Podcast Equipment

[pablo]

What equipment / software do you use to produce podcasts? I personally use a PowerBook and a B.L.U.E. Snowball mic. I use Garageband to edit, tweak, add sound effects, and create music and stingers, and to add the XML information. If I do a video podcast, I use an iSight and Quicktime Pro, then edit in iMovie, and finish off in Garageband. Ben y Marina, I'm especially interested in what you use to record as you do a lot of mobile podcasts and your mics sound great.

[Ben]

Hi Pablo,
all the info on what we use for the podcast is available here:
http://www.notesfromspain.com/80/
Libsyn.com is great for storing and distributing, they produce the rss feed and have great rates for unlimited downloads per month.
Any more qu's just let me know.

[ValenciaSon]

Hi Ben,

How essential is to have editing software like Adobe Audition in order to record pod casts? Does it become more necessary if recording in an environment with a lot of different sounds to filter or is it necessary also in quieter environments with direct conversational dialogue as the focus?


Xao

[Ben]

It's not so much about the environment or background noise. The editing software is used to put together different snippets of audio recorded at different times, or to cut out bits that you son't want to include. For example if we record the first part of a podcast at home, then the next bit in the street then we will use the software to beld these together later, and maybe to cut out a loud sneeze or unwanted interruption. I hope that answers your question, Ben

[Alan]

but there is plenty of open source free software, so you don't need to spend.

[ValenciaSon]

Hi Alan,

Can you suggest what and where for the open source software?

[JanesDaddy]

Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems More info, and download link at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

[Alan]

Yep, I would have suggested Audacity too. It's pretty good at what it does, which is plenty for podcasting purposes. If you're looking at professional recording, the open source world is a bit behind the proprietary software. But then, there's a reason you pay a lot for it.

[gary]

Yep, Audacity is great and you can create mp3s but as far as I remember you have to download an extra little app to convert to mp3 (also free)

As pablo says Garage Band must be the ultimate tool - does it all for you, even enhanced podcasts where you have an image showwing (enhanced pc only viewable in iTunes but audio plays on any mp3 player)

Dont forget if you get a successful podcast online and it is downloaded by hundreds you are likely to get a massive bandwidth bill from your host - those of you that think you have unlimited bandwidth may be in for a smallprint surprise when you head towardsyour first terrabyte.

Lybsyn has a small charge and allow you to upload say 100mb every month but allow as many downloads of your podcast as necessary with no extra charge.

I think Ben and Marina use Libsyn for their distribution

[Ben]

yup, libsyn are great. Be careful with audacity and the Lame mp3 encoder - many podcasters now are using flash players like the one on our home page to play the podcasts direct (the 'listen now' button) - these require a certain encoding and I have heard that Audacity with lame gets this wrong - the result is that you sound like a chipmonk when heard through the flash player. I use Adobe Audition which gives huge control over the bitrate etc. We export the mp3 at 112kbps and 44.1 khz which works fine. Sorry for the geekiness... ;)

[JanesDaddy]

The chipmunk problem has more to do with the sample rate per se than with Audacity (which does allow for the bitrate to be changed). However the lame MP3 encoder seems to be a bit noisy for me.

What I end up doing now is recording and editing with Audacity, saving the result as an uncompressed .wav file, then using another free app (CDex (http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdexos/)) to compress to MP3. The result is a very clean-sounding file.

To avoid the chipmunk effect (http://www.podcastalley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6777&highlight=chipmonk) encode at 44.1, 22.05 or 11.025 kHz (http://www.odeo.com/help/faq#high-speed-playback)

[Brian]

I've really been blown away by the excellent quality that the iRiver gets, and I really enjoy the binaural mic. In headphones it gives a full stereo environment, excellent for picking up those background noises. Often, I've been listening on my iPod during jogs, and the birds, scooters, and cars passing by on the podcast sound so real, that I find myself looking over my shoulder to avoid some teen on a Vespa.

[ValenciaSon]

Has anyone heard or know of M-Audio's Podcast Factory? I guess you could call it "podcast in a box" because it has everything you need (HW, SW) for creating podcasts. Seems like a deal at $180. What do you think?

[Ben]

You can see it here (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/PodcastFactory-main.html)
I have no idea, I'm sure it would work fine... Another place you may find someone that has actually used it is the forums at Podcast Alley (http://www.podcastalley.com/forum/index.php)