Podcasts about Ebu

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. 01 Introduction This is a follow up to my 4 part series on simple podcasting. In this episode I will discuss a number of experiments with audio filtering. These experiments were inspired by comments by listeners and by other discussions about audio on HPR. I am not an audio expert, so I am doing this partly in order to learn something, but mainly in order to have a bit of fun. I hope that you find this entertaining as well. In a comment on the first episode a listener mentioned something called Solocast and said that the method bore a resemblance to the method that I was using. Here is his comment -------------------- 02 Comment #3 posted on 2026-04-03 07:49:58 by Reto It reminds me about Solocast Hi Whiskeyjack, I really liked your podcast and the topic. I cannot remember about your last, but the sound quality of this one was good on my mobile speakers :) The concept reminded me about the program from Norrist (another host on HPR), while similar does it have some differences HPR 3496 https://hackerpublicradio.org/eps.php?id=3496 As I am not on the future feed, I look forward to your next episode. Cheers, Reto -------------------- 03 End of comment. I did not recall having heard the episode on Solocast, but this sounded very interesting. Solocast was in HPR episode 3496 and was released by norrist on the 27th of December 2021. I listened to that episode and does indeed use use the same basic concept of recording short segments of audio and combining them later instead of creating one big recording and editing it with an audio editor. 04 The main difference is that the work flow that I described involves a lot of manual steps, while Solocast is a short Python program that automates the entire process of presenting your script, recording the segments, combining the segments, and filtering and normalizing the result. I won't try to describe Solocast in detail, instead I would recommend just listening to HPR episode 3496 to get norrist's explanation directly. -------------------- 05 While I wanted to make sure that I credited norrist with having come up with this concept four years before I did, this won't be the focus of this episode. Instead I will talk about audio filtering and various experiments that I ran on several different methods. 06 While looking at the source code for Solocast I noticed that it used a filtering method that resembled one used by Jivetalk, a podcast production program that caught the attention of one of the HPR community news presenters. This method involves taking a sample of quiet audio where there is no speaking taking place, and then using this as input to a noise reduction filter which is applied to the voice recording. The filter subtracts the quiet sample from the voice audio, which should theoretically remove the ambient noise. 07 I decided to apply this method to a number of different audio test recordings which were recorded under different circumstances using different hardware. In this way I could see if the method worked equally well under all circumstances or if there were some sorts of noise which it was suited to and some sorts that were not. 08 While I was at it, I also picked several other filter methods to see how they worked as well. Potentially, some methods may be better under some conditions while other methods were better suited to others. -------------------- 09 I won't present all of my experiments, as that would be a bit dull to listen to. Instead I will describe each method and then present audio samples which illustrate my conclusions. There are two pieces of audio software involved, both of which were also used in my series on simple podcasting. 10 The first is Sox, spelled s o x , and which is short for Sound Exchange. Sox is a command line program for audio manipulation. Sox is Free Software, released under the GPLv2 or later. The other is FFMPEG, which is also a command line program. FFMPEG is also Free Software, released under the LGPL V 2.1 or later, and GPL v 2 or later. Sox actually uses FFMPEG for certain operations. -------------------- 11 Audio Hardware For recording hardware I used the following. 12 Maxwell Headset The first is a cheap Maxwell headset that has an electrical noise problem. Unfortunately I don't have a model number for this headset. I described this hardware, the noise problems that I had with it, and how I created filters to deal with the noise in my series on simple podcasting. Briefly though, this is a headset that has a build in microphone on a boom which allows the microphone to be positioned close to the mouth. It connects with a USB cable. 13 Borne Earpiece and In-line Microphone This is a set of earplugs that go in your ears and connected by wires and a very small microphone built into a small bulge in the cable. It connects using a 3.5mm jack. The model number seems to be BUD250-BL. 14 XTrike Headset This is a gaming headset similar to the Maxwell headset described above. The model number is GH-510 It uses a USB connection. 15 Yanmai Condenser Microphone This is a microphone that comes with a small tripod stand. The model number is SF-910 It uses a 3.5mm audio jack. -------------------- 16 This is not a review of the hardware. Rather, I was trying to create audio problems so that I could test ways to fix them. Therefore, do not take the above list as a recommendation of what to buy. However, you can see that I am not using any expensive audio hardware. If you want to make an HPR podcast, you do not need professional level hardware. -------------------- 17 Audio Samples The audio samples are as follows 18 Quiet This was recorded in a quiet environment at my desk. This is my normal podcasting environment and represents optimal conditions. The main reason for this method is to see how the various filter methods perform when dealing with the electrical noise from the Maxwell headset. 19 Small fan This is a small USB powered table fan approximately 10 cm in diameter. It was located roughly 40 cm or less to the left of the microphone, although this varies depending on the microphone. 20 Traffic This was along a busy street with traffic noise in the background. -------------------- 21 Filter Methods Sox noisered Filter with Audio Profile This method uses the Sox noisered filter. Here is a brief quote from the Sox documentation on this filter. Quote Reduce noise in the audio signal by profiling and filtering. This effect is moderately effective at removing consistent background noise such as hiss or hum. To use it, first run SoX with the noiseprof effect on a section of audio that ideally would contain silence but in fact contains noise - such sections are typically found at the beginning or the end of a recording. End of quote For these tests I recorded a separate noise profile to go with each test. -------------------- 22 Basic Manual Filter This is a basic high and low pass filter pair based on the work I had done in my previous series on simple podcasting. However, based on the tests that I have done for this episode, I decided to get a bit more aggressive in terms of filtering. I use a high pass filter of 120 Hz, and low pass filter of 8 kHz. The each filter is then applied twice to increase its effect. I also added band reject filters to deal specifically with 50 and 60 Hz line noise. -------------------- 23 Complex Manual Filter This uses the manually constructed filter described in my series on simple podcasting. This uses the basic manual filter plus a series of custom bandreject filters to fix specific noise problems with the Maxwell headset. -------------------- 24 FFMPEG afftdn Filter The documentation describes this as "Denoise audio samples with FFT." -------------------- 25 FFMPEG arnndn Filter The documentation describes this as "Reduce noise from speech using Recurrent Neural Networks." -------------------- 26 FFMPEG agate Filter I will pronounce this as "agate" for convenience. The documentation describes this as "A gate is mainly used to reduce lower parts of a signal. This kind of signal processing reduces disturbing noise between useful signals." -------------------- 27 Method The experimental method used was to take each noise sample and apply the different filter methods to it. Where there are parameters which can be adjusted, a script was used to generate a series of different sample files with different parameter values. Not all possible parameters were experimented with, as the goal is to see which method produces what sorts of results under different circumstances, not to get the best possible result for the samples that I happen to have. The method in each case was as follows 28 Step 1 Convert the audio file to FLAC if it is not already in that format. 29 Step 2 Apply a basic high and low pass filter described previously to each sample. The reason for this basic filtering is that it eliminates at least some undesired noise in a fairly fool proof manner, leaving less for the more advanced filter to deal with. This should allow for a better test of the filter under realistic conditions. 30 Step 3 Apply the noise reduction filter being tested. 31 Step 4 Normalize the filtered sample to 17 LUFS according to the EBU R128 standard. The EBU standard is described in my series on simple podcasting. Normalizing adjusts the audio signal to a desired loudness level. This allows for more more consistent sound levels and allows us to hear the results under realistic conditions. I normalize the audio individually for each sample as different recording hardware requires different amounts of loudness adjustment. This is different from the typical podcast process where normalizing takes place as the very last step in the process, but it was necessary in this case. 32 Step 5 Concatenate selected sample audio files to one another to allow for better review and comparing. -------------------- 33 Results The results are grouped according to the type of noise which is being mitigated. This allows for easier comparison of the effectiveness of each technique under different circumstances. I have only picked a few examples of interest out of the numerous experiments that I conducted. -------------------- 34 Quiet Recording Environment with Maxwell Headset This compares how well the various filtering methods work on the noise induced by the electronics in the Maxwell headset. This electronic noise consisted of a noise spike every 1 kHz. This should be representative of electronic noise caused by problems in recording hardware. 35 Manual Filter The manual filter applied a narrow band reject filter every 1 kHz from 1 kHz to 12 kHz. This completely removed the otherwise audible whine caused by the noise. 36 FFMPEG afftdn This method allows for setting a noise floor and then specifying how much the noise floor should be reduced by. The method is very sensitive to getting the noise floor correct for that recording. Set the floor too low and nothing happens. Set it too high, and some distortion results. However it seemed to be moderately effective, but it would seem to require checking it and possibly adjusting it each time it is used. 37 FFMPEG agate This method allows setting a noise floor and then suppressing all sound which falls below that level. This method is very sensitive to getting the noise floor correct for that recording. If set too low (or quiet), it is ineffective. If set too high (or loud), it distorts words which come after a pause, which would typically be between sentences. 38 When set correctly, it completely removes noise in the silences between sentences. However, the noise is still audible during speech. This is because the noise in this case is a higher frequency than normal speech, and so stands out more. It may not be a significant problem for noise which is closer to the main vocal frequency band. Overall, this method is not suitable for this particular problem. 39 FFMPEG arnndn This method used the standard model. A variety of different noise reduction models are available. I only tested it with one, std.rnnn It does not seem to introduce much distortion in the voice signal even with a high amount of mix parameter. 40 However, it is only slightly effective at removing the whine from the signal, even with a high amount of mix parameter. Overall, this method does not appear to be useful for this sort of noise problem. 41 Sox noisered Filter This was effective in removing noise between words, but noise can be heard while words are being spoken. It was better than agate however. 42 Overall Conclusion for the Maxwell Headset Noise When dealing with narrow noise bands that occur at known frequencies, the manual filter is leagues ahead of any of the other tested alternatives. 43 Sample Audio Here is a sample audio recording showing the best overall results The sample is repeated, first with only basic low and high pass filtering, and then with the manually constructed filtering. In the first sample you should hear a high pitched background whine. In the second sample, the high pitched whine is completely removed. 44 (Audio sample inserted here.) -------------------- 45 Traffic Noise This was recorded using the Borne in-line microphone connected to a mobile phone while walking along beside a busy street. This was in dry cool spring weather, and the road was paved with asphalt. This should be reasonably representative of podcasting while walking outdoors in a noisy environment. 46 Basic Manual Filter This used the basic manual filter with high and low pass filters. This did nothing very useful in this case as the signal was already filtered within those limits by the recording hardware anyway. The low sample rate of 8 kHz in the phone limited the upper frequency to 4 kHz. Recall that the sample rate has to be twice the highest frequency that you want to detect. Overall, this is not suitable for this sort of problem. 47 FFMPEG afftdn With a high noise floor, background noise is reduced, but not eliminated. There was not much distortion in the voice. This is only slightly useful for this sort of problem. 48 FFMPEG agate With a high threshhold, background noise is reduced, but not eliminated. There was some distortion in the voice. The background noise could also be heard when speaking, but because the frequency of the background signal was similar to the louder voice signal, it was not as noticeable as it would have been if the two were very different. This is moderately useful for this sort of problem. It may be more useful in situations where the background noise was not quite as loud. 49 FFMPEG arnndn With high amounts of noise reduction, much of the background noise is suppressed, but there is not a lot of distortion in the voice. The background traffic noise is still present, but is significantly less. This offers only a moderate improvement. 50 Sox noisered Filter With small amounts of noise reduction voice is clear but traffic noise is present as a very significant continuous warbling sound in the background. This is no improvement on the original and in fact could be seen as making it worse. With moderate amounts of noise reduction, traffic noise is mostly gone, but there are still various squeaks present. Voice is noticeably distorted. With large amounts of noise reduction, traffic noise is gone but voice is highly distorted. This is moderately useful for this sort of problem, but requires careful adjustment. 51 FFMPEG arnndn Followed by FFMPEG agate This combined two different filters. First, it used arnndn to suppress the background noise to a lower level without much voice distortion. Then it applied the agate filter to suppress the noise levels between words still further. This used the same amount of mix and threshold as was found to be most effective when each of these filters was used on its own. The background noise is almost completely gone while distortion of the voice signal is low. 52 Overall Conclusion for Traffic Noise The arnndn combined with agate filters was the most successful at suppressing background noise while limiting the amount of voice signal distortion. 53 Sample Audio Here is an audio sample for what I felt to be the best overall results, the arnndn filter combined with the agate filter. First is the original audio with basic filtering. This is followed with the same audio after being passed through the arnndn and agate filters. 54 (Insert arnndn plus agate audio sample here) 55 Another Sample Here is a second audio sample showing the Sox noisered profile based filter. I have included this to show how a profile based filter can make things worse if you are not careful how you use it. This repeats the test audio 4 times. The first is with basic filtering only. The second uses low amounts of noise reduction. The third uses moderate amounts of noise reduction. The fourth uses high amounts of noise reduction. 56 (Insert noisered audio sample here) -------------------- 57 Small Fan Noise with Yanmai Microphone This was recorded using the Yanmai condenser microphone. A small fan was set up behind and to the left of the microphone. This is intended to represent situations where someone may have a fan or air conditioner running in the background due to hot weather, or has a loud computer fan. 58 A condenser microphone was used for this test as they are more prone to picking up unwanted noise. However, for practical recording purposes, this sort of microphone is unsuitable for this type of environment. 59 Basic Manual Filter This used the basic manual filter with high and low pass filters. This did nothing useful as the fan noise was in the same frequency range as the voice signal. This may be of more help in cases where the noise is below the 120 Hz cut off used in the low pass filter. 60 FFMPEG afftdn With high amounts of noise reduction, much of the background noise is suppressed, but there is some distortion in the voice. The background fan noise is still present, but is significantly less. Overall this is moderately effective. 61 FFMPEG agate This was effective in removing noise between words, but noise can be heard while words are being spoken. However, this was a small voice sample and it is possible that more problems could occur. With less fan noise than was in this sample this technique may work much better. 62 FFMPEG arnndn With high amounts of noise reduction, much of the background noise is suppressed, but there is not a lot of distortion in the voice. The background fan noise is still present, but is significantly less. Overall this was fairly effective. 63 Sox noisered Filter With small amounts of noise reduction voice is clear but fan noise is present as a slight warbling sound in the background. With moderate amounts of noise reduction, fan noise is gone, but voice is somewhat distorted. With large amounts of noise reduction, fan noise is gone but voice is very distorted. 64 In general this method is fairly successful at dealing with this sort of problem. However, there is a trade off between background noise and voice quality. Getting that trade off correct takes experiment and judgment for each specific situation. 65 FFMPEG arnndn Followed by FFMPEG agate This combined two different filters. First, it used arnndn to suppress the background noise to a lower level without much voice distortion. Then it applied the agate filter to suppress the noise levels between words still further. This got rid of virtually all of the background noise between words. If you listen carefully however, there is a slight buzzing sound in the voice signal. 66 Overall Conclusion for Fan Noise with Yanmai Microphone. Of the methods tested, the arnndn followed by agate filter seemed to offer the most improvement for the least effort and least voice distortion. The arnndn filter on its own seemed the next most preferable to me despite leaving some fan noise in the background. 67 Audio Sample Here is an audio sample for what I felt to be the best overall results, the arnndn filter combined with the agate filter. First is the original audio with basic filtering. This is followed with the same audio after being passed through the arnndn and agate filters. 68 (Insert audio sample here) -------------------- 69 Small Fan Noise Recorded with Headset The following is an observation rather than a filtering technique. When a recording was made using the Maxwell headset and listened to on the headset later or with speakers, the fan was virtually inaudible. When the same recording was listened to with the XTrike headset, it was barely audible with careful listening and only identifiable as a fan because I knew it was there. 70 In situations where there is ambient noise, the best noise reduction technique is probably to move the microphone as close to your mouth as possible, although not directly in front of it, and reduce the gain if there is a gain adjustment in the microphone. This will work far better than trying to remove the noise later. If you are recording an HPR episode at a desk, then an inexpensive headset with boom mike may do the job just fine with minimal effort and expense. -------------------- 71 Conclusions I have tested three noise scenarios - Electronic noise in the audio hardware at specific frequencies. Recording outdoors with an inline microphone in a noisy traffic environment. A noisy fan creating background noise in an office. My conclusions on these are as follows. 