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What exactly is Podcasting? A term that is a cross
between iPod and Web casting has created a ripple
around the globe. Podcasting actually refers to
audio files that can be downloaded and listened
to on any mp3 player, not just iPods. 2006 saw
an increase in awareness of Podcasting as mp3
players became more affordable and more people
discovered the ease of downloading files to them.
Andrew
Schlichting, Web 2.0 Content Manger for PRWeb
shares how to get started; what equipment you
will need and what to do once you have recorded
your show.
Recorded Live
January 5, 2007
Up Front Preparation: Podcasting
Equipment
Having the right tool to do the job is always
a good thing and especially when it comes to recording
audio files. Fortunately there are many options
for creating podcasts and Andrew knows them all!
Audio File Types & Converting
Them to Mp3
Episodes are talk shows, music, press releases
or simply conversations in the form of an audio
recording. Episodes are made up of one or more
segments and each segment is an audio file. However,
they do not start as mp3 files, so Andrew explains
what they are and how to convert them.
Editing Audio Files and Adding
Tags
There are many different programs that can be
used to edit audio files and in this segment Andrew
will talk about a few as well as explain the importance
of tagging your files.
Uploading, Distribution &
Podcasting Audio Files
Podcasting means the files goes into a feed that
is subscribed to but audio files can also be downloaded
other ways as well. In this final segment Andrew
shares what to do once your audio file is ready
to post.
http://www.prweb.com/
http://www.prwebpodcast.com/
http://301url.com/
http://www.anniejenningspr.com/podcastingpro.htm
Podcasting 101: Understanding the Basics & Getting
Started
Now that Andrew is no longer at PRWeb, Podcasting
is definitely on the horizon. He receives a lot
of phone calls asking what he’ll be doing
and how clients could work with him on Podcast.
Andrew also has a side business-a company called
Interlaced Media Group. Currently, he’s
working on his company’s website: www.interlacedmediagroup.com
In this show, Andrew Schlichting (a Web 2.0 content
manager) discussed the basics of Podcasting and
how to get started.
Segment 1
In segment one,
Cindy Turrietta, Todd Sarouhan and Andrew Schlichting
discussed how to prepare to podcast and what
you need to get started.
The first thing you
would need is some equipment. When Andrew was
setting up www.PRWebPodcasting.com, they went
through the different kind of equipment to figure
out what kind of microphones and recording devices
they would need to make sure that PR Podcast
was a success. Talking about whether software
is needed to run a podcast or if the software
is just used to edit the file, Andrew was of
the opinion that it depends on which way you
want to go about it. The method Andrew recommended
was to record on some sort of device. If record
directly onto your computer using a microphone,
you would need a specific kind of software. The
other option is using a micro-track recorder,
one of the various recording devices available
in the market. There are a lot of those black-boxes
available that can record directly onto a CD
or some other type of device as well. As long
as you’re able to digitize it so that it
can be used on a computer, you can even record
it on a tape.
Portable devices like iPods and
MP3 recorders also record files in a format that
is digital. However, most iPods record using
third party recording software that’s built-in.
That may vary from one version of iPod to another.
It’s great to use if you’re just
recording a conversation or you’re just
using it as a Dicta-phone. The recording quality
is good enough for that but if you’re trying
to get the low base and high treble sounds, it
might not be the best solution. You need to use
other types of devices if you’re going
to do a remote interview or something like that.
Among the hand-held devices available, Andrew
recommended the M-Audio MicroTrack. When using
this, people record by connecting a microphone
directly to their laptop computer to record interviews.
At the Podcast Portable Media Expo, almost everyone
was running around with those little portable
devices like MicroTracks. These portable recorders
are for about $300 to $400. With these devices
you can get some great compression starting from
128 Hz. You can also choose between the file
formats, such as MP3 or Wave file. The main difference
between devices is how you’re capturing
the sound. To capture the sound you can use different
types of microphones like Ribbon microphones
or Dynamic Microphones. Many people like to record
a better sound quality that they are capturing.
For instance, if you’re out and you’re
recording at a low kHz rating and there’s
a lot of natural sound, you’re going to
get a lot of digital hits later on while editing
due to the compression caused by the natural
sound. The quality of the sound you capture is
depends on the quality of the microphone that
you are using. Good quality microphones are able
to capture the lows and the highs easily.
Some
people believe that the best place to record
is to go into their closet and all the clothing
muffles the walls and it’s really good
to block out the outside noise. Anything to block
out that natural sound would be great.
You can
also record Podcast on Skype. It’s okay
to use Skype to report or to talk to another
person using Skype. However, when one person
is using Skype and the other person is on the
phone, you don’t really get the best quality
sound that way.
There is another device by Samsung
called the Zoom H4. It costs about $300 and it
is good for canceling background sounds. Apart
from this, another device called iRiver costs
about $50 and works pretty well. There are little
flash recorders out there that are under $100
and have really good quality.
Segment 2
In segment
two, audio file types, such as mp3s, were discussed.
However, since mp3’s don’t start
as mp3s, Andrew explained what they are and how
to convert them.
Whether or not MP3’s start
off as MP3’s or are converted depends on
the device. The M-Audio MicroTrack has the option
of recording directly in MP3 file format but
most recording devices record sound as Wave files.
When you’re recording these files, you
usually don’t want to record them in Mp3
because Mp3 files are highly compressed files.
If you want to record the widest sound, with
the highest highs and the lowest lows, then you
would want to record sound as uncompressed as
possible.
Cindy explained the difference between
a Wave audio file and an Mp3 audio file by comparing
a PSD Photoshop file and a JPEG image file. These
enormous multi-layer files that can be compressed
down to a JPEG photo file. However, when working
on small details like doing the red eye reduction
with a JPEG file, the computer does not understand
what you’re trying to do. This is because
in order to work on such small details in a photo
you need to have a file that is high in resolution.
