Last week, we took a look at how to set up a free Mac podcasting setup. This included the software applications needed to record yourself, use a soundboard and have a co-host or interviewee talk to you via Talkshoe, Skype or some other VOIP product.
But while getting the software in place to run a podcast is fairly easy, getting a high-quality podcast out of it is less so, especially when you are trying to record a conversation over the Web. Voice communication on the Internet is notoriously fickle and your podcast is vulnerable to slowed connections, lags and poor audio quality.
However, there is a way around it and it involves using a technique developed in the 1980s for television interviews. In that era, before satellite television was common, doing a long-distance interview was tricky. However, a low-tech solution solved the problem and has made a resurgence among podcasters today.
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.
When we think of blogging, most of us think of text and pictures. We talk in terms of reading and writing blog posts and articles. In addition, many of us upload pictures and photos to our blogs because we know it can add an element of interest, provide another hook to get visitors to read past the headline, and maybe even click a link embedded in the picture.
However, since the use of …
A few weeks ago I briefly talked about podcasts and the benefits of the medium, and Andy McDonald also wrote two articles on podcasting in a series on the technical details of putting together your own.
But what does it take to make it big?
“You have to take it seriously.” explains Keith Malley of Keith and the Girl, …
In the first article of this four part series, we looked at the technology and equipment you need for creating a podcast. We also looked at the software you can use. Today we look at how you should go about recording your first podcast, and the methods in which you can compress your recording, ready for uploading to the web, …
There are two schools of thought when it comes to creating a podcast: The “I need the latest and greatest equipment in order to capture that crisp, clear sound of the broadcasting industry” school of thought, and the “Hey, my computer came with a microphone, and I’ve got this cool recording software already installed” school of thought. Both are equally valid positions, and …