Hi Ben/Al
First, let me say that this criticism is intended as constructive feedback to which I hope illustrates an issue with I am having with listening to the cast. Also, I am a really big fan of Al's work; I really dig his intros and outros. Keep up the good work Al!
But.
I am also having problems with hearing Al, not so much in a lack of volume but with large amounts of 'hiss' evident whenever his mic is turned on. This is especially bad in the car when the volume must be set higher than normal. As for which episodes have this problem, I must say all off the eps in the last year or so to differing degrees. In particular the previous Christmas episode (I think Mur was the author) was a good example of noise, hiss or whatever you call it. Personally it was that bad I could not hear a word over the hiss for the first 30 minutes then suddenly cleared up. Previous to this timeframe, even as far back as Mur hosting the cast there were little or no problems in this regard.
Some would say that this is a free podcast and that you can still hear the works spoken. At times I do forget this is so as the production values on the other EA podcasts are simply excellent, maybe I’m spoilt but it noticeable.
I don’t know exactly what the problem is but in my very layman’s experience it sounds like a recording made by a low quality mic/sound recorder or very low bitrate. Could this be looked at and fixed? I hope so, I’m even happy to assist with funding such an endeavour if required as I’m sure many others would be too.
Keep up the good work and thanks for bringing horror fiction to those who cant read traditional books
Cheers