Podcasts was roundtable round 91 recording remote podcast guests and or co-hosts Something we're doing right now get into that in a second But how do you connect and record podcasts with guests or co-hosts? Maybe both Again, what we're doing right now, but Who guessing co-hosts who are not in the same studio remote is an important part of this It's another discussion to to do it in studio with other people as well. But do you Skype? Hangouts do you do double-enders? Oh, he sounds weird. There are so many ways to do it But what's worked for you? What hasn't worked for you? I think we have all of those experiences I think with each of these there's always something that doesn't quite work But that's what we're gonna find out from really a whole bunch of new roundtablers today So let's meet the roundtable Welcome back co-host Daniel J. Lewis. Thank you very much. I'm getting enough sleep Everyone seems to ask me that question. Are you getting enough sleep with the baby?  I'll be coming back and saying I can't sleep We'll see your eyes will look more like mine these nice bags going on Dave Jackson welcome back co-host Yeah, Dave Jackson from the school of podcasting calm. I'm not getting enough sleep But that's just because I just you know, I like to do show notes at 1 30 in the morning You're grinding man. You're grinding it. Yeah, you're taking the Gary V approach the work to your eyeballs bleeding I like it Dave's getting stuff done All right, well new round tableer Mike welcome to your first round table I know I feel like I've been called to the Jedi Council of podcasters tonight So this is pretty exciting for me My name is Mike and I do a Star Wars podcast called the Cantina cast and Daniel I never sleep anyway, so it doesn't matter. I'm always worried about downloads and everything else under the Sun with the podcasting stuff so it you know, I'm like a vampire so Hence hence the reference there Cantina cast. All right. I like it. Yeah, right and new round tableer Scott welcome Thanks for having me. I'm Scott Smith with the recovering from religion podcast and I think sleep is really non-productive That's interesting theory we probably a whole round table on that but I mean are you guys is everyone jealous of of Scott's audio? He's I am super jealous. How far away from that microphone. You don't even look close to it about the five inches Really it's that close you got to love wide-angle lenses like it just looks like he's so far away Well, it sounds fantastic. He's got a cool looking studio there So if you want to see that you definitely want to go to youtube.com Slash podcasters round table that is the YouTube channel just for this podcast or this podcast recorded live on YouTube No, we want to say there is not the only version as well podcasters round table dot-com Do that plus slash guess you can sign up to be a new round tableer and join us be part of the Jedi Council. Come on Feel like someone's gonna come to the door and slashes all the bits. Well, that would be not no, we don't want that All right, so we may have a couple more people join us, but until then Let's move forward now. Of course as I mentioned stumbled over my own words in the beginning We we are bringing in remote guests and co-hosts right here on the round table I have different systems for doing that whether you're watching on YouTube Which you're doing right now if you're watching this live or you're listening to the audio only Podcast so for YouTube, it's just hangouts on air and it works great for remote guests It's very easy. It can bring anyone in give them a link they come in And we're off and running and then it ends up on YouTube and a little more compressed It's not as quality once it gets there So for the audio only podcast version you probably know this if you've listened to any of these rounds But I capture the audio from the hangouts on air in real time So that provides actually better than there was some research done on it testing It's better than 96 kilobits per second from what I know from my ears. I can tell that and the audio is Recorded into an audio recorder and I record my own channel separately and then I bring those together in post-production and it all goes like I said from Capturing it real-time because that's where your better audio quality is and once it goes to YouTube it gets compressed further It's not as good. Some people have tried you using hangouts on air and ripping the audio out. It's not as good But it can work. I've certainly used it in a pinch on this on this podcast and You can see that set of more detail at youtube.com slash rare tega But this is works great for this podcast You can increase the quality of the audio by going into studio mode which we joked with Scott in the pre-show But his audio is so good We're like don't touch it because it can create issues Feedback issues. I'm actually in studio mode right now. We're not having an echo issue But you got to be careful for that was really something that was designed for music not so much for Dialogue so it does some weird things with stereo routing and I just that's a rabbit hole. You can fall down But anyways, so that's what we use for this show Ryan, what do you do you? Well, do you have remote? interviewees or co-hosts or both Right, but I'm sorry Mike. What do you know me? Ryan is one of the other people that it's not here. Oh, that's okay. It happens What we do is we do a double-ender we get on Google chats because it sounds better to us than Skype for whatever reason I'd Skype has always been a nightmare for us So we get on Google and do it that way and then we he records his track I record my track and we don't really have guests on that much But every show is really us being remote in a sense because he's in Indiana. I'm in Rhode Island So each show is like, you know, that's how it is. We're remote it in and we just talk and and go from there So he records his track where there's no problems and I record my track and there's no problems However, Google Hangouts can give you problems as well. Like you said with the switch into studio I've run into that because I you know, I see it.  So that's how we typically do it we sometimes have guests come on for our character dissections and stuff like that so He typically records me in in the the guest on and I have to edit all that fun stuff and and what not but I've been trying Zencaster lately, although it worked for one episode that we did We had Adam. He's like a psychologist He comes on and he talks with us about the characters and stuff and it worked great the first time the second time was a complete Disaster, I don't know if it was on his end because he lives in the boondocks somewhere and and you know His internet isn't all that great. So we had a lot of glitches with that and we got frustrated So we don't have typically a lot of yes come on and that's how that started when we first started We tried it. I tried the mixer. I tried this I tried that Things wouldn't get work and I got frustrated. So I said, alright, here's what we're gonna do We just get on I'll record my end you record your end and keep it simple because I always find the simplest way is the best way to Go and that's how we do it now, although we want more guests to come on So we got to change things and evolve as we go further and you know Maybe I'll give Zencaster another try and kind of see how that works But you know, there's other options as well We kind of you know duct tape and bubble gum at every time we do a podcast So that's how we do it currently kiss anyone know what that stands for Mike hinted keep it simple stupid. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yes, but nothing simple. I mean even doing a double-ender is not necessarily Simple but it is the best way in my opinion I mean obviously if you're recording locally assuming someone knows how to record assuming they have the space for it Of course, that's not gonna translate In a remote situation as well if they don't have good mic and a decent space to record in But you know if you don't know how to record it It's maybe not gonna sound as good if you have someone else handling it So double-enders are great. You mentioned Zencaster that's sort of a way to do a double-ender It is a way to do double-ender. We'll talk a little bit more about that And not that type of option But raise your hand and realize it or an audio podcast if you're listening Raise your hand if you if you are on team Skype sucks I got now we got a we got Mike with his hand up which we knew Scott He's halfway there, which I think is pretty much the experience. It's like sometimes. Yes, sometimes no, right? So Scott or what are you? Are you bringing in guests or do you have co-host or both? I do have a co-host Emily and most of the time the two of us interviews someone remotely and 80% of the time it is over Skype because that's what most people are familiar with With our Skype recorder We've had to completely redo two interviews so far because the meter within Skype recorder says green Which means I think it's a clean recording, right? But when we play back the recording Every other word is clippy. So we what are you using to record? That was a Skype recorder. Just it's called Skype recorder. That's a Windows based Well, when those are Mac and just kind of comes with Skype and I just hit a button and it records Wait, it doesn't wait. Who knows what this is? I think you're gonna Skype for business then, right? I Don't think it's called. I know it's Skype recorder Skype doesn't have built-in recording not that unless Dave like you're saying business Skype for business has a built-in recorder Okay, maybe it is that interesting interesting, but so you're saying that the meter is not giving you an accurate reading Correct because the meter said green thinking it's a real clean recorder Recording and it turns out every other word was clipping. We had to redo the whole thing So we kind of learned our lesson the hard way twice not once but twice So we don't use Skype recorder anymore right now. I Record right into audacity and that works pretty well. I also have a backup recorder with my mixing board It's a SD card. So that's a good backup. There you go. The backup is the key, right? Right and Not everyone use a Skype if you're a podcaster you probably do But if you're having a guest on maybe they do maybe they don't so we've had to experiment we've done interviews with Facebook call and