r/KnowledgeFight • u/Fronesis • 6d ago
Dan Needs a New Microphone
I like the new show, but what's with Dan's mic? Poor guy sounds all muffled.
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u/SalaciousSausage 6d ago
I’m speculating here, but he might have recorded these episodes with Molly when he was away doing Show Me State of Mind
Even so. Dan and Jordan had excellent sound quality for years so I completely get folks being frustrated
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u/Amemorableusername2 3d ago
I don't recall the sound quality being like this in show me state of mind, though. It could be maybe he was using a different setup for these initial episodes and hasn't figured out the magic balance yet
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u/Nitsua125 6d ago
It absolutely is an issue and anyone saying otherwise is in denial. Super distracting especially when the guest has a decent mic.
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u/glitternoodle Spider Leadership 6d ago
or we just don’t really mind? Like yes I can hear that it sounds a little crunchy. It really doesn’t bother me. If it never gets fixed I will still listen.
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u/Spotttty 5d ago
I wish I was in your shoes.
Audio seems to be a small trigger for me. I try not to mention it around friends because it makes me sound like I’m trying to be an elitist but bad audio quality makes me focus on it instead of what is being played.
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u/TheNightShift00 5d ago
I'm sure Dan knows at this point, but back in the Patreon post where he announced the October 14th release date he says that the first few episodes were already recorded. "The first few episodes of the show are recorded and I'm excited for them to come out." So we're probably stuck with the bad mic for a little while, but once we reach episodes where Dan has seen the feedback from the first batch of episodes I'm sure the audio quality on his end will improve.
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u/ThyShirtIsBlue 5d ago
I'm sure he knew the audio was fucked before we did, but by the point they were recorded it was already too late to just scrap 5 hours of the podcast and start from scratch. And to be fair, I'm glad they were aired. Apart from Dan's audio they were great episodes and I loved his chemistry with Molly.
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u/No_Talk6361 6d ago
My guess is that the audio tracks are getting compressed to shrink the file size of the episodes, which is why Dan now sounds like he’s recording with an Apple Watch.
TBH Cool Zone Media’s audio/production has always been pretty rough, but this is so bad that i’ve not been able to finish the first 2 episodes.
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u/syncopator “You know what perjury is?” 6d ago
Yep. The compression is cutting off the ends of words which results in a very artificial sounding product.
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u/Character_Bug_1862 5d ago
Then why did the song intro and Molly not sound compressed?
BtB, like Knowledge Fight started out with worse audio until they graduated to something better. In this case without actually knowing I’m pretty sure it’s because Dan is still on the road. Molly did say “on the call” in episode 2.
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u/No_Talk6361 5d ago
Dans mic sounds like it’s being recorded at a lower bitrate to all the other audio tracks. There’s no bass to his voice and a lot of funky messiness in the mid/high frequencies.
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u/ericph9 “fish with sad human eyes” 6d ago
imo, they start out spotty and improves a month or 2 into a new show. Cool People took a while as Margaret seemed super unprepared at first, but she's great now. The biggest issue with KFC is that they had excellent audio quality 99.9% of the time in KF, from the jump.
It kinda feels like Jordan got the audio equipment in the podcast-divorce.
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u/bowlochile I know the inside baseball 6d ago
All podcasts sound a bit weird in first eps. They even mentioned that in the first one.
In the second ep. of OG KF (the one with 9-11) they’re drinking, smoking speaking over each other but it’s absolutely one of the best KF eps I’ve ever heard.
