Niners Nation Podcast: The Beginning!

can barely hear you…BTW, is your username supposed to be pronounced “Nine-James”? I always thought it was “Nihn-James” kinda like Ninja but Ninjames…

anyone successfully install the plugin for Firefox to listen to this here on NN in the embed above? Mine came up “no plugins found”…what’s the plugin and link?

I hate that the quality is low, but I think the content was good. We had good talks about stiff arms and rathman, and some of the players, etc. Quality will definitely be improved upon, folks. Since each file will be recorded and synced up, it should be professional quality for cheap.

I’ll definitely be listening to this later. Hopefully I’ll have something useful to say.

This is pretty cool—especially in its first time version. As the quality improves and you guys get used to doing this, I can see this getting better and better. Awesome job.

I’m always looking for podcasts of 49ers talk. Keep it up, you guys did a good job…sound quality was eh, but you guys talked about things all us 49ers want to talk about. If anything, maybe add some music for an intro and end of show?

about halfway through it so far. have some things in mind to improve that I’ll talk to you about James.

James sounds like one of those guys from hostage movies that makes demands through a distorted phone.

Are you guys have it up on Itunes so i can download on to my Itouch and walk around listening to some Niner talk

Congrats on starting this up for NN. But I’m thinking there’s no way it could be as good for us as it was for you.

This was actually quite good minus the production. You two interacted with each other quite well and I definitely felt like there was a benefit to having a conversation between two members. It wasn’t something where I felt like I could’ve had the same benefit from just reading, which is a trap a lot of podcasts that start from communities fall into.

User questions and suggested topics would definitely be nice. One thing this podcast has that a lot of others don’t is a strong potential for a lot of post-show interaction after the show due to the built-in community that already exists.

Using the podcast thread as a place to put show notes is fairly common so I’d actually like to see a more comprehensive summary of the show. If you post the actual questions you ask each other during the show in the thread, then the comments can pick up the discussion where the show left off. Having segments split into files would be useful, but isn’t really a big deal. I think you could probably get away with putting time stamps for each segment so people can skip ahead to a specific segment if they want to.

Also depending on the timing of the episodes during the week, you can do many things with minigames/prediction contests. Over/under, guess the score, etc. Listeners can then participate. Problem is that the discussion community is already in place rather than the normal pattern of building a community around a podcast/radio show, so it’s difficult to justify merging things like contests that may have had their own threads before into the podcast unless they’re small and we want to draw some attention to them.

During the show you alluded to using twitter to take questions live, and I think that might even be unnecessary. SB Nation threads work well for commenting on live sporting events as they happen, and I think you can do the same thing for a live podcast recording. You can take questions in these threads and respond on the air and members don’t have to sign up for a new account on twitter (assuming they don’t have one already). You guys just have to be diligent about paying attention to the thread while you’re recording (which isn’t easy). It’s not quite the same as a live chat like you’d see on some shows, but it’s fairly close and it’s already built in.

A studio mic, you can find one at a resonable price. A condenser mic is ideal as you can have it 5 feet away and it will pick you up crystal clear. This is the type of mic that they use in recording studios and live broadcasting (ESPN). You can find them cheap, around $50 bucks at Musiciansfriend.com

Here is a cheap but nice condenser mic, these usualy start at around $100 for a decent one. i use them when I record vocals in a studio, but you will find the quality amazing for just talking into.
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/MXL-990-Condenser-Microphone-with-Shock-Mount?sku=273156

Since the Mic requires Phantom power to power it up, you need a mixer that supplies phantom power. this is one of the cheapest and has the right type of plug in (3 prong) at both ends. Phantom power can not work with a 1/4 in jack at the other end, both sides must be 3 prong.
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Behringer-EURORACK-UB802-Mixer?sku=631238

You will need a stand, a desk stand would be cheapest and a cord, not too much money. All in all you will be out about $130-$150 dollars but the quality will be there and the equipment will last a long time. The Mic should have a foam cover on it to reduce the breathing noise and filter out the other sounds that you don’t want.

A little music in the back ground will go a long ways. After editing all the audio, just lay down a few tracks of music and keep the music volume low. It makes it more entertaining for us and provides a better show.

Just a technical issue with the sound, but nothing that can’t be easily taken care of I’m sure. As far as content, doing a regular question/answer segment from tweets or just over the threads here would work. Damon Bruce on KNBR 1050 already does a segment like that on his show. There could be a post put up at the beginning of the week with content suggestions and choose the ones that are the best by a certain point during the week. You can have whoever made the suggestion make a guest appearance if they want and be involved in that particular segment.

As far as show length, I’d be more for doing 2 of 30, but that’s just me.

With theme music, If you could find someone to put together something original for you that would be cool. But if you used some popular recording that would work too. Someone known for long intros like Metallica.

Technical issues but that is to be expected.

I had a chance to listen about a quarter of the way through this earlier today, and will likely get back to the rest of it after the game. Every trial run has its hiccups guys, so don’t get discouraged about technical difficulties (although I’m sure you guys aren’t). What’s important is you guys keep performing at high levels, which shouldn’t be a problem.