72 Electronic Noise in the Audio Hardware at Specific Frequencies If you can use Audacity or some other means to find the frequencies which are causing the noise, the best solution, assuming you don't just replace the hardware, is to manually construct filters to remove those specific frequencies. This is the safest solution in terms of only doing what you tell it to and not producing unexpected surprises some time down the road when something changed in the environment. 73 If you are looking for a fairly automatic filtering method, the Sox noisered profile based filter seems to work fairly well. There is an equivalent filter in ffmpeg, but I did not include that in my experiments as it is harder to use in a script because it does not use a separate noise profile file. 74 Recording Outdoors with an Inline Microphone in a Noisy Traffic Environment. In this situation, the FFMPEG arnndn combined with agate filters seem to be the most successful. The Sox noisered filter may work, but at the cost of more distortion in the voice than is seen in the other methods. 75 An inherent problem with any profile based noise reduction method is that if the background noise is not constant, which it seldom is in that sort of environment, the profile may not represent the background noise which is present later on in the recording. This risks adding more distortion in the voice as the profile and later environments diverge. 76 However, for this application a different microphone that provided a better recording would appear to be advisable. A solution which brought the microphone much closer to the mouth and so resulted in a better ratio of voice signal compared to background noise would appear to be necessary, after which the question of what sort of noise reduction to use would need to be re-evaluated. 77 A Noisy Fan Creating Background Noise in an Office. The Sox noisered filter and the FFMPEG arnndn, afftdn, and agate methods all work to some degree. However, they all need correct selection of parameters to achieve the proper results. When I compared all four methods side by side, I found the arnndn combined with the agate filter to be preferable in terms of the trade off between background noise reduction and distortion of the voice signal. The arnndn filter on its own seemed the next most preferable to me despite leaving some fan noise in the background. 78 However, that is a subjective judgment of a specific noise sample when recorded using a specific microphone. Keep in mind though that many listeners will not be listening in an idea environment. They may be doing things where background noise is present rather than in a very quiet room and so may find a small amount of background noise in the recording to be less of a problem than distortion in the voice signal which may make some words harder to understand. 79 When I conducted the same experiment recorded with the XTrike headset I found that arnndn seemed to offer no noticeable improvement. This may be because the amount of audible fan noise was far less with the XTrike headset to begin with. In other words, there is no single best solution here, and you may have to be prepared to try different options to see which one works in your situation. The important thing is to avoid making things worse by applying filtering that is not appropriate for that situation. The best method may be to use a recording method that doesn't pick up the fan noise to begin with. This can include just using a gaming headset with boom mic. 80 I have one final observation on this point regarding headsets. The Maxwell headset has a foam cover over the microphone while the XTrike headset does not. There was some slight audible wind buffeting noise picked up by the XTrike headset that was not observed with the Maxwell. This seemed to cause particular problems with the Sox noisered profile based filter, as this noise was irregular and after filtering would show up as a warbling sound. If you use a headset and plan to use it in conjunction with a fan, it may be advisable to apply some sort of wind cover over it. 81 Combining Complex Filters In several cases I found that combining several complex filters offered better results than using any single one on its own. The basic strategy though is to first use a method which is good at reducing undesirable noise without introducing excessive voice distortion. Then apply a different filter which is good at reducing small levels of background noise to an even lower level while affecting the voice signal as little as possible. This uses the relative strengths of different filter types to compensate for the weaknesses of the other. 82 Different combinations of filters were most effective for different types of problems. I did not try all possible combinations however. Perhaps a further exploration of this would be worth doing in a later podcast. -------------------- 83 Case Study - Noise in Another HPR Episode Audio In the comments to my second episode on Simple Podcasting (which is HPR4618) where I discussed basic filtering, a couple of listeners brought up an interesting point. Antoine mentioned "declicking" in a post. -------------------- Vance replied 84 Antoine, thanks for mentioning the click removal capability in Audacity! While I already knew about its noise removal filter, I wasn't aware it also had click removal. It might have helped me for HPR4637, where some sort of electromagnetic signal was picked up by my microphone/recorder, a Zoom H2 (the tapping sound was *not* present in the room where I recorded). While click removal does seem to distort speech when applied to it (though to my ears, it doesn't sound as weird as when noise removal is done with speech), I could have applied the filter only to the pauses, where the "tapping" is most noticeable. I will consider doing this in the event that I'm not able to eliminate the source of interference in the future, which would be the best way to go. -------------------- 85 End of quote. I found this interesting as it sounded like another audio problem that could be experimented with. I found a sample of the episode which had the clicks and cut a copy of that segment out to experiment with. These sounds are a series of clicks, or "ticks" would be another way to describe them, in the quiet part of the audio between sentences or phrases. 86 Next I used Audacity to study the sound spectrum. I found a massive 60 Hz noise spike. However, my speakers won't reproduce sound that low, and filtering this out didn't reduce the clicks. The clicks turned out to be bursts of noise across the 100 to 800 Hz band, which is right where the main vocal band also is. This makes it difficult to filter based on frequency. The most promising approach would seem to be to filter based on sound level. 87 I tried all of the individual audio filter techniques mentioned in the other experiments above. None produced satisfactory results except for agate, which makes quiet audio quieter. This completely suppressed the clicks. However, when applied to the entire episode it also distorted the start of a few sentences which began with single short syllables. 88 The agate filter has a number of parameters which could be adjusted to try to deal with these cases, although I did not spend the time to do so. Another solution to this distortion problem is to simply not apply the filter to those parts of the audio which are affected. If you record the audio as a series of small individual files, it would be easy enough to filter before concatenating the files together while skipping those files which contain audio which is not suited to this method. Here are the results of the experiments. 89 FFMPEG afftdn This reduces the size of of the ticks, but they are still present. However, they may be reduced to a level which is considered acceptable. 90 FFMPEG agate This was very effective in removing ticks with the right parameters. However, it can introduce some voice distortion in the form of cutting out the start of a few sentences which began with single short syllables. This can be corrected with a very short "attack" parameter to turn off the filter when it detects sound above a set threshhold. 91 FFMPEG arnndn This was relatively ineffective. 92 Sox noisered This was effective in removing the sounds between phrases. However, it introduces some distortion in the voice signal. 93 I also tried combining filters. FFMPEG afftdn Followed by agate This combined two different filters. First, it used afftdn to suppress the background noise to a lower level without much voice distortion. Then it applied the agate filter to suppress the noise levels between words still further. This got rid of virtually all of the background noise between words. 94 Here is a short audio sample from HPR4637. First is the unfiltered audio. Second is the filtered audio using the combined afftdn plus agate filters. Since the "clicks" are very quiet, you may not hear them unless you are in quiet environment. Quite a few listeners would probably not be aware of the perceived audio problem in this episode if it had not been discussed here. None the less, it makes for an interesting experiment. Here it is: 95 (Insert sample audio here) 96 Overall Conclusion for Noise "Ticks" The afftdn combined with agate filters seemed to offer the best overall results when used with the right parameters. However, the author, Vance, speaks very clearly and evenly, and so his voice is ideally suited for use with this filter. Another author's voice may not be as suited to this filter. 97 The Sox noisered profile based filter offers various degrees of trade off between suppressing noise and distorting the voice signal. As to whether this is an acceptable trade off depends on the particular voice in question and how easily understood it is under normal circumstances with out additional distortion. The afftdn filter may be a fairly safe filter to use on its own while producing acceptable if not perfect output. -------------------- 98 Overall Conclusions I have presented only a few of the experiments that I conducted. My overall conclusion after all of this is that there is no universal audio filtering method that works best in all circumstances. There are instead a number of tools in the toolbox, and picking the right one for the job takes a bit of trial and error. 99 However, if you have a repeatable recording environment, then once you have decided what tool you need you should create a script for it so you can have a repeatable processing setup. These conclusions apply to voice podcasting. Music has a different set of criteria and techniques that work well with basic voice podcasting may produce poor results when applied to music which has a broader range of frequency and just as importantly, a broad range of loudness. 100 If you are used to using filters and effects in Audacity, many of the settings on those correspond to arguments in the command line version of ffmpeg. It is worth learning how to use ffmpeg directly to automate your recording process. 101 The experiments that I conducted were greatly assisted by writing scripts which created multiple versions of audio files with different settings, thereby allowing me to try many different alternatives relatively easily. It also allowed me to concatenate different audio samples into a single audio file and so listen to different versions in quick succession, making subjective listening judgments more reliable. 102 It is important to keep in mind in all this that I am playing with audio filtering mainly to have fun. It is not necessary to do any of this if you think your podcast episode sounds just fine without it. So, don't let any of what I have talked about in all this discourage you from simply recording a podcast and sending it in as is. I will include copies of the filters I have described here in the show notes. -------------------- 103 Related Matters Hardware Characterization Using Audio Signals I found it useful to characterize the hardware that I had in order to understand its limitations better before starting the experiments. This involved playing a signal out through a set of speakers and then recording it through a microphone. 104 I used two types of signal for this. One is type of signal is known as a "chirp" signal. This is a sine wave that steadily increases in frequency as it sweeps across the audio spectrum. The standard audio range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but for my purposes I limited the upper frequency to 15 kHz to save time as anything beyond that is not very useful for voice podcasts. 105 By recording the chirp signal with a microphone and analyzing it with a Fourier transform, I could quickly see what each device was capable of. See my previous series on simple podcasting for an explanation of what a Fourier transform is and what software to use to see the results of it. Here is a chirp signal. 106 (Insert Audio Sample Here) 107 In addition to a chirp signal, I also used a series of simple tones of specific frequencies. By using these tones of known frequency I could gain an understanding of the limitations of my speakers and headphones, and just as importantly, my own ears. By understanding these limitations I was able to narrow the range of frequencies that I need to deal with quite considerably and set the high and low pass filters accordingly. These tones are a series of flac files generated with ffmpeg. 108 Here is a a sample audio tone at a 2 kHz frequency. 109 (Insert Audio Sample Here) 110 Copies of the script to create the chirp signal and the tones are in the show notes. -------------------- 111 A "Not a Review" of some of the Hardware that I Used I said that I would not do a review of the hardware that I used. However, some of it deserves mention for either how good or bad it was. I will record each section using the hardware being described. 112 Maxwell Headset This is my original recording hardware. This is a headset with boom mic and USB connection. There is no model number on it, so I don't know the model. This probably cost somewhere between 10 and 25 dollars. The earpieces sit on the ears and do not fully enclose them. This makes it light weight and comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. It has a problem however with electronic noise consisting of a noise spike every 1 kHz. I was able to fix this with a series of filters using FFMPEG. Fixing this problem is what got me started in understanding audio. I will probably continue to use this headset to make podcasts. 113 XTrike Headset, Model GH-510 This is also a headset with boom mic and USB connection. I purchased this headset for the purposes of experimentation for this podcast episode. It cost $12.88. I found it to be surprisingly good for the price. It has fully enclosed ear pieces however, which may make it uncomfortable to wear in hot weather. I may try doing some of my future podcasting using this headset. 114 Borne Earpiece and In-line Microphone This is a set of earplugs that go in your ears and connected by wires and a very small microphone built into a small bulge in the cable. It connects using a 3.5mm jack. The model number seems to be BUD250-BL. It cost approximately $3.00. I bought several sets of these and use them for listening to podcasts from an MP3 player. The ear pieces are pretty good for listening with. The microphone works reasonably well when used in a quiet location. It is less good when in a noisy environment. It is very important however to secure the microphone to your lapel or other location reasonably near your mouth and to point the microphone (that is the small hole) outwards and not simply let it dangle freely. If you let it just hang, you will get poor quality and inconsistent audio. 115 Yanmai Condenser Microphone, Model SF-910 I purchased this microphone for the purposes of experimentation for this podcast episode. It cost $3.88. As it is a condenser microphone, it is prone to picking up background noise more and as such is probably not a good choice for podcasting by single person sitting at a desk. However, it is none the less a surprisingly good microphone for surprisingly little money. 116 iCan USB Microphone, Model M-306 I purchased this microphone for the purposes of experimentation for this podcast episode. This has a USB connection. This was also relatively inexpensive at $7.99, or roughly twice the price of the Yanmai microphone. Unlike the Yanmai however, it is absolutely wretched. There was such a high degree of distortion when recording through it that I found I could not use it in the fan experiments which I had bought it for. I ended up buying the Yanmai microphone for that instead. -------------------- 117 Easy Effects Software The techniques described so far all involve recording audio files and then processing them later to produce the desired result. This is probably the simplest and most straightforward way of doing things if you are making a typical podcast. However, there may be instances where you want to apply filtering or other effects on the "live" signal immediately and not after the fact. 118 There is audio software which can hook into your computer's audio system and do this with a live signal. For Linux, there is a package called "Easy Effects". This is Free Software and comes under a GPL V3 or later license. I installed it from the Debian repository under Ubuntu 24.04. 119 You can create various filters and even chain them together to combine them. I played with it a bit but do not know enough about it to discuss it seriously at this time. However, I thought it would be worth mentioning for the sake of those who may wish to try it out themselves. -------------------- 120 Episode Conclusion After having had some fun with audio and listening to other HPR members talk about audio, I thought I would have some more fun by playing with noise reduction filters. I have no intention of becoming an audio professional, but by doing some experiments I learned a few things and had some fun doing it. I hope that the rest of you found this interest as well. I will see you all again later in another episode of Hacker Public Radio. -------------------- Scripts Basic Filter This shows basic high and low pass filters ( 120 Hz and 8 kHz respectively) and band reject filters for 50 and 60 Hz. # The high and low pass filters. hlpfil="highpass=f=120, highpass=f=120, lowpass=f=8000, lowpass=f=8000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. linefil="bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" # Filter using ffmpeg. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "$hlpfil, $linefil" outputname.flac # ====================================================================== afftdn Filter # noisefloor should be between 20 and 80. noisefloor=$1 # Run the noise reduction. ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af "afftdn=nr=10:nf=-""$noisefloor" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== agate Filter # threshold shoud be between 10 and 80. threshold=$1 # Run the noise reduction. ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af "agate=threshold=-"$threshold"dB:range=-60dB" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== arnndn Filter # mix should be between 0 and 1. mix=$1 # Run the noise reduction. ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af 'arnndn=model=std.rnnn:mix='"$mix" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== sox noisered Filter # Generate the noise profile from a sample of background noise. sox silencefiltered.flac -n noiseprof noise.prof # nramount shoudl be between 0 and 1 sox testrec-filtered.flac noiseout-testrec.flac noisered noise.prof "$nramount" # ====================================================================== Manual Filter for Maxwell Headset Noise # Create a series of band reject filters, from 1 kHz to 11 kHz. ftemplate="bandreject=f=%s000:width_type=h:w=100" kilospikefil=$( seq 1 11 | xargs printf "$ftemplate," ) # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i testrec-filtered.flac -af "$kilospikefil" tmptestrec.flac # ====================================================================== Create a "chirp" signal # Start frequency. f0=20 # End frequency. f1=15000 # Duration of signal. duration=10 ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "aevalsrc=sin(2 * PI * (0.5 * ($f1 - $f0)/$duration * t^2 + ($f0 * t))):s=44100:d=$duration" -c:a flac -af "aformat=sample_fmts=s16" chirp.flac # ====================================================================== Generate Audio Tones toneout () { printf -v freqval "%05d" $1 ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "sine=frequency=$freqval:duration=3" tmptone.flac # Normalize ffmpeg -i tmptone.flac -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k -sample_fmt s16 tone$freqval.flac rm tmptone.flac } # List of frequencies in hertz. freqlist="50 60 100 120 130 140 150 160 170 200 500 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000" for freq in $( echo $freqlist ); do toneout $freq done # ====================================================================== Provide feedback on this episode.