that works about as well as Skype people are familiar with that and I've even had to Do interviews over my cell phone and Bluetooth that into my mixing board and that works pretty well, too But I definitely wouldn't recommend Skype recorder. Here's a question you guys for anyone Phones or something we sometimes have to deal with and it's not a big deal like it's you know Get the interview if you can get the interview over phone, but when you call someone on a Cell phone I don't feel we're even saying cell phone these days like what's the right to smartphone anyways Is the audio better than the traditional phone because it's maybe digital at some point. What do you what's going on there? Yes, I think especially if you're calling from the same device to another device sometimes they'll Yeah, whenever I call my wife because she has an iPhone now I get a much better clear signal even though I'm just telling it make a phone call I'm not saying do a FaceTime audio call, right? I don't know. Maybe it is actually doing a FaceTime audio call But it rings like a regular call So I think it's just the the HD calling feature that's starting to be rolled out Yeah, I don't know if I because anytime I ever use a phone It sounds like the phone and I think I always heard it was a Just the actual when you go through the phone lines It automatically chops off the base and it chops off the treble and it's got a really thin So I don't know if that's something like I didn't know there was an HD phone thing anywhere I heard something about where it like an Apple's case if you're connecting up They are there is something going on there that is making potentially the audio is a little better So I guess the lesson here is that there is a way, you know, if they have a smartphone It may be a better option. I don't know who has a landline these days People I have a line outside my house. It doesn't go to anything But I would I would think the microphone in a smartphone is better than you know this You know, basically look it. Oh, hey. Wow. What's that down 9-1-1 that belongs to the museum. That's right.  What is your current method for? Getting interviews into the podcast remote. I've used them all and I'm one of these guys that I don't have a problem with Skype. I really I think a lot of it has to depend on who you're calling and where They are I think it's still the I think it's still overall the best. I like it's you know, it's funny all these years I think Skype still wins generally But so what I do the fact that it's different for everybody. Yeah, so I use as a backup I have MP3 Skype record. It's a free program for the PC and I usually do not recommend free stuff But I do not recommend Pamela Pamela is awful I've used a couple and most of them have gone out of business because Skype kept updating their their software and it kept Breaking their stuff. So a lot of people just got out of the game. These people seem to Update their software and then I always have again some sort of backup for me I'm usually going into my mixer and the mixer into Skype And then I pull my guests into the mixer as well and then that goes out to some sort of portable recorder somewhere So I always have no matter what I'm using whether I'm using Skype or cast or Zencast or whatever I always set it up. So I have two recordings because You know, I've used a ringer. I love ringer, but it crapped out on me once I've used then casters and cast or crapped out on me once they've all crapped out on me once So, you know, these days what I do like and I don't use them I don't do a lot of interviews and then call the co-hostings handled as I mentioned up front You're seeing it right now But Zencaster and cast those are two things I always waited for for a long time They finally came out in the beginning. They were never reliable enough to say. Yep. Use this, right?  I don't know do you guys experience this? Is that? Supposed to be sort of fail-safe I had a I have a woman who is petrified of technology that I help her with her podcast and she uses cast which is a TRYCA dot ST. Yes try cast, but it's TRY dots note TRYCA dot ST. Oh, yes. Is that it? Yeah. Come on guys. Exactly. Come on. And I Never had anybody have a problem with that system I know a few people using it and she was the first and so They did have the the cast people worked with them to get the local recording off her computer But then there was a huge Just party putting those two things together and there was a lot of drift where you kept having to that's where Somebody's recorded a little faster than the other person. So you have to constantly drag people's Audio to the left or right to get them back in sync So it was a party and that was the first time I've heard of that system kind of taking you know going left to center for one Yeah, I mean who else did someone else mention they'd use Zencaster before yeah, I yeah, I did yeah And it just I don't for whatever reason it worked great the first then I'm like oh great Finally the solution that I really needed because we don't do a lot of interviews as I said But we'd like to bring people on every now and then to make things a little more interesting than just me my co-host I was talking Star Wars so you could have mixed it up every now and then it worked great And then I I don't know if it was the Google hangout set was the problem Zencaster was the problem or our Guest Adam, I don't know if it was him or if it was a combination all three I just couldn't figure it out like it was it looked like it was recording It started his mic would cut out and then there'd be nothing they wouldn't see any little bars going up or anything like that It would just be Silence it was weird and he would cut out and he wouldn't we couldn't hear him in Google We couldn't hear him in Zen cat it was just horrible So I don't know I want to dive back in and try it and give it another shot But you know I you see all these new things that are coming out because I like to keep things simple and I have hope I'm like yes, finally I'm gonna it's gonna be easy for me and then you know something like this happens But that's the internet. That's what happens, you know the other Go ahead I'm sorry I was a guest on another podcast and they use Zencaster and I really liked it worked great So I signed up for it and I could barely get a guest to sign on to it and connect Yeah, I did only twice it dropped within a minute or two and I've heard other people had similar problems and I also heard they were trying to work out some bugs and On paper, that's probably the best option even for $20 a month, you know, you get Multi-track recording real good high quality, but until they get the bugs worked out I'm not gonna get back into it But you know, it's got potential. It's probably potentially the best option out there But for me not right now. Yeah, it's definitely the one that That I like the most, but it's not what I use and again having the the backup is key So you could go into it if you knew how to capture everything in real time on the audio recorder and Then you'd have the benefit of taking you know The backup would be the the guests coming basically across the web and Zencaster would be your primary because you're getting Ender, which is just it's recording. It's in the browser and it's recording locally to their computer Yours is recording to your computer. So it takes the internet out of the equation So even if you guys have some kind of weird sound going on Which is what a lot of people experience with Skype because it does Hops all around the web and different things happen to the audio and when people step on each other when you talk over It does not like that at all and so these are a lot of the times the issues people, you know experience with Skype and then Zencaster takes that out of the equation because even if you hear that you're not getting that in the recording And the thing you have to keep in mind the thing I loved about Zencaster was it was the first one I saw that you could record in a wave format and I was like, all right now. We're talking. This is all right high quality But the thing I didn't and I lucked out because I had somebody who had a pretty hard out And I had them for an hour, but they're like, you know, if we're not done by this time I'm like, oh, you know I won't even use half that time and luckily I interviewed them for 40 minutes and then we're recording in wave It took them 20 minutes to upload the wave file when they were done And they're like I because they can't close their machine when he's like, I gotta leave and I'm like, it's almost done It says 98% and I think I feel like every time I get an email on the iteration that these are all things They're addressing so I hope that they stick around long enough. That's the thing with these services, right? I here let me pull up who said let me see hold on Jeffrey Holbrook who's in the chat Thanks, Jeffrey. He said he has started a show with a guy from Australia who he met on blab RIP blab It was a great system didn't didn't make it didn't last That's partly because the CEO just killed it even though it was doing good But they now do Skype wirecast live video to YouTube and records locally from an 18 2005 and an H5 so pretty complex setup there, but Blab, you know these systems they don't always stick around so I'm hoping That Zencast you know being something like premium Dave will tell you that free is a bad business model Hopefully they'll stick around and give them that time to fix it because it has been years now And here we are still talking about how yeah, but something needs to be a fix now I feel like we're getting a little controversial. This is this topic just sets people off man is like Skype Really? Are you kidding me? You've just offended my every Mike sounds like Star Wars fans That's exactly has its own Controversies what you know we got mark who joined us welcome mark to the round table. Hey call me Fletch. How are you Fletch? I'll try to remember it's hard. It's a lot of names We're good. What's your show mark a Fletch? So I podcast I do corporate podcasting for a via telecommunications company And I started podcasting about six seven years ago Internally so I do a lot of internal content external customer facing stuff It's great because I've got a whole marketing team that writes all my stuff and I just have to produce the content But you said you have it when in the email you said you have your own