Editor’s note: We said that this would be a Thursday feature, and that is still the goal, but here is this week’s special Friday edition of Casting Gear. The following text, unless otherwise noted, is written in-full by Derek Lavigne of Pixel Revolt.
Casting Gear is 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. -Jonathan
This week, I’ll be taking a look at the process behind producing my podcast, Pixel Revolt, which is a community-centric show which appears on Bitmob.com. As of this article, we have recorded 12 episodes, so we are still tweaking the way we do things, but this is our process as of now.
Hardware
- Samson C01U USB Mic ($119) -Derek
- Rock Band/Guitar Hero Mic (~$30) -Brett
- Plantronics Headset -Jeff
I’ve been podcasting now for close to a year and knew when I started that I wanted to do it correctly. I spent a little bit more than I had initially wanted to on a Samson USB condenser mic and couldn’t be happier with the results. Both Jeff and Brett have settled on (at least for now) lesser USB mics because I asked them to join me in the podcast on slightly short notice.
Software
Workflow
- Set up Pamela to record as a backup
- Record locally using Audacity
- Even out track audio using MP3Gain
- Edit and export using Cakewalk Sonar
Being that the three of us live in different parts of the country and each episode we have a different community guest, Skype is really the only option available to us. We began recording the show using a program called Pamela which allowed my computer to capture our whole conversation. However as time went on, we began hearing more and more audio glitches and decided to keep the Pamela recordings as a backup and move on. We started recording locally using a free program called Audacity. Like Jonathan mentioned in the first edition of Casting Gear from last week, we sync up our recordings by simultaneously clapping before we begin the podcast proper.
After we finish the show, Brett, Jeff, and our guest send their individual files to me. Before beginning any kind of editing, I run all of the files through a program called MP3Gain. This allows me to select a uniform maximum decibel level for all of the tracks, which helps alleviate differences in our recording hardware. This way, people with better microphones don’t come through louder and others don’t constant peak.
From here, I import all of the files into Cakewalk Sonar for audio correction. I listen to each of the tracks and make any initial adjustments to the overall sound to correct background noise or reverb throughout the course of the recording, especially since our new guest each episode is a bit of an unknown quantity. After this, for the sake of simplicity, I export the 4 tracks as 1 at a higher audio quality than the final podcast and re-import the new single track to a new project.
At this point, I insert our intro music on a separate track and start the content editing. This is the longest part of the whole process, as “the magic of editing” allows me to remove any awkward pauses and wildly off-topic rants. The second half of our show features responses from the community which often include audio submissions which are each inserted onto their own audio track and spliced into the show. After the editing is finished, I encode the show at 96kbps and quickly give it a listen for any large audio bugs before uploading to be served out on iTunes.
Our podcasting situation is a bit of an odd one, as not only do we not record in person, but the three of us have only met once. Obviously, as Jonathan mentioned last week, this is not an ideal situation and I hope to one day be able to do the podcast in person on a regular basis.
Well, that’s it for this week. Check back next Thursday for another edition of Casting Gear.