Aizvadītajās brīvdienās 22. reizi notika Eirovīzijas Jauno mūziķu konkurss. Tas gan nav saistīts ar popmūziku, šajā gadījumā stāsts ir par konkursu, kuru iedibināja 1982. gadā. Pirmo konkursu aizvadīja Lielbritānijā, Mančesterā. Konkursā, kuru rīko Eiropas Raidorganizāciju apvienība EBU), piedalās jaunie klasiskās mūzikas pārstāvji vecumā no 12 līdz 21 gadam. Ieguvumi: dalībnieki iegūst starptautisku atpazīstamību un iespēju uzstāties nozīmīgos koncertos un festivālos, veidojot pirmos soļus profesionālajā karjerā. Šoreiz konkurss norisinājās Erevānā, Armēnijā, tajā piedalījās 11 valstu pārstāvji un Latvija konkursā atgriezās pēc 24 gadu pārraukuma. Šogad Latviju pārstāvēja 20 gadus vecā sitaminstrumentāliste Sonja Misiņa, kura instrumenta spēli apgūst Ventspils mūzikas vidusskolā. Sonja ierindojās “Eirovīzijas jauno mūziķu” konkursa 2. vietā. Ierasktos uzklausām Armēnijas Nacionālā filharmoniskā orķestra diriģentu Eduardu Topčjanu, kā arī žūrijas pārstāvi – čellistu Nareku Ahnazarjanu.   -- 6. jūnijā Erevānā noskaidrots šī gada starptautiskā konkursa "Eirovīzijas jaunie mūziķi" uzvarētājs – akordeonists Mihals Stohels no Polijas, savukārt otro vietu ieguva Latvijas pārstāve Sonja Misiņa, bet trešajā vietā ierindojās Armēnijas flautiste Elena Virapjana. Jau nākamgad konkurss norisināsies Liepājā kā Eiropas kultūras galvaspilsētā.

Er valt genoeg na te praten over het Eurovisie Songfestival 2026. Deze week duiken Marco en GJ wat dieper in de resultaten en de finale van de 70e Eurovision editie. Want welke resultaten vielen op? Hoe hebben de ogenschijnlijke favorieten het niet tot de winst geschopt? En waar letten die jury leden nu eigenlijk op?Maar ook leggen ze de lat langs de rare regels van de EBU waar Tsjechië voor het tweede jaar op rij nadeel van heeft, waarom bepaalde landen niet kwalificeerden en vragen over van alles en nog wat van luisteraars!Ook bespreken ze het laatste nieuws over onder andere burenruzie in Moldavië, een mogelijke nieuwe benadering van San Remo, het laatste nieuws over het Junior Songfestival, Eurovision Asia en veel meer. Marco Dreijer, GJ Kooijman en Marit Bosman duiken wekelijks vanuit Amsterdam in de wervelende wereld van het Eurovisie Songfestival 2026. Repetities, interviews, ervaringen en voorspellingen voor deze aparte editie hoor je allemaal in de Songfestival podcast van Nederland! Van diepe songanalyses tot sappige showbizzpolitiek.. niets blijft onbesproken. Verwacht bops, drama én duiding. Want achter elk liedje schuilt een artiest met een verhaal. en er is altijd gedoe op Eurovision! De nieuwe nieuwsbrief? Die heet.. "ESCxistential" en vind je hier https://escxistential.substack.com/ Reageren op de uitzendingen? - Dat kan: mail naar info[at]songfestivalpodcast.nl Wil je Marco en GJ supporten met het maken van de podcast? Dat kan via https://petjeaf.com/eurovisionpodcast - Het kan eenmalig of op regelmatige basis. En je krijgt er leuke extra's voor terug... Ding-A-Dong is onderdeel van Spraakmaker Media. Interesse in adverteren in deze podcast of een samenwerking? Neem dan contact op met info@spraakmaker.mediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're now three weeks from the excitement of Vienna and crowning a new winner, so now what the heck do we do? Well, one of our favorite guests, the President of OGAE Ireland, Frank returns with some advice and to discuss Amsterdam's Het Grote Songfestivalfeest, aka, The Big Eurovision Party. Both Dimitry and Frank attended last year's celebration, so if you're needing a Eurovision fix, we've got you covered. Jeremy's dreaming of both heaven & earth, Dimitry asks where are you of certain acts in the broadcast, and Frank discusses his new religion.  Watch the NRK broadcast of Het Grote Songfestivalfeest 2025 here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t95XTMX2JGMIZQhXrpdK88Qkm5LkOfGW/view Watch the Dutch broadcast of Het Grote Songfestivalfeest 2025 here: https://npo.nl/start/serie/het-grote-songfestivalfeest/afleveringen/seizoen-4_1 Fill out the EBU's Eurofan Voice 2026 survey and let them know what you're thinking: https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/91094056/Eurofan-Voice-2026 Vote on which themed playlists we should add to our Spotify account: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LdUKjw9GdNMfZUp1AKVY6lQ5QCeL2wZySp2ZbOsWicQ/edit This week's companion playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0GZkyJYPQmgmTzshgvsESt Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joineurovangelistsEurovangelists is an American Eurovision podcast, made in the US for Eurovision fans worldwide. The Eurovangelists are Jeremy Bent, Oscar Montoya and Dimitry Pompée.The theme was arranged and recorded by Cody McCorry and Faye Fadem, and the logo was designed by Tom Deja.Production support for this show was provided by the Maximum Fun network.The show is edited by Jeremy Bent with audio mixing help was courtesy of Shane O'Connell.Find Eurovangelists on social media as @eurovangelists on Instagram and @eurovangelists.com on Bluesky, or send us an email at eurovangelists@gmail.com. Head to https://maxfunstore.com/collections/eurovangelists for Eurovangelists merch. Also follow the Eurovangelists account on Spotify and check out our playlists of Eurovision hits, competitors in upcoming national finals, and companion playlists to every single episode, including this one!

Matsinen erzählt im Interview mit Reiner Delgado von ihrer Arbeit und den Aktivitäten der EBU.

And that’s a wrap for 2026. Five months of music, laughter, tears and frustrations have come to this –  a night out at Euroclub! Michael and Bryan let their hair down to dance to some of your 2026 favourites (remixed for something different), while having a gossip about all the happenings since DARA’s win. In this episode: Get your head around this year’s ratings for SBS, especially for the live Grand Final Wonder if the EBU will actually pay attention to the results of Eurofan Voice (which closes 7 June) Hope that jury voting will work differently in 2027 Catch up on the latest updates for 2027, including hosting, who’s in and who’s (not yet, but close to being) out Thanks This whole shebang doesn’t just happen on its own. Without these people, the season wouldn’t have been as good: Bryan for bringing a fresh perspective to the show (and being the best camera operator around) The amazing Clem at SBS for being our link to Delta and the whole team OGAE Australia and mates – Ethan, Lou, Daniel, Keith and Jack – for helping out as guests during the season Annie for firing up the satellite to bring the show to you live from Vienna Eurovision’s broadcasters and their Heads of Press for welcoming us in Australia’s on-location media crew – Cain, Clint, Michael and Ben – for the laughs, support and fun And you, for being part of this season (with all of its ups and downs) If you have enjoyed JOY Eurovision for season 2026, come support us during JOY Radiothon. You can celebrate with JOY on 13 June from 5pm (AEST) as babbleVISION takes over – become a member or donate while we’re on air. Get involved Follow JOYEurovision across Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Bluesky and X at linktr.ee/joy_eurovision Not in Australia? Grab this podcast via Spotify Podcasts. Playlist DARA – Bangaranga (funkjoy Remix) Antigoni & Oualid – JALLA (Arabic Remix) Satoshi – Viva, Moldova! (Andrew Rayel Remix) Alexandra Căpitănescu, Acko & K3YN0T3 – Choke Me (Techno Remix) Lion Ceccah – Sólo Quiero Más (David Les Remix) Monroe – REGARDE ! (Atlass Remix) Tamara Živković & Attila Bornemisza (aka abor) – Nach dem Sturm (Abor Remix) Søren Torpegaard Lund – Før Vi Går Hjem (Dimitri Sin & Yope House Remix) FELICIA – My System (Blasterjaxx Remix) Delta Goodrem – Eclipse (Steve Anderson Remix) The post Raise a glass: It’s time to say goodbye to Eurovision 2026 [Season Final] appeared first on JOY Eurovision.

ESC-Frust, Spar-Schock & die Legacy des SommerhausesMaurice ist zurück aus den USA – im Gepäck hat er nicht nur einen fetten Jetlag, sondern auch spannende Beobachtungen vom ESC-Public-Viewing in Washington. Warum verlassen Amerikaner vor dem Voting die Location und wieso spürt man beim Eurovision Song Contest mittlerweile den harten Sparkurs der EBU? Julia teilt passend dazu ihre skurrile Konzert-Erfahrung mit Olivia Dean und bricht eine Lanze für das Ende von künstlichen Zugaben.Außerdem blickt die Medienrunde auf die heißesten Personalien und Strategie-Wechsel der Branche:Großer Meilenstein für Talk?Now!: Der erste deutsche Talk-TV-Sender landet im Entertainment-Programm der Deutschen Bahn. Wie kam der Deal zustande und was bedeutet das für die Zukunft von Videopodcasts?ProSiebenSat.1 im Strategie-Check: Der neue CEO Marco Giordani bricht im Handelsblatt-Interview sein Schweigen. Warum Joyn plötzlich nicht mehr die oberste Priorität ist und wie der Konzern 130 Millionen Euro einsparen will.MDR-Sparkurs trifft die Region: Düstere Tage in Leipzig – warum beim Mittagsmagazin und sogar bei ostdeutschen Krimis wie Tatort und Polizeiruf der Rotstift radikal angesetzt wird.Personal-Karussell & Reality-Frust: Alles zum Moderations-Wechsel bei Ninja Warrior Germany mit Wolf Fuss und Anna Fleischhauer, Tom Kaulitz als WM-Experte bei Magenta TV und warum der neue Cast vom Sommerhaus der Stars 2026 für Enttäuschung sorgt.Am Ende wird es emotional: Die beiden reagieren auf die Verleihung des Deutschen Podcast Preises. Warum große Medienhäuser die Independent-Szene verdrängen und wieso die Community von „In kleiner Runde“ der einzig wahre Award ist, erfahrt ihr in dieser Episode!Jetzt reinhören, abonnieren und euren Kommentar bei Spotify dalassen!

Suriye'nin başkenti Şam'ın simgesi konumundaki tarihî Emevî Camii'nde geçtiğimiz günlerde düzenlenen bir tören, çok sayıda tartışmayı beraberinde getirdi. Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri'nden (BAE) gelen resmî heyetin ağırlanması için, caminin geniş avlusu bir kabul soluna dönüştürülmüş, içeriye masalar konulmuş, led ekranlar kurulmuş, yiyecek-içecek ikramları eşliğinde misafirler kadınlı-erkekli görüntüler vermişti. Suriye Evkâf (Vakıflar) Bakanlığı'nın tertip ettiği merasimde, tepkilerin odağında elbette bakanlık yetkilileri ve bizzat Evkâf Bakanı Dr. Ebu'l-Hayr Şükrî vardı. Suriye kamuoyunda tanınmış çok sayıda isim, -tabii ki edep sınırlarına riayet ederek- kızgınlıklarını ve teessüflerini dile getirdiler.