system for bringing in remote guests in Skype Well, I mean that's guy but remote guess so a via is a communications company. So we have Hosted voice over IP systems and we have a product that we developed called Zhang Zang and it's it's just getting launched out now for it's a great business collaboration type environment and we've got them to add 722 wideband audio so now we can bring in guests. Okay, it's kind of like hangouts I send you a link you come in very similar to this Video audio whatever and it's good quality HD 722 now you I think when you were in the chat You were hanging out in the chat for you got here and this whole conversation about HD audio I'm not sure that that went over very well What what do you got for us on that's phone and HD? So here's the thing when you when you talk in the phone if you're on a landline you got 64k Bandwidth if you're talking on a cell phone. It's probably compressed at some point if you have LTE And you have wideband HD audio so different carriers support different things T-Mobile to T-Mobile think Verizon might have something as well Now your voice is actually a voice over IP data packet So you can get that higher codec whatever they happen to use and you get that high definition high quality So is that I mean we are we we can call a phone and get Skype quality without using Skype app Is that kind of what's going on there? Here's the thing phone to phone now. How do you bring that into your into your jaw, right? So what if well, what if I use Skype to call phone because this is the traditional way So if you have to bring people into the phone, you can dial people using Skype. Yeah. Yeah, so if I if I When I use Zang And I record remote guests We have a tied into a conference bridge and if you're coming into that conference bridge on a clean quality line I'm gonna get you a decent quality into my software client. But again, if you come in crappy, you're gonna be Good high quality crappy Nice and now let's see Ryan Muñeac, hopefully I'm saying that right he said he's used Skype He blog talk radio, which a lot of people who responded Mentioned at some point they use blog talk radio. The theme that I saw was that at some point some people and tried it That's not what they're using anymore. So another and you know, we have a history of blog talk But I know they're trying It could be good now. I know Dave would know but A new kid on the block as far as recording interviews is anchor. You remember the Yes, and then my favorite app that I never use. Yeah, exactly that app That started with short form audio I don't know if there's a time limit anymore when you record audio on anchor, but they have something that's really cool Disappointingly low audio quality though and that is that from the anchor app and this is as of version 2.2 I believe From the anchor app you can call a phone number and it will record both sides of the conversation Unfortunately, it puts both sides together in the same channel and both sides are recorded at phone call quality Yeah, it's sort of a non-starter for me But it does it's encouraging because they're they're they're starting something right? So who knows that hopefully they'll iterate and get better that reminds me of something Who is anyone here use ringer? Yes Okay, so My problem with ringer and I haven't really used it is that doesn't it require the end user the person who's trying to make things easy For to download an app No, this is good news. Well on a mobile device doesn't it require that? That's what I that's what I thought Well, if they're because there's there's ringer app on your phone Sure, and then there's also a ringer and because this is what would bit me in the butt There's also a ringer that you can use with a browser That's web rtc Right and so but it does the same thing it records it locally and then uploads it To in this case it works like everything else My problem because I was on the my worst interview ever show And I was using the the browser based one and unfortunately it ended up using the audio from my camera not my microphone So that was browser based on your computer on my computer. Yeah Yeah, the browser based on the phone doesn't work with iPhones. They no no no app Yeah, you have to work with some android devices Anything that's browser based Unless it's really well designed you run into that problem of The microphone selection and that's the same thing like it happened all the time on blab for a while That people would join and they're using their own microphone and you'd have to go change your microphone setting restart Or refresh the browser page That's a problem that takes quite a bit of coding. Some people have worked around it Like cast I believe and maybe zen caster have worked around that But not yet ringer. I think if I used ringer all the time I would just keep it super simple and use my phone Because it doesn't really sound that bad Yeah, I think in that case you have to tell your guests download this app. Yeah Yeah Which isn't that I mean it's if they download it that's I don't I think all you need is their email address And when they when they open up the email clicks on that launches the app and that's it They're you're off to the races and then it's already recording it on on both ends I think out of all of them the one that has the easiest interface is cast Because when you log in it says pick a microphone and you go, okay And it says pick a pick your speakers and you do that and you're done What none of them do which I still It's it's probably technology is none of them have a good idea of letting you know where your actual audio levels are They all have little blinking lights and things like that But not even hang no no one Is so hard to find someone who does this well not google hangouts on air that i'm using right now It's got an audio meter, but I can't really tell I mean I love Boss jock and this isn't you know, we can't use boss jock to do remote Recording I don't think they keep it's a great app The audio meters are terrible like good audio meters are They're like the holy grail you gotta know where your audio is at Yeah, when I asked cast I go How do you adjust the volume level if somebody's too loud and they said back away from the mic? You know what? I will say though. Skype is actually pretty good and for me 75 percent on the audio meter is Golden I don't know about what are you guys everyone here is use Skype when you guys are recording remote guests Uh, Mike if you're well, you're not using it to record, but you are getting audio back and forth Do you pay attention to the audio meter? Do you have a setting you like I tried to but uh I can't remember just as long as it didn't go too high and it didn't yeah Get sound distorted. That's kind of what my Back in the day when I was doing it with Skype and and I used to be I yeah That was kind of like if it sounded really distorted or something. I was like, all right We got a we got to work on this but Skype would always Be a problem anyway It would just so it was hard to even gauge that because there was so much background noise with someone in the background or Or something like that. So it was like, yeah, you know, I just kind of winged it back in the day When we were doing and I used to use every program called a there And that worked well and then you know as Skype always updates everything a there wouldn't work well because I remember There was one time we had an interview and I was talking over someone when I shouldn't have been talking over So I mean then it makes it was a disaster. So that's pretty much when I walked away from Skype But I always gauged it if you sounded distorted or something Didn't sound quite right. I kind of just what you know tried to fix it. That's that could Did Skype recently change hands like again, I feel like it's done it a couple times You know still owned by Microsoft. Here's a weird thing every time so I rely on for a lot of things I rely on the Skype test call system, right? You call the lady the the British accent and You can test stuff It's terrible every time in terms of what I'm sending good audio. It always was good and what I get back is so It's horrible. Yeah garbled. I don't something has changed. But anyways, I know Skype has gone through a lot of different iterations with Microsoft and Whatever, so I don't know Scott Are you how are you getting levels?  Okay lately, we've just been using Recording right into audacity. So it's very easy for me to see the level right there Let me ask how you're doing that because some people will be like, how do I do that audacity is free? How are you making that happen? I don't know I I thought it was going to be a big deal and my co-host and I were going to do double in recording And we tried that and I thought it was going to be really cool and on my end I picked up both voices Clear as a bell And that's the way we've been doing it and it's not double in recording So it makes it a little bit more difficult But as long as the person on the other end has a little bit of discipline and they're not doing like 200 mouse clicks while I'm talking Not that that's happened. But uh, if you're able to achieve that then You know, it's pretty good quality and that's what we've been using ever since You can play around with multiple sound boards And kind of feed the board into itself if you've got a mixer board And then you can you can actually segregate your callers. I did a really complex show years ago Where I actually did that and we could I actually had separate volume pot for each caller so I could make In call adjustments watch it in a multitrack recording environment But again too much of a hassle for really what you got out of it What I'm doing with my show it's for my once upon a time podcast. That's the only podcast where I have multiple remote co-hosts We're doing a multi-ender. They're each recording either into garage band or into audacity and Most of them have either the Well, not most of them. There are three of them. They have either the audio technica atr 2100 usb or the samsung q2u And with those microphones, you almost don't have to worry about being too loud You can't be too loud with those microphones almost They're recording into audacity or garage band They upload or I've taught them how to export away from that They upload that to Dropbox and then our editor puts it together but on my side I also record a backup And I've got a mixer. I'm doing live