This is the first entry in a series about podcasting, and the tools used in the process. In this series, we hope to demystify the podcasting process and show the wide range of tools and methods that different podcasters use to produce a show. In addition to listing the software and hardware used, a brief rundown of the work-flow for the given podcast will be provided. Delving into technical minutiae isn’t the goal here, it is to provide a window into the different approaches that are in practice.

If you haven’t heard, we do a podcast here which is aptly named, the CastMedium Podcast. We are fairly new to the podcasting community and are by no means audio experts, but we are going to start this series off with our own take.

Software:

• Skype (free)
• GarageBand ($79 iLife package)
• Audacity (free)
• Levelator (free)

Hardware:

• Blue Snowball USB Mic ($70) -Jonathan
• Otto OT-8 Digital Gaming Headset -Erik
• Sennheiser PC166 USB/ M-Audio Producer USB Condenser -Jon

Knowing that I eventually wanted to be involved in podcasting, I purchased the Blue Snowball almost a year ago after hearing many good things about it. It has proven to be a great value, and is one of the best places to start before moving onto a higher level mic. Jon and Erik usually use standard USB headsets, which are not ideal, but get the job done. Spending a little money up-front on a cardioid condenser mic is well worth the initial expense if you can swing it.

Workflow (total post-production time: ~3 hours)

1. Record local audio
2. “Levelate” individual tracks
3. Multi-track edit in GarageBand
4. Export and publish

In our case, Skype is the most important piece of software. Since Erik, Jon and I don’t live in close proximity of each other, we literally could not record the show without it. Although we use Skype to talk to each other, we don’t use it in the recording process. Instead, we each record our own audio locally. This yields higher quality audio and helps us avoid VOIP lag and other Skype-related issues, even if we hear them while conversing. This also allows for a cleaner editing environment, which I will get into later.

I use a MacBook Pro as my primary machine so I stick with GarageBand as my local recording software. Erik and Jon are running Windows and record their audio using an open-source piece of software called Audacity. Audacity is generally consider to be one of the best, free tools out there for recording and light editing, but it is by no means the only tool of its kind. There are many free audio programs available and it should not be too hard to find one that suits your needs.

At the beginning of a recording session, we mark our starting point with a clap. This helps when aligning tracks in the editing process. Once the recording is done, Erik and Jon send me their local recording and this is where the next piece of software comes in. Everyone is using different microphones on different machines, so the sound quality/volume of each recording is not uniform. To bring the recordings to a similar volume level I use a program called Levelator. It analyzes each track and brings them to the same peak volume. I generally run each recording through on its own before starting the edit. While this a little more work, I have found that it produces the cleaner results than running the final, edited file through at the end.

Since we have 3 members in our podcast, I edit in GarageBand using a 4-5 track set-up, with each person getting their own individual track, and a track for music and effects if needed. The mics we each use are of varying quality and this results in background noise being a constant problem. There is no easy way to eliminate background noise after the record, so the only solution is to cut the audio for anyone who is not talking at any given point. This proves to be one of the most tedious processes, so if you are not up to the task, you need to bite the bullet and make the investment in good mics up-front.

The last step is throwing the intro and outro music on a 4th track and export the audio to mp3. We encode in 96Kbs mp3, but 64Kbs works fine for many and will reduce your file size which is especially important with longer podcasts. It is a good idea to give your “final” audio a listen-through before posting, as editing/encoding errors occur all too often. All told, the production takes around 3 hours for our 30 minute podcast. Of course, if everyone has a good mic/headset, or you are comfortable with recording straight from Skype and doing a single track edit, you can probably expect it to take around 1/3 the time.

This is definitely not an ideal podcasting situation. It is always best to record together locally since you will not only reduce audio quality issues, but you can also cut down on the awkward silences/transitions that can plague Skype conversation, unless that is what you are going for.

That is it for the first installment of Casting Gear. Check back next Thursday for another entry in the series and we will see if we can make this a consistent, ongoing feature. Interest will make it easier for us to secure future participants, so let us know what you think in the comments, and spread the word.