights is #2)
We all know GeekNights is #2. (Who could dethrone 12 Byzantine Emperors?) But why is that? Surely, the other podcasters have a lot of explaining to do.
This is the official thread for complaining about other podcasts, and, if you like, giving props to GeekNights (which isn't strictly necessary, considering you do that just by being here).
For my part, I'll stick only to podcasts I know.
Dave & Joel's Fast Karate for the Gentleman: personally, I find this show hilarious. It's as informative as GeekNights on the subject of anime. (I consider opinions, trivia, and random musings to be informative; the facts and figures on anime can be easily had elsewhere). However, these poor bastards need to get some fricking sound equipment! Their volume levels suck, their microphone discipline is terrible, and altogether the show sounds worse than the GeekNights beta podcasts on the unequalized condenser mike. I'll give them the lack of an opener or closer, should they choose to make that their thing, but GeekNights definitely benefits from its audio clips (opener, Things of the Day, closer), which I might add, are tastefully short, unlike certain other tech podcasts.
This Week in Tech: *the* thing in podcasting, until they changed the name to netcasting. I was entertained for a while, until I noticed a trend: nobody on this show knows what the hell they're talking about! They're just musing on current events in tech and making wild, unfounded predictions, such as the total failure of the Intel Mac, the success of the Zune, and the nonexistence of the iPhone. They've got good sound editing, and Leo Laporte has the radio voice, but that's about it.
DiggNation: okay, maybe I picked the wrong time to start listening to this podcast, being near the announcement of the iPhone, but...good god. I never realized how much of a pathetic Apple fanboy Kevin Rose was. Sure, his entire web site is devoted to Apple fanboyism, but I tend to have this hopeless optimism about people who accomplish awesome things: that they, themselves, are awesome. And, like the TWiTs, they aren't so hot on technical knowledge. Listening these podcasters explain to me how an all-black Google could save lots of money by reducing energy use in monitors was hilarious. There was no mention at all of the difference between CRTs and LCDs. Here's a clue, guys: LCD's have a backlight that is always on, shining bright white. The monitor expends energy reorganizing the liquid crystal to block that light, forming black. The opposite is true of LCDs about black: it consumes more, not less power. I thought that was basic technical knowledge. This guy is supposed to convince me of the technical merits of an Apple product? You'd hope this podcast would be at least half as entertaining as the digg discussions themselves; it isn't.
The Dungeons & Dragons podcast: Okay, I doubt any of you listen to this, but I have my complaints. Largely, they are irrelevant: after all, the format is fine, the production is high-quality, and the speakers certainly have technical knowledge of what they're talking about. Really, I just complain about the Wizards of the Coasts employees themselves. It's abundantly clear how the people in charge of D&D have transformed from excited, creative geeks who just wanted to publish the next cool book to a bunch of corporate drones who, while they seem to know and like what they're doing, have diluted the flavor of D&D so far as to lose almost all meaning. If you're familiar with the current state of D&D, then I don't need to tell you (or can't convince you if you disagree), and if you're not, well, don't get me started. But I do have one legitimate complaint about the podcast: MONTHLY? What the heck is this, a fricking magazine? Just how hard is it to record a 40 minute podcast? Lazybones.
Penn Radio podcast: No complaints here, save for the 1 day delay per podcast. Penn and Goudeau are exceptionally entertaining, and, like only one other podcast I know, they actually release DAILY! Take that, you lazy-ass weekly podcasters. I need something I can listen to on the way to and from work every day...not once a fucking week. Thanks Penn...and screw you for killing off Monkey Tuesday.
Any others come to mind?
This is the official thread for complaining about other podcasts, and, if you like, giving props to GeekNights (which isn't strictly necessary, considering you do that just by being here).
For my part, I'll stick only to podcasts I know.
Dave & Joel's Fast Karate for the Gentleman: personally, I find this show hilarious. It's as informative as GeekNights on the subject of anime. (I consider opinions, trivia, and random musings to be informative; the facts and figures on anime can be easily had elsewhere). However, these poor bastards need to get some fricking sound equipment! Their volume levels suck, their microphone discipline is terrible, and altogether the show sounds worse than the GeekNights beta podcasts on the unequalized condenser mike. I'll give them the lack of an opener or closer, should they choose to make that their thing, but GeekNights definitely benefits from its audio clips (opener, Things of the Day, closer), which I might add, are tastefully short, unlike certain other tech podcasts.
