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Podcast Primer
By Scott Westerman -
Keener13.com Curator
And host of the Keener13 Podcast
With the growing popularity of podcasting, more and more people are considering adding their voices to the blogosphere. At the same time, the prices of quality audio production tools are coming down. So it's possible to create a good technical sound without having an expensive recording studio.
Having spent over thirty years in the business, we're happy to share some tips on how to create your own podcast quickly and efficiently.
The first law of podcasting parallels all informational media: Your show should be listenable. Like a good weblog, it should be current, relevant and entertaining. Begin by thinking about your audience. Who do you want to listen? What will make them want to listen? What will make them keep listening? In the Internet age, our attention spans are microscopic. Keep things moving, keep the energy flowing and shut up when you have run out of things to say. How long should your podcast be? Long enough to get your message across. Without the time and content restraints of commercial broadcasting, it's easy to throw all the rules out of the window, but remember that time is a person's most precious commodity. If you want them coming back, don't waste it. There is no real research on where or how people listen to podcasts, but we assume that folks will take us with them in the car and try to keep the Keener program long enough to cover the average commute. Thirty minutes or so is more than enough unless you have something good going on. There's another reason to keep it short: Bandwidth. Your Internet provider charges you for it and if your show takes off, every download will rack up a little more. And think beyond the iPod to other PDAs that are out there. We use an HP IPAQ with a 512 Meg expansion card, so file size is important to us. Conserve it when possible. We'll talk about ways to maximize your bandwidth conservation later.
We are creatures of habit. And listening to your podcast will become a habit if it's produced regularly. Adam Curry models the behavior with his Daily Source Code podcast. Originally, he produced the show seven days a week, until his wife and daughter pressured him to take time off on the weekends. I make the DSC a part of my daily commute and miss it when he takes a day off. We produce the Keener Podcast for dissemination every Saturday. With 52 programs to produce and day jobs to fulfill, one program a week is more than enough. Think about what works best in your schedule. If you are doing a brief program like Ken Rotkowski does at Kenradio.com, than a five day set might work. Go back to rule number one as you contemplate this and make sure you have the creative resources to make your program listenable every time it runs.
Poorly produced podcasts are painful to listen to. Make sure you have the right equipment and follow the proper production techniques so that people will be able to hear and understand what's going on. Here are a few tech tips:
The built-in microphones in laptop computers will work in a pinch, but since your voice is the key sound listeners hear, it's worth investing in a good microphone. It can be as simple as a 20 dollar Logitech desktop computer mic, or you can spend the bucks for an outboard mixer and a professional quality device. We have some pro stuff left over from Scott's years in audio production so we use a Rode NT 1 phantom powered mic into a Yamaha O3D mixer. But Beherenger, Mackie and even Radio Shack make excellent mixing equipment that can fit every budget. Many podcasters can get everything they need for a multi microphone set-up at Radio Shack for less than $150 dollars.
Most podcasters will use recording software that is available for with their computer. Adam does everything with the stuff that came with his Apple Powerbook. We use Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit Pro) which gives us multi-track capability and a variety of tools to make the program sound great. But if you need to, you can use the sound recorder that comes with Windows or one of the many free or shareware recording software packages out there. Make sure you save your work as an MP3 file.
The Audacity approach - One excellent freeware recorder available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux is Audacity. It has the basic editing and recording features you'll find on commercial applications and can export files to MP3 using the Lame encoder.
Watch your levels! The biggest complaint about public access television shows in the early years of cable TV was that the sound was terrible. Unfortunately, this is an issue with a number of podcasts, too. Make sure your recording levels are set properly by looking at the level meters on your recording device. If it's in the red, turn your mic level down. If your guest sounds softer, turn her level up. Try to avoid off-mic conversations. And if you are rolling in other recordings, make sure that the mix is right. If you are talking over music, keep the level low enough so it doesn't cover you up, but be sure to bring it up when you are done talking so that the rest of the content can be heard. Some recording software comes with a compressor/limiter that can put a final touch on your podcast. Comp/limiters lower the loud spots and increase the level on the soft spots to give the program a consistent volume. But don't use your comp/limiter as an excuse for poor level control. Experiment with different settings until you get the sound you want.
Here's where you can save some bandwidth. We record the Keener podcast at 48 kbps - 44,100 kHz monaural. That gives us a file that is small enough to conserve on file size, yet delivers a sound roughly comparable to an FM radio station. Many of the podcasts we hear are saved at smaller bit rates which give the show a telephone quality. Here are 4 examples of a 60 second audio clip saved at various frequencies and bandwidths. The song is I Love Kazaa by the Jacksonville Florida punk artist Stan Spacely.