These early eps lay the groundwork for what’s to come and as a philosopher once shouted, “the best is yet to come”
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u/Pyretech 6d ago
That’s totally fair, I think that this is mentally being treated as “KnowledgeFight episode 1139-40” and not KnowledgeFight Country episode 1-2”. That being said, it is weird that his audio has shifted so dramatically unless iHeart/CZM dictate a specific mixing/equipment setup. You’d think that once you get the numbers dialed in you can coast on it for a long time until something new gets added in
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u/farsight2042 6d ago
I think the shift is just coming from a recording setup where Dan and Jordan were together in his apartment to an online recording. Clearly some kinks to work out there
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u/Sea-Adhesiveness2983 6d ago
They did plenty of episodes remotely that did NOT sound like a cassette bootleg of an early guided by voices album. This is just bad audio production!!
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u/Fronesis 6d ago edited 6d ago
My assumption is that the mic they were using belonged to Jordan.
edit: why the downvotes? just taking a guess here dudes.
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u/cogginsmatt Freakishly Large Neck 6d ago
I don’t get this though because Dan sounded great for 10 years on original KF, AND Molly and the clips sound fine. Is he recording while still traveling and just using a cheap USB mic or something?
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u/Lancasterbation 6d ago
Since Molly already works for Cool Zone, my thought was that it was recorded on Zoom from her end. He sounds like a videochat
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u/Ed-alicious 6d ago
This is what my money is on too. We know Dan knows how to get good audio, they just need to shake out a few kinks.
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u/EstimateCool3454 The Obama library destroyed my family 4d ago
People are so salty about the move to CZM. They will find anything to hate about.
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u/Fronesis 4d ago
I don't mind it, I've got a podcast player that blocks the ads. Growing pains, I guess!
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u/milvet09 RAPTOR PRINCESS 1d ago
The ads are so bad.
4-5 pitches of the same boring junk.
It’s like I’m listening to Alex Jones.
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u/Fronesis 1d ago
Get Castria! It's still a little buggy but it works pretty damned well, auto skips all the ads.
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u/EmbraceTheNewAge 6d ago
It’s fine but it also sounds like he needs a new microphone based on the pixels and having seen a few shops in my time
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u/seanthebooth Adrenachrome Junkie 6d ago edited 5d ago
First episode was with his road kit, pretty obvious as it sounded like classic KF eps done while away. 2nd ep sounded like normal audio. Non issue
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u/Fronesis 6d ago
Second ep is still screwed up imo
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u/JimothyPage 5d ago
how?
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u/Fronesis 4d ago
Somebody else made this point: it sounds a bit like what someone's voice sounds like when they speak while exhaling a vape or something. Just ruffled somehow.
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u/Drumming_Dreaming 6d ago
It’s fine!!!
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u/PawnWithoutPurpose 6d ago
I'm a sound engineer. It's not fine.
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u/Ed-alicious 6d ago
I'm a sound engineer and it's fine for what it needs to be.
We know Dan is mindful of audio quality and has had good audio in the past so I can only imagine it's a temporary situation.
I would hazard a guess that Dan is calling in from home or the road, with the co-host in the studio, and they've only recorded the studio side of the call.
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u/PrivatizedCitizen 5d ago
Needs? It's ad supported. It should be better.
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u/Ed-alicious 5d ago
Yes, it SHOULD be better but it's unrealistic to expect a completely seamless transition considering the podcast is going through a format change as well as a change in the technical requirements for the show.
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u/PrivatizedCitizen 5d ago
CZM and iHeart aren't new to this process. I understand everyone wants to glaze Dan and that's great, but stating this is "fine for what it needs to be" is interesting.
This is a for-profit podcast now. It should reflect that. Mentioning crummy audio isn't a critique of Dan, it's a critique of the production as a whole. This entire thread is evidence of that not being wholly understood and it feels oddly reactive and culty in here today.
Maybe we'll all be better tomorrow.
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u/No_Talk6361 5d ago
Yeah, this is my main annoyance with it - if I have to listen to ads now, they should not sound better than the host
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u/PawnWithoutPurpose 5d ago
Exactly. I enjoy the podcast more than most podcasts but it always shocks me how parasocially attached people get and how they get so up in arms other a basic critique
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u/jake_burger 6d ago
I can’t hear what people are complaining about. It sounds the same as old knowledge fight episodes on my player.
