NorCal's Podcast
- Thread starter klunderbunker
- Start date
Fire. Pro. Wrestling.
I'm guessing you'd prefer honestly, so I'm going to be honest, and by honest, I mean, you know, devastating. I didn't like it much.
Casual or not, if I'm going to commit time to listening to a podcast, it needs to have a professional standard of audio. That might rule me out as the target audience, but I am an avid podcast listener who loves the idea of a wrestling broadcast not staffed by total cretins.
I must say first, the actual sound quality was really good. I was expecting an obviously recorded skype conversation full of mic static - this sounded like it was recorded using an at least passably professional microphone - some distortion on KBs end, but nothing problematic.
Much more problematic; someone's computer was beeping incessantly in the background, for which they should be shot, but that's an easy fix.
Unfortunately the level of stammering, erring, repetition and talking over one another made a few parts of the podcast almost totally unlistenable for me. The opening in particular, before you got warmed up and got KB in for support, was horrible. I stuck through to the end (skipping the quarter hour of plugs and KB's career retrospective - not wrestling, don't care) because I like Norcal and was interested in what you guys are doing, but if you'd been strangers I honestly wouldn't have got close to the first five minutes. I think it really needed a post production edit to tighten things up.
Podcaster CGPGrey once wrote wrote an answer to why he invested time editing podcasts, which I think is tremendously valuable to anyone looking to start one up.
I'm not an expert on audio editing, but my understanding is that, if you're not double ender recording (which is unambiguously better, but adds more work) and don't have to worry about alignment, it's not a major time investment, and makes you sound like professionals rather than a conversation overheard on the bus.
I do agree, strongly, with that who've mentioned that the swearing is really gratuitous. You do not need to say fuck 50 times in the opening five minutes, especially if your goal is to produce something that is above most of the professional content.
I don't mind swearing. I do it a lot myself. But that right there, that should stop.
It's a shame about the production issues, because there's some really good stuff in there. There was some legitimately smart analysis and some interesting observations. KB is unsurprisingly good at calling information to mind at short notice. Norcal has by far the most interesting observations to make, and managed the unusual trick of offering a slightly different perspective to every other hack on the internet, but waffled and repeated himself too much.
I particularly liked that you seemed to have some semblance of perspective with observations like 'Total Divas isn't for me and helps finance stuff I like' and 'You can't predict someone's career from a two minute (and 4 seconds) match'. Professional wrestling 'journalism' and discussion is overloaded with pathetic hyperbole, and staying away from that as far as possible was one of the best aspects for me. I also liked that you didn't seem to despise pro wrestling, which most podcasters do.
One very minor piece of feedback: many of us aren't KB and don't watch all the wrestling every week. It would be helpful for me if, before you discuss a segment, you explain what happened. I'm not talking about one of KBs review breakdowns, I'm talking like a sentence or two, just so I'm not playing catchup whenever you're discussing NXT.
I think a bit more structure would help - I like the "two dudes talking" mentality, bit it did feel a bit disjointed, bouncing between subjects and tangenting a lot. I like the idea of briefly highlighting and discussing the notable segments from the week, but I think it would be nice if you then had a topic to discuss, rather than touching briefly on half a dozen different subjects but never really getting into them deep enough to hold my attention.
I'm not going to listen to the second one because I'm not at all interested in American Football or listening to two guys talk about sport. I guess that's the
danger of doing secondary subjects, I'd probably just skip any podcast where the secondary subject didn't appeal to me, and I don't think I'm a minority there. I'll give it a shot again if the show sounds appealing, but I don't think I'll be an regular. Still, like everyone else, I wish you the best of luck - just probably not for me.
I'm guessing you'd prefer honestly, so I'm going to be honest, and by honest, I mean, you know, devastating. I didn't like it much.
Casual or not, if I'm going to commit time to listening to a podcast, it needs to have a professional standard of audio. That might rule me out as the target audience, but I am an avid podcast listener who loves the idea of a wrestling broadcast not staffed by total cretins.
I must say first, the actual sound quality was really good. I was expecting an obviously recorded skype conversation full of mic static - this sounded like it was recorded using an at least passably professional microphone - some distortion on KBs end, but nothing problematic.
