Authentic British Cataclysm and Starcraft 2 commentary.

***I do not take requests, you can pretty much guarantee any 'can you do?' and especially 'you should' messages will be ignored***

People often say I make funny videos of those fancy computer videogame things. I reject all accusations that I am funny. This slander will not go unanswered.

This channel is currently host to World of Warcraft : Cataclysm beta videos and Starcraft 2 presentations, all of which are part of http://www.cynicalbrit.com It will in future also host LP, review and introductory content.

Cataclysm Beta videos - Commentated presentations of the new expansion content filmed on an official beta server.

I Suck at Starcraft 2 - A beginner's documentary and critique series, showcasing the typical mistakes of a brand new Starcraft player and teaching the viewer how to avoid them.

SHOUTcraft - A Full HD eSports presentation, designed to be accessible and jargon-free, hosted by Blizzard Shoutcast Contest 2009 winner TotalBiscuit

***AT PRESENT I AM UNABLE TO LIVESTREAM ANY VIDEO CONTENT, WHICH MEANS UNTIL MY INTERNET CONNECTION IS FIXED, SHOUTCRAFT REMAINS ON HAITUS***

Donations are accepted though by no means required or requested. If you do want to leave a tip for a job well done, that's entirely up to you, always appreciated and will be used to invest in hardware upgrades for higher framerates and better visual fidelity.

Paypal - totalbiscuit@gmail.com

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People often ask about my setup and methods, so here it is Feel free to use any of this information as you see fit. Info is provided as is and should not be construed as a recommandation or endorsement. This setup is non-ideal so please don't blame me if you end up buying things like this and complain they don't work as you wish them too. If you want actual advice on new hardware/audio equipment I can provide it, but please send me a private message for that.

WoW recordings use the same methodology as ISS2.

*Recording methodology*

For ISS2, I record in 720p with FRAPs at 30fps. I record sans commentary, put the footage into Adobe Premiere. I then replay the video while recording a commentary track over the top. Simple as that. It is not particularly time-consuming, actually the worst part of it is finding a replay that is interesting, then coaxing Starcraft 2 not to trigger the ATI Crossfire Bug that STILL has not been fixed after 3 months of beta. WoW and ISS2 videos are exported in h.264, 2-pass VBR at 3-6mbps bitrate with audio in 128kbps 48khz AAC format

SHOUTcraft is recorded differently. I have my mic and my Starcraft 2 setup on seperate soundcards. I have FRAPs record from the dedicated soundcard used for Starcraft 2 and I use my external soundcard, which is the best mic interface I have, to record the commentary. I record the commentary directly into Adobe Audition 3, while the video is FRAPsing. I ensure to assign the different cores of my quadcore CPU to each application for maximum effeciency. I FRAPs SHOUTcraft in 1080p at 25fps (maintaining 30fps at 1080p is a nightmare and not worth the hassle, if I had better hardware maybe I'd be able to pull that off). After the video has finished recording, I apply various post-production techniques to the commentary audio, including compression, noise-gating and normalisation. This is why the later SHOUTcraft videos tend to sound better than ISS2. It's also why they take longer to make. SHOUTcraft videos are exported in h.264 2-pass VBR at 10-15mbps bitrate with the same audio settings as my WoW and ISS2 videos.

That's basically that really, I use the following equipment.

Intel Q9550 overclocked to 3.6ghz
4gb OCZ Reaper-X DDR2-800 @ 4-4-3-15
2x ATI Radeon 5770 in Crossfire configuration, both overclocked as far as they will go.
FRAPsing to dedicated 500gb Samsung Spinpoint F3
Running Starcraft 2 off of Western Digital Raptor.
Recording audio to a seperate Samsung Spinpoint F1.

Audio equipment :-

Creative Professional EMU 0404 USB2.0 External audio interface.
Some random OEM external USB soundcard to record game audio, you pretty much can't tell the difference between an expensive and cheap soundcard for background game audio. An onboard soundcard would work just as well, but bear in mind that using onboard sound has a small performance impact on the system.
Electrovoice N/D767a Super-cardoid dynamic microphone (it's nice, but I'd never recommend this setup for someone since there are more cost effective and better sounding mics available, I just happened to have these on hand at the time). The mic is pop-shielded and backed with sound-absorbing foam tiles. Still not happy with the overall ambient noise level so I'm replacing the fans on my computer with something quieter.

Software :-

Adobe Audition 3 (basically the best multitrack audio editor I've ever used)
Adobe Premiere CS 4 (can you tell I like Adobe products?)
FRAPs

That about covers it I think.

British broadcaster and producer. I make videos and podcasts about videogames because it's hip to do so. I am not funny in any way.