Comparing Audio from 3 VoIP Recording Services, and Chris’s Goody Bag – PES 124

Written by

Hear and discern the audio quality differences between 3 popular podcast recording services – Zencastr, Squadcast and Ringr. Then let me know which service you think I used to record clip #1, #2 and #3. I play each of them twice and also give my evaluation of the 3 clips.

Also enjoy my brief overview of recent Daily Goody’s (March 1-14). Here’s the link to view all those blog posts: https://podcastengineeringschool.com/category/daily-goody/

And don’t forget that you can sign up to receive the Daily Goody in your email every day or every week. Sign up here.

Here are the Daily Goody posts that we discussed in this episode:

I made some announcements, too:

PES starts April 16th, and we conduct the course Live every quarter.
Upcoming episodes: Emily Prokop, Carrie Caulfield, ‘Glenn the Geek’ Hebert, Shawn Kitchen, Nick Dunkerley and Evo Terra!
NAB conference – we will be manning the Ask The Expert booth in the Podcast Pavilion area from April 8-11 in Las Vegas. Addy Saucedo with her Podcast Planner, and Ralph & Carol Lynn Rivera with their Podcaster’s Toolbox.

If you have any questions please let me know 🙂

Comments

10 responses to “Comparing Audio from 3 VoIP Recording Services, and Chris’s Goody Bag – PES 124”

April 4, 2019

Matthew Corey

Clip one was definitely the worst….I had a hard time discerning too much difference between 2 and 3 even after the second listen, with your comments in mind. Good test! I have NO idea what service is what, and I’ve used 2 out of the 3.

Reply
1. April 4, 2019
  
  Chris Curran
  
  Ha! Try listening on your best monitors in a quiet place… And feel free to guess which was which!
  
  Reply
April 4, 2019

Mike Thomas

I haven’r Been able to use RINGR – I tried twice but couldn’t get the guest connected – embarrassing, so I don’t know what it’s like.

I’ve used both Zencastr and Squadcast and have to say that if Zencastr is on a good day, then the quality is similar to Squadcast. However, I had too many recordings with artefacts and drifting on a Zencastr which pulls it down.

The biggest difference, in my mind is the way they work – the whole invitation to download process. In this, I think Squadcast wins hands down. Similarly in Customer Service. Even with a power cut in the middle of recording, Squadcast retrieved most of my recording. They have my back.

Next is the development. Squadcast again lead the field in the rate of development, plus lots of exciting features in V2 coming up.

I’ll listen again on headphones, I only had earbuds, but if I had to pick at the moment, I would say that the second was worst, which left 1 and 3 being Squadcast or Zencastr.

I am probably wrong, but it’s an interesting test. Perhaps recording a sine wave might show interesting results.

Reply
May 16, 2019

Chris Duckett

Did you ever talk about the results? I must have missed it if you did. I have no good guesses on this one other than I agree with the observations mentioned on the podcast and in the comments.

Reply
1. May 17, 2019
  
  Chris Curran
  
  The answer is in the comments, and on this episode I discussed the audible differences. What else would you like to know, Chris?
  
  Reply
  1. May 17, 2019
    
    Chris Duckett
    
    So Mikes reply was correct then? Sorry, I’m not trying to be dense. I’m just not seeing any direct confirmation. Thanks for getting back to me.
    
    Reply
    1. May 18, 2019
      
      Chris Curran
      
      Sorry Chris – I was mistaken. Here is the order I placed them in:
      
      1. Squadcast (MP3) – Good, but the high end sounds a bit smeared, swooshy and distorted.
      
      2. Ringr (FLAC) – Very compressed, of course not full frequency, and horrible artifacts that make it sound like there’s someone or something in the background making noise.
      
      3. Zencastr (MP3) – Sounds good. I prefer this sound over the others.
      
      Reply
May 17, 2019

Mike Thomas

But which sample is which service?

Reply
1. May 18, 2019
  
  Chris Curran
  
  1. Squadcast (MP3) – Good, but the high end sounds a bit smeared, swooshy and distorted.
  
  2. Ringr (FLAC) – Very compressed, of course not full frequency, and horrible artifacts that make it sound like there’s someone or something in the background making noise.
  
  3. Zencastr (MP3) – Sounds good. I prefer this sound over the others.
  
  Reply
  1. May 18, 2019
    
    Chris Duckett
    
    Thanks for breaking it out.
    
    Reply