Mic Drop Fact Like optical illusions, you can trick the human ear into hearing sounds differently from how they’re being created. For example, Shepard tones create an auditory “staircase” effect of endlessly rising pitch when, in reality, it’s just a single note. Hullo there! I had to laugh at something Lindsay said in response to that endlessly repeated, yet maddeningly vague, piece of podcasting advice: “Don’t be boring.” “What are you supposed to do with that information? Rely on cartoon...
2 days ago • 4 min read
Mic Drop Fact You can put out fire with sound. With the right frequency, sound waves can seperate oxygen in fire from fuel, extinguishing a fire in seconds. Hullo there! The "impossible to write an elevator pitch for" classic Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of the few non-fiction books I've read twice. And though it was pretty useless in helping me to maintain a motorbike (crucially, I have never owned one), it was a veritable mechanic's toolbox full of quotables: "You want to...
9 days ago • 3 min read
Mic Drop Fact Tim Storms holds the Guinness Book of Records title for the lowest note produced by a human at G -7 (0.189 Hz). This is 8 octaves lower than the lowest G note on the piano. Hullo there! If Podkin One Ear was serving up the profound quote last week, how about this one, attributed to Susan Sontag, in The Book of Delights... "Any technology that slows us down in our writing rather than speeding us up is the one we ought to use." Has this ever been more relevant than now? On that...
16 days ago • 5 min read
Mic Drop Fact During WWII, some nations experimented with using low-frequency sound waves as a potential weapon. This is called a sonic or ‘acoustic attack‘. Sonic weapons can be explicit, e.g. an extremely loud noise. Or, they can be covert, like infrasound that affects the human body without the targets noticing. Hullo there! The Legend of Podkin One-Ear is our current bedtime story. The wee one seems to be enjoying it, and so am I. Here's a nice quote I thought you might enjoy, too:...
23 days ago • 7 min read
Mic Drop Fact It's possible to perceive sound without using your ears. Vibrations can travel through your skull, which is how bone-conduction headphones work. Hullo there! Has anyone ever owned a printer that cheerfully admitted it (a) had enough paper and (b) was connected to the internet? Every printer I’ve ever owned insists - often with great confidence - that both are categorically false, despite all available evidence to the contrary. Anyway, printing stuff is so last century. We live...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
Mic Drop Fact A singer can break a glass by matching its resonant frequency with their voice at a high volume. Hullo there! A few of us went down to The Podcast Show London a couple of weeks back. I'm sure many of the sessions were excellent, but I didn't attend a single one. In my view, the main benefit of industry events is in the conversations you can have with others around you. It's actually one of those conversations that our main topic is built around, too. Is spoken-word audio still...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Mic Drop Fact Sound can lift objects. Acoustic levitation is when sound waves suspend small objects in midair by counteracting gravity. Hullo there! I had feedback on my podcast once. I used to record on an old Zoom H2n and, despite being told many times to monitor my recordings, I neglected to take the two seconds needed to plug a pair of earbuds in before hitting the big red button. I'd travelled to a cafe to meet my guest, and we had a great conversation. The problem was that someone...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
Mic Drop Fact Sound travels faster in warm air than cold air because heat increases the energy of air molecules. However, sound travels further distances in cold air because sound waves bend away from warm air and back towards the ground. Hullo there! Engagement is a well-used word, eh? It could mean popping a ring on someone's finger, your calls going straight to voicemail, or charging a unit of orcs into combat in a game of Warhammer (I like the third one best, FWIW). Then there's podcast...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Fact of the Week If, like most people, you hate hearing the sound of your own voice during editing, there’s science behind that. You hear your voice differently because, normally, you hear it through both air conduction and bone conduction. Recordings, on the other hand, only capture air conduction.. Hullo there! I wouldn't say Podcraft Pointers is the best newsletter for podcasters, but it's definitely in the top one! As always, we've lined up an entire week's worth of helpful and insightful...
about 2 months ago • 8 min read
🎙️ TUESDAY TOUCHPOINT Hullo there! We've been running Podcraft Pointers in its new look for over a month now, and I was just wondering if you had any quick feedback for us? Are there any segments/features that you're enjoying each week? And likewise, are any of them not quite hitting the mark for you? We're always striving to give you our best, so if there's any way we can still improve, we are all ears. Just hit reply and have your say - all constructive feedback is massively appreciated :-)...
2 months ago • 7 min read