The previous Podcasting Made Easy blog entry covered the overview of podcasting. Now come the specifics in making an audio recording, editing it, and posting it. This blog entry will get you through preparation and recording.

But first, preparation

You have as much variety in approaches as anyone else. But the most important place to start is to really know your content. Without a specific purpose, you will be wasting the audience's time and they will drop your blog/podcast and label your material as not for them. That is why it is important to focus your presentation to a specific topic and not wander around it. I prefer podcasts that are less than 10 minutes long. If it is much longer than that I need to schedule time to listen to it and then it becomes "work." Of course, if your audience really, really wants to hear that 3-hour lecture they missed on Thursday, then they are more committed than your site's passerbys will be in listening to it.

Some people are reluctant to get in front of a microphone without a script. Others like "winging it." It depends what makes you comfortable and effective. Personnaly, I "wing" topics I am very familiar with, using a simple outline to keep me moving along the path I want to take. I can always edit out any diversions later. For some very technical pieces, I prefer to script it out word for word to make sure I have all the details the audience needs and with the conciseness I've written.

Microphone choice

Once you know what you are going to say, you need to record it. Here, too, you have quite a bit of flexibility. The first you decision you need to make is to decide what microphone you will use.

There are many different kind of microphones in the market. Get the one which gives good sound quality and the characteristics are what you need. Omnidirectional microphones record sound coming from all directions. Cardioid microphones pick the sound coming from front and attenuate sounds coming from other directions. With a cardioid microphone you pick less environmental noise when you talk into it.

Cheap multimedia microphones are usually omnidirectional and will generally sound bad.

Which do you think has a better quality sound?

a. $20 mic-headphone combo
b. $100-500 microphone (cardioid or stereo)

The $20 microphone will sound like a cheap microphone. While OK for teleconferencing from your desk, that mic won't come close to radio quality and if you think about, you are really making a radio program. Your audience will expect a certain minimum quality. The $100+ microphones are a big step up and once you are in that price range will probably have similar results to each other.

I favor a $100 stereo microphone with a mini-plug that fits my computer's input jack without an adapter. The stereo mic is also useful since it is really two mics in one if I are recording with a second person on the other side of the mic. Then one of us will be predominately on the left channel and the other on the right.

A cardioid mic will probably need an adapter or a separate power source. If you want to stop thinking about what to get I recommend the Podcastudio USB (formerly Podcast Factory).

In one package you receive a full recording studio "out of the box" including USB audio interface, mixer, microphone, headphones, professional audio software and more. It plugs into your computer's USB port. Here is the company's site for more info. Just do a Google search for Podcastudio USB to order it, around $99 (Apr 08)

What recorder will you use?

You can record:

• directly into a computer
• using a digital recorder
• into a video camcorder
• into an old-fashioned tape deck

Letting a computer be your recorder

Most computers have a sound card and with that comes recording and playback software.

Your microphone could plug directly into the sound card or some will plug into the USB port. To hear the recording you'll need earphone or headphones.

If you have a headphone and mic combination, it can plug into your sound card jacks. One plug is for the microphone, the other for the headphone. If you have a headset with microphone and only one plug, it won't work. It is probably for a telephone.

Your computer's OS will have a control panel for Sound. There you can set the microphone as your recording input. Now your computer knows you want to use a microphone as a recording source.

Next, you need a program to handle the recording. I use Adobe Audition, but the free program Audacity (for Mac and Windows) is used my most of the millions of podcasters out there.
Since Audacity is full-featured and free, there's no reason for you to rely on the built-in recording software on most computers. They are very simplistic, provide very little editing capability, and save in one or very few formats.

Using a digital recorder

If you are doing field reporter-like activity, a handheld digital recorder can be very handy. Instead of carrying around a tape deck, you have a recorder that stores the audio in digital files on a media card.

This one, the Zoom H2, is the one I use for recording away from a computer and as a back-up for recording presenters that we are videotaping. The real reason to use a digital recorder is you get to transfer a file into your computer since the material is already digitized. It can also be used as a microphone for a computer. The cost is less than $200.

Using a video camcorder

It's a bit more involved, but if this is what you've got, you can use a camcorder as your microphone connected to your computer OR you could do your recording onto videotape and then have your video editing software capture the video/audio and then just export the audio portion into a file you can edit "audio only." As camcorders evolve and HDD (hard disk drives) become the standard recording format instead of tape, you'll have the material already digitized and like a digital audio file you will be able to transfer the file to the computer for editing.

Using an old-fashioned tape deck

Here you are back to a purely analog environment and you must be dollar poor but time wealthy to take this approach. You could record onto good ol' tape then hook the tape deck up to your computer's sound card and feed it in "real time." A 30-minute recording will take 30 minutes to digitize as it feeds into the computer. Digital recording skips the "real time" feeding of analog material to the computer.

Your recording environment

Here's where amateurs earn their amateur status. If they can get their "Testing 1,2,3...." through the microphone and into the recording device, they think they are ready to go. It's a lot like photography. A pro will fiddle with the lighting since "photo" (light) "graphy" (record) is all about light.

In audio recording, the quality of the audio will depend not only on the quality of the microphone, but also on its distance to the mouth, the energy of the speaker's voice, the room where the recording is taking place, and the lack of:

• air conditioner noise
• passing voices
• phones and alarms
• loud ticking clocks
• rustling of the script, tapping of the foot, etc.

Assuming you don't have access to an audio booth, try to find a quiet place with soft surfaces (carpeting, curtains, ceiling tiles, etc.). Add a piece of carpeting to the desktop surface to reduce sound bounce and reduce vibration for the microphone. Sometimes, I just wait for everyone else to go home. Or, I stay home (plenty of carpeting and curtains) and wait for everyone else to go to work or school to do the recording.

Next time....Recording and editing