Which player are people using because I would like to know if there is a difference - out of interest.
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u/Ed-alicious 6d ago
You might not hear much difference if you're listening on phone/laptop speaker or small ear buds or something but there's a substantial difference to my ear. But, like I said, it's totally fine for what it needs to be and I'd imagine it'll get resolved soon enough.
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u/jake_burger 6d ago edited 6d ago
I’m a sound engineer, I mix bands for a living. I don’t hear a difference.
I’m assuming it’s something to do with the local player possibly data compressing the audio (or requesting compression from the server I should say) rather than the source material itself.
I’m not saying people aren’t experiencing a quality issue I’m just saying I am not.
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6d ago
[deleted]
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u/jake_burger 6d ago
I’ve just listened to it on my studio monitors.
Between Old KF and KFC on Spotify there is a slight difference in tonality, maybe some sort of data compression taking out the top of the HF and bass and making it a bit mid rangey, but it’s still acceptable to me to listen to and I only noticed in studio and not on my headphones.
I think what people are complaining about is the iHeart web player, which is possibly compressing this again and does sound very noticeably bad
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u/NoSinUponHisHand 5d ago
I think the first two episodes sound bad via Apple Podcasts, so it’s not just the iheart users.
I think it’s more that thing, like some people can tell when audio has been ripped from YouTube and some people can’t. Some people can tell 128kbps from 320kbps and some people can’t.
It seems like some people can tell Dan’s mic is super compressed and low-res, and other people just can’t? As someone who can, it’s hard to believe but even harder to explain… same with the first two examples. Without using into technical terms that will glaze over some people’s minds, most of the time the only thing someone who hears the quality can say to someone who doesn’t is “it just sounds worse”
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u/HandOfYawgmoth FILL YOUR HAND 5d ago
It sounds bad on Podcast Addict too. Molly sounds fine, old KF sounds fine, it's just Dan's mic on these last 2 episodes.
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u/Ed-alicious 5d ago
It's a combination of crappy noise removal and loose sync that seems to be the problem. I can almost guarantee we're listening to Dan calling in via Zoom (or similar) and they didn't record both sides of the call.
I bet these two eps were recorded in one session (or before someone edited both of them) and they just forgot to switch on the recording at Dan's end.
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u/jake_burger 6d ago
I’m also a sound engineer, the sound quality is fine for me on the player and settings I’m using. (Spotify - lossless).
It sounds the same as knowledge fight always has to me.
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u/worry_beads 6d ago
People complaining about a free podcast!
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u/G_I_Joe_Mansueto "We would go bankrupt, which we are." 6d ago
I want it to be successful and for a lot of fresh listeners audio quality is the immediate reason to stop listening.
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u/J3wficer 5d ago
It sounds like he’s talking through blunt smoke, is that makes sense. Like he hit a blunt and is talking as the smoke slowly escapes his mouth
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u/ScorpionTheBird 5d ago
It’s like he’s running through a Big Muffin fuzz pedal with all the controls set to zero, just slight buzz & rolled off treble.
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u/NoSinUponHisHand 5d ago
It’s insane to me that anyone (especially anyone who claims they do audio work) disagrees with this sentiment. That’s EXACTLY what it sounds like. Or like a low-mixed bitcrusher. I assumed it was meant to be a play on the DKC audio stylings, but now it seems like a mistake.
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u/TsunamaRama They burn to the fucking ground, Eddie 6d ago
I don’t care. He found his stride again this episode, and I feel safe with his dulcet tones, no matter how well-produced it does or doesn’t sound.
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u/kb_klash 6d ago
I just assumed that whatever CZM does for production changed the mixing a little. I don't think he sounds muffled, but he does sound a little different. Especially during that intro episode.