streaming live production as well So they need to be able to hear the sound clips that I play I have that all rigged up so that everyone's voices go out to live and the sounds go out to the live to the my co-host And on my side, I record My in studio voice On one side of a stereo track and then I record my remote Yes, or participant on the other side of the studio track Um, there's stereo track as a backup That also helps to synchronize their voice So when we get their audio track from them, we can synchronize it align it then with our copy of it So there's an important there's important factor here that you know in the title we're talking about remote guests and or co-host but um A double ender You can hear what daniel said he's trained people to upload You know a wave file and how to do these things That doesn't work so much with a guest So double enders are something that are very easy to do with co-host because you can work with them It's repeatable. You're you're there every week or whatever your schedule is Asking a remote guest to do that is not Not that great. Now I use at work all the time skype with call recorder on a mac Call recorder is really awesome in that it splits the channel These are the things that you want in a skype recorder, right is a good audio meter would be nice um, I think call recorder does that pretty well And splitting the channel so that you can have two separate tracks yourself and the remote person on their own track that you can put into Into post-production and edit separately because as uh scott's infamous mouse clicks if that's happening It's in a mixed stereo track. You're not going to be able to take that out. So Uh, you definitely want that and that works great on a mac and then you know sadly I think I still have to recommend pamela for windows. What is going on with skype recorders and windows? Who's got who can give me a better? Well, I think the better way if you're going to record software the better way on mac is audio hijack or loop back They're both made by roga meba So yes and no because I love audio hijack But audio hijack is for the people who want to dig in deeper. I think and call recorder is dead simple I mean you can make it automatically record the reason I say audio hijack instead of call recorder And on the windows side, it would be voice meter. That's with a couple extra ease in it or so The reason I would recommend that instead of a skype recorder is because as we've already brought up in this conversation skype breaks things quite often and uh, the other thing is These are skype recorders most of them but audio hijack and voice meter is Are both um universal recorders. So if you're doing a hangout if you're doing Whatever latest service or if you're doing FaceTime audio through your computer or anything like that It can record regardless of what it is and that's what I like because then it's a standalone And you're not relying on it being compatible with the latest Uh update to that particular app Yeah, I agree But if you want to do video call recorder kicks But I just did a whole series of videos for the call recorder splits the video channel It's amazing quick pop quiz for mike if daniel studio was a lightsaber. Who would it be? Uh, obi one Is a big bright studio if your studio was a lightsaber. Who would it be mike? Uh, probably Darth Vader not yoda. Isn't it green back there? Well, it's green right now, but I would Well, that's what I probably that was basing it on the color. Oh, yeah. Yeah, right now. It's yoda. Yes Yeah, oh look actually I would go with luke luke is my favorite. So I'll go with luke My daughter has a lightsaber like yoda lightsaber. It's tiny. It's awesome, but it's green It's the only reason I know that But all right, that was fun What else you guys who else is recording anyone recording or have tried anything Different than the things we've already mentioned I've used zoom uh dot us but not for the recording their audio recordings are horrendous Yeah, it's webinar quality, which is always so bad But I I like it because it's fairly easy to connect people they I'd take that back actually because they have to download a file and then double click on it And they have to the the file they're downloading is an exe file, which usually throws off everybody's uh Virus protection, but once they're in it usually sounds pretty good And again, I I don't know that I've ever had the whole bugs bunny on poison experience of skype where the That thing's going on and then I just record that connection Into a portable recorder, and I'm good to go now I don't get if I wanted to I could separate into channels on my mixer But I usually just have somebody tell me what they had for breakfast set their levels and go Where comes you guys are doing a lot of post production and I don't know how you find time for all that you might watch tv We we we address that in the in the lead up. It's called no sleep. Yeah Hashtag podcasters I'm all about being lazy and and automating it as much as possible and Finding the you know, I hate to use the term minimal viable product because I'm all about quality Um, but you got to find good quality. That's a minimal viable product and Web rtc. I think is the answer to it because it's a plug-in on the on a chrome browser or most other browsers It'll recognize the audio hardware.  This is this is Probably what you see. Yeah, that's the direction to go Certainly, but apple doesn't support it at all in safari on the desktop or on safari on the mobile browsers Um, and until it's fully adopted. I think we can't really rely on it that much But that is the direction. I'd love to see things go Especially if they can make that microphone selection easier on the browser side That's just programming. So our guys when they when they built the zang application The first thing we noticed was oh my god, what microphone is being selected and we finally figured out it was whatever you had On on an apple. It was whatever you had set for your default and system preferences. That's what it used That was like, hey guys, you need to fix this. Oh, okay next release. Bang We had a little control panel select the mic you want to use and explain web rtc for anyone so web rtc is just a protocol that's Use the transport Multimedia video voice whatever over the internet and it does it using a codec That's wide band. So it's using a wide phone channel You go back to the old radio station days the way they used to do remotes Was over dual phone lines So two phone calls from the remote to the radio station 64 k on each phone line. They bond them together basically into 128 k with channel wider the channel the better quality And uh Stargate pioneer sp in the chat says no sleep podcasters dot club is going for 4.99 So I think he's buying it up. Although jeffrey makes good points. That's probably about it What it's worth, but he has a good question sp has a good question He says, how do you prep your guests to maximize their audio? This is always kind of tricky one because you have differing differing levels of Nerdyness, I don't know what to say like tech ability right for your guests. I mean Most of our shows are not podcasts about podcasting. We're not always calling other podcasters. I'm fortunate with this show We're I'm the everyone who comes on here in the pre email. I say use your best mic Or audio available which always makes me nervous because I always worry that people I literally mean if you have anything but an on-board microphone, please use please use it We've had some of the best podcasters with some of the best setups come on and use their on-board Microphone, you know who I'm talking about now. Well, what are you doing? What are you doing right now? So it's super simple But most people are bringing in interviewees who might not have that now daniel You have coho so it's not guess for once upon a time, right? Well, I have interviewed a couple of the cast members from once upon a time And you can't put I mean these are people you have to make this super easy for them, right? Yeah, so they're my approach first perspective is My audio needs to sound the best it can and if my audio sounds good Then whatever audio I get from the guest as long as they can be heard and understood Whatever quality level that is is fine. If it's telephone level quality You can still hear and understand them. It's not the best. Yeah, but you can still get the message from them So if we have to connect through a phone we do that But what I would do is I say If we can connect with Skype since that's the most popular voice over IP system I'd say let's use that if not Skype. I'll call you on a phone And make it super simple. I don't ask them to record or anything like that. Um, and then for Ensuring I get the best audio quality from them. I just say make sure there's nothing noisy in the background Make sure you're wearing headphones. Make sure you're close to the microphone. That's simple Yeah, I I put together a document all the do's and don'ts, you know how to deal with plosives How do you know if you're if you're thinking about calling in on a cell phone? Have a nice day.  