So as you probably already know, one of the ways in which japanese differs from english is the so called “active listening” component. Unlike english, the person who is being spoken to also makes noise pretty consistently.
I’m not an audio engineer, but I’ve had a few friends who make music or dabble in audio recording. I was under the impression that two people making noise at the same time can really fuck up how something is supposed to be recorded.
How do japanese podcasters or talk show hosts deal with this?
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We do that in English too. At least most people I know.
>Unlike english, the person who is being spoken to also makes noise pretty consistently
Are you talking about [aizuchi](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/aizuchi-japanese-listening/)? I don’t think Jpn audio is mixed differently, we can clearly hear the aizuchi in radio shows and podcasts. Example [here](https://youtu.be/KMTM7rp2WoU?t=867).
I think it’s going to depend on a lot, including how it’s put together.
I’ve listened to some English pod casts where it’s my-turn, your-turn with no back channeling. I’ve also heard podcasts where it’s overlapped.
Some Japanese talk shows and radio shows I’ve heard have simultaneous back channelling, others might be turn taking.
Listening to regular Japanese talk radio, people who have the skills to talk on radio know how to ensure they don’t make too many “active listening” noises that overlap the other person’s talking and it sounds just fine. If a podcast host can’t learn how to do that, they are probably not going to have a very successful podcast. I don’t think it’s a sound mixing issue per se.
idk, I don’t think thats a phenomenon exclusive to Japanese. We do it in German too.
Not an audio person, but my understanding is that generally when podcasting you make sure to have a separate audio channel for each person, ie each person has their own mic. That makes it petty easy to edit out back channeling. I have noticed though in Japanese podcasts they’ll often leave the back channeling in.
A personal observation, but I’ve noticed Japanese media often takes the format of “one person explaining something to another person.” The person having things explained to them is tbh mainly just there to back channel. They may ask clarifying questions or give a more substantial reaction occasionally, but the explainer does the vast majority of the talking (ie Coten Radio, NHK’s ニュー試), whereas in English programs I’ve seen with this format there’s a lot more back and forth dialogue between the two people (ie Today Explained) or the “explanation” aspect is just a framing device and the “listener” basically fades into the background and is completely silent until the explanation is finished (Reply All, Land of the Giants). As a result, I feel like backchanneling gets left in a lot more in Japanese media where it’s often edited out of English stuff