Much more problematic; someone's computer was beeping incessantly in the background, for which they should be shot, but that's an easy fix.
Unfortunately the level of stammering, erring, repetition and talking over one another made a few parts of the podcast almost totally unlistenable for me. The opening in particular, before you got warmed up and got KB in for support, was horrible. I stuck through to the end (skipping the quarter hour of plugs and KB's career retrospective - not wrestling, don't care) because I like Norcal and was interested in what you guys are doing, but if you'd been strangers I honestly wouldn't have got close to the first five minutes. I think it really needed a post production edit to tighten things up.
Podcaster CGPGrey once wrote wrote an answer to why he invested time editing podcasts, which I think is tremendously valuable to anyone looking to start one up.
CGPGrey said:
I'm not an expert on audio editing, but my understanding is that, if you're not double ender recording (which is unambiguously better, but adds more work) and don't have to worry about alignment, it's not a major time investment, and makes you sound like professionals rather than a conversation overheard on the bus.
I do agree, strongly, with that who've mentioned that the swearing is really gratuitous. You do not need to say fuck 50 times in the opening five minutes, especially if your goal is to produce something that is above most of the professional content.
Norcal said:
Norcal said:
Norcal said:
I don't mind swearing. I do it a lot myself. But that right there, that should stop.
It's a shame about the production issues, because there's some really good stuff in there. There was some legitimately smart analysis and some interesting observations. KB is unsurprisingly good at calling information to mind at short notice. Norcal has by far the most interesting observations to make, and managed the unusual trick of offering a slightly different perspective to every other hack on the internet, but waffled and repeated himself too much.
I particularly liked that you seemed to have some semblance of perspective with observations like 'Total Divas isn't for me and helps finance stuff I like' and 'You can't predict someone's career from a two minute (and 4 seconds) match'. Professional wrestling 'journalism' and discussion is overloaded with pathetic hyperbole, and staying away from that as far as possible was one of the best aspects for me. I also liked that you didn't seem to despise pro wrestling, which most podcasters do.
One very minor piece of feedback: many of us aren't KB and don't watch all the wrestling every week. It would be helpful for me if, before you discuss a segment, you explain what happened. I'm not talking about one of KBs review breakdowns, I'm talking like a sentence or two, just so I'm not playing catchup whenever you're discussing NXT.
I think a bit more structure would help - I like the "two dudes talking" mentality, bit it did feel a bit disjointed, bouncing between subjects and tangenting a lot. I like the idea of briefly highlighting and discussing the notable segments from the week, but I think it would be nice if you then had a topic to discuss, rather than touching briefly on half a dozen different subjects but never really getting into them deep enough to hold my attention.
I'm not going to listen to the second one because I'm not at all interested in American Football or listening to two guys talk about sport. I guess that's the
danger of doing secondary subjects, I'd probably just skip any podcast where the secondary subject didn't appeal to me, and I don't think I'm a minority there. I'll give it a shot again if the show sounds appealing, but I don't think I'll be an regular. Still, like everyone else, I wish you the best of luck - just probably not for me.
I share many, if not most, of the same feelings. I don't guess I care too much about the editing stuff Gelgarin talks about (although he is correct that it would make it a better experience), but I would definitely cut down on the swearing (save it for emphasis, to drive home your point) and get more comfortable with openings into your topics (which, given it was only the first, is understandable), as well as have a little more structure to the flow of the conversation.
Oh, and maybe better topics to open the show than the Divas (which you spent time talking about how no one cares about) and the Prime Time Players.
I'm not really a podcast listening kind of guy, but like Gelgarin, I'm willing to give it a shot and maybe another shot. Just some friendly advice/support other friendly advice.
And I have not listened to a second one yet.
Skairipa Matrix
3 Time Elite Openweight Champion
Listened to the first one last night and enjoyed it a lot. I thought I swore a lot until I heard Norcal talk. Looking forward to the second one.
Mighty NorCal
SHALL WE BEGIN?
Hey, so do you guys like the fuckin' swearing or?
Mighty NorCal
SHALL WE BEGIN?
GRENDEL-GARIN
First off, thanks a ton and I do appreciate you taking the time to write this all up. I do wish you would at least check out the first 15 minutes of episode 2, as it is wrestling-based, and is much smoother than this episode.
