Podcasting 101 Live Blogging from Boston Podcamp

The next session I attended was Podcasting 101 by John Walker of  themshow.com
He gave us an overview of the process, equipment, and skills you need, answering questions along the way.  His approach is definitely a few pegs of up from entry level and if you invest in the tools, software, and services it will run about $500-1,000.   This information is probably for someone who is burning serious about podcasting or after you've experimented with some of the techniques that Steve Garfield shared.  (In the afternoon, I sat in a session called "Gear Talk" by David Berlind who showed professional level equipment which is an even larger investment.)

There were about 30 people in the room, only about 5 were women.

His slides will be posted on the Podcamp wiki -- so look for them.

1.  Content is first!

Gather your ideas
Create a script - don't go free form or you might end up with a lot of ums and ahs.

General public is used to radio and clean stuff.

Original research or first-hand experience or something that is uniquely you as a topic.

2.  Record

Two families of mics
Dynamic mic - $80 SHURE SM57 or 58is top of the line- any $20 USB mic

Castblaster - can que up your audio files and sound effects - DJ tool.  SONY acid - express version only costs about $20.
Garageban is king for Mac.  PC - audacity for editing and record.
If you want to spend money, SONY has tools like soundforge.

3. Mobile Gear:
iriver 770- internal memory recorder.  Two headphone jacks. Dual jacks.  Podcaster's choice.  Don't buy the current Iriver.  Need a pre-amp. $50-60 - overstock.com has them.  Need to use dynamic mic. 

Marantz - Field reporter's choice.  PMD660.   Adjust the audio signal and keeps the quality high.  Cost about $500.

Err on the side of too soft - you can correct it.  If it is too loud, you get a fry noise and you can't get rid of it.   Audacity or goldwave can help you get a soft audio louder. 

Use the telephone line with a digital device - telos one - costs money.
SKYPE recording software -  recorder and skype - competition for sound card and system resources.  He has had trouble with it so he doesn't use it.

4. Editing
Need to clean it up, make the sound sound great.
Soundsoap - post-producton - does noise reduction.  Program costs about $90.   Can do this with audacity but you need some technical skills and it doesn't do a good job.

General rule - fix the problem upstream. Less work to do it.  Have your chain be as clean as possible.

Tag file - append text information to the file.  You can do that within Itunes.  Drag the file into Itunes - and fill out the form and check podcast on format.   Important for marketing.  When it gets on a portable player, folks won't be able to find your show on their ipod.   Have a date or show number on the title first is a best practice.

5.  Posting and Distribution

Liberated syndication.
Now get it on the web.  Biggest challenge is bandwidth.  If your podcast becomes popular, you end up spending money.   Liberated sync - starting package if $5 per month.

Feeds - Important for distribution to pick up podcasts via Itunes and orther feedreaders.    This is the call of action - get people to subscribe to your feed.  Listeners that you have locked in.  You need this.   Third-party services will create your feed for you.  The problem is that you don't own your feed.  The most important thing is to own your feed.   Directory where you homepage is -- own your feed.  If you're going to manage your feed yourself - may be reason to pay $5 per month.  Libsync monitors what Itunes needs and fixes the feeds.  Otherwise, you'd have to do this.

Do you have to use Lib Syn blog software?  No, you can use it as a host.

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