Měla to být pompézní oslava 70. výročí soutěže, ve které se členové Evropské vysílací unie (EBU) předhánějí v boji o nejpopulárnější song roku. Místo toho Eurovize prochází možná nejtěžším obdobím ve své historii. Kvůli účasti Izraele čelí protestům i bojkotu tradičních účastníků. Jak je to s její proklamovanou apolitičností? Měří všem stejným metrem? A má vůbec budoucnost?Host: Tereza Povolná - redaktorka Seznam Zpráv Článek a další informace najdete na webu Seznam ZprávySledujte nás na sociálních sítích X, Instagram, Threads nebo Bluesky. Náměty a připomínky nám můžete psát na e-mail zaminutusest@sz.czHlasujte pro náš podcast v anketě Podcast roku.

Scenen i Wien är nedmonterad och Bulgarien står på tur. Men hur mår egentligen Eurovision Song Contest? EBU håller envist kvar Israel i tävlingen samtidigt som röstningsförfarandet får svidande kritik. I Slaget om Schlagern möts Carolina Noren från SVT/SR, Ylva Perera från Hufvudstadsbladet, Johan Lindroos från Yle, och schlagerexperten Tobias Larsson. Kjell Ekholm leder diskussionen. E-post: slaget@yle.fi

Zapraszam do wysłuchania podcastu, który przygotowałem razem z ekspertami Google AI. Z Wiednia, z centrum eurowizyjnego zamieszania, debatują oni o Izraelu, Eurowizji i kulisach głosowań, które od lat nie są tak czyste, jak udają. Punktem wyjścia jest moje doświadczenie producenta i reżysera festiwali: kupowanie głosów na polskich konkursach, paczki SMS-ów, boty, reklamy, jury, Opole 2016 i transparentny system Best Stream Awards. W tle pytanie, czy EBU naprawdę chce uczciwego głosowania.Zapraszam was na moją nową stronę: radekkobialkonadaje.pl

It's nearly time for the Grand Final, and whether you're watching or not this year, we wanted to celebrate songs that conjure up the feeling of pan-European unity and joy that Eurovision truly represents. Inspired by a listener postcard, we go through a playlist of songs that have something to say about the world, or about Eurovision itself. Jeremy's a man in a hamster wheel, Dimitry risks it all to give Portugal douze points, and Oscar picks a song because he feels good.  Read our song guide for this year's contest on Pop Heist: https://popheist.com/eurovision-2026-song-guide Read The Eurovision 2026 Boycott Explained on Pop Heist Send the EBU an email re: your concerns about their Eurovision decisions: info@eurovision.tv List of 2026 alternative viewing options & watch parties (send more if you have them!) This week's companion playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5DSdZqdp8JgNZlVz8EAvPV Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's MaxFunDrive! Still want to get in on the action? Follow this link to support this show (and get in on our limited-time keychain sale to benefit the Center for Constitutional Rights): https://maximumfun.org/joineurovangelists Eurovangelists is an American Eurovision podcast, made in the US for Eurovision fans worldwide. The Eurovangelists are Jeremy Bent, Oscar Montoya and Dimitry Pompée.The theme was arranged and recorded by Cody McCorry and Faye Fadem, and the logo was designed by Tom Deja.Production support for this show was provided by the Maximum Fun network.The show is edited by Jeremy Bent with audio mixing help was courtesy of Shane O'Connell.Find Eurovangelists on social media as @eurovangelists on Instagram and @eurovangelists.com on Bluesky, or send us an email at eurovangelists@gmail.com. Head to https://maxfunstore.com/collections/eurovangelists for Eurovangelists merch. Also follow the Eurovangelists account on Spotify and check out our playlists of Eurovision hits, competitors in upcoming national finals, and companion playlists to every single episode, including this one!

Kirchenmusik beim ESC? Die Fanfare, die vor allen Eurovisionssendungen erklingt, ist vom französischen Barockkomponisten Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Und eigentlich ein Gotteslob.

Vanavond is het zover, de laatste finalisten voegen zich bij het Eurovision speelveld voor de finale in Wenen. GJ en Marco beschouwen het speelveld en de uitzending voor, want ze hebben deze al twee keer mogen zien.Dat en ook spoilers over de interval acts en het decor krijg je allemaal in de perfecte voorbeschouwing voor vanavond. Ook geeft Martin Green een vreemde PR tour maar legt ook z'n oor te luisteren bij fans en begeeft de EBU zich op glad ijs qua montage trucjes. Plus wat speelt er rond Israel qua klachten rondom het online gedrag van de zender met Kroatie? Ook bespreken de heren hun voorspellingen voor vanavond! CODES EUROPARTY APP- ALLE LIEDJES - Z2UHL- SEMI 1 - FW8GE- SEMI 2 - TRL6Ahttps://europarty.app Marco Dreijer, GJ Kooijman en Marit Bosman duiken dagelijks live vanuit Wenen in de wervelende wereld van het Eurovisie Songfestival 2026. Repetities, interviews, ervaringen en voorspellingen voor deze aparte editie hoor je allemaal in de Songfestival podcast van Nederland! Van diepe songanalyses tot sappige showbizzpolitiek.. niets blijft onbesproken. Verwacht bops, drama én duiding. Want achter elk liedje schuilt een artiest met een verhaal. en er is altijd gedoe op Eurovision! De nieuwe nieuwsbrief? Die heet.. "ESCxistential" en vind je hier https://escxistential.substack.com/ Reageren op de uitzendingen? - Dat kan: mail naar info[at]songfestivalpodcast.nl Wil je Marco en GJ supporten met het maken van de podcast? Dat kan via https://petjeaf.com/eurovisionpodcast - Het kan eenmalig of op regelmatige basis. En je krijgt er leuke extra's voor terug... Ding-A-Dong is onderdeel van Spraakmaker Media. Interesse in adverteren in deze podcast of een samenwerking? Neem dan contact op met info@spraakmaker.mediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Der Eurovision Song Contest steht immer wieder in der Kritik. Auf der anderen Seite fiebern jedes Jahr Millionen Menschen weltweit dem Musikspektakel entgegen. ARD-Reporterin und ESC-Fan Alina Stiegler im Gespräch mit Anja Backhaus über Ambivalenz und Faszination. Von WDR 5.

De deelname van Israël aan het Eurovisiesongfestival veroorzaakt zoveel controverse dat er vanavond in Brussel een alternatief plaatsvindt. Wat is de toekomst en relevantie van een Eurosongfestival dat “door en door politiek” is, maar zo niet genoemd wil worden? ­ Het is de 70ste editie van het Eurovisiesongfestival, die deze week plaatsvindt in Oostenrijk. Een rond getal, in theorie goed voor een jubileumeditie, maar toch is er weinig reden tot vieren. Het festival wordt totaal overschaduwd door de deelname van Israël, die tot boycots en betogingen leidt. “Of onze Belgische kandidate Essyla doorgaat of niet, doet er haast niet toe”, stelt chef Cultuur Filip Tielens. “Het enige waar het over gaat is de deelname van Israël.” ­ Waarom wordt Rusland wél uitgesloten en Israël niet? Dat is één van de vragen die vijf landen ertoe gedreven hebben om niet mee te doen: Spanje, Nederland, Ierland, Slovenië en IJsland sturen hun kat uit protest. België is loyaal aan de EBU (European Broadcasting Union)”, weet Filip. En voor de EBU draait het – uiteraard – ook voor een groot stuk om geld, vult collega Aria Nik Mehr aan. ­ De organisatie schermt met het argument dat het Eurovisiesongfestival niet politiek is, maar “een wedstrijd tussen omroepen, niet tussen landen”. Volgens zowel Filip als Aria snijdt dat argument geen hout. Het festival is áltijd al politiek geweest, meer nog: “Het is door en door politiek.” Wat als Israël wint? Geen ondenkbaar scenario, zo blijkt. Aria: “Dat zou dat wel eens het einde van het Eurovisiesongfestival kunnen zijn.” ­ Wil je de nieuwste aflevering van onze economiepodcast Kop of munt beluisteren? Luister en volg hier: De Standaard Spotify Apple podcasts ­ CREDITS ­ Journalisten Aria Nik Mehr, Filip Tielens | Presentatie Marjan Justaert | Redactie Gijs op ‘t Roodt, Janne Maeseele, Fien Dillen | Eindredactie Fien Dillen | Audioproductie Brecht Plasschaert | Muziek Brecht PlasschaertSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Politika začenja teden, ko naj bi nastajajoča koalicija po napovedih uskladila koalicijsko pogodbo, s potrditvijo interventnega zakona za razvoj pa začela preusmerjati gospodarsko in zdravstveno politiko. Državni zbor bo že danes na izredni seji obravnaval zakon, ki so ga vložili Demokrati, stranka Resnica in trojček okoli NSi, podpira pa ga še SDS. Sprožil je burne odzive v politiki, med socialnimi partnerji in v ključnih državnih blagajnah. Osrednja kritika zadeva učinke na javne finance, saj naj bi povzročil povečanje primanjkljaja za dodaten odstotek BDP. - Nov pravilnik o potrjevanju učnih gradiv razburja založnike. Svarijo pred poslabšanjem aktualnosti in kakovosti pouka. - Trump zavrnil iranski predlog za končanje vojne. Ali začasno premirje še velja, ni jasno. - Amnesty International pred jutrišnjim prvim polfinalnim večerom Evrovizije ostro nad EBU zaradi sodelovanja Izraela.

