It was interesting listening to RandomTask talk about Deeproot.

So, whens the next TPN Interview episode coming?

I know you spend a ton of time on your podcasts, so take this or leave it, but two things will make your recordings more listenable immediately.

1. Either EQ so the "P" pops are lighter or just clip them out. Clipping them is preferable because it won't affect your voice tone for the rest of the recording when you aren't popping. Scanning the waveform, it's pretty obvious to see when the mic's been popped with a hard P, so easy to find and remove. In the below example, the highlighted part where the waveform gets dark and irregular is a "popped" P. I made a comparison wav to demonstrate how much nicer it is without the pop, but then I realized I can't upload wavs to pinside. Ah, well. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

2. If you did just a smidge of compression on the show mp3 so it wasn't crunching the red on the peaks. You can compress it so lightly it comes within 0.1dB of the max. Right now it rings the bell a lot.

pop-waveform (resized).jpg

So it turns out talking into a mic is easy but producing a quality sounding podcast is really hard. I'm now on my third mic and spent many hours trying to find the best settings and tools to use to make sure every episode sounds clear and loud enough without clipping. I do about 1/100th of the editing Zach does and I still feel like it is a ton of work. With all that said your post was very useful and something I will look at for my own podcasts.

Yeah, people don't realize how something so simple can be so hard until they've done it. I've done decades of work in a recording studio and popped Ps by actors are my bugaboo. A good popper stopper on the mic helps, but talking slightly parallel to the mic rather than directly into the mic helps A LOT. That way the excess air from a hard "P" doesn't go into the mic/stopper (which really isn't a stopper but more of a diffuser) but past it.

The example at 41 seconds was the "P" in the word "Pinball" when talking about the Halloween release.

But you're DEFINITELY popping Ps all over the place all podcast long. 100%. Trust me. It's blatant on the audio (dunno why you can't hear it, maybe inadequate speaker range?), but the waveform doesn't lie. ANY mic will pop when faced with a wall of excess air. That's why talking slightly parallel to the mic will alleviate most of it (especially if you're not using a popper stopper). We used $3000 mics in the studio and had popper stopper on them, but STILL had to talk slightly off center on them to not pop them occasionally.

An article I grabbed about this summed up the podcaster issue:
"P-Pops seem to be increasingly common on the radio and in podcasts, possibly because producers and engineers are trusting too much in their microphones’ (inadequate) built-in pop-filtering. Or perhaps they’re monitoring on small speakers, which might not fully reproduce the low frequency bump that is the signature of a P-Pop. Checking your mix on speakers with a wide frequency response, or on headphones, can be crucial in catching problems you might otherwise miss.

Some large-diaphragm dynamic mics, such as classic radio-host mics like the Electrovoice RE-20 or Shure SM7B have mesh or foam wind screens built in, that serve to mitigate plosives. BUT it’s still quite easy to P-Pop those mics, you’ll hear it almost every day on the radio."

Are you not using any audio compression on the mp3? That explains a lot. I mean, you don't want a Death Magnetic situation (http://recordinghacks.com/2008/12/20/metallica-wins-the-loudness-wars/) where they famously went totally crazy with the compression and made a death beam of sound with all volume and no dynamics, but you can definitely make the audio loud enough without riding past the peak indicator all the time. The flat areas at the top of these waveform examples below are clipped - maxed out audio where the actual peak was cut off because it went past the top. You can avoid that by recording lower volume, normalizing/compressing, then raising the volume to fill the waveform space. But because you've compressed, there won't be extreme peaks that get cut off, clipping the waveform.

I'll email you some examples.

Clipping audio waveforms in the podcast all over the place:
clipped audio (resized).jpg

Now with .1dB gap, so it will not max out and peak the meter, this stops the reds, but doesn't improve the audio. Normalizing/compression will make better audio so the tips of the waveforms are not blocked off like square ends:
overhead (resized).jpg

Triple Drain Pinball Podcast has become one of the better podcasts for sure. I like that pinball is the topic and that it stays on topic. The tournament talk and strategy is interesting even though I'm not interested in playing in tournament. The segments about wizard mode tips and strategies has been helpful to me learning about some of my games and things to attempt.

Here's an endorsement. I don't listen at 1.5x speed like most other pinball podcasts (get to the point!) and I only used the 30 sec skip a few times....just to skip the opening and skipping the Tom songs segment.

Wow PoMC. I know that an endorsement from you carries weight. I really really appreciate the positive feedback!

Great. Now I soiled my trousers.

Looking forward to episode 74! The pinball show rules!

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He really needs to hire a PR person for Homepin, let them handle all of it, and stop doing interviews.

WHY would the company launching a new pin talk about the 27" hi-res screen on it and then in the same sentence say he's not a fan of it?
WHY would he talk about negatives about the machine and not doing product pictures and gameplay pre-launch, aside from art.
WHY would he go out of his way to hide who did the design and code for the machine (except that he was involved in both)?
It's the weirdest launch of a machine ever. Even weirder than Thunderbirds.

RIP Spinal Tap Pinball.

That would be boring for us.

I think it‘s refreshing.