This Week in Tech: *the* thing in podcasting, until they changed the name to netcasting. I was entertained for a while, until I noticed a trend: nobody on this show knows what the hell they're talking about! They're just musing on current events in tech and making wild, unfounded predictions, such as the total failure of the Intel Mac, the success of the Zune, and the nonexistence of the iPhone. They've got good sound editing, and Leo Laporte has the radio voice, but that's about it.
DiggNation: okay, maybe I picked the wrong time to start listening to this podcast, being near the announcement of the iPhone, but...good god. I never realized how much of a pathetic Apple fanboy Kevin Rose was. Sure, his entire web site is devoted to Apple fanboyism, but I tend to have this hopeless optimism about people who accomplish awesome things: that they, themselves, are awesome. And, like the TWiTs, they aren't so hot on technical knowledge. Listening these podcasters explain to me how an all-black Google could save lots of money by reducing energy use in monitors was hilarious. There was no mention at all of the difference between CRTs and LCDs. Here's a clue, guys: LCD's have a backlight that is always on, shining bright white. The monitor expends energy reorganizing the liquid crystal to block that light, forming black. The opposite is true of LCDs about black: it consumes more, not less power. I thought that was basic technical knowledge. This guy is supposed to convince me of the technical merits of an Apple product? You'd hope this podcast would be at least half as entertaining as the digg discussions themselves; it isn't.
The Dungeons & Dragons podcast: Okay, I doubt any of you listen to this, but I have my complaints. Largely, they are irrelevant: after all, the format is fine, the production is high-quality, and the speakers certainly have technical knowledge of what they're talking about. Really, I just complain about the Wizards of the Coasts employees themselves. It's abundantly clear how the people in charge of D&D have transformed from excited, creative geeks who just wanted to publish the next cool book to a bunch of corporate drones who, while they seem to know and like what they're doing, have diluted the flavor of D&D so far as to lose almost all meaning. If you're familiar with the current state of D&D, then I don't need to tell you (or can't convince you if you disagree), and if you're not, well, don't get me started. But I do have one legitimate complaint about the podcast: MONTHLY? What the heck is this, a fricking magazine? Just how hard is it to record a 40 minute podcast? Lazybones.
Penn Radio podcast: No complaints here, save for the 1 day delay per podcast. Penn and Goudeau are exceptionally entertaining, and, like only one other podcast I know, they actually release DAILY! Take that, you lazy-ass weekly podcasters. I need something I can listen to on the way to and from work every day...not once a fucking week. Thanks Penn...and screw you for killing off Monkey Tuesday.
Any others come to mind?
Comments
Weekly Anime Review: He just take too much time to put another episode.
Anime World Order: They have no fault.
But, I really appreciate all the hard work everyone put on those.
I truly enjoy all those podcast.
And they are free :P
"The Sci-Fi and Fantasy Podcast" idiots have never seen a crappy movie they don't like.
In general, it seems that a lot of podcasters know about whatever subject they want to talk about, but they don't know much about radio production or audio. They have to spend hours editing, futzing with their site, re-recording, recording ahead, etc... They don't know how to keep the energy level up, or to keep on topic, or to organize their thoughts in a manner suitable for radio.
To be perfectly honest, I've never talked to a podcaster who has a solid production process. Most of them don't even think about things like post-production efficiency or optimization. They spend forever editing things in obsolete and inefficient ways. They don't listen to their own shows in order to improve. They don't keep production journals.
As for audio quality, most podcasters just don't know anything about the equipment. They buy overpriced goods that do them little good, or else they avoid crucial components like compressors for fear of the cost (despite fairly good ones being less than $70).
In fact, I'd say the lack of compression is the single biggest problem with the majority of podcasts out there. Dynamic variety is DEATH in talk radio. You need to compress, and it can be done both simply and cheaply. Software won't do it, as you can't unclip a signal.
"Nobody Loves Onions": I just found this and I have a love-hate relationship with it. Every now and then there is a segment that is hilarious. To get to those segments, you have to suffer through a ton of crap. Plus, the humor is usually way too sophomoric for me.
One general rule.... If you can't wrap it up in 45 minutes... you're talking too much or you are trying to do too much.
Rym & Scott, you're posing a traffic hazard. I demand you increase the length of your podcast for safety of all. I'm an irrational, vocal minority and I demand my will be imposed on a democratic (or in this case autocratic) society!