Het is nog maar 1 dag tot het 70e Eurovisie Songfestival in Wenen écht begint en wij hebben geen tijd om bij te komen. De turquoise loper was intens, de interviews staan (zometeen) op YouTube en ondertussen stapelt het Songfestivalnieuws zich alweer op. In deze aflevering bespreken GJ Kooijman en Marco Dreijer wie schitterde op de loper, wie de plank missloeg en waarom Noorwegen zijn act wat moet aanpassen. Ook Malta kreeg een tik op de vingers en door een groot artikel van de NY Times staat de EBU staat opnieuw in een wat ongelukkig daglicht en krijgen we weer een inkijkje van de activiteiten van Israël afgelopen jaar. Verder kijken we vooruit naar een belangrijke dag: de eerste repetitie vanuit de zaal én de eerste juryshow, waar de eerste punten van Eurovision 2026 dus al worden uitgedeeld. Plus: stagingnieuws uit Frankrijk en Oostenrijk, Sertab die toch niet kwam, de Rest of the World Vote, de bookies en het laatste voorspellingsmodel.*Artikel om te lezen: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/world/europe/eurovision-israel-gaza-netanyahu.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hlA.xuox.8VC7Rrha5drT&smid=url-share CODES EUROPARTY APP- ALLE LIEDJES - Z2UHL- SEMI 1 - FW8GE- SEMI 2 - TRL6Ahttps://europarty.app Marco Dreijer, GJ Kooijman en Marit Bosman duiken dagelijks live vanuit Wenen in de wervelende wereld van het Eurovisie Songfestival 2026. Repetities, interviews, ervaringen en voorspellingen voor deze aparte editie hoor je allemaal in de Songfestival podcast van Nederland! Van diepe songanalyses tot sappige showbizzpolitiek.. niets blijft onbesproken. Verwacht bops, drama én duiding. Want achter elk liedje schuilt een artiest met een verhaal. en er is altijd gedoe op Eurovision! De nieuwe nieuwsbrief? Die heet.. "ESCxistential" en vind je hier https://escxistential.substack.com/ Reageren op de uitzendingen? - Dat kan: mail naar info[at]songfestivalpodcast.nl Wil je Marco en GJ supporten met het maken van de podcast? Dat kan via https://petjeaf.com/eurovisionpodcast - Het kan eenmalig of op regelmatige basis. En je krijgt er leuke extra's voor terug... Ding-A-Dong is onderdeel van Spraakmaker Media. Interesse in adverteren in deze podcast of een samenwerking? Neem dan contact op met info@spraakmaker.mediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Het is gedaan met repeteren, alle 35 landen hebben hun laatste losse Eurovision repetitie gehad. Vandaag landen GJ en Marco in het perscentrum; en ja, dat gaat helaas gepaard met wat audio problemen zoals elk jaar op die dag. Maar toch bespreken ze de tweede halve finale van het Eurovisie Songfestival qua repetitie video's en de 5 automatische finalisten. De eerste echte blik op Bulgarije, Italië, Australië, Tsjechië en de United Kingdom zeggen veel. Maar ook zitten er zware teleurstellingen tussen zoals een Cyprus... En de eerste officiële waarschuwing is uitgedeeld door de EBU aan Israël ... Er zijn ook flink wat Weense feestjes en avonturen die ook niet onbesproken blijven![Helaas heeft deze aflevering wat audio issues en een stuk missende audio van GJ, excuses hiervoor en dit gebeurt ons de rest van de week niet meer!] CODES EUROPARTY APP- ALLE LIEDJES - Z2UHL- SEMI 1 - FW8GE- SEMI 2 - TRL6Ahttps://europarty.app Marco Dreijer, GJ Kooijman en Marit Bosman duiken dagelijks live vanuit Wenen in de wervelende wereld van het Eurovisie Songfestival 2026. Repetities, interviews, ervaringen en voorspellingen voor deze aparte editie hoor je allemaal in de Songfestival podcast van Nederland! Van diepe songanalyses tot sappige showbizzpolitiek.. niets blijft onbesproken. Verwacht bops, drama én duiding. Want achter elk liedje schuilt een artiest met een verhaal. en er is altijd gedoe op Eurovision! De nieuwe nieuwsbrief? Die heet.. "ESCxistential" en vind je hier https://escxistential.substack.com/ Reageren op de uitzendingen? - Dat kan: mail naar info[at]songfestivalpodcast.nl Wil je Marco en GJ supporten met het maken van de podcast? Dat kan via https://petjeaf.com/eurovisionpodcast - Het kan eenmalig of op regelmatige basis. En je krijgt er leuke extra's voor terug... Ding-A-Dong is onderdeel van Spraakmaker Media. Interesse in adverteren in deze podcast of een samenwerking? Neem dan contact op met info@spraakmaker.mediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Radio International - The Ultimate Eurovision Experience is broadcast from Malta's Radio 105FM on Tuesday evenings from 2100 - 0059 hours CET. The show is broadcast live on Wednesday evenings from 1900 - 2300 hours CET on the Eurovision Radio International Mixcloud Channel as well as on the Facebook Page of Eurovision Radio International with an interactive chatroom.         AT A GLANCE - ON THE SHOW THIS WEEK  Interview with Bzikebi (Georgia 2026) done at Eurovision in Concert 2026, Amsterdam Interview with Alexandra Capitanescu (Romania 2026) done at the London Preview Event 2026, London   Interview with Felicia (Sweden 2026) done at the London Preview Event 2026, London   Interview with Alicja (Poland 2026) done at the London Preview Event 2026, London  Eurovision Song Contest 2026 - Hear all the songs from Semi Final 1 (12 May 2026) Interview with Boggie (Hungary 2015): done by John Dawton on the release of her new single and album  Eurovision Spotlight: Eurovision 2026 National Finals: The Runners up from the top countries in the betting that had national finals with Alasdair Rendall Eurovision News with Johannes Vitt courtesy of www.escXtra.com Eurovision Birthday File with David Mann Eurovision Cover Spot with David Mann Eurovision Calendar with Javier Leal  New Music Releases by Eurovision Artists  Your music requests    Meet the Stars of Eurovision 2026 (Part 5):  Besides of Eurovision in Concert 2026 which took place at the AFAS Live Concert Venue in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on Sat 11 Apr 2026 there was also the LondonHagen and London Preview Event 2026 on 17 - 19 Apr 2026 where the Stars of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 performed their songs to the Eurovision fans. Members of the Radio International Team were on location and conducted interview with some of the acts. Meet more Stars of Eurovision 2026 this week.     Bzikebi (Georgia 2026) with JP at Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam   Interview with Bzikebi (Georgia 2026):  It was in 2008 when the seeds wee planted as group Bzikebi were created out of Georgi and two ladies both called Miriam as little wasps not only representing Georgia at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 but also winning the contest with the song "Bzzzz". Now 18 years on the three members have grown and once again will represent Georgia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "On Replay".  Radio International's JP had the big pleasure meeting the three once again at the recent edition of the Eurovision in Concert in Amsterdam. Listen to the interview on the show this week.        Felicia (Sweden 2026) with JP at the London Preview Event 2026 Interview with Felicia (Sweden 2026): The Winner of Sweden's Melodifestivalen 2026 will automatically also represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. Sweden together with Ireland are the most successful countries winning the Eurovision Song Contest with seven victories to boot. Will Felicia be able to snatch the eighth victory for Sweden at this year's Eurovision Song Contest?  Felicia will be performing the song "My System" in Semi Final 1 at Song Number 2. Radio International's JP and Salman met and did a catch-up interview with Felicia at the recent edition of the London Preview Event 2026 on 19 Apr 2026. Listen to the interview on the show week.    Alicja (Poland 2026) with JP at the London Preview Event 2026 Interview with Alicja (Poland 2026): In 2020 when the Eurovision Song Contest was canceled by the EBU due to the Corona Pandemic hitting the globe Alicja had already won her national final in Poland before the Covid outbreak. At that time Alicja Szemplińska she won the national final with the song "Empires". In 2023, Alicja attempted again to get the ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "New Home" coming 6th in the Polish National Final.  At long last in 2026 Alicja was chosen to represent Poland at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Pray". It will be competing in Semi Final 1 Song Number 14. Radio International's JP and Salman had the pleasure to meet and interview Alicja at  the London Preview Event 2026. Enjoy meeting Alicja once again on the show this week.      Alexandra Capitanescu (Romania 2026) with JP at the London Preview Event 2026, London, United Kingdom   Interview with Alexandra Capitanescu (Romania 2026):  Romania took a couple of years break before deciding to return to the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with Alexandra Capitanescu and her group to represent Romania with the song "Choke Me" which will be performed in Semi Final 2 at Song Number 3 which will be on Thursday 14 May 2026. Radio International's JP and Salman met the delegation at the London Preview Party and conducted an interview. Get to know Alexandra and the group in this week's edition of Radio International.  Eurovision Song Contest 2026 - Semi Final 1: This is the final edition of Radio International before the Team will be heading out to Vienna, Austria - Home of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 and in view of  Semi Final 1 of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 to be staged on Tuesday, 12 May 2026, Radio International will be playing all the songs competing in Semi Final 1 in full in the order as they will be performed during the live show on Tuesday including interviews mentioned above.      Boggie (Hungary 2015) in 2026 Interview with Boggie (Hungary 2015):  It was in 2015 when the Eurovision Song Contest came from the very same venue where the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will be staged - the Wiener Stadthalle. Back then Hungary was represented by Boggie with the song "Wars for nothing" which made it from the Semi Final into the Grand Final were it ended up at Number 20. Boggie has been busy over the years creating and writing new songs and has recently released a brand new album from wich she lifted her brand new song entitled "Ce Reve".  Radio International's John Dawton interviewed Boggie and you can hear this interview on the show this week plus of course her Eurovision entry 2015 and "Ce reve". To find out more of the new album and Boggie visit her website - click here   The Eurovision Spotlight - Eurovision 2026 - The Runners up from the top countries in the betting that had national finals - with Alasdair Rendall:  Vienna and Austria are ready to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in the Wiener Stadthalle on 12 and 14 May 2026 for the two Semi Finals and the Grand Finale to take place on Saturday, 16 May 2026. Over the last weeks Radio International reviewed all the 35 songs per geographical regions and just ahead of the Radio International Team is heading out to Vienna Alasdair Rendall had the idea to look at the Runners Up from the top countries in the betting that had national finals in their countries. Quite an interesting slot this week.  Eurovision News, New Song Releases, Birthday File, Coverspot, Eurovision Calendar: Also JP will be joined by David Mann for the Eurovision Birthday File and Eurovision Coverspot.  Javier stands in for Nick and will be presenting the Eurovision News courtesy of escXtra.com. There will be a lot of the great new releases of Eurovision artists on the show as well as great Eurovision Classics. Javier will be updating us on the upcoming Eurovision events in the Eurovision Calendar and lots more.   For full details of this week's Show Content and Play List - click here

De spanning stijgt in Wenen waar de repetities voor het Eurovisie Songfestival zijn begonnen. Volgens de EBU zullen er duizenden Nederlandse fans in de Oostenrijkse hoofdstad zijn. Maar toch hangen er wat donkere wolken boven het evenement. Er wordt gezegd dat het minder aantal deelnemers ervoor zorgt dat landen meer moeten gaan betalen om mee te doen. Gelukkig is er ook goed nieuws en komt Vicky Leandros het festival openen.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bald geht es los, der Song Contest startet in Wien. Aber, der Song Contest ist politischer als je zuvor. Aus Protest gegen die Beteiligung Israels sagen mehrere Länder dieses Jahr ihre Teilnahme ab, manche Fans wollen boykottieren. Und auch auf den Straßen wird Protest erwartet. Warum wird gerade der vermeintliche unpolitische Songcontest so emotional diskutiert? Reagiert die EBU richtig auf die Kritik? Ist es okay in Zeiten von Krieg und Krisen einfach den Songcontest zu genießen? Ali Cem Deniz diskutiert mit Fans und Beobachter:innen.Sendungshinweis: FM4 Auf Laut, 6.5.2026, 19:00.

"The Waiting is the Hardest Part" sang Tom Petty i 1981, få har nok følt på den ventingen like heftig som herremannen alt handler om i Wien, Jonas Lovv. Men omsider har den norske delegasjonen satt kursen mot alpene og Jonas skal i gang med sceneprøver. Her i podden føler vi på et slags ventevakuum frem mot finaleuken, da man jo får vite marginalt om noe som helst før sceneteppet faller under første semifinale.Nyhetsbildet nå preges av mye gammelt stoff pakket inn på en "ny" måte og fokus på bagateller.Ronny har startet bryllupssesongen og i den forbindelse fått en ny ESC-favoritt siden sist (eller dvs. den ble vel aldri med i ESC, men samma det).EBU har "rotet" bort finalene fra 1956 og 1964 og søker nå publikums hjelp for å finne opptak i anlednining 70-års jubileet.Vi snakker også om fenomenet karpe som nå har annonsert at de gir seg i 2028 etter nesten 30 år sammen - hvorav de siste 15 har blitt tilbrakt mer eller mindre alene på toppen som landets soleklart hotteste liveband. Vi dykker litt ned i hva som er "greia" og spør oss passende nok hva karpe og Eurovision har til felles.Linker:Eartha Kitt - Where Is My Man (1983)Eurovision på reddit

GOOD EVENING EUROPE!Genlüd's Eurovision-program er tilbage! - Men inden vi går i gang med at gennemgå årets 35 bidrag, kaster vi lige et blik på, hvordan Eurovision 2025 endte, samt hvad der er sket siden sidst - For vejen til Østrig har været noget ujævn.Fem lande har trukket sig fra konkurrencen i protest mod Israels deltagelse, og det sætter en kile ind i konkurrencen, som i år kan fejre 70 år's jubilæum.EBU har desuden været på en mindre hvervekampagne, for at få flere gamle deltagerlande til at vende tilbage. Derfor reflekterer vi over spørgsmålet: Er Europa stadig 'United by Music'?Vi samler op på begivenhederne i denne lille - noget politiske - særudgave, inden vi går i gang med at bedømme årets deltagerlande musisk, præcis som du kender det.God fornøjelse!

I tillegg har Ronny omsider sett Affeksjonsverdi og Matt fra ESCUnited får full støtte av Anders i sine ti punkter EBU må fikse.

A three-day report from the only international competition organised by Slovak Radio features jury members, world music experts, as well as samples of traditional music recordings. After boycotting the regular 2025 edition, 14 national broadcasters from across Europe have submitted 31 entries this year. Supported by the EBU, the contest highlights a vibrant and evolving music scene. Many traditional music events have lost state support following controversial steps taken by the current management of the Slovak Arts Council. Several state-run institutions were also caught off guard by unprecedented budget cuts. In response, representatives of the cultural sector came together on 31 March 2026 to march in support of Slovak culture.

A three-day report from the only international competition organised by Slovak Radio features jury members, world music experts, as well as samples of traditional music recordings. After boycotting the regular 2025 edition, 14 national broadcasters from across Europe have submitted 31 entries this year. Supported by the EBU, the contest highlights a vibrant and evolving music scene. Many traditional music events have lost state support following controversial steps taken by the current management of the Slovak Arts Council. Several state-run institutions were also caught off guard by unprecedented budget cuts. In response, representatives of the cultural sector came together on 31 March 2026 to march in support of Slovak culture.

Radio International - The Ultimate Eurovision Experience is broadcast from Malta's Radio 105FM on Tuesday evenings from 2100 - 0059 hours CET. The show is broadcast live on Wednesday evenings from 1900 - 2300 hours CET on the Eurovision Radio International Mixcloud Channel as well as on the Facebook Page of Eurovision Radio International with an interactive chatroom.       AT A GLANCE - ON THE SHOW THIS WEEK  Interview with Delta Goodrem (Australia 2026) done at Eurovision in Concert 2026, Amsterdam Interview with Cosmo (Austria 2026) done at Eurovision in Concert 2026, Amsterdam  Interview with Jiva (Azerbaijan 2026) done at Eurovision in Concert 2026, Amsterdam   Interview with Lion Ceccah (Lithuania 2026) done at Eurovision in Concert 2026, Amsterdam  Interview with Satoshi (Moldova 2026) done at Eurovision in Concert 2026, Amsterdam  Interview with Alicja (Poland 2026) done at Eurovision in Concert 2026, Amsterdam   Eurovision Spotlight: Eurovision 2026 in Geographical Regions:  Northern Europe with Dermot Manning Eurovision News with Johannes Vitt courtesy of www.escXtra.com Eurovision Birthday File with David Mann Eurovision Cover Spot with David Mann Eurovision Calendar with Javier Leal  New Music Releases by Eurovision Artists  Your music requests    Meet the Stars of Eurovision 2026 (Part 3):  Eurovision in Concert 2026 took place at the AFAS Live Concert Venue in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on Sat 11 Apr 2026 with 27 acts from the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 performing their entry to many thousands of Eurovision fans. Members of the Radio International Team were on location and conducted interview with some of the acts. Meet more Stars of Eurovision 2026 this week.     Delta Goodrem (Australia 2026) with JP at Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam   Interview with Delta Goodrem (Australia 2026):  The biggest calibre that is sent in from Australia to the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is Delta Goodrem who is a mega music star and actress ("Neighbours"). The song that Delta will represent Australia with is entitled "Eclipse" and will be Semi Final 2 Song Number 11.     Cosmó (Austria 2026) at Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam     Interview with Cosmó (Austria 2026):  Representing Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is 19 year old or young Cosmó who like the Big 4 (this year) is directly qualified to compete in the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 to take place on Sat 16 May 2026 due to JJ's victory at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with the song "Wasted Love". The Host Nation Austria as well as the Big 4 (5) Countries are directly qualified to the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest2026.  Cosmó will performthe song "Tanzschein" at Song Number 25. Listen to the interview that Radio International's  JP did with Cosmó at Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam on 11 Apr 2026.       Jiva (Azerbaijan 2026) at Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam   Interview with Jiva (Azerbaijan 2026):  Representing Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is Jiva who performs the song "Just go" in Semi Final 2 at starting position Number 2. Jiva was directly nominated by the Azeri broadcaster. Get to know Jiva in the interview that JP did at Eurovision in Concert 2026. Lion Ceccah (Lithuania 2026) with at Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam Interview with Lion Ceccah (Lithuania 2026):  An amazing singer and performer is Lion Ceccah who will be representing Lithuania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Solo quiero mas" in Semi Final 1 Song Number 12. Lion went through the tough national final in Lithuania and won it and with this the ticket tand the right to represent Lithuania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. Radio International's JP met Lion at Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam and conducted an interview with the singer appearing in the silver colour. Get to know Lion Ceccah in the interview on the show this week.      Satoshi (Moldova 2026) with JP at Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam   Interview with Satoshi (Moldova 2026):  What a bundle of energy Moldova will send to the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. Satoshi will be opening up the contest in Semi Final 1 being Song Number 1 competing with the song "Viva Moldova" on Tuesday, 12 May 2026. Part of Satoshi is Aliona Moon who represented Moldova at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song "O Mie (One Million)". At the recent edition of Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam JP had the pleasure of an interview with with energizers from Moldova. Listen to the interview on the show this week.    Alicja (Poland 2026)  at Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam   Interview with Alicja (Poland 2026): In 2020 when the Eurovision Song Contest was canceled by the EBU due to the Corona Pandemic hitting the globe Alicja had already won her national final in Poland before the Covid outbreak. At that time Alicja Szemplińska she won the national final with the song "Empires". In 2023, Alicja attempted again to get the ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "New Home" coming 6th in the Polish National Final.  At long last in 2026 Alicja was chosen to represent Poland at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Pray". It will be competing in Semi Final 1 Song Number 14. Radio International's JP had the pleasure to meet and interview Alicja at Eurovision in Concert 2026 in Amsterdam. Enjoy meeting Alicja on the show this week.    The Eurovision Spotlight - The Eurovision 2026 Land in Geographical Regions:   Austria will host the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in the Wiener Stadthalle on 12 and 14 May 2026 for the two Semi Finals and the Grand Finale to take place on Saturday, 16 May 2026. And as a tradition the Radio International Eurovision Experts have split the Eurovision 2026 participating countries in geographical regions and over the next weeks you will hear all the 35 Eurovision 2026 entries on the show presented by the Radio International Team.  This week Dermot Manning continues the series of the Eurovision Spotlight looking at the entries from the countries in the Northern region of Eurovision 2026 Land.   Eurovision News, New Song Releases, Birthday File, Coverspot, Eurovision Calendar: Also JP will be joined by David Mann for the Eurovision Birthday File and Eurovision Coverspot.  Javier stands in for Nick and will be presenting the Eurovision News courtesy of escXtra.com. There will be a lot of the great new releases of Eurovision artists on the show as well as great Eurovision Classics. Javier will be updating us on the upcoming Eurovision events in the Eurovision Calendar and lots more.   For full details of this week's Show Content and Play List - click here