Have a nice day I mean, I did it to someone just the other day go find something that works Or I'll find another guest Gotta be hard-nosed Well, I I just know anytime I've had two people that have had crappy headsets and I you spend hours pulling out the plosives later if you really want to send that out to your audience and That's that's where you learn to you know as much as he sounds like he's playing hard ball It's like no no you are the You're the person between you and your audience that is going to ensure that that quality gets to them And this person is trying to serve up something that's not quality. So it's your job to be the gatekeeper Yeah, what what about go ahead Mark No, I said absolutely you've got to take a hard nose And if you're going to put out a quality product you have to have standards and and that's all it is What about the whole this used to be one we do it all the time plug into ethernet versus wi-fi Do we still do still prep your guests that way? Do you not care? Yeah, you know, it depends Wi-Fi is so good these days And many devices now you can't hardline into the network So as long as they're close to the wi-fi network I still will put it in there and if they as sort of a Completely do your best, but if you can't seriously don't stress about it, right? Yeah kim from uh toastmasters 101.net She has a thing where if she has somebody who's not very techie She'll have them download skype on their phone and then connect over wi-fi And use skype that way and she gets really good results with that And that's one of those things too like if you know you could always ask Hey, are you on iphone right and you are you could do facetime right? You could connect via facetime. There's a way you could do that from your desktop and record it to someone's phone That's always a nice that can be a nice connection Yeah, that could be definitely nicer than if they're using their laptop with the built-in microphone Where they're far away from it. Maybe they don't have headphones and so you're getting a audio loop going But using the microphone built into the phone. It's a fantastic microphone and it is better Than the headset so if you have someone with the apple earbuds for one thing There's that problem where it's rubbing around on their shirt and they don't know that they don't know what kind of noise It's making yeah, especially long hair. It's gonna. Yeah The microphone itself It's better audio quality in the phone than in those headsets and i've tested it multiple times that said Having a headset because here's the thing too also prepping your guests for the wear wear headphones So you don't get the audio bleed back into the speakers that one could be nice.  It's not a problem It's not coming glaring out but you know scott. Do you guys do well even we're going to co-host You don't have to prep a guest, right? But do you have any best practices that you guys make sure to to do when you connect or is it just Get on however Well before we do the interview we will email them a document we came up with And we say something like we don't want to insult your intelligence But we realize everyone has different levels of audio expertise and we came up with the list What's the most important at the top and this is to make you sound better And the first of course is use either earbuds or headphones to prevent feedback Any external microphones going to sound better than your internal microphone? That's important Think about the room you're actually doing this in is it your dining room? it's going to provide a lot of feedback or maybe your bedroom with bedding and curtains and Carpet that's going to make you sound less like you're in a tunnel And no matter how good your external microphone is It will not only pick up Your microphone will not only pick up human voices It will also pick up your dog barking right next to you. They don't make a microphone that good Not just yet and be careful of any noise that you're making like mouse clicking or Right and your chair squeaking this type of thing if it squeaks once or twice during the interview It's no problem, but if it squeaks 500 times then you know the listener is going to start to think What is that and they're not going to pay attention to what you're saying? So we always email that to him and it usually helps It's been a long time since we've had a interviewee that use their internal microphone headphones Yeah, and I mean that's always a challenge on this podcast because Everyone that's on the round table outside of me is in a mixed channel. That's you can't separate that out so Again another situation where I'm super fortunate that we're talking to podcasters and most people They get it. They know try not to step on each other They know to try to be quiet some people mute themselves or not talking But that can be a real challenge for people who are not used to being On a microphone even here this show oftentimes When we bring a new round table on it's the first time they've ever used the system So it's all foreign. I mean even people who do this Regular they record It can be foreign. So it can be very tricky So it is definitely good to have Like a pre-formatted list of say of best practices and I like that approach say, you know, not to insult your intelligence But here's just some best practices Stuff we've learned from doing this every week, right? And it's not just always technical as well. I mean I put on my list that I've created and modified over the years You know jot down the questions if you've got them ahead of time and notes on how you're going to answer Keep a glass of water next to you one that I added just a couple of weeks ago Put a sign outside the door. Hey, I'm recording I don't want to hear that in the middle of my interview. So, you know, again You know, it's just things that you learn along the way, but it's not always technical.   I mean, what would What would be go ahead, dave one thing that just came out today Ringer will now uh, you can get a usb to lightning, right, but but I notice a camera kit Uh, the you can now use a camera kit with ringer. So if you want to plug a 2100 into this Uh, that just came out today and they now offer It's 15 dollars a month versus 20 if you buy a year in advance Yeah, so what is so if you're giving advice to a podcaster and you're saying who's who's starting a show And they want to do interviews because they've listened into so many marketing podcasts to tell them that's what they should be doing They want to be the neck. They want to do interviews on fire right And uh, what what are you gonna say? Hey, what's the best way to go ahead and approach that For recording remote I would say guess I won't even go co-host because co-host is a it is a different situation because you can work with them more Dan you're you're you're a person who gives podcast advice. You have to jump in here Make it as simple as possible I mean, they don't know how to do that. So what are you gonna? So what are you gonna start them off on you're gonna tell them to go to skype, right? Yeah, go to skype if that's not available. Let's do a phone call I know it doesn't sound as good, but I had so much rather Not inconvenience them and I understand that giving them a checklist Some podcaster gave me a checklist Like a guide of do these things before you Record and they even sent it to me. They said I know you probably don't need any of this Then why'd you send it? But it was two pages long of stuff. I didn't even bother reading it. Sorry podcaster I know how to get good audio For your guests as well Don't overwhelm them. Their time is extremely valuable They're doing you a service. Yes, you might be doing them a favor too, maybe But they're really doing you more of a favor. So as much as possible make it easy for them Yeah, and you know, I think that's very important because I'll tell you what the answers the emails that I answer Almost immediately are short emails and I get it sometimes the question is hard to boil down But man long emails just keep getting pushed back. I'll answer them, but they really get pushed back So in a in a case like this and you can see like if you're going to give people some tips Boil it down to the most important things you need and think about the things that maybe you can rehab When you get on the line, right? I mean if you know, if you have to talk to them about being too close to their microphone Maybe that's something you can do once you're on On the actual call, right? Say, hey, can you just back up a couple feet, right? You don't have to have full mic technique instructions in your in your email So my list I have six do's and five don'ts. My number one don't is don't breathe heavily into the phone Darth Vader impression Unless you're on mike's cantina cast and then don't do that either my my co-host does that and drives me absolutely crazy Exactly. Oh, it drives me crazy What's worse if he's if he's Darth Vader and out of breath or if every sentence is phrased as a Yoda phrase Well, because he talks he talks and then you hear the in between him talking and he's got these Life-changing thoughts about star wars and he has this breath that I have to edit out every five ten seconds It's crazy.  Yes, my show is called a good net cost And do you have remote guests or co-hosts or both? I have mostly remote Show show yes guests guests. So how are you bringing those into your podcast? Yeah, that's why I have now it's middle of the night and so excuse me for a bit late Where are you? I gotta know that first because we're keeping the international theme alive all of a sudden Goat and burg sweden. Ah, it's amazing. It's amazing. See but i'm american in spirit. So yeah Well, you know what I think I'd rather be Swedish in spirit these days Going back to the nose Yeah, I agree with you in some way, but that we could have you could be a guest on my show and we could talk about that I have a say I have a segment about that talking about that. Yeah And that's why I have now I'm sitting here and I woke up and had to bring my cup of tea So I could have a good voice and also keep a lot. Uh, but So I I use ringer and as uh, you said here The guy at working at libc now It's now forgetting names, but Rob hi Dave. Oh Rob always talks about ringer Yeah, and that's how I learned about ringer. So I thank libcine about that and they had this libcine How would you say rock and roll? Libcine and I mentioned the technique and the equipment I used so I've used that I sent you back in the day 2006 A guy in australia That did it solid walks and then blog talk radio and then call recorder on skype and then I found out Ringer through libcine because they mentioned in on the feed So do you is how do you find that experience when if do people have to download an app? Or how are you generally using ringer with other people right now? I'm sitting here in my home studio holding the phone using an iphone I didn't because I didn't have time to rig up right when you use the stick and so on when you use ringer That you do the people who you're using ringer with do they have to download an app to the phone or did they go on a browser? How does that work? They could and that's what I will now We talk back and forth and we're very friendly at ringing helping if something is happening with technology and the announcement They sent out it was something about the echoing and updating the ios and so on and now you could plug in your lightning microphone also but Usually I think some people who are not used in and talking about instructions I send a link to my interview and I send that the way we'll get instructions But you could always hear also sometimes that they are not used it because it could take some time before they log on So to speak because