If you are recording to your computer, you actually
need software to capture it. This is where software
like Audacity and GarageBand come in. There are
a number of other software that can be used to
serve the purpose very well like Final Cut and
SoundTrack. On a PC you have a lot of others
to choose from such as Audacity. All you need
to do is to search for “audio recorder” in
any search engine and you’ll see the variety
of software available. There are several free
ones as well.
When it comes to bandwidth for
hosting you want to make sure that you’re
compressing the mp3 files, which makes it affordable
for you to have the mp3 out there for multiple
people to download. You don’t want the
mp3 or any video file to be so large that if
it becomes popular, you end up with your web
site being shut down because you’ve exceeded
your bandwidth for the month. So it would be
a good thing to start Podcasting to watch your
server bandwidth, and take it from there when
you have a good idea. Regarding how you can monitor
your bandwidth consumption, it really depends
on who your hosting company is. Your best friend
would be your hosting service if the controls
aren’t readily available.
Whichever hosting
company you choose, you must make sure that they
have a large bandwidth available and that they
have a set up that can withstand large amounts
of traffic for downloading Podcasts. When Andrew
started PR Web Podcasts they were aware that
people have short attention spans. That’s
why he used to do about three to five minutes
of podcasts. However, now he has been allowed
podcasts up to twenty minutes long because people
who have been doing press releases told him that
there are some things that you just can’t
fit into small time slots so you don’t
have to restrict yourself like that.
Segment
3
Segment three dealt with editing audio files
and adding tags.
What makes an audio file a Podcast
is RSS. It is the difference between a simple
audio file and an mp3 or a collection of mp3’s
that you subscribe to.
Equalizing and leveling
is the industry term for content editing. It’s
basically to take out mistakes while talking
or recording like the UHMs and AHs. You start
by somehow getting the file onto your computer.
It’s easy when you have a digital file
and you just plug the recorder into the computer
and it just picks up the Mp3 or the Wave file.
But if you recorded using a tape, then you’ll
have to digitize it by rerecording it.
In order
to digitize and re-record, you need programs
like Audacity and Adobe Audition. Once the file
is on your computer, you can go through it and
look at the wave form and you can cut out the
mistakes. There are some things that are impossible
to remove like breathing sounds. If the recording
is done on multiple tracks, editing is easier.
Most of the equipment available records on stereo-
only the microphones differ. One microphone goes
to the left port and the other to the right port,
so you have two separate tracks that you can
then manipulate. Equalizing is manipulating the
audio to produce the best possible sound in terms
of clarity, not quality. Andrew gave the example
of a lot of crackling and fuzz coming from his
signal – his track. So you can change that
and manipulate it to take out that high end hiss.
You would loose a bit of the upper signal, the
different tones in his voice but you will gain
by getting rid of that annoying sound. It’s
like you scanned a photo and you find a hair
in it and in order to get rid of that little
hair you might have to blur something in the
corner.
For leveling there’s a program
called Soundtrack in which you’re able
to go through people talking alternatively- just
like in a conversation. If, for example, one
persons levels are a lot quieter than the other
persons levels, you would want to bring the second
persons level up. By doing that you would be
able to normalize the sounds. You can use Soundtrack
to do this. You could also bring down the first
persons sound by using this program. This is
a very time consuming process but there are some
really amazing programs out there such as Levelator.
In Andrew’s opinion, this is the dream
program for people. Regarding how to tag, Andrew
explained that when you’ve finished editing
the file, you want to make it searchable. In
order to do this, you may, for example, put the
Mp3 in iTunes. When you do this, you’ll
need to label the file so that people can find
it easily. You could also put definitions or
explain the contents of the file.
Segment 4
In
the last segment Andrew explains what to do once
your audio file is ready to post.
Podcasting
means that the files go into a feed that is you
subscribed to- but audio files can be downloaded
in other ways as well. You can upload the voice
file and distribute it so that people can download
them and listen to them on their portable players.
The voice files can be downloaded in two ways.
When using the first technique, you have to listen
to the stream within your browser. In the second
technique, you physically download the file.
In both cases, the files are being downloaded
but the streaming file does not allow you to
be able to access it offline i.e. it is downloaded
in the background but you can only run it from
that particular location on the internet. Andrew
gave the example of www.youtube.com and said
that you can look at all the different videos
but you can’t download them. In the video
world, there are so many compression types. You
can have an AVI file, compress it and put it
onto your website as a flash file. Again, you
can’t really download it but you can view
it on the site as many times as you want. The
same goes for Podcasting- you can listen to it
or have it stream but you won’t have the
actual audio file in your hands.
If you want
people out there to have these files and want
to enable them to remix it then you have to make
the files available for actual download and you
have to encourage people to take sound bits from
those audios and post them into their own Podcasts.
This would broaden the distribution. You can
also submit your RSS feeds to FeedBurner. FeedBurner
also throws it out to different aggregators and
helps a little bit. Obviously, getting into iTunes
is very important. iTunes is the aggregator that
you must not fail to use because it ensures the
widest possible distribution. It allows you to
upload your feed and allows people to download.
Everyone is searching in iTunes for something
they can buy, for example music files. There
are books on tape that you can buy as well. You
can also find “How To” books, Step
by Step guides etc. Andrew did the “How
To” Podcast on Annie Jennings and submitted
it to iTunes as well. There is a lot of good
information out there that you don’t necessarily
have to buy. The tele-seminar that Andrew did
with Annie Jennings was a series of ten, that
is, ten hours of Podcasting
101 from beginning to end. |