That's one reason I listen to NPR's It's All Politics. They're around 10 minutes long, which means I can stick them in after a Penn or whatever to finish my commute. =P
-1up's Retronauts is pretty nice, with its sort of roundtable discussion of old games in relation to newer releases. I tend to cherry pick the episodes for subjects that I'm interested in. They also have a quick review of Virtual Console releases for each week, which gives a good headup when I don't recognize a title.
-I'm a cartoon Junkie so both Channel Frederator and Refrederator both get thumbs up for being weekly and daily (respectively) cartoon shots in the arm.
-Penn Radio for all previously mentioned and otherwise obvious reasons
-12 Byzantine Emperors is great when I have time to kill and I'm not otherwise distracted (e.g at the gym). The lectures are very well done in my opinion and as such deserve my full (or at least 3/4ths) attention. I'll have to thank Rym for turning me onto this one, as I really do love all sorts of history, especially stuff that gets less attention.
-Fast Karate for the Gentleman, picked for its sheer hilarity.
-The Show with Ze Frank has long been a favorite of mine, well before I even owned an iPod. Ze is pretty damn funny most of the time and he usually has some rather insightful commentary on the political scene. Plus its another quick little almost-daily 'cast.
Movies You Should See: Great movie review podcast. They've got decent sound quality, the volume is well balanced (especially considering there are usually at least 4 of them hosting an episode) and they have some hilarious off-topic banter, which doesn't go on for too long (usually...). They seem to know what they're talking about in terms of the art of film-making and I've been introduced to a whole load of great films that I never considered watching before. Definitely right up there with GeekNights.
Fast Karate for the Gentlemen: Hilarious podcast, mainly because they know how to rip apart an anime show and they don't rant for too long, but GODDAMN is their sound quality appalling... the levels are usually way too low, so you turn up your volume, but then either Dave or Joel suddenly scream and your speakers explode... Their intro (or lack thereof) could do with some work as well. It seems almost like they were talking about something before recording and one of them just hit the record button just as they were finishing whatever they were doing before. This is followed by about 15 seconds of mic fumbling and ass scratching and then they start the show. Great show, piss poor production.
Anime World Order: Great podcast. I'm not particularly fond of the episodes when they review an extremely obscure anime, but I still find them fairly entertaining. My main complaint is that they sometimes record episodes where they have about 1 hour of email replies... tooooooo long guys. Replying to one email per episode as opposed to +5 would make their show much much more bearable.
The Greatest Movie EVER: This is a podcast I recently started listening to (courtesy of a link from Fast Karate). Good show length (approx. 20-30 mins per ep) and funny banter. The main show host, Paul Chapman, reviews a movie about once a week with a co-host (who changes every now and again). The great thing about this podcast is that he reviews movies that are usually on the borderline of "so bad it's good" and "will give you brain cancer", and from time to time he will cross that line and the show becomes "The Greatest WORST Movie Ever" (including BloodRayne and Catwoman). The podcast suffers similar sound issues as Fast Karate, but not as badly.
This American Life- Some of the best nonfiction stories I've ever heard and hands-down my favorite radio program/podcast.
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me- Probably one of the best ways to review and mock an entire week's worth of news at the same time.
Filmspotting- The hosts get a bit too deep into film geek territory on occasion, but I still find myself agreeing with their reviews more often than not.
On the Media- I think is one of the higher quality weekly news programs available
12 Byzantine Rulers
Coverville
Does My Geek Look Big in This?
Dragon's Landing
ESPN: PTI
GeekNights (natch)
Head Games Podcast (my podcast)
NPR: Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me
Penn Radio Podcast
The Onion Radio News
ZomCast
Others I download but only listen occasionally:
Acappella U
All Games Considered
Boardgames to Go
Domain of Apokolipz
Gamer: The Podcasting
Geek Fu Action Grip
Have Games, Will Travel
The Harping Monkey
Vintage ToonCast
Not really but I couldn't resist.
I started listening to Wait Wait not long ago and instantly got really odd looks as I laughed myself stupid in the car.
Unless the show has changed substantially in the past several months, I have no intention of trying to listen to them again.
Which is one of the reasons I don't have a podcast, because I figure my voice would be annoying as well.
Anyway, chalk me up for the hating on Otaku Generation as well. If every show didn't denigrate into talk about anal sex and "duck holes" I might be a little more inclined to listen to them.