they get an invitation through email And then lately I've heard that they are Mainly on the web because they are sitting at the computer they open the email and then they click So that that's working fine also, but if I have plugged in some fancy gear That could maybe have some effect, but it should work on web browser web based and on the app But personally I'm using the app And and send the invitation and then you see this clock ticking three two one and then record Yeah, so it's very simple and you could use as I'm doing then headset recently I bought this now and that's also tip by rob at libson the lavalier mic Yes that you could put two in one if you are doing a presentation But I because I don't I have a mic but Then I got a bit stressed and I sat here with the iphone set But then I found the lavalier mic so now I plugged in the lavalier mic and for monitoring I put the simple headset Yeah, I could use with ringer Yeah, that works and the lab is is a good situation you run into the same issue with the mixed channel But I mean again in a bench the dual the dual labs can can work great. So a lot of you mentioned Yeah, the amazing thing with ringer is I mean I I could hear something that sounds funny on the other side so so to speak But the sound quality will be a bit good at then also, but then it's good that you listen as a monitoring thing But you shouldn't panic about that because it often works very fine Going by stone panic Not panic over I'm not sure if it still works this way But I did the last time I used it if you're working with an iphone that still has the built-in audio port And then you're so excited that you can now plug in a lightning microphone via usb or adapter Maybe it's a lightning connected microphone If you plug in an apple headset or any kind of headset that has both the microphone and Headphones in it if you plug that in while your lightning microphone is connected It may switch the microphone over to your headset instead of using your digital microphone So keep that in mind if you're doing that kind of thing you might want a separate pair of headphones That's only headphones to use to connect into your iphone That may have been fixed But it was a problem a year ago. Yeah, so we've talked and this is the thing everyone's got something different And they all seem to have caveats. There's always usually something you have to work around a little bit So choose your poison You know, you can see that this is just like banks and anything else That you know cell phone service someone loves Verizon someone hates them like someone's going to have a good experience Someone's gonna have a bad experience So you have to pick what works for you and again, maybe what works best for Your guests and co-hosts and we've talked we hit on a little bit of blog talk radio Is there still value? This is a unique blog talk still doing All right, and I don't use it but It had the one unique thing and we'll go with the regular the resident btr expert here, which is dave Where you could have call in from phones and they have a waiting room Right, so green room where you can screen these calls all kinds of crazy stuff And that was the one value add that I haven't seen anyone else do Um, Dave is that something you've used? I've used blog talk radio I was excited because at one point they were making it to where almost like VoIP you could dial in that and then you could have your Your co-host do that and they God bless them. They're still trying cannot get that to be 100 reliable And I admire the fact that they're not willing to put it out there until it is 100 reliable But you can use their beta program But you're talking about because they try to do hd thing is that what you're doing? Yeah, the hd is different from the call it like the green room thing, right? Right the green room thing. So there's that but if you're paying blog talk radio, I think the cheapest plan over there is is 20 or 40 dollars one of the two you're paying too much for that because there's there is an alternative called call in studio dot com Where it's I think it's six dollars for the phone line And then you only pay for the number of people and how long they're on hold and you can set how many people are in the Nice in the queue. Yeah, I use that on on ask the podcast coach It just it makes things a little more technical because now you need almost a separate computer to run the calls Run that into your mixer. You're going into a mixer and then how am I going to stream that now? So now you're going into something like Mixler or Spreaker So the the thing that blog talk has Is ease of use the bad news is you're then using their phone lines and you sound like a phone line. So it's you know It's a person con that's where I always say to me if somebody really wants to do a live show Do the google hangout or something like that? Yeah, definitely. All right. Well, hey, this has been awesome We found a bunch of different ways again pick pick your poison Get in touch with anyone here on the round table. Let's find out how to do that. Let us know Where we can find one of your shows these this is the thing I got to do these days I got to say one of your shows because everyone you start a podcast You start another some your own fault future. It is your start a podcast or two. Hey, well I start many but only one really goes and any kind of regularity. That's this one. You're in the right spot So, uh anyways mark. Thanks so much for joining us on your first round table and where can we find your show? So the best place to find my stuff is At fletch.tv. It's a url that I got Most of my blogs are there. There's links to my podcast if you just google me Um, you can pretty much find me if I if I was really good at movie recall I would come up with several fletch lines right now, but I'm terrible. Thank you very thank you very little Nice nice. All right. Thanks for joining us. We'll just go in order co-host Dan J. Lewis. Thanks for joining us once again Thank you for having me and I want to give one last tip if you want to be an awesome guest to someone else Record your own standalone audio and send it to them Because they might love it having crystal clear audio from you I'm daniel j. Lewis from the audacity to podcast.com. Yeah, you know, that's something now. Here we are We're podcasters. We're usually set up to record our own audio I always offer that and in fact, I do it just to have it And I say, hey, do you want this, you know, throw it in dropbox, whatever So yeah, it's a good tip if you are set up to do it Why not and you might rescue an interview one day, right? I mean like people they crashed and they lost and you're like, I got it.  There you go Dave Jackson co-hosts sure and there. Thanks for joining us, man Yeah, Dave Jackson. You can find me at school of podcasting.com my one tip that we just need to say again Always have two recordings going Always have a backup. Yeah, it is going to be your best tip Build some redundancy in there. It's it's going to save you. It's going to save the day. You'll take me later Yeah, definitely. I think you now Dave. Thanks for joining us Martin. Thanks for joining us got here at the end, but awesome. Great to get you in here Where's your show? So Yeah, as my cup is saying it's ego net cost So ego I am in latin net cost.com Uh dot com. Yeah, I have one in the show in but that's in swedish productivity So kevett could be a bit hard for you to listen to Hey, you're going to national audience. I'm sure we have some fellow swedes that listen to the show So go check it out. It's just a great way to share shows. I wish to do that more. Thanks All right. Hey mike. Thanks for joining us so much. I didn't call ryan this time No, that's okay. You can change my name anytime. I'm before the jedi council of podcasters So you can call me whatever you want. So that's fine with me. It's a jedi name. We've changed Yeah, there you there you go. Yeah, that that goes. Um, you can check us out. Uh, the cantina cast.com Uh, that's where you'll find us. Uh, that's the easiest way I guess you could say and you can find us anywhere You can download a podcast Awesome. Yeah, thanks so much and uh, scott. Thanks for jumping in and uh sharing with us how you're bringing in co-host and guests Well, thanks for having me and I gotta tell you uh, daniel day ray and along with uh, sp and and steven I think it's on chat. You guys have made our podcast so much better And it's just a pleasure to be with you on the night. I am on the recovering from religion podcast And you can go to recovering from religion dot org and check out all of our resources or hotline numbers 184 I doubt it and as far as um, how else to find us We're on itunes. I heart radio will put on eight track tape if that's for you For additional fee my po my co-host emily will actually call you up at home Read you a transcript podcast while smooth jazz is in the background Again, that's additional charge And uh, if you have questions or comments about the podcast itself any questions comments or death threats You can email us at podcast at recovering from religion dot org Awesome. That is a patreon reward level that I had not thought of I'm putting it in i'm going to go adjust it right now several mouse clicks and we're there I I love that a lot and yeah, I mean we can't beat that endorsement Uh, if you want to write that up in a review podcasters round table Look that up But go to itunes or wherever you listen to podcasts type in a review That would be awesome because I really seriously that is that is flattering as all get out Thanks so much for everybody If you're watching this if you're listening to this Podcasters round table dot com slash guest will get you on here at some point You can share all your podcasting tips because we know most of you don't have a podcast about podcasting This is the place to share that key curry. So podcasters round table dot com We will see you for 92 in a couple weeks wave. Goodbye. Thanks everybody