Europos Transliuotojų Sąjungos (EBU) užsakymu atliktas tarptautinis tyrimas rodo, kad LRT stiprina komercinę žiniasklaidą. Tyrime, apimančiame 2022–2026 m. laikotarpį, matomos teigiamos sąsajos, kai augantis LRT vartojimas lemia augantį komercinės žiniasklaidos vartojimą.Tyrimą apžvelgia VDU Viešosios komunikacijos katedros profesorė, tyrėja, žiniasklaidos kritikė Auksė Balčytienė.Ved. Ignas Andriukevičius.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. Basic-Filtering 01 Introduction This is the second episode in a four part series on a simple way to create your own HPR podcast episode. 02 This episode will cover the following topics: Basic filtering.. De-essing to improve voice quality. And normalizing to adjust audio levels for easier reviewing. 03 Filtering is removing unwanted noise from an audio signal. There are several ways of doing this. It is possible to do this with Audacity, but I don't know how so I won't try to describe that method. It is possible however to filter using command line tools such as FFMPEG and Sox. When assembled into shell scripts, these tools can become part of an automated process that you can use over and over again for each HPR episode that you record. 04 In a later episode I will discuss how to analyze audio signals to find the sources of noise that can be reduced or eliminated with filters. In this episode however I will discuss basic filtering that you can apply routinely without doing any analysis beforehand. 05 Sources of Noise A question that you may have is "why is there noise in the recording?" There are many sources of undesirable noise. 06 A very common one that you may not be aware of is electrical noise that works its way into the electronic recording circuits and is imperceptible to you until you play back the recorded audio. The most common noise signal is what is commonly called "line noise" and is a low frequency hum at 50 or 60 Hz from the electric power lines and reflects the 50 or 60 Hz frequency of the AC power lines feeding your recording hardware. 07 You may be familiar with this low frequency hum from when it emanates from large electrical hardware such as transformers as it makes the laminations vibrate. However, it can also work its way indirectly into electronic equipment as well. Good quality audio hardware may filter all or most of this out, but it is present in a lot of consumer grade hardware. 08 Other sources of electrical noise may reflect specific problems in your recording hardware. I will discuss one such problem with my microphone that I had to address. Still other sources of noise may reflect actual physical audio noise around you, such as fans. Placing the microphone close to your face will help in dealing with a lot of these problems, but you may find filtering to be of some help here as well. 09 Audio Frequency Range Let's start with some basics. A good quality stereo of the type you may have at home is typically rated to perform between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. This is the widest possible range that we need to consider. In reality, this is a far wider range than is needed for a voice oriented podcast. It is also well beyond the range of the hardware that many of your listeners will be using to listen to the podcast. 10 For example, the speakers that I have connected to my PC and a number of headphones and earphones that I have tested drop off drastically below 80 Hz or above 8 kHz, or even above 6 kHz in many cases. This is not audiophile quality hardware, but it is representative of the sort of hardware that a lot of your listeners will be using when listening to podcasts. And to be honest here, a lot of people will have difficulty hearing anything above 8 kHz even with the best quality audio hardware due to hearing loss from environmental noise exposure or age. 11 You can get a good idea of what different frequencies sound like by generating sine waves using either FFMPEG or Sox. Here's an example of generating a 1 kHz sine wave using FFMPEG. A copy of this will be in the show notes. ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "sine=frequency=1000:sample_rate=44100:duration=3" 01000hz.flac This creates a sine wave at 1 kHz and at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz for a duration of 3 seconds and saves it to a flac file named 01000hz.flac 12 Here's the same using Sox. sox -n -r 44100 -b 16 01000hz.flac synth 3 sine 1000 The -b 16 specifies using 16 bit audio to encode it, and the "sine 1000" element specifies the frequency in hertz. 13 You can test this out at different frequencies to get a feel for how your hardware responds. What the effective limits on typical hardware audio range means is that we can quite safely filter out a large part of what is considered to be the "audio range" without any noticeable loss of quality. For the purposes of our discussion here then I will limit the frequency range to between 80 Hz and 12 kHz, and that is being generous. You can probably narrow that, particularly at the top end, without any problems. 14 At the low end, the typical rule of thumb recommended by most people seems to be that for the average male voice you can set the lower threshold at 80 Hz, and for the average female you can set it at 160 Hz. Note that you don't *have* to set the threshold higher for a female. Rather, it is just that you typically *can* set it higher if you wish. Note also that these are averages, and may not reflect an actual individual. 15 Simple Filters We will now create some simple filters using the same command line software mentioned in a previous episode in this series. These are FFMPEG and Sox. 16 First let's define some terminology. A high pass filter passes through frequencies which fall above a certain threshold and blocks frequencies which are below that frequency. A low pass filter passes through frequencies which fall below a certain threshold and blocks frequencies which are above that frequency. 17 In reality there isn't an abrupt cut-off in the filters. Instead there is a gradual roll off or sloping off of amplitude below or above the specified filter frequency. This is for two reasons. One is that if there was an abrupt cut off then it would risk introducing audible distortion in the signal for frequencies on the margin. 18 The other reason is that this is how hardware filters traditionally inherently worked when they were made out of electronic components such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors. The sharpness of this cut off can be adjusted, but we won't be fiddling with it in that sort of detail. You will sometimes see filters specified in terms of "poles". This has to do with describing how filters were constructed using electronic components. Don't worry about it, it doesn't really matter. 19 Here is a typical high pass filter using ffmpeg which filters out frequencies below 80 hertz. # High pass filter. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "highpass=f=80" outputfile.flac Here is a typical low pass filter using ffmpeg which filters out frequencies above 12 kHz. # Low pass filter. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "lowpass=f=12000" outputfile.flac 20 Here is a filter which combines the two. # Combined filters. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000" outputfile.flac And here is the same thing using Sox. sox inputfile.flac outputfile.flac highpass 80 lowpass 12000 21 Filtering Out Specific Frequencies Recall that I mentioned that a common source of noise is the 50 or 60 Hz AC power line frequency working its way through the electronics of your recording device. Because filters operate gradually and the 80 Hz lower filter threshold is close to 60 Hz, the high pass filter may not deal with this adequately. 22 Now it happens that your listeners may not be able to hear this 50 or 60 Hz noise anyway because their audio hardware won't reproduce it. That by the way includes you not being able to hear it either when you review your recording before uploading it. However, there may be some HPR listeners who are sitting back sipping a glass of wine and listening to your episode on their stereo and who can hear it. That suggests that we ought to do something about it just in case. 23 I will get into how to analyze audio signals in a later episode, but for now just accept that I looked at the frequency spectrum of a sample recording using my hardware and found a large 60 Hz noise spike which I wanted to address. 24 Experimenting with additional high pass frequencies up to 120 Hz did not improve things much with respect to the 60 Hz problem. There are other parameters which could be tweaked, but at this point it would seem most promising to attack the 60 Hz spike problem directly using a different filter method. To deal with the this 60 Hz spike we can use a "band reject" filter, which removes a specific band of frequencies. We will use this in combination with the filtering that we have already done above. 25 After a small amount of experimenting I came up with the following. I also added in a 50 Hz filter while I was at it, for the benefit of those living in areas with 50 Hz electrical supply. These filters will be included in the show notes, so don't worry if you can't quite understand all the details from a verbal description. 26 Here's the FFMPEG version. # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i input.flac -af "highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000, bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" output.flac 27 This as the following elements A high pass filter at 80 Hz, A low pass filter at 12 kHz, A band reject filter centred at 60 Hz and with a width of 20 hertz. A similar band reject filter centred at 50 Hz. 28 Here's the Sox version. # Sox version. sox input.flac output.flac highpass 80 lowpass 12000 bandreject 60 20 bandreject 50 20 Note that with sox, don't quote the filter definition strings or else it will result in an error as sox doesn't see enough parameters. This is not a problem with ffmpeg. 29 The band reject filter knocks the stuffing out of the 60 Hz line noise, and the 50 Hz parameter should do the same for that frequency as well. This basic filter should be able to be applied to any podcast audio recording without causing any problems. You can probably reduce the low pass frequency from 12 kHz down to 8 kHz without any problems, but I would suggest that you test it with your voice before making that decision. 30 I will come back to filtering out specific frequencies again later when I discuss how I solved a specific problem with the hardware that I am using. However, we have to discuss how to analyze audio signals before we can do that sort of technical troubleshooting, and I will cover that in a later episode. -------------------- 31 De-Essing An additional type of filtering is "de-essing". When recording audio, the microphone or environment may result in "s", "sh", "ch" and possibly other sounds to be exaggerated. These are all higher frequency elements of voice recordings. "De-essing" attempts to soften these sounds by selectively reducing the volume on the frequency band which contains these sounds. 32 Software Filters De-essing is accomplished via software filters. FFMPEG and Sox both have de-essing filters. For FFMPEG, the de-essing filter is built in. For Sox however, we must install an optional plug-in. I will cover this is more detail when I discuss using Sox for de-essing. 33 Do You Need De-Essing? The first thing to make clear however, is that you may not need to worry about this. If you think the audio sounds just fine the way it is, you don't need to do any de-essing to it. De-essing is a very subtle change, and you would probably need to do some careful before and after comparisons of audio samples to tell the difference. I didn't know that a thing called de-essing even existed before I started doing the research to make this podcast episode. However, at this point we are doing things more for fun than out of necessity, so I'll describe it anyway. 34 De-Essing with FFMPEG De-essing with FFMPEG is relatively simple. The filter is built in, and there are just three values to adjust. On the other hand, it is not really obvious what these values mean in practical terms. 35 I will however warn you to not rely on the AI search results from Google to understand this feature. The AI, in my experience, just makes stuff up about it and tells you to use options that don't exist and values that are not valid. I found that the only useful information came from FFMPEG's own web site, and from examples written by actual humans. 36 I then experimented with different values to see what effects they had. Since the results are rather subtle, fine tuning isn't really that necessary and I found that I could arrive at some reasonable values fairly quickly. I will provide the parameters that I found useful for me, and I suspect they would probably work for you as well. 37 Here is a typical de-essing command. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -filter_complex "deesser=i=0.5:m=0.5:f=0.5:s=o" -b:a 336k -sample_fmt s16 outputfile.flac 38 The important arguments are i, m, and f. i is intensity for triggering de-essing. The allowed range is 0 to 1. The default is 0. By experimentation I found that "0" means no de-essing, and "1" is maximum de-essing. I found that setting it to "0.5" gave satisfactory results. 39 m is the amount of "ducking on the treble part of sound". The allowed range is 0 to 1. The default is 0.5. By experimentation I found that "1" means no de-essing, and "0" is maximum de-essing. I found that setting it to "0.5" gave satisfactory results. 40 f is how much of the original frequency content to keep when de-essing. The allowed range is 0 to 1. The default is 0.5. By experimentation I found that "1" means no de-essing, and "0" is maximum de-essing. I found that setting it to "0.5" gave satisfactory results. 41 Setting "m" or "f" too high can result in a distorted output as too much of the original sound is cut out. The defaults of 0.5 in both cases gave audible improvements without noticeable distortion. 42 There is an additional parameter called "s". This controls whether the de-essing filter does anything. Setting it to "o" is the normal and default mode. Setting it to "e" causes it to output just the components that it would normally have filtered out. This is useful for testing purposes so you can see what and how much is being filtered. You only use this when experimenting with different values. Setting it to "i" causes the input to be passed through without de-essing. This would be useful in scripts where you want to use a variable to control whether or not to use the de-esser while still creating the expected output file. 43 There are two other elements of the command which were included but are not strictly speaking part of the de-essing filter itself . These are " -b:a 336k" and "-sample_fmt s16". " -b:a 336k" sets the audio bit rate to 336k. "-sample_fmt s16" sets the audio sample format to 16 bit. I found it necessary to specify these in order to prevent the de-essing filter from changing formats. They are not part of de-essing however. 44 De-Essing with Sox You can also de-ess with Sox. However, this is more complex for several reasons. One reason is that Sox does not have its own de-essing filters. Instead it uses optional plug-ins, and you must find and install these. The actual plug in may vary depending on what operating system you are using. The other reason is that it deals with the issue in fairly low level parameters, and so is a bit more complex to describe. Because of this I will skip over describing this in detail and just give a very brief overview. If anyone would like me to describe in more detail how to de-ess with Sox, then send in a comment and I will do a short episode on it later. 45 Sox De-Essing Overview To de-ess with Sox, you first need to install the plug-ins. On Linux, these will be the TAP ladspa plug-ins. TAP stands for "Tom's Audio Processing" plugins. ladspa stands for "Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API" To install the TAP plugins on Ubuntu, using the following command. sudo apt install tap-plugins The plug-in we need is called "tap_deesser.so". 46 In order to use the plug-ins, you need to set the path as a variable. On Ubuntu this is. export LADSPA_PATH="/usr/lib/ladspa:" I put the above in the shell script which calls the Sox de-esser. 47 To use the Sox de-esser, you do the following: sox inputfile.flac outputfile.flac ladspa tap_deesser tap_deesser -30 4500 48 tap_deesser tap_deesser tells it which plugin to use. We need to state tap_deesser twice because the first is the name of the ".so" file and the second is the name of the plugin. A single "so" file can contain multiple filters, although in this case there is only one. -30 is the threshold in dB at which to start to apply the filter. 4500 is the frequency in Hz that the filter centres around. 49 The TAP web page has a table of recommended frequencies. These are: Male 'ess' 4500 Hz Male 'ssh' 3400 Hz Female 'ess' 6800 Hz Female 'ssh' 5100 Hz You will need to do some trial and error to find what works best for you. 50 De-Essing Summary De-essing can be used to make minor improvements to voice quality by reducing certain harsh sounds which may be exaggerated by a microphone. If it sounds like a lot of work you can probably simply not bother with it and not really miss it. -------------------- 51 Normalizing Normalizing a signal means adjusting it to meet a specified level. For audio it means adjusting the volume or sound level. You may wish to normalize the audio of your recording to make it easier to listen to when reviewing it. The copy that you send to HPR however should be the original un-normalized version. 52 Sound level is measured in two ways, dB and LUFS. The latter is a more sophisticated way of measuring things which takes into account how the human ear perceives loudness. I won't go into a lot of detail in that regards, other than to say that just accept LUFS as a unit of perceived loudness that is the international standard. LUFS stands for "Loudness Units referenced to Full Scale", and is part of the EBU R128 standard, where EBU stands for European Broadcast Union. In both cases the measured value is a negative number, with numbers smaller in magnitude being louder. Smaller in magnitude means closer to zero. 53 HPR will adjust the sound level for publication, but if you wish to check the audio before uploading it can help to adjust it to something close to what HPR will do so that you can listen to it at a volume which most listeners will hear. In my case full volume on the audio system input produced a sound level which was much lower than a typical HPR episode. However, the volume level in the flac file itself can be adjusted using ffmpeg. 54 Measuring Volume Level First we need to see what the volume level is for a typical HPR podcast. To do this we use ffmpeg. In this example we are using an episode named "hprpodcast.mp3". Pick an episode which you think is suitable and copy the file to the working directory. 55 In the following script we use a volumedetect filter. The text we want normally outputs to standard error, so we have to do a bit of bashery to redirect this to standard output so it will go through a pipe. We then grep for the string "I:". This will have the average volume level in "loudness units" (LUFS). Then we extract the number, giving us a target LUFS level. 56 ffmpeg -i hprpodcast.mp3 -filter:a ebur128=framelog=quiet -f null /dev/null 2>&1 | grep "I:" | cut -d: -f2 57 Unfortunately I can't find a Sox feature which handles EBU loudness, so we need to work in dB instead. Here is the sox version. However, note that this may not work on mp3s if sox mp3 handing is not installed. 58 sox hprpodcast.mp3 -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev 59 You can use either of these for measuring the volume or sound level of an audio file. However, note that individual episodes from HPR may vary a bit in terms of loudness. In the samples that I looked at, this however was less than 1 LUFS or dB while my own recording was roughly 5 LUFS lower in volume than a typical HPR episode. -------------------- 60 If you Google for the EBU R128 standard the AI result will confidently tell you to use a target of -23 LUFS. However, this is wrong, which shouldn't be of any surprise if you are familiar with using AI. 61 The -23 LUFS figure is for broadcast television. There is in fact no standard level for podcasts. However, there is apparently a general industry convention of using somewhere around -17 LUFS. If I look at the first two HPR episodes that I did, HPR normalized them to -16.8 LUFS and -17.8 LUFS, while the original FLAC files that I submitted were -21.6 LUFS and -22.3 LUFS respectively. 62 So HRP appear to be targeting somewhere around -17 LUFS as well. We will therefore use -17 LUFS as our target for our own copy for review. -------------------- 63 The nice thing about using the EBU filter in FFMPEG is that this is very simple. Here is the FFMPEG version. 64 ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=7.0 -ar 44.1k outputfile.flac 65 "I" is the LUFS target. LRA is the loudness range target. The default value is 7.0 so I used that. TP sets the maximum true peak. The default value is -2.0. so I used that. -------------------- 66 With Sox things are a bit more difficult. There is no direct method of setting the loudness that I am aware of, so we need to measure the current sound level in dB, do some calculations, and then apply that as a gain factor to the output. 67 First we need to subtract the measured db level from our flac file from the target db level from the HPR episode we decided to use as a sample. Bash by itself normally just does integer math. However, we would like to have at least one decimal point of resolution to work with. The simple solution is to do this calculation using bc, the shell arbitrary precision calculator. 68 Then take this new value and use it in a "volume" filter. The number which we give sox is the amount to increase or decrease the volume by. Sox will then output a new file with the new volume level. You can now listen to this file under conditions more closely approximating what it will be like after HPR have done their own audio adjustments and normalizaton on it This helps when listening to the file for any problems before you upload it. 69 Rather than reading 5 lines of complex shell script to you, I will put a copy of it in the show notes. level=$( sox $inputfile -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" ) leveldb=$( echo "$level" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev ) targetdb="-18.9" volumechange=$(echo "scale=2 ; $targetdb - $leveldb" | bc ) sox $inputfile $outputname gain "$volumechange" -------------------- 70 Normalization should be the last thing you do to the file. It should be done after any noise filtering, such as low pass, high pass, bandreject, etc. If you normalize first, you will be amplifying the noise as well as the desired signal. 71 The exact normalization level used for review purposes doesn't matter, as HPR will apply their own later. All we are doing at this point is adjusting the volume to something which approximates a normal episode so you can listen to it for final review. 72 When you send your file to HPR, send the original *unnormalized* version, not the normalized version. When you normalize an audio signal, if you are not careful you may introduce things which cause problems with later additional processing. HPR probably do more things to the audio than just normalizing and so they need the unnormalized file so that they can do their own normalizing last. -------------------- 73 If at this point you are happy with the recording as is, you are ready to send the *unnormalized* version to HPR. The scripts to implement the features discussed in this episode will be in the show notes. 74 Conclusion In this episode we covered basic filtering using ffmpeg and sox. We discussed what noise was and some of the origins of noise. We talked about the audio frequency range and the limitations of common hardware used to record and listen to podcasts. We covered basic high and low pass filters used to limit the audio frequency range in order to remove possible low and high frequency noise. 75 We discussed specific filters to eliminate 50 and 60 Hz electrical power noise. We talked about de-essing, what it was, why you may wish to use it, and some basic de-essing filter implementation details. We discussed normalizing, what it is, why you may wish to use it, and how it relates to podcasting conventions. 76 In the next episode we will discuss analyzing audio signals to help find the sources of noise problems. We will also discuss creating filters to eliminate any problems that we found. In my case I had a problem with the microphone that I use, and I describe how I used filters to deal with that problem. 77 This has been the second episode in a four part series on simple podcasting. -------------------- EBU R128 Loudness Measurement using FFMPEG #!/bin/bash echo "EBU r128 loudness measurement using FFMPEG" for inputfile in *.flac *.mp3 ; do level=$( ffmpeg -i $inputfile -filter:a ebur128=framelog=quiet -f null /dev/null 2>&1 | grep "I:" | cut -d: -f2 ) echo $inputfile $level done -------------------- DB Sound Level Measurement using Sox #!/bin/bash # Sox version. May not work for mp3 if an mp3 format handling is not installed. echo "dB sound level measurement using Sox." for inputfile in *.flac *.mp3 ; do level=$( sox $inputfile -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" ) leveldb=$( echo "$level" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev ) echo $inputfile $leveldb done -------------------- EBU R128 Loudness Normalization using FFMPEG #!/bin/bash # Adjust the volume to a desired level. for inputfile in *.flac ; do j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j""-normff.flac" ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k $outputname echo $outputname done -------------------- DB Sound Level Normalization using Sox #!/bin/bash # Adjust the volume to a desired level. for inputfile in *.flac ; do j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j""-normff.flac" # Measure the volume level and extract the mean volume. level=$( sox $inputfile -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" ) leveldb=$( echo "$level" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev ) # Calculate the difference in dB desired. Scale specifies the number of decimal places. # Target db is the volume measured on hpr4506 (UCSD-P-System). targetdb="-18.9" volumechange=$(echo "scale=2 ; $targetdb - $leveldb" | bc ) echo "Using sox: File: $inputfile Original level: $leveldb Change by: $volumechange" # Adjust the volume. sox $inputfile $outputname gain "$volumechange" done -------------------- Full processing pipeline for making simple podcasts using FFMPEG #!/bin/bash #!/bin/bash # Full processing pipeline for making simple podcasts. # ====================================================================== # Concatenate multiple flac files into a single flac file. # This is used to combine podcast recorded segments into a single # flac file for uploading to HPR. concataudio () { outputname="$1" # First create the list file. printf "file '%s'n" [0-9][0-9].flac > podseglist.txt # Now concatenate them ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i podseglist.txt "$outputname" rm podseglist.txt } # ====================================================================== # Basic filters. filter () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 # Using ffmpeg. # The high and low pass filters. hlpfil="highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. linefil="bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af "$hlpfil, $linefil" $outputname } # ====================================================================== # De-Essing. deessing () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 option=$3 # De-essing filter. ffmpeg -i $inputfile -filter_complex "deesser=i=0.5:m=0.5:f=0.5:s=$option" -b:a 336k -sample_fmt s16 $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Normalizing the audio to EBU R128 standard for review using ffmpeg. normffmpeg () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 # Normalize to EBU R128 standard. ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Output an MP3 version to help with reviewing. mp3convert () { inputfile=$1 # Get the name of the file and then create the output file name. j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j"".mp3" # Convert to MP3. ffmpeg -i $inputfile $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Concatenate the separate audio files. concataudio fullpod-unfiltered.flac # Basic filtering. filter fullpod-unfiltered.flac filtered.flac # De-essing. This is the version to send for publishing. # The third argument should be "o" for de-essing, or "i" for pass through without de-essing. deessing filtered.flac fullpod.flac o # Normalized for review. normffmpeg fullpod.flac fullpod-norm.flac # Output an MP3 copy for review. mp3convert fullpod-norm.flac -------------------- -------------------- Provide feedback on this episode.