I do understand the cheif complaints, and things will smooth out in time. First episode, first time either of us ever had done something like this. The concept itself is not even a week old.
I get were Sly is coming from with the "swear spamming" as I listen to it back, and I sort of am the ROH champion of swearing. If I cut back a bit, itll make it more impactful when I DO let it fly, which is how it works for me at work
Somewhat of a struggle to this is finding the right sweet spot to over-explaining our material to a listener base that already knows what NXT is or how American football works, and/or getting right into the meat of the conversation.
I do however feel that if I went fully to the side of every complaint you had, it would somewhat betray the way the show is supposed to feel. Its supposed to be passionate, its supposed to be uncomposed, and people are going to talk over one another sometimes. With such free flowing conversation, people are going to "um" and "ah" they aren't prepared debate speeches we are using here.
When I said "more professional than the professionals" I mostly meant down to the passion and knowledge involved in the show.
.....I got pretty much universal praise for the "Heel" bit, so there, HAVE THAT. lol. I understand that the language and some of the skull duggery will not be everyone's taste, and like I said, I worked toward developing that part of the experience in the last episode and will continue to do so.
I listened to both.
My main positives is that NorCal is an incredibly likeable character and easy on the ear. Personally, I think the swearing gives it a bit of character, but such is the pussyole nature of the world, you can't do it if you want to be perceived as professional. Regardless of that, it still has a lot of character, and this is down to the natural breeziness and charisma NorCal had. The second one was very informative for someone like me that is interested but ignorant in the NFL.
However, that brings me to my first constructive thing - if you're marketing yourself as a wrestling podcast and then have a show with literally 10% wrestling talk, people are going to tune out. It's cool you know interesting people, and you can obviously chat NFL as well as you chat wrestling, but make those separate podcasts under the 'NorCal' brand. You'll get fans of you that tune into all of them, but people looking for wrestling will want that - offering them something they have no interest in will not bring in the people. Honestly, I'd listen to most of the topics you have in mind, but literally 90+% of the British wrestling audience would have been alienated by the second podcast, despite the fact that it was probably of sounder quality.
I don't give a shit about the sound quality, I could hear it, that's fine for me, but yeah, the more professional the better I guess.
The other major thing I'd say is the structure - you started on divas and stayed on it too long. I found it interesting, others clearly didn't. Obviously, this is your baby, do what you want, but I think if you did an hour long wrestling podcast that was half an hour news, reaction to Raw/NXT etc and half an hour on a general topic e.g. tag team wrestling. Then I'd make sure the news stories have a set time limit for each - this would allow NorCal to introduce it and wrap it up so you don't have KB uncomfortably filling the silence as you did a couple of times - I thought he came across more nervously than Ty or NorCal, but that's more to do with them being golden on that front and KB being good not great. It will come with time. With this structure, you'll keep the organic chat element, but it will hold together more nicely and won't frighten Slyfox away.
Pure suggestion - For PPV previews I'd have a couple more people on in a round table fashion and talk about each match from the main event down to the shit ones. Doing it that way around means that people can come for the good stuff and not put it down immediately and stay as long as they wish. You don't have advertisers, as long as people listen to the first bit, it's alright. If you do do that, you need to make sure that it is well anchored though, else it will descend to chaos.
Final thing - the rant is great for people that 'know' you as we do, as are some of the fourth wall breaking moments, but it should be avoided. NXT does not start with William Regal in the ring telling you how shit Raw is, nor do the commentators point out that the workers are sloppy but getting better. By all means, say that stuff on here, and I agree with you, but coming out and saying how shit everyone else is before you've offered your own podcast up for criticism is incredibly unprofessional.
I don't listen to podcasts as a rule, but I made an exception for this, because I thought, and still think NorCal has the requisite intelligence and insight to pull it off. I thought it was good, and I'd listen again and all of the above is intended to be constructive criticism rather than naysaying.
My main positives is that NorCal is an incredibly likeable character and easy on the ear. Personally, I think the swearing gives it a bit of character, but such is the pussyole nature of the world, you can't do it if you want to be perceived as professional. Regardless of that, it still has a lot of character, and this is down to the natural breeziness and charisma NorCal had. The second one was very informative for someone like me that is interested but ignorant in the NFL.
