If you’re a Mac user and are interested in podcasting, but haven’t yet taken the plunge, you’ve probably been a little bit intimidated by getting things to work. Though there are many great podcasting guides, most will ask you to spend hundreds of dollars on hardware such as mixers, external sound cards and so forth.
But while these things can definitely help improve your sound, if you’re just wanting to test the waters of podcasting but still want a reasonable sound, not to mention a reasonably entertaining podcast, there is a way that you can set up your Mac to operate a moderately robust show without buying any hardware or software.
The trick is to use freely-available software to give yourself the features that you need at the best price possible, zero.
For this example we’re going to look at a two-person podcast where the person is the host and wants to have a sound board so they can play intro/outro music and some effects as they talk. We will be looking at it from the “host’s” perspective. The idea is to get a very basic podcast going, similar to the one I record every week, the Copyright 2.0 Show.
The One Place to Spend Money
Most Macs come with a halfway decent built-in microphone so you could, theoretically, use it and get by. However, spending a little bit of money on a better microphone can go a long way and there are several good USB compressor mics that are reasonably priced and very easy to use.
Personally, I recommend the Snowball or the Snowflake mic, both by Blue. Though neither Mic will be as good as a good compressor Mic powered by a mixer, it is better (and more easily handled) than a built-in mic.
You can get a pretty good USB compressor mic for about $50-$100 and it’s a worthwhile purchase. Even if you don’t stick to podcasting, there are many other reasons to want to record audio.
What You Need
In order to make this setup work, you’ll need the following items:
- LineIn: A simple application that allows you to redirect audio from one source and output it somewhere else.
- SoundFlower: Adds two new sound devices to your Mac. Will be used with LineIn to redirect and combine audio.
- Mac Jingle Player: A simple cart player that lets you play sound effects and jingles on command.
- Garageband or Audacity: Use either of these applications to record your audio.
- Skype, Talkshoe, etc.: Some means of making a VOIP call that can be recorded.
Once you have downloaded and installed the software, you need to take a moment and install a second instance of LineIn. This can be done easily by just copying the LineIn file in your applications folder and pasting a new copy underneath a slightly different name (IE: LineIn2).
Once you have done that, you should have everything you need to get started.
Bringing it Together
Now that you have all of the software you need, including two instances of LineIn, you need to bring it all together. Here’s how to do it.
- Open up Soundflowerbed: The application will give you two new audio devices named 2CH and 16CH. Using the dropdown in the menubar, instruct 2CH to output to your headphones, usually default output but may be your USB headset.
- Open Up Both LineIn Apps: Set the first one to direct your microphone to 16CH and the second one to redirect 2CH to 16CH. What this does is direct both your microphone and anything set to 2CH to 16CH so that channel gets ALL of your outgoing audio but you are only listening to your sound effects, thus eliminating echo from hearing yourself talk.
- Configure Mac Jingle Player: Configure your cart machine, in this case Mac Jingle Player, to use 2CH for its output. This audio will be sent by LineIN to 16CH, along with your Mic, but will also be previewed over your headphones.
- Set 16CH as the Default Input: Finally, set up your Mac under System preferences to use 16CH as the default input. This way, when Skype, Talkshoe and your recording software pulls in audio from your system, it grabs it from 16CH, getting both your mic and your sound effects. Be sure to check that your application does not override this setting.
If everything goes according to plan, what should happen is that MJP will play through your headphones and be audible to the person at the other end of the call. However, your audio should not be coming in over your headphones though the person at the other end of the call should be able to hear it. You should be able to call, talk and play audio between the two of you with great ease.
Also remember that both LineIn AND SoundFlower will have to be running to make this work. Likewise, keep in mind that this is not meant to be complete and robust guide, you may have to play with these settings, especially the levels to get it to work and sound exactly right. This is just an overview.
Recording the Call
If you use Talkshoe or another Web-based podcasting tool, there’s no need to record the podcast as it is done for you (Note: It’s easiest to use the Shoephone client with Talkshoe for this). However, if you use Skype, there are several low-cost options for recording the whole call.
However, both solutions are subject to the quality of the connection, which can be very fickle. There is an easy way to record a high-quality podcast and edit it for free. Though it requires a bit more work, the added time and expertise is not great and the improvement in audio quality is easily noticeable.
Next time, we’ll discuss how to take your free recording and edit it to make it sound as professional as possible, while still working within a budget of $0.