Resûlullâh (s.a.v.) şöyle buyurdu: "Müezzin, Allâh'ın perdedarıdır. Her ezanda Allâhü Teâlâ ona bin peygamber sevabı ihsan eder. İmam, Allâh'ın veziridir. Her namazda, Allâhü Teâlâ ona bin sıddık sevabı ihsan eder. Âlim, Allâh'ın vekilidir. Her sözünden Allâhü Teâlâ ona Kıyamet Günü bir nur ihsan eder. Her sözünden, Allâhü Teâlâ ona bin senelik ibadet sevabı yazar. Kadın, erkek talebeler, Allâh'ın hizmetçileridir. Bunların mükafatı ancak cennettir." Fakih açıklıyor: "Allâh'ın perdedarı" buyurulması, bir benzetme yoludur. Şu manaya gelir: Halka, Râblerinin huzuruna girme zamanını bildirir. Tıpkı perdadarın izin verilince insanları sultanın huzuruna çıkardığı gibi. İmamlar için "Allâh'ın veziridir" buyurulması da aynı şekilde bir misaldir. İnsanlar namaz kılarken onlara uyarlar, namazları onun namazı ile tamam olur anlamına gelir. Nebi (s.a.v.) buyuruyor:"Bir kimse, sadece Allâh rızası için yedi yıl ezan okursa Allâhü Teâlâ onu, cehennemin yedi çukurundan azat eder." Mâlik Resûlullâh'tan naklen şöyle anlattı: "Üç grup insan var ki, bunlar Kıyamet Günü miskten bir tepe üstünde dururlar. Bunları ne hesap verme düşüncesi korkutur ne de Kıyametin dehşeti üzer: 1. Halkı kendisinden razı olan imam (devlet başkanı). 2. Allâh rızası için beş vakit ezan okuyan kimse. 3. Râbbine ve efendisine itaat eden köle." (Ebu'l-Leys es-Semerkandi , Tenbihü'l- Gafilin s.329-333)

In dieser Folge von „Ganz offen gesagt“ diskutiert Stefan Lassnig mit den Hosts des Song Contest-Podcasts "Merci Chérie", Alkis Vlassakakis und Marco Schreuder, wie der Eurovision Song Contest von einer technischen Fernsehexperimentierbühne zu einem hochpolitischen europäischen Großereignis wurde.
 Anhand der ESC-Geschichte von den 1950er-Jahren bis heute zeigen sie, wie sich Kalter Krieg, Prager Frühling, Zypern-Konflikt, Jugoslawienkrieg, russische Angriffe auf Georgien und die Ukraine, sowie der Gaza-Krieg im Wettbewerb und in den Teilnahmeentscheidungen der Länder niederschlagen.
 Die Gäste erklären, warum der ESC offiziell „unpolitisch“ bleiben muss, aber in Wahrheit ständig von Weltpolitik, Boykotten, Senderregeln und medienpolitischen Entscheidungen der EBU beeinflusst wird – etwa beim Ausschluss Russlands und Belarus oder beim Umgang mit Libanon und China. 
Großen Raum nimmt die queere Geschichte des ESC ein: von früh queercodierten Chansons wie „Nous les amoureux“ über Drag-Momente, AIDS-Stille und Life Ball bis zu Páll Óskar, Dana International, Marija Šerifović, Conchita Wurst und der Ausstellung „United by Queerness“ in Wien.
 Sie sprechen über ESC als „Familienshow“ und queeren Safe Space, über Voting-Blöcke, kulturelle Märkte und nationale Rivalitäten, die mehr mit Popkultur als mit „Freunderlwirtschaft“ zu tun haben, und darüber, wie Social Media und TikTok das ESC-Publikum verjüngt haben.
 Die Runde diskutiert das Spannungsfeld zwischen Inklusion und Ausschluss: Soll man autoritäre Staaten und homofeindliche Regime aus Prinzip ausschließen oder sie gerade über den ESC mit queerer Sichtbarkeit und kulturellem Austausch konfrontieren?
 Zum Schluss verraten Alkis und Marco ihre Favoriten für Wien – mit Siegchancen für Finnland, persönlichen Sympathien für Griechenland und einem soliden Platz im oberen Mittelfeld für Österreichs „Cosmó“ – und empfehlen ESC-Fans ihren Podcast „Merci Chérie“ und die Ausstellung „United by Queerness“ als Vertiefung. Links zur Folge: Podcast "Merci Chérie" Ausstellung "United by Queerness" Buch "Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest" von Dejan Vuletic (Amazon) Podcastempfehlung der Woche: "Braune Kinderzimmer" Wir würden uns sehr freuen, wenn Du "Ganz offen gesagt" auf einem der folgenden Wege unterstützt:Werde Unterstützer:in auf SteadyKaufe ein Premium-Abo auf AppleKaufe Artikel in unserem FanshopSchalte Werbung in unserem PodcastFeedback bitte an redaktion@ganzoffengesagt.atTranskripte und Fotos zu den Folgen findest Du auf podcastradio.at

