Beds Blab - an experiment in amateur podcasting in Bedfordshire - 3. "Attitude for gratitude" - Michelle Burton, working with and inspiring young people in Bedfordshire

3. "Attitude for gratitude" - Michelle Burton, working with and inspiring young people in Bedfordshire

04/13/19 • 8 min

Beds Blab - an experiment in amateur podcasting in Bedfordshire

In this interview we learn more about Michelle Burton, a Pastoral Support worker working on Develop’s Children in Need project. Michelle talks about what she does, her path to the job she is doing now, how she supports young learners and how the course she delivers can help young people make positive changes in their lives. The Children in Need project is a 9 session course called “Like It, Live It”. It is funded by Children in Need but is run by Develop. The course helps young people develop their confidence, team working skills and mental wellbeing.

Techie stuff: A big change in this episode as I try and use a recording set-up which is advised by podcast experts.

I use the Zoom H4n as my recorder for the interview. This is sat in the middle of the table between myself and Michelle but it is not using its own internal microphones to do any recording. Instead I have two dynamic cardioid microphones plugged into the XLR ports on the Zoom. One of the microphones is a JTS TM 929 microphone – which is a relatively cheap (in price) mic I bought from the Bedford Music shop. The other microphone used was an Audio Technica ATR 2100 (Michelle speaks in to this one). So many books, articles, podcasts and videos I have studied have recommended this microphone.

It is regarded as having good quality for an affordable price but also its adaptability is recommended because it can be used as a USB microphone plugged into a laptop or used as an XLR microphone when you start moving up in complexity of your podcasting projects, connecting to mixers.

In this interview I had the two microphones set up in table-top microphone stands. These are cheap stands (in price) with big heavy metal bases (looking like ugly weights from a dumbbell) and a simple upright pole connecting the microphone. The stands I had had limited adjustability in terms of heights – I needed to get the ends of the mics as close to my and my guest’s mouths. Many podcasts set-ups I have seen while researching the topic seem to prefer boom arms which can be clamped to a table and swung into almost any position. Not yet sure if I should change to these.

My mic stands do not have shock mounts. Shock mounts are little rigs suspending the mic with rubber bands. If the stand is knocked or the table is bumped the shock mount should absorb this and prevent an ugly sound going into the recording. To make up for not having a shock mount I placed each mic stand on top of two layers of foam.

Also in this set up, I used a small Behringer headphone amplifier. This connects to the Zoom and then myself, Fiona and Hannah each have a set of headphones which plug into the amplifier. Using the amplifier you can adjust your volume. I thought that I could get away with a headphone splitter when working with multiple headphones (a simple little device which plugs into the audio jack/headphone port and then has five output ports for multiple headphones to be plugged into). The downside of using a splitter is that the volume shrinks with each headphone plugged in.

The Behringer headphone amplifier I use is relatively cheap and works well to keep volume up and I will continue to use it for these kinds of interviews.

The kit took a bit of setting up but not too long and I had some things pre-prepared, such as mics already in stands and cables attached.

No road noise this time but still ambient noise - a builder hammering away at points during the recording. Oh-my-days. What can you do?
Music: Love Chances by Makaih Beats from the Free Music Archive. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence.

Techie stuff: A big change in this episode as I try and use a recording set-up which is advised by podcast experts.

The Behringer headphone amplifier I use is relatively cheap and works well to keep volume up and I will continue to use it for these kinds of interviews.

The kit took a bit of setting up but not too long and I had some things pre-prepared, such as mics already in stands and cables attached.

Previous Episode

2. "Connect with themselves" - Yvonne Michele, inspirational advice from a Bedfordshire tutor and broadcaster

In this interview we get to learn more about the work done by a tutor working on Develop’s Children in Need project. The Children in Need project is a 9 session course called “Like It, Live It”. It is funded by Children in Need and is run by Develop EBP. The course helps young people develop their confidence, team working skills and mental wellbeing.

Techie stuff: Just like episode one, this interview was recorded using just a Zoom H4N handy recorder. No external microphones were used; only the Zoom’s internal mic was used. The Zoom was rested on a little chunk of foam beside myself and Yvonne. We were both sitting around 50cm from the Zoom’s mic. No headphones were used by either myself or Yvonne to listen to ourselves as we recorded.

The interview took place in a medium-sized room and a colleague was present in the room quietly trying to get on with her work and tidy up this classroom. You do occasionally hear these background noises and sometimes they are surprisingly sharp and loud – such as when some pencils are put down on a table. The room is also next to a road and there are traffic noises. These are distracting but I still feel that you are able to hear what Yvonne has to say clearly throughout the recording.

From the interview-skills side of this piece I did not waffle quite as much with my questions and Yvonne did the majority of the talking; as it should be.
This episode was recorded on the same day as episode one and so I had not yet fully appreciated just how much of an effect ambient noises have in recordings.

As in episode one, I did a little editing in Audacity and used the Levelator software to finish off the final project. While in Audacity the project is made up of seven audio clips. When this is project is saved as a wav and listened to, you notice the different audio levels between the clips. After using the Levelator these differences become harder to notice.
Link to Luton Urban Radio
http://www.lurlive.com/

Background music: Love Chances by Makaih Beats from the Free Music Archive. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence. http://freemusicarchive.org

Next Episode

5. "Always on your toes" - Ravi Duggal, experienced tutor, reflects on working with young people

Ravi Duggal has been working with young people for many years; whether as a team leader with the Princes Trust or his current work at Develop Bedford. In this episode of Beds Blab, we get to learn about another project Ravi is involved in, working at RAF Henlow with a youth club. What lessons has Ravi learnt about how to engage and inspire learners? Play this episode and find out.
Techie stuff: This interview was recorded in the same way as episode 4; two dynamic cardioid microphones recording into a Zoom H4n. Headphones were used and a Behringer headphone amplifier was connected to the Zoom. The two mics were held on table-mic-stands and these stands were sat on blocks of foam to help stop knocks and vibrations getting into the recordings.
Ravi is recording into the highly recommended ATR2100 dynamic mic while I record into a much cheaper-by-price JTS/TM929 dynamic mic. Ravi speaks about 15cm from his mic and seems to sound quite clear. I try to use the podcast-advised mic technique of speaking a fist's-width from the mic and talking past the mic rather than directly at it. I think that I sound a bit "muddy" at times. Whether this is due to the recording or this is just a feature of my voice, I'm not sure.
I edited out a few "erms" but I was surprised at how little background noise I could hear. When I was recording I saw a headphone cable striking the table a few times but I could not pick this up in the final recording. I think this is an example of why dynamic cardioid mics are advised for podcasting as they pick up less ambient noise.
No building work or traffic noise in this recording - so as near to being a clean recording as I have had so far.
I used a new recording for the introduction, recorded on the ATR2100 dynamic mic and I also recorded an outro, saying goodbye. The tone of my voice sounds so weak in this outro that I thought about re-recording it. In the edit I have actually added 6db of bass to my voice - probably needed a lot more!
I changed the music in this recording. Editing the four previous episodes I got to hear the previous music so often and it was starting to grate. I put a short musical interlude in the recording, just as a experiment really - I hope to find out if a listener will find this interlude as random, unnecessary and distracting or pleasant and natural.
So, overall, I feel that this recording is a development from the episodes before. Agree? disagree? Help me!!
Background music: Been Awhile by Yung Kartz from the Free Music Archive website. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Yung_Kartz/September_2018/Been_Awhile