However, that brings me to my first constructive thing - if you're marketing yourself as a wrestling podcast and then have a show with literally 10% wrestling talk, people are going to tune out. It's cool you know interesting people, and you can obviously chat NFL as well as you chat wrestling, but make those separate podcasts under the 'NorCal' brand. You'll get fans of you that tune into all of them, but people looking for wrestling will want that - offering them something they have no interest in will not bring in the people. Honestly, I'd listen to most of the topics you have in mind, but literally 90+% of the British wrestling audience would have been alienated by the second podcast, despite the fact that it was probably of sounder quality.
I don't give a shit about the sound quality, I could hear it, that's fine for me, but yeah, the more professional the better I guess.
The other major thing I'd say is the structure - you started on divas and stayed on it too long. I found it interesting, others clearly didn't. Obviously, this is your baby, do what you want, but I think if you did an hour long wrestling podcast that was half an hour news, reaction to Raw/NXT etc and half an hour on a general topic e.g. tag team wrestling. Then I'd make sure the news stories have a set time limit for each - this would allow NorCal to introduce it and wrap it up so you don't have KB uncomfortably filling the silence as you did a couple of times - I thought he came across more nervously than Ty or NorCal, but that's more to do with them being golden on that front and KB being good not great. It will come with time. With this structure, you'll keep the organic chat element, but it will hold together more nicely and won't frighten Slyfox away.
Pure suggestion - For PPV previews I'd have a couple more people on in a round table fashion and talk about each match from the main event down to the shit ones. Doing it that way around means that people can come for the good stuff and not put it down immediately and stay as long as they wish. You don't have advertisers, as long as people listen to the first bit, it's alright. If you do do that, you need to make sure that it is well anchored though, else it will descend to chaos.
Final thing - the rant is great for people that 'know' you as we do, as are some of the fourth wall breaking moments, but it should be avoided. NXT does not start with William Regal in the ring telling you how shit Raw is, nor do the commentators point out that the workers are sloppy but getting better. By all means, say that stuff on here, and I agree with you, but coming out and saying how shit everyone else is before you've offered your own podcast up for criticism is incredibly unprofessional.
I don't listen to podcasts as a rule, but I made an exception for this, because I thought, and still think NorCal has the requisite intelligence and insight to pull it off. I thought it was good, and I'd listen again and all of the above is intended to be constructive criticism rather than naysaying.
Ty Burna
Getting Noticed By Management
Much appreciated Tasty. The second podcast we did was mostly for testing some things others said for Norcal to do to keep it flowing better, and to introduce me as a regular guest.
We likely would have talked far more wrestling, went over Raw more in detail, but unfortunately I was stuck at work moving servers until 9 PM CT so by the time I got home I got to see maybe the last half hour of Raw so I was kinda useless in that regard.
We likely would have talked far more wrestling, went over Raw more in detail, but unfortunately I was stuck at work moving servers until 9 PM CT so by the time I got home I got to see maybe the last half hour of Raw so I was kinda useless in that regard.
Mighty NorCal
SHALL WE BEGIN?
Thanks a ton for taking the time to write all this, I do appreciate that people took the time to listen and give detailed feedback.
1. It is, at its heart, a wrestling podcast, and will always start with wrestling. So people can always tune in for wrestling, and if they chose to tune out for the guest, then that's fine. There are plenty of times I DL the Austin podcast or the JR podcast just to listen to their open, and then switch when they get to the guest. The goal should be that people enjoy my candor enough to at least try out the guest segment, and if they get 30 minutes into the show and aren't feeling it, I already gave them at least a serving of what they came for. As for last night, we were a bit hamstrung by the fact that We only had one show to talk about, and Ty didn't even get to watch it
that and I knew we would be going into deep waters on the NFL stuff, and I didn't want the show to turn into Gone With The Wind. Which it ended up doing anyways. 2. Meh, AJ was popular. I also felt it was required to give a soft ball segment to get warmed up. The stammering and discomfort may have carried on a while if we hadn't. A necessary sacrifice.