On this episode of Expanded Perspectives, Kyle kicks things off by recounting a recent trip he and Luke took to San Antonio for a horror festival—an event packed with eerie atmosphere, strange encounters, and plenty of inspiration for the unexplained.From there the show dives straight into a series of chilling listener stories. One woman shares a disturbing encounter deep in the woods of West Virginia, where she claims to have stumbled upon what appeared to be a clan of feral people living far from civilization. Another strange report comes out of rural Arkansas, where a witness describes a large, Bigfoot-like creature sneaking onto her property and stealing chickens in the dead of night.After the break, Kyle explores a far more unsettling corner of folklore and legend—the terrifying side of the world's little people.Most people imagine these beings as harmless figures from fairy tales: gnomes beneath toadstools, fairies dancing in moonlit glades, pixies darting through the trees like sparks of light. Across many cultures, these small humanoids are said to dwell in hidden corners of the world, quietly watching from forests, caves, and ancient hillsides. But not all of the stories paint such a gentle picture.Kyle examines darker legends of mysterious tiny beings reported across the globe. From the eerie tales of the Ebu gogoon the Indonesian island of Flores, to the clawed, nocturnal river creatures of Cuba known as the Guije, and the mysterious underground builders of Hawaii called the Menehune.Along the way, the discussion even touches on the real-world discovery of Homo floresiensis, the tiny ancient humans uncovered on Flores—nicknamed “the Hobbits”—and the unsettling possibility that some legends may have deeper roots in reality than we once believed.From strange sightings in Epping Forest to bizarre wartime encounters on the windswept cliffs of Orkney Islands, tonight's episode explores the darker side of a legend most people think they understand.Sponsors:IQBAR: Right now, IQBAR is offering our special podcast listeners 20% off all IQBAR products, plus get FREE shipping. To get your 20% off, text EXPANDED to 64,000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details.Show Notes:Glimmer Man Book: Cloaked Beings That Move Among Us

Pourquoi avez-vous l'impression de lutter contre l'eau qui vous pousse vers la surface à chaque fin de plongée ?Pourquoi votre ceinture de plomb semble-t-elle vouloir s'échapper à chaque descente ?Dans cet épisode, Lucie reçoit Sébastien Salingue pour s'attaquer à un pilier fondamental de l'aisance subaquatique : le lestage. Trop souvent résumé à "combien de kilos je porte", le lestage est en réalité une science subtile qui influence votre sécurité, votre consommation d'air et votre plaisir sous l'eau.

Hey “Everybody”! Estonia and Latvia were the first two new countries to win Eurovision after the EBU expanded its membership in 1993. As we get ready for the Eesti Laul and Supernova selection processes, “I Wanna” take a look at the Contest history of these two Baltic nations. Baltic Buddies Summary Estonia at Eurovision (1:03) Join the EuroWhat? AV Club (17:34) Latvia at Eurovision (18:45) Subscribe The EuroWhat? Podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts. Find your podcast app to subscribe here. Comments, questions, and episode topic suggestions are always welcome. You can shoot us an email or reach out on Bluesky @eurowhat.bsky.social. Join the EuroWhat AV Club! If you want even more EuroWhat? in your life, join the EuroWhat? AV Club on Patreon! You can join for free to get virtual high fives and a monthly newsletter featuring: previews of upcoming episodes, North America tour dates for Eurovision alumni National Selection dates Tidbits we can't get to on the main show We also have the EuroWhat? AV Club Podcast, a monthly bonus episode for paid members exploring Eurovision-adjacent TV, movies, books, and more. And if there is a season 2 of the American Song Contest... well... :::monkey's paw intensifies:::

In this episode, Dani Moreno and EmKay Sullivan interview Anna Gibson, one of the most exciting uphill talents in mountain running and now a newly minted Team USA Olympic skimo athlete.Anna shares her path into skimo, how her training is going and what it looks like, what it's been like navigating two high-level sports at once, and what her 2026 holds. photo: Owen Crandall ----

In this episode, Dani Moreno and EmKay Sullivan interview Cam Smith, a rare dual-threat athlete who's carved his way from Vertical K and uphill mountain running to earning a spot on Team USA's Olympic skimo team.Cam breaks down how long he has been eyeing the 2026 Winter Olympics, what it actually takes to make an Olympic team in a endurance sport, and dives into his history of injuries and comebacks these past few years. ---

Respirer sous l'eau, ce n'est pas "juste" prendre de l'air : c'est une compétence technique qui conditionne votre confort, votre sécurité et votre autonomie.Dans cet épisode, Sébastien Salingue nous rappelle la règle d'or : on ne retient jamais sa respiration à la remontée. Mais nous plongeons surtout au cœur du sujet : l'expiration. Quand l'effort augmente (courant, stress), le dioxyde de carbone s'accumule et l'essoufflement s'installe. La solution de Seb ? Baser son rythme respiratoire sur une expiration ample et prolongée pour bien évacuer le CO₂.Au programme de vos prochaines plongées :Outils de gestion du stress : respiration carrée, cohérence cardiaque et petite pause à 2–3 mètres pour s'équilibrer sereinement.Maîtrise de la stabilisation : utiliser le poumon ballast pour des micro-ajustements précis sans toucher en permanence à sa stab.Sécurité accrue : pourquoi privilégier le travail à "poumons vides" pour limiter les variations brusques et le risque de surpression.Astuces concrètes : gérer sa respiration pendant le gonflage de son parachute et ajuster son lestage pour optimiser sa consommation.Enfin, nous abordons l'importance de l'endurance et de l'entraînement à terre (marche, rando) pour une plongée plus fluide et moins énergivore. Que vous soyez débutant ou confirmé, ces conseils transformeront votre aisance subaquatique !

It seems that the EBU, Eurovision's organisers are willing to set themselves on fire to warm Israel so here we are. Nick and Ciarán discuss. This was recorded a few days ago so just check Ciarán's bluesky to here the latest ravings and rantings about the ongoing situation. HOW TO SUPPORT US: https://www.patreon.com/cornerspaeti HOW TO REACH US: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/cornerspaeti.operationglad.io Twitter https://twitter.com/cornerspaeti Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cornerspaeti/ Julia https://twitter.com/KMarxiana Rob https://twitter.com/leninkraft Nick https://bsky.app/profile/lilouzovert.bsky.social Uma https://bsky.app/profile/umawrnkl.bsky.social Ciarán https://bsky.app/profile/ciaran.operationglad.io

With the passage of the EBU's new Eurovision rules, Israel will be in Vienna while the Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia, Ireland, and Iceland have withdrawn from the Contest. We'll be discussing the fallout from the decision and figuring out how we'll be navigating 2026... Kerflooey Summary What happened at the EBU General Assembly Meeting (1:11) What is happening after the Eurovision vote? (19:16) What will be happening? (26:59) Subscribe The EuroWhat? Podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts. Find your podcast app to subscribe here (https://www.eurowhat.com/subscribe). Comments, questions, and episode topic suggestions are always welcome. You can shoot us an email (mailto:eurowhatpodcast@gmail.com) or reach out on Bluesky @eurowhat.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/eurowhat.bsky.social). Join the EuroWhat AV Club! If you would like to help financially support the show, we are hosting the EuroWhat AV Club over on Patreon! We have a slew of bonus episodes with deep dives on Eurovision-adjacent topics.

It seems that the EBU, Eurovision's organisers are willing to set themselves on fire to warm Israel so here we are. Nick and Ciarán discuss. This was recorded a few days ago so just check Ciarán's bluesky to here the latest ravings and rantings about the ongoing situation.

The European Broadcasting Union held their Winter General Assembly with two consequential votes promised, and somehow, only one vote happened. We discuss the countries that are returning this year, the countries who have dropped out as a response to the vote, and what exactly happened with regards to this year's General Assembly.This week's companion playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/22ZrVhSGLJLYUqDzLxCF8SIsrael's delegation lobbying against expulsion: https://www.ynetnews.com/culture/article/rjx22d1mwgKnesset advances vote to privatize KAN: https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-next-threat-to-israel-at-eurovision-is-coming-from-inside-the-house/ The Eurovangelists are Jeremy Bent, Oscar Montoya and Dimitry Pompée.The theme was arranged and recorded by Cody McCorry and Faye Fadem, and the logo was designed by Tom Deja.Production support for this show was provided by the Maximum Fun network.The show is edited by Jeremy Bent with audio mixing help was courtesy of Shane O'Connell.Find Eurovangelists on social media as @eurovangelists on Instagram and @eurovangelists.com on Bluesky, or send us an email at eurovangelists@gmail.com. Head to https://maxfunstore.com/collections/eurovangelists for Eurovangelists merch. Also follow the Eurovangelists account on Spotify and check out our playlists of Eurovision hits, competitors in upcoming national finals, and companion playlists to every single episode, including this one!

I veckans podd har Donald Trump äntligen fått sitt fredspris!Tobias berättar om sin kaosresa till Koala Lumpur.EBU har röstat om Israels eventuella deltagande i Eurovision. Eller? Har dom det?Vi ger (äntligen!) en uppdatering om Race across the world inför finalenTill sist listar vi tre fiktiva personer vi gärna byter liv med.Nu kör vi!Kontakt: hello@poddagency.comI säng med Tobias & Gabriel produceras av Poddagency Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Veckopanelen med Henrik Jönsson, Maria Wetterstrand och Daniel Suhonen under ledning av Staffan Dopping. Ebba Busch rasar om höjda avgifter för elnät, och allt äldre kvinnor föder allt färre barn. Anklagelser om trollfabriker haglar igen, SVT granskar Youtubemakthavaren Joakim Lundell, och flera EBU-länder hoppar av Eurovision när Israel får vara kvar i tävlingen.

Veckopanelen med Henrik Jönsson, Maria Wetterstrand och Daniel Suhonen under ledning av Staffan Dopping. Ebba Busch rasar om höjda avgifter för elnät, och allt äldre kvinnor föder allt färre barn. Anklagelser om trollfabriker haglar igen, SVT granskar Youtubemakthavaren Joakim Lundell, och flera EBU-länder hoppar av Eurovision när Israel får vara kvar i tävlingen.

Meta has begun limiting certain accounts ahead of the official start of the Social Media Ban on 10 December. Platforms that violate the law could face fines of up to 50 million dollars. Israeli media say Yasser Abu Shabab, a Bedouin tribal leader who led an anti-Hamas faction in Gaza, has been killed in Rafah. The European Broadcasting Union has confirmed that Israel will be allowed to take part in next year's Eurovision Song Contest. - 16歳未満のソーシャルメディア利用を制限する法律「ソーシャルメディア・バン」の施行まで1週間を切った今週、ソーシャルメディア大手・メタは、一部アカウントの制限を開始しました。法律が施行される12月10日以降、違反した企業には最大5,000万ドルの罰金が科される可能性があります。ガザで反ハマス勢力を率いていたベドウィン部族の指導者、ヤセル・アブ・シャバブ氏が、ラファで殺害されました。イスラエルのメディアが伝えています。欧州最大級の国別対抗ソングコンテスト「ユーロビジョン」の来年の大会をめぐり、ヨーロッパ放送連合（EBU）がイスラエルの参加を認めました。1週間を振り返るニュースラップです。

Meta has begun limiting certain accounts ahead of the official start of the Social Media Ban on 10 December. Platforms that violate the law could face fines of up to 50 million dollars. Israeli media say Yasser Abu Shabab, a Bedouin tribal leader who led an anti-Hamas faction in Gaza, has been killed in Rafah. The European Broadcasting Union has confirmed that Israel will be allowed to take part in next year's Eurovision Song Contest. Recorded 5 December. - 16歳未満のソーシャルメディア利用を制限する法律「ソーシャルメディア・バン」の施行まで1週間を切った今週、ソーシャルメディア大手・メタは、一部アカウントの制限を開始しました。法律が施行される12月10日以降、違反した企業には最大5,000万ドルの罰金が科される可能性があります。ガザで反ハマス勢力を率いていたベドウィン部族の指導者、ヤセル・アブ・シャバブ氏が、ラファで殺害されました。イスラエルのメディアが伝えています。欧州最大級の国別対抗ソングコンテスト「ユーロビジョン」の来年の大会をめぐり、ヨーロッパ放送連合（EBU）がイスラエルの参加を認めました。1週間を振り返るニュースラップです。12月5日収録。

This week I discuss the latest BBC study on AI answer quality from public data sources. As I discuss, the BBC and EBU found that 45% of news queries produce erroneous answers, so the reality has set in: public domain AI engines are neither “superintelligent” nor are they perfect. Yet they are very self-confident. So we, as users, need to be careful. As you'll hear, there are three things to consider here, and you can read more about this in my latest article on the topic. For those of us in corporate roles, the message is clear: data quality must be our #1 priority, and this is a whole new domain for HR and other service functions. Like this podcast? Rate us on Spotify or Apple or YouTube. Additional Information BBC Research Findings Interpretation of the Findings and the “polluted corpus” problem Claude's admission of the “polluted corpus” problem AI Thinking Skills You Need To Stay Safe (podcast) Galileo: The World's Trusted Agent for Everything HR Chapters (00:00:00) - The Lack of Trust in AI Agents(00:12:18) - Human Decision-Making in an AI World(00:16:09) - Third area of business re-engineering AI systems(00:20:19) - Crucial Data Source: Galileo for HR Data