128 kbs 44100 hz Stereo - File size 940 kb - CD Quailty
96 kbs 44100 hz Stereo - File size 705 kb - FM Quality
48 kbs 44100 hz Mono - File size 353 kb - FM Mono
24 kbs 24000 hz Mono - File size 177 kb - Telephone Quality
128 kbs 44100 hz Stereo is the standard bit rate and frequency that most CD rippers use to transform audio CDs to MP3 files. The sound is pristine and the stereo is excellent. Drop down to 96 kbs 44100 hz Stereo and you can hear a few artifacts, but the over all sound is still very good. Since much of the early 60s music was recorded in monaural, we use the 48 kbs 44100 hz Mono format to save a few megabytes. The quality is exactly the same as the 96 kbs version, but with one Mono track we the file size in half. 24 kbs 24000 hz Mono will sound familiar to many Internet stream listeners, it's what the audio sounds like on most of the CNN Internet video packages and is typical for college sports webcasts. It's telephone quality makes it hard to listen to of long periods and if you're listening in a car, you'll miss some of the content as it fades into the road noise. Our recommendation: If you're podcasting in Stereo use the 96 kbs 44100 hz setting. Drop down to 48 kbs if you're recording in Mono. The file sizes of the examples above don't necessarily multiply as the length increases. Overall file size is dependent on the sounds that the MP3 codec must compress. Our experience with the Keener Podcast series tells us that a 30 minute program recorded at 96kbs - 44100 hz will require roughly 20 Megabytes in Stereo 10 if it's Mono.
When you load an MP3 file into a player like Winamp or Windows Media Player, the software can display information about the file. This metadata is a good way to tell what's on your podcast. Eventually, we're betting that RSS and or iPodder will have functionality to interpret MP3 metadata and incorporate it into the feed. The easiest, and cheapest way to include metadata is to use Winamp to write it to the file. Load the file into Winamp. Right click on it and select "File Information" The following screen will appear:
Fill in your information in the ID3v2 Tag form and click Copy to ID3v1. You're good to go!
Once you have produced your masterpiece, here's how to disseminate it.
Anyone who has ever read about file sharing on the Internet knows how the RIAA and the MPAA are going after unauthorized dissemination of music and movies. As podcasting grows in popularity, they are likely to turn their sites your way.
Rule Number One: If you plan to use copyrighted material, get permission. We're not lawyers and we recommend you check with one before you podcast anything that may be copyrighted. That being said, our research has found that the composer licensing agencies, BMI, ASCAP and SESAC all now offer reasonably priced podcast licenses and are eager to help you stay legal. That's step one. Step two is to license any actual recordings you want to use in your podcasts. It appears that you can do this at www.soundexchange.com. We've filed our paperwork and sent our checks and believe we are following the rules, but this is an evolving situation. Things may change and we intend to abide by the law. You should, too.
You don't have to do any of this if you are doing a podcast that doesn't use copyrighted material. There are also some who interpret the "fair use" provisions of the copyright law to allow use of brief segments of some copyrighted items. Get legal advice before you do anything that doesn't feel right. It's always a good idea to get a guest's permission before you use a conversation.
Once you have your product, you need to decide where to store it. Some of the blogging sites have options for saving files, but if you expect a lot of downloads, you want to keep it someplace where the bandwidth is cheap. When you talk with the sales department, ask about the monthly bandwidth that comes with your package and what the cost is if you exceed it. Here's a recommendation, try www.bluehost.com. These guys designed their hosting service for podcasters with a ton of monthly bandwidth and an easy to use interface.
Once you get a website up and running, set up a weblog with one of the
several free blog services. We use
www.blogger.com . The key is to use a blog service that supports enclosures.
Put the link to your podcast in the enclosure section and you're good to go.
Most weblog hosts automatically generate an RSS feed, that little orange XML
box, which people plug into their aggregator software. blogger.com requires
another free service, www.feedburner.com
to properly format the podcast enclosure for podcast aggregators.
Here's a good link that takes you step-by-step through the set-up process.
You can ping audio.weblogs.com
when you've added a new podcast and people who seek them out will find it. The
link is:
You can also go to sites like www.Podcat.com
, www.podcastbunker.com and
www.podcastalley.com and post
information about your podcast there. The Feedburner site also has some great
tips on how to publicize your podcast.
This primer probably doesn't answer all of your questions, but it's our hope that it has given you a good foundation for your own explorations. We'll update it as we get your feedback. Questions? Contact Us.
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