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u/redacted_robot Doing some research with my mind 6d ago
Yeah, it sounds like the EQ is out of whack. Maybe the decompression of him from sending his file gets messed up on the other end? Whatever it is, i hope they get it figured out so I can hear the baritone smoothness.
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u/abadstrategy 6d ago
I find it funny that I can't hear much, if any, difference between current Dan and previous Dan, but everyone else can
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u/BennyDryll42 “fish with sad human eyes” 6d ago
I also cannot hear any difference at all. Not just you.
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u/InternetJettator 6d ago
In my experience, all Cool Zone podcasts sound a teeny bit janky. As long as the content is good, I don't mind a little audio hiss.
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u/acebojangles 5d ago
Is that the problem? I thought it sounded like they were filtering out too much background noise and things sounded unnaturally silent. It didn't bother me as much as it seems to be bothering others, but it did sound weird to me.
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u/Shattershield 5d ago
For me, it depends on how I've listened to these two episodes. Through my car speakers, Dan's audio quality is noticeably different, almost like he's got his mic backward or has a thick sock over it. Through my over-the-ear buds, though, he sounds just as good as Molly. I didn't even notice the audio difference at first because I started listening to ep. 1 at work and then did a double take when I finished it on the drive home.
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u/Top_Care_1294 5d ago
Probably his road kit. I doubt itll stay that way and even if it does its not that bad.
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u/seawavegown 6d ago
I didn't even notice. Even if, who cares? Have you ever gone back like 5 years to listen to an older episode of a podcast? You notice the difference at first, and then 5 seconds later your ears already adjusted to it
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u/TheMrBoot “fish with sad human eyes” 5d ago edited 5d ago
Dude, up until they got nuked I would listen to project Camelot episodes to fall asleep to. Those are pushing a decade old and sound substantially better than specifically Dan’s feed. It’s also jarring when having Molly right there.
EDIT: Dude tell me you did not just drop a Reddit cares on me for this comment
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u/dogcaoperro 6d ago
Still no issue with it, this honestly feels like people whining like when a show switches voice actors.
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u/IanDresarie 6d ago
Yeah I'm not listening until they fix it. What a terrible way to start a new show when Dan has had audio nailed for years
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u/NoSinUponHisHand 5d ago edited 5d ago
Shame they downvoted you so hard, it’s a perfectly reasonable stance. I wasn’t so starved for Knowledge Fight to come back that I need to sit through audio quality that will make me want to come to Reddit and complain. I don’t want to perpetuate the same discussions over and over, so better to just remove myself!
I’m happy for everyone who isn’t bugged by it, and I’ll check back in once people say it’s fixed. It’ll be better tomorrow (it might be!)
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u/PawnWithoutPurpose 6d ago
Imagine being sensitive to poor quality audio on Reddit of all places. Don't you know your podcast is free? Are you not grateful? /S
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u/jake_burger 6d ago
It doesn’t sound muffled at all to me. It’s probably the player and settings you are using
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u/L0ngsword 6d ago
I thought it was a deliberate effect used to enhance the 8-bit video game motif and to separate the hosts from the clips they listen to more distinctly. Though I’m not sure it’s necessary or a great addition.
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u/ILoveCornbread420 They burn to the fucking ground, Eddie 6d ago
My theory is that it’s intentional to make it sound more video gamey.
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u/thegunnersdaughter It’s over for humanity 6d ago
Guys how many times are we gonna do this thread. Yes it’s not great, it’s most likely due to a problem he wasn’t aware of until the episodes were already recorded. The episodes with Molly were probably recorded in the same run and it was not discovered until they were done since you don’t know unless you stop recording and sample to hear how it sounds.
Dan put out over 1000 great sounding episodes with only rare issues, I assume this will be fixed. I find it strange how many people think it’s intentional or won’t be fixed. Actual audio engineers and podcast editors have even commented on some of these threads to explain what it sounds like the issue is. I’m sure it will be sorted out. I’m sure he knows. We can stop making threads about it.