3. As for the PPV previews and having three+ voices, we have to wait a while for that. We already have people complaining about the chaotic nature of the show, and people talking over one another....Add to the fact we are all three jabbermouths, and it could go off the rails into an all out trainwreck quickly. For the time being, im keeping KB as the wrestling-heavy host, and Ty for the bigger NFL-centered events.
4. As for my opening segment, I regret nothing. I had to introduce myself, the podcast, and its entire reason for being. What I said on there was almost an exact transcript of the conversation we all had when the idea was born, and a tirade that had been sitting in my cortex for a solid month. I get what you are saying though.
Just caught the second episode. Wasn't interested at all in the football stuff, but still cool hearing both of your thoughts on things. First one was good too. Keep it up NorCal, I'll definitely be checking out future episodes.
Mighty NorCal
SHALL WE BEGIN?
I have had a fan (who admittedly uses a black market Bluetooth headset) said he can barely hear me.
Anyone else having audio issues as far as MY verbiage goes? I wanted it to be a little subdued since I can get really loud very suddenly when I get fired up over something, and I didn't want to murder peoples ears.
Anyone else having audio issues as far as MY verbiage goes? I wanted it to be a little subdued since I can get really loud very suddenly when I get fired up over something, and I didn't want to murder peoples ears.
One Punch Doug Crashin
I AM INVINSIBLE!
I have no audio issues aside from KB's audio being even louder than yours. I think you may have to edit his audio to match yours. Or find a middle ground at least.
Don't have the time to listen it properly now, but based on the very little I did, I think I'm gonna take out some time to listen it properly, and that is saying something since the only podcast I have listened in its entirety is Stone Cold's Podcast!
Good start, guys! Keep 'em coming!
Edit: One thing I don't appreciate much is the swearing. I don't mind it occasionally, but in the small bit I have listened so far, there is too much use of "fucking" that it gets irritating pretty quickly. Use it to emphasize a point if you have to, but not so much it becomes close to unbearable.
Cheers.
Good start, guys! Keep 'em coming!
Edit: One thing I don't appreciate much is the swearing. I don't mind it occasionally, but in the small bit I have listened so far, there is too much use of "fucking" that it gets irritating pretty quickly. Use it to emphasize a point if you have to, but not so much it becomes close to unbearable.
Cheers.
Mighty NorCal
SHALL WE BEGIN?
Don't have the time to listen it properly now, but based on the very little I did, I think I'm gonna take out some time to listen it properly, and that is saying something since the only podcast I have listened in its entirety is Stone Cold's Podcast!
Good start, guys! Keep 'em coming!
Edit: One thing I don't appreciate much is the swearing. I don't mind it occasionally, but in the small bit I have listened so far, there is too much use of "fucking" that it gets irritating pretty quickly. Use it to emphasize a point if you have to, but not so much it becomes close to unbearable.
Cheers.
Glad you mentioned it, no one really has yet
justinsayne
Cody Rhodes is an excellant
After listening to the first episode the only criticism I could make that it sounded like one of your were tapping on the table, the mic picks that shit up & it's mildly annoying. It only happened once or twice in the hour long show & neither time was for very long so it's not a huge deal, just something to keep in mind while recording.
Good podcast overall, KB dropping a "laborious" in at the end was a nice touch, & gave me a good chuckle.
Good podcast overall, KB dropping a "laborious" in at the end was a nice touch, & gave me a good chuckle.
Mighty NorCal
SHALL WE BEGIN?
Nate DaMac
Fuck erbody but me
My *****.
Ty Burna
Getting Noticed By Management
That was KB typing.
the weird spaceship sounds on the second one is Ty vaping
Gotta get my fucking FIX damn it.
I'll make sure to just mute next time I'm on.
Nate DaMac
Fuck erbody but me
I finally have the time, I'm gonna give it a shot.
Yeah, Norc's voice is nowhere near as deep as I was expecting.
Yeah, Norc's voice is nowhere near as deep as I was expecting.
Mighty NorCal
SHALL WE BEGIN?
I heard that too I think just momentarily right?
I might have been leaning forward. There was a few odd anomalies here and there
Mighty NorCal
SHALL WE BEGIN?
And I damn sure carried that flag after he said it, did I not