America, as a lot of problems. And wherever you are on the political spectrum, whatever problems you care about, I'll bet that you agree politicians are making things worse, and not better. It's not surprising, really. A recent Princeton study found that average Americans have a near-zero, statistically non-significant impact on public policy. We have so many problems to fix, but we have a near-zero impact on our own government. How is that possible? Politicians spend up to 70% of their time fundraising. Lobbyists write our laws and then donate to those politicians. We have a two-party duopoly, even though most voters don't like either party, and gerrymandering has made 86% of US House elections so uncompetitive that we already know which party will win before the election even starts. I could go on and on, but here's what matters. There is a vast ring of influence over our elected leaders, and you know who's not a part of it? You. The system actually is rigged against ordinary Americans, and it's why all the issues you care about are...stuck. For more about the problem, watch this video. But for now, we're talking about how to fix things. We started by asking constitutional attorneys, political experts, even ex-lobbyists, how do we unrig the system? And they all said the same thing. Fixing the laws that govern the political system would fix the system itself, so they helped us draft a model law called the American Anti-Corruption Act. The act is designed to undo this ring of influence and reinstate who we the people as the top priority of our elected leaders. You can read the provisions of the act at anti-corruptionact.org. We asked the American people what they thought of it and more than 90% progressive and conservative support the Anti-Corruption Act. 90% across party lines. You know what else pulls that high? Free ice cream and this kitten. But even with that much support, Congress simply won't pass it. I mean, why would they? They'd be changing the very system that keeps them in power. That's why we need to go around Congress, and that means a movement of people passing anti-corruption acts city by city, state by state, across America. But wait, you say. How does passing state and local laws fix our broken federal system? Well, my friend, two ways. First, the US Constitution says that states set the rules for federal elections. So when we fix gerrymandering or voting rules in a state, we're directly fixing Congress. Secondly, as if that's not cool enough, allow me to quote directly from this Bloomberg News study. Passing state laws ultimately leads to federal victory. Here's how it works. This map will show which states first gave women the right to vote. And this chart will show the number of states over time from left to right. The right side of this chart is where women finally won the right to vote federally in 1920. So let's start over here on the left in 1890, where Wyoming became the first state to let women vote. Nice job, Wyoming. Over the next few decades, more states got on board until we eventually hit this yellow line. Then we see a rush of state activity followed by federal victory. Here's the same chart showing states legalizing interracial marriage over nearly two centuries. We hit that yellow line, and soon after, federal victory. I know, I know, you get it, but here's the most recent example. Marriage equality only took three years after hitting this yellow line to reach federal victory. This is a strategy that's worked over and over for issues that seemed impossible at the time, and it can work for this too. So what's this magic yellow line all about? It marks, quote, a key event often a court decision or grassroots campaign reaching maturity that triggers a rush of state activity that ultimately leads to a change in federal law. So we've got a proven political strategy, and we have laws that would dramatically improve our broken system. But how do we get those laws passed? Well, that grassroots campaign reaching maturity, it's already happening right now. Represent Us is bringing together conservatives and progressives to pass city and state anti-corruption acts all across America. Together, we've already won more than 90 victories across the United States, and by the time you watch this video, that number will probably be out of date. That's how popular anti-corruption laws are in the United States. Almost nine out of every 10 people supported. They just may not know it's possible to win. Our goal is to pass anti-corruption acts in a handful of states in 2018, more in 2020, and dozens by 2022. All in pursuit of that tipping point where a rush of state activity leads to a change in federal law. All right, so rewind. Now we have a law that can fix these problems. We have a strategy that's starting to work, and you're thinking to yourself, hey, can I help out? Absolutely. There are two ways you can help right now. The first is to volunteer with a local Represent Us chapter. Go to represent.us right now and find or start one near you. If you're not into that, you can support someone who is. Join the Commonwealth by making a monthly donation of any amount, and your money will go directly towards supporting volunteers on the front lines of this fight. Generous individuals and foundations cover our operating costs, so every dollar you give goes directly to supporting grassroots volunteers in the field. Protecting our Republic is possible. The government should work for you and your family, not just a handful of billionaires and special interests. So let's go make it happen.


So I am back with another video. I have a lot of stuff in front of me, honey So in this video, I'm gonna be showing you everything all of the products that I have been using of the course for the past I will say girl since the corona virus hit Basically for the past four or five months and a lot of these products. I have been using consistently I've been slowing down on product reviews. My hair has been thriving. And yeah, some of these you guys are Familiar with there's probably one or two items here that are new maybe three But besides that I've been very consistent with the products now is a lot It is a lot but depending on what's going on with my hair would depending on what product I'm going to use Okay, so starting with cleansing products. We're gonna start with shampoos. We have cream of natures Oregon oil sulfate free master and shine shampoo. I absolutely love this stuff now I believe this is also if you're protein sensitive. This is a great shampoo I don't have an example, but I have been using tg ins. I just finish it the tg in Morister shampoo Putting in a bag. I have here you guys Another shampoo I've been using is the olive oil or s olive oil creamy alloy shampoo I love this stuff y'all now when it comes to my shampoos I tend to dilute it with a little bit of water and I like to add Either peppermint oil tea tree oil like right now is I need to wash my hair is dirty And so I will probably be adding a little bit of tea tree oil To the applicator jar and I like to apply the shampoo directly to my scalp and then I also shampoo my hair Okay, and then I also have the swabs clarifying daily shampoo. I use this probably monthly I don't necessarily dilute this but I do put it in the applicator jar Okay When it comes to conditioners, I go in between about four or five y'all I do not I'm very heavy-handed when it comes to my products I will probably get two uses just out of this and this is probably six twenty eight ounces girl This supposed to be for about four or five uses just not Vivian. So this is swabs almond and shade butter Conditioner absolutely love this conditioner and shampoo, but I definitely prefer the conditioner a new conditioner By suave that I've been using is a up Is the I loy and water lily softening conditioner made with a la vera Astrak and vitamin E now. This is Supposedly protein free also young me adjust the light here. It's a little too bright and I do apologize Okay So We have swabs tropical coconut. I actually do use the conditioner, but this is the shampoo love this conditioner Trying to make sure I'm getting out the conditioner you guys sometimes I use one of the O5 moisture milk because a lot of the O5 shim excuse me Well shampoos too a lot of their conditioners are actually sulfate free Okay, if you're like that if you're on that route, but you guys sometimes I have to use sulfates So I'm okay, but you know you guys sulfates are not they serve their purpose Okay, so don't be afraid to use products that have sulfates in them. All right. I'm trying to figure out where I'm at Let's go into Spray's we have aphagey keratin and green tea reconstructor I get this from Sally's and sometimes Amazon me back up and go over deep conditioners and hair masks because I show That spray here, but we have the ORS hair mayonnaise made with nettle leaf and horsetail extract Okay, now I do want to say everything. I'm showing you newly everything. I'm showing you I do have a review on Now this is one of my favorite ones. Oh, yes, Queen Helen cholesterol hair conditioning cream I typically mix this product with um With honey and a little bit of oils. This stuff is so thick. Look at that really really thick. Okay? Another winner for me as it Eden body works natural hair mask treatment. This is also protein free and One of my new favorites is by African pride isn't under five dollars I will take her the Moroccan clay and shea butter detox and soften heat activated mask Y'all now, let's get into leaving styling products girl Lotta body we like the party. I'm sorry y'all lot of bodies coconut and shea oils Moisture me chrome and style milk. I have been using this stuff for the longest. I actually bought two It's a very lightweight leaving conditioner. It does not leave your hair feeling heavy great I love to pair this with their mousse for a perm rot said or any type of rot said gets my hair great mounts and great Hold this is also protein free. Okay? Next up we have girl Do you see that? Y'all I'm so petty because I felt like I was stalking and let me tell you what it is It's the generic curl defining cream compared to Shade Merch Shade Monsters Copeland and Hibiscus. Well, basically all the curling handsome smoothie. I know what it is the one in the um Tangerine orange pink is a tangerine or pink girl in between that color curling handsome smoothie, so I told y'all when I first reviewed this and I think it is now They no longer make it they pulled it or you know, whatever is this continue to grow that stored. I'm looking for It was on sale at one point. I think I got it for like $3.99 or something Let me tell you something I went in that store every day and was good I feel like one day I was going with glasses the next day will go with no glasses the next day I'll go on with you my hair up or with a scarf Purposely changing the way I look. I know this is so It doesn't make any so I'm like the only black person going in there every day Especially in my area where there's like two percent black people. So I went in there and they let you say hi So the generic curl defining Curling cream is honestly in my opinion one of the best Leave it. It's could be used as a styler But I also use it as a leave-in, but baby when I pair this with a gel I get the best definition I will be linking that review too I'll be linking all the reviews and I'm showing you guys, okay Now we have I know some of you do not like this product But I I do enjoy it's the Camille Rose honey hydrate from the leave-in collection This is a sticky leave in and I rarely use this when I'm about to style my hair If I'm going to or if I need to moisturize my hair and I'm gonna be wearing twists for a while This is what I use. I don't use a lot. Okay, you don't want to use a lot of this, okay? And I still have I've been using yeah, I this is my second bottle. I've been using it for a while Look at all my hair. Yeah, you do not need a lot of this. Okay, and okay y'all and tg. Yeah, yeah I love Christia products.  