Create your own podcast
Step 1: Break into podcasting
Forget blogging: the hot topic right now is podcasting. If you’ve ever fantasised about hosting your own talk show, this is your chance.
Podcasts are recordings distributed across the Internet as downloadable MP3 files. Looking for a way to download recorded interviews to his iPod, former MTV VJ Adam Curry created a little application he called iPodder. But you don’t have to have Apple’s popular player to create or listen to podcasts. All you need to start your own is a microphone, some software, and the gift of gab. In fact, most podcasts are home-brewed, even though large organisations such as the ABC are offering them
Step 2: Tools for podcasting
Before you even get started with this project, we recommend that you have the following:
- A headset with a noise-cancelling microphone
- A portable MP3 voice recorder
- Podcasting software such as Audacity (PC; Mac)
Step 3: How to plan a podcast
A podcast can be anything: your political views, mock interviews with your pets, or something practical like a “live” trade-show report to share with coworkers.
Before you pick up the microphone, though, you should do some planning, especially if you’re not used to speaking extemporaneously.
- Listen to some of the more popular podcasts to get a feel for style and content. A good place to start is Podcast Alley or iTunes.
- Write an outline to help you avoid long, awkward silences in your show.
Once you have a sense of what a good podcast should be and have narrowed down your topic, you can focus on hardware.
Other than a computer, the only hardware you need is a microphone; the better the model, the more professional your recordings will sound. You can use the mic that came with your PC, but for better recording quality, you should invest in a PC headset such as the Sennheiser PC 150, which offers a built-in microphone and noise-cancellation circuitry.
Some of the best podcasts are “road diaries.” If you’re on the go, don’t forget to pack a portable recorder.
Many of the latest MP3 players have line-in jacks so that you can plug in an external microphone. (No, the iPod doesn’t have one, but theiRiver H320 does.) Just make sure yours can record at a decent sampling rate — at least 32Kbps for MP3 and 44.1KHz for WAV.
Tip: If you’re parked in front of a PC and don’t have headphones plugged in, be sure to mute your speakers. Otherwise, feedback could ruin your recording.
You can use a program as simple as Windows’ Sound Recorder to capture your podcast, but something a bit more sophisticated would be better.
One popular podcast tool is Audacity, an open-source audio editor and recorder. It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it includes a number of useful features and plug-ins.
If you want something even more podcast-friendly, check out Industrial Audio Software’s aptly named iPodcast Producer. This start-to-finish solution lets you record and edit podcasts, create Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, and upload the finished product via a built-in FTP client. It’s priced at US$249.95, but at press time the company was set to unveil a more consumer-oriented version, iPodcast Creator, for US$89.95.
Tip: If you decide to use Audacity, download and install the LAME MP3 encoder so that you can save your recordings as MP3 files, the preferred format for podcasts.
You can use a program as simple as Windows’ Sound Recorder to capture your podcast, but something a bit more sophisticated would be better.
One popular podcast tool is Audacity, an open-source audio editor and recorder. It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it includes a number of useful features and plug-ins.
If you want something even more podcast-friendly, check out Industrial Audio Software’s aptly named iPodcast Producer. This start-to-finish solution lets you record and edit podcasts, create Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, and upload the finished product via a built-in FTP client. It’s priced at US$249.95, but at press time the company was set to unveil a more consumer-oriented version, iPodcast Creator, for US$89.95.
Tip: If you decide to use Audacity, download and install theLAME MP3 encoder so that you can save your recordings as MP3 files, the preferred format for podcasts.