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Looking around my studio, I counted almost ten different ways to record a podcast. Over the next few episode of Podcast Quick Tips, I’m going to be using each of these methods to demonstrate how you can produce a quality sounding podcast many different ways.
Recording with the H4n on-board mics about 7-10 inches from my mouth
First up is the Zoom H4n. This digital audio recorder is an amazing little piece of technology and really the only thing you need to record a podcast. You’ll hear how I use the on-board condenser microphones of the H4n to record this episode.
Coupled together with some post production, you can create some fantastic sounding audio. A little compression, a limiter, some EQ and a touch of noise removal can really improve the audio that comes off the Zoom. However, this device is powerful enough to produce a show without using any post production. It can even compress your raw audio file into the mp3 format for you.
If you’re considering attending this year’s BlogWorld, which will have an incredible podcasting track, make sure to use my promo code: PodRay10 on checkout to save 10% off the price of your ticket. And, if you purchase by May 15, 2012 you’ll save an additional $100 off the price of a ticket.
If you’re going, make sure you let me know so we can meet in person!
When shooting video podcasts, light is probably your most important factor.
Digital video needs light and often times, lots of it. You can help a bad video camera look better with a well lit scene or make your high end video camera look professional by knowing some basics about lighting.
Below, you see a screenshot from an upcoming YouTube video I’m working on where I talk about the 12 minute recording limit on most Canon DLSR’s.
In this lighting setup, I’m using a large window as my “key” (main) light, a small LED light for a “fill” light and I’m illuminating the background with a simple “can” light (a cheap aluminum tin purchased at any hardware store with a household bulb placed inside).
I’m playing around with mixing color temperatures (Kelvins) as well as using an extreme angle. Experimenting is a great way to find your own “look.” [click to continue…]
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Adding a mixer to your podcast studio will allow your productions to grow along with your show.
As you get further along in your podcasting venture, you’ll likely want to add in more capabilities such as Skype hosts and guests, more in-studio microphones, and built in capabilities for backing up recordings to avoid loss of your audio. Having a mixer in your studio allows you to easily add in these and many more features as your skills and productions progress over time.
On this episode I explain the many ways a mixer allows you to easily expand your studio’s capabilities and what features you might want to look for when choosing your first mixer or upgrading your old one.
There are many ways to create an .mp3 file. Some methods include creating an mp3 directly from your editing system including Audacity, Garageband and others.
My preferred method is to use the free iTunes software. This gives you a better sounding file due to the technology (Fraunhoffer (best for voice)) that iTunes is using to compress your audio into the .mp3 format.
The video below shows you how to setup your iTunes software for compressing an uncompressed file (.wav or .aiff) into the .mp3 format.
The settings shown are my preferred settings for audio only (mostly voice) for podcasting. You can change the bit rate to your desired setting for the best compromise between size and quality.
After properly setting up the iTunes software to create mp3′s, I’ll show you how to add in metadata to your file. ID3 tags are the information that helps identify your podcast episode within someone’s portable media player such as an iPod, iPad, or Android device.
This information will display each episode’s title, description and album cover art as well as any other information you choose to include.
I tackled another DIY podcast studio project today and I’m happy with the results thus far. This is a desktop rack mount which I’m calling the Podcaster’s Rack Mount because of it’s relatively small footprint. Designed to fit a mixer and one or two rack mountable pieces to meet the challenges of recording in a [...]
I’ve spent hours culling through all the video tutorials I could find to help you get a better understanding of specific audio production concepts. The videos on this page all deal with the concept of compression and help you understand how to go about using this effect in your audio editing. Underneath each video, I’ve [...]
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When you insert a link to a hosted audio file into Facebook’s link section above the status box, Facebook will automatically create an audio player. Below this audio player is a couple areas of information about any particular audio file you link to. They don’t make it obvious that you can actually edit the information [...]
If your RSS feed stops updating and you are using Feedburner, it’s likely that your feed size has become too large. Feedburner stops updating feeds when the size of your original feed is larger than 512 KB. This video shows you how to check the size of your Feedburner feed so that you can avoid [...]
Here’s a way to see if you have received any iTunes reviews and/or ratings for your podcast in different countries. There are 123 different countries with an iTunes store. And although you can’t purchase from countries you don’t reside in, you can see your ratings and reviews for each podcast you have in the iTunes [...]
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There are any number of reasons why you might need to convert a video from one format to another. In the case of video podcasting perhaps you need to make your file compatible to work on Apple devices or you need to take your original file created specifically for iTunes and make it more compatible [...]