In addition you can‘t blame him for promising you the best game ev0r and not delivering. - Not that this keeps anyone from bickering.

Refreshing to make a pin with features he hates? If he hates them, why is he doing them?

Refreshing to hide who is designing and coding his pins (except to say he had a hand in both)? How is LESS information refreshing?

I'll need some clarification on what is refreshing about any of that.

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Guys expecting the next Stern game to be the best game with the highest BOM ev0r and then being letdown when it’s not exactly what you dreamt of in your mind will never understand.

Yeah, I've never heard a company rep suggest that certain people SHOULDN'T buy their product.

I mean it's good if he wants to set expectations on rules depth, but man don't just flat out tell people not to buy it! Let your buyers make up their own minds. Reminds me of when Mike suggested that he didn't want Americans to buy Thunderbirds. The funny thing is, Thunderbirds was actually aired in parts of the US. My mom and uncles all remembered watching it growing up in the 60s and 70s.

Also, he conflates people who like deep rules with tournament players. They aren't necessarily the same thing. Plenty of competitive players like relatively simple games like Meteor or Hoops. And plenty of them don't actually own games at home. Likewise, plenty of non-competitive players like deep rules, because they only play at home.

I don't think anyone is expecting any Homepin to be even the best midrange pin ever, let alone the overall best. But to hear the guy SELLING them say he hates things about the pin HE'S MAKING is crazy, and not refreshing at all.

I always enjoy rotordave and his insights!

Thanks!

I apologise up front to all Millionaire owners.

Look, I felt so guilty I’ve even made a start on resurrecting my one! So everyone can again enjoy the magic that is - Millionaire.

rd
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ZMeny I sent you a message please respond, thanks.

They deserve it, they know!

Dave is always a pleasure to read or listen to. Miss the travelogues.

Phew. Alright, Zach. That was quite a load you dumped at the end of your show.

You're saying TWIP was being paid a "substantial" amount of money by DeepRoot, without disclosing the monetary relationship? Was TWIP advertising DR? Or was the money in exchange for favorable coverage?

Didn't Jeff go do a behind-the-scenes piece on DR... a factory tour of sorts... first? Are you saying that info was delivered with a green-colored lens?

Another terrific episode. Really appreciated the transparency regarding the TWIP situation.

Deeproot did sponsor some of the monthly TWIP videos that are broadcast on TWIPs YouTube channel. They're still up and deeproot is listed as a sponsor in the beginning of the videos. I know Sept. 2020 is one of them. Don't know if the sponsorship went beyond that or not.

Awesome, can’t wait. Spending an hour cooking dinner is always better with a good pinball podcast in the background.

Premium SERIOUSLY ZMeny , Ride or Die bro...LE All THE WAY!

Better off buying a premium and getting it powder coated the color of your choice. I admit the mirrored backglass is an upgrade but not worth the difference. If you have to add sales tax or buy the topper, your premium will cost $10k and it will be available in October. And it’s not even Xmas yet.

Looking forward to the day when every podcast stops discussing Deeproot. Don't care and at this point everyone is just reporting on the same stale information.

Normally I agree but the foil reflective cab decals on Godzilla LE they teased looks pretty damned amazing. Of course you won't see it stuck in a line of pins but if you have a spot for it to sit exposed I think it would be pretty amazing. It's almost impossible to get one but...

The reflective or special decals on BM66 SLE, Maiden LE and Munsters LE have all received a number of less than favorable ratings from owners because they tend to “fall apart”. I don’t think there is durability. Maybe compare these to Spooky’s butter cabinets. Those stay pretty perfect until you move it and bang it against a wall for self-inflicted damage

Road Kings next to Pinbot? Pearls before swine, I tell ya.

When you got a bunch of them, they fit where they can.

Talking of Millionaire - I’ve been trying to fix this weird special solenoid issue (the slings lock on even though things appear correct ..) and I LOLLLLED when I saw the message I must have put on the screen some years ago. I don’t even remember doing it.

rd

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Only half way through the Godzilla episode so far (stupid work) but I'd like to throw in a request for a "I believe the balls rest on the chin of the roof" T shirt please.

Showing off Wearing My TPNware Here. Very comfy. Good Lord, will you look at which one I chose to today? Market Trends!! Where my polynomial analyses?

BTW - tag everyone is it. Got some swag from TPN, put it in and post it here. #PostYourTPNPicHere

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LoL!

Maybe it was your subconscious - during a bout of sleepwalking.

Nord-Man is some funny shit! Dennis is nuts though, thinking Godzilla will sell less than Mando. Newsflash, Mando sucks. Zilla might be Sterns best game ever. No, I haven't played it yet. But I've played a good bit on Mando and it's quite boring.

Dunno what happened, but from Batman 66 SLE onward the Stern foil cabs have had issues. I think it has to do with the clear top layer that gives it a high gloss but is prone to delamination. KISS LE is a BEAUTIFUL machine that also had foil cabinet decals that looked boss, but did not have the problems I had with BM'66SLE that others have seen on later LEs. So, something seems to have changed.

Basically direct print cabs like WoZ ECLE or Spooky butter OR JJP Radcals are the way to go. Whatever Stern's doing needs improvement in the durability department.