And I know y'all didn't really see that sorry Okay, and Then we have her twist and define cream Now her buttercream in my opinion her buttercream is thicker and I tend to prefer this in all honesty, okay? So moving right along. We have kinky tresses sis has a new Um She has a new look I'm trying to get my hair out of it and honestly, I've been using her I've been using this Styler more than anything even more than my DIY buttercream, which is the bomb calm So this is her coconut mango hair butter. It smells so good. It smells so good It gives me great definition. I love the consistency. I do have a formal review on this product I think I have several Tutorials where I use this along with her hair milk avocado infusion hair milk I know that the light is a little bit of bright there on there, right y'all? I asked on the last type of buttercream or whatever that I'm gonna show you guys is by Craya, but Botanicals she sent me a message about this a while back actually and I will be I don't know what I'm gonna Release this video. I should have the official review up by now But when I tell you I absolutely love this all-in-one conditioner Look how big this. I'm gonna show you a comparison. This is the tg. I am Look at that girl. So this all-in-one conditioner It was great as a deep conditioner as a leave-in conditioner as a styling You know pairing it with her other styler as a pre-poo. Let me tell you something. I literally have enough As a leave-in for you know for styling. That's it. I may use it to pre-poo my hair again I love this stuff y'all I would definitely definitely be getting this again because you can use it for so many things and that's the purpose for this particular product Okay, absolutely love it again. It's the Craya Botanicals all-in-one leave-in conditioner. Okay now Last but not least the last product we have is the extreme styling gel Let me tell you something. I told y'all I know y'all be wanting to see you know Can you can you show us that wash and go? No, I can't because as soon as I turn that camera on as soon as that red Record comes up. It's gonna be a flop. I don't know if it's if it's me speaking it into existence or what But I rarely can feel I'm a great wash and go but baby Let me be at home and my mommy uniform. Oh baby my wash and go is banging So the picture I shared on my community tab on my community page a couple of weeks ago And I was just checking in with you guys. I use this I Use this along with this oh several times this this together great tea was actually the tgin twist and define cream along with this Wonderful and it's so big and it's very very affordable matter of fact y'all know me I'm trying to save my coins. Okay. I ain't got I'm not balling.  I'm but balling cuz I'm not I need to save my money So everything here is very very affordable. I'm scanning. I don't think anything is over $10 No, I don't think so no everything's very affordable. So I read you guys that is it Thank you so much for watching and thank you as always to all my subscribers. Take care. Bye


Hey, hold up. I think I got a text. Oh, dang. It's Pastor. What am I telling him? Yo, just tell him we're doing chores or something. We're totally full, Pastor. We're going to be like, Oh, it's the toilet. Stop making that noise. That's not me. Hold my hand. No. Oh my God. And you've been to church. I don't know why I've been to church. What is that? Be quiet. Will I see you at church next Sunday? Yeah. Yeah. Pinky promise. Yeah. Sweet guys. I'll see you next Sunday. Here's our information. Pastor. Okay. Three, two, one. My dad's calling me. Two. Two. Come on. Okay. Go, go, go. No, no, no. Okay. You're laughing at me. Why are you laughing? Okay, let's do it one more time. Or the freaking... Hey, trust Banana behind us. Hopefully we'll slip and fall and we'll die. One. You guys aren't actually running. You guys... You had to be actually running. One, two, three. Maybe you didn't follow us to the... Eric freaking... Okay, ready? Ready? Maybe you didn't follow us... Okay. Maybe you didn't follow us... Okay. One more. Maybe you didn't follow us to the... Why? Okay. We're terrible actors. No. No. Satan, come out.  He got the boom mic. Me, what are you talking about? Me. Anyways, three, two, one. Mander? Mander?


It'll be a busy few weeks, brother. Yeah. Back to my channel, it's Ekki. So today is another vlog, guys. My boys, I'm having a flu. I'm not starting my day. Today is my friend's brother's shower. Her wedding is coming up next week weekend. But she decided to do her brother's shower today. So hopefully I'll be able to take care of my activities for today. So I'll be doing my makeup for the shower. If you are new here, please do well to subscribe. Join this family. Hit the notification bell so you don't miss new updates. And if you're an OG, thank you so much for always tuning in. And we just hit 270 subscribers. Yeah. So grateful to all of you guys and to God. Get ready for the day. By the way, guys, I remind you guys, please. So I have this very close to my studio. I come here most times during weekends. I go to my house. Guys, we just got in here. And the load is too much. So the camera is shaking. Good morning. She's looking. Guys, we were really catching up on old times because it's been long we saw. We only chat on social media. So we're really just in a lot. But because of their music playing at the background, I don't want YouTube to flag me for copyright. So that's what I mean. The volume. But yeah, I really wish that you guys could hear what we were discussing. We were really catching up on old times. Guys, we are done with our makeup. So the hairstylist is getting her ready. I'm excited that I'm part of this event here. So our bride is ready. Guys, the photographer decided to do a photo section for me. So this is my own photo section before the bride to be is ready for her shoot. I'm feeling myself. Oh my gosh. Guys, I feel so pretty. I don't know what you guys think, but I feel I'm pretty here. So super tired right now. We're done with the bridal shower. I can't go home today because I have a job as early as possible tomorrow morning. So it's better here than going home and then coming back. So I decided to pass the night over here. Hope you guys had a little fun. I'll see you guys tomorrow morning. Okay guys, so we are done here. We are heading to another location like I told you guys. So we are set. Good morning. I love this piece over here. So beautiful. She's still there. Yes. Guys, outside is still very dark. The time is 4.46 and we'll soon be at the venue. And this map, guys, took us to the back of the hotel. We've been roaming the whole of this area just to look for this hotel. Finally we got to the front and we're here now. So after waiting for some minutes for the bride to pick our call, we are inside. This particular section looks like a cave. I don't know if you are noticing that but the place is quite beautiful. Guys, so we are about to start our work. Okay, we've missed the room number before. Finally we've gotten it. So guys, I was supposed to do the chief bridesmaid make-up first before any other person but she decided to give the chance to another person because she said she was feeling sleepy. So this is the chief's bridesmaid. We're here quite on time even though the fact that the map took us to the back of the hotel. But though we still have much time because we got to the hotel exactly 5.03. So I just wanted to take more time, like a little more time on our face or our makeup than the rest of the people because we are looking at 11 bridal parties for today. Our chief bridesmaid is ready guys. After a long day, like since 5 am we've been here. The workload was now too much because of the extra people we had. I'm so tired guys. I'm super tired. I'm super tired. This place is actually beautiful. It's looking like ancient decoration or something. Oh, ouch. Yeah, because foolish are coming. If you see them now. We'll come back. Let's go. We want to scat up and boost it. Guys, our build driver is here already. So let's go home. Today is Monday. I told you guys that this vlog was going to last for 2-3 days. So I was super exhausted. I couldn't end the vlog yesterday because I wanted to end it on Sunday morning. I just decided to end the vlog here because part 2 of the vlog is going to come probably next week because this week by Saturday is the day. Probably I'll be starting another vlog by Friday. So you guys get to see how the wedding went down. I am super excited. And if you've not subscribed yet and joined this beautiful family, please do so. And don't forget to hit the notification bell so you don't miss new videos. Mind this hair. You know how gel can be? Packing gel. I was trying to tell you before she brought her head. My head is so raw. I think I'm going to wash it off and then just try to do something simple because obviously we're going to tie ghillie but I usually have headache. So I don't know if I'm going to tie the ghillie all through. So I'm actually wondering if I should go and redress the hair or just wash it. I don't know. But I'll try and see what I can do to the hair. Because it's looking rough right now. It's not even looking like I did it 2 days ago. Maybe 3 days ago. Rise down now. I'll see you in the next vlog.  Till I come your way next time. Bye guys.