A guide to creating a podcast
A little while ago a friend of mine invited me to get into podcasting. I was happy to be asked to do something new but I had no idea about how to proceed. To be honest I only had the vaguest idea of what a podcast was and I had no idea about how to go about creating a podcast. So that is why I've decided to write this simple little guide for the uninitiated. How to podcast, free and easy.
First things first:
You need a home for your podcast.
I spent quite some time looking around at the available options for where to make and keep my podcast. I did the obligatory google searches and compared the pro's and cons. I arrived at a decision and elected to use podomatic.com as my platform.By all means choose your own, but you will find podomatic is pretty straight up. Although there is an option to go "pro" and buy greater access and space, the free option is more than you will require to get started.
Decide what you want to podcast:
The choices are endless...
A guide to keeping tropical fish? Or maybe a collection of poetry read by yourself? Whatever you can imagine you can podcast. There really is no limitation as such. Music will always be a popular podcast, a diatribe on legislative procedure in Botswana may be more your style but I promise you music is a winner! For me the choice was simple, A collection of Australian rock music from the '80s. Assemble and record your material:
An introduction to Audacity.
Once you have decided what you will be podcasting you will need to put it all together in one recording, convert the lot to the MP3 format and then upload it to your podcast hosting site.Audacity would have to be the best free audio editing software available on the internet right now and you'll be hard pressed to find something better. Audacity is a free, easy-to-use and multilingual audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems.
You can use Audacity to:
Record live audio.
Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
And more!
Would you like to listen to an example?
A podcast I made.
If you like you can listen to A collection of Oz rock from the '80s, this is my own podcast which took me about 40 minutes to put together. It is far from perfect as I'm still learning of course but it is a good example of what you can achieve from the outset. The one issue I have with this podcast is that for some reason my voice was turned from a proper mono recording into a paired stereo track which makes it sound a bit off. The solution is that I will need to learn how to use Audacity a bit better to resolve this issue. Minicasts too!
A great Podomatic feature.
One of the great things about podmatic as a podcast hosting service is that you can make cool Minicasts.A minicast is a mashup of photo's and audio into a video. I've had really great results playing with this option and I would seriously recommend you give minicasting a go.
Please take a moment to check out my Minicasts, I'm pretty happy with the results.
Hakamike's Minicasts
- Hoodoo Gurus - I was the one
- From the 1987 Album Blow Your Cool, I was the one is just another song about breaking up and making up. What makes this track special for me is it carries through the iconic 80's pub rock sound and has the trademark Faulkner sound. If you don't or didn't own the album you will probably have not heard this particular track before, It was massively overshadowed by the hit single What's mt scene from the same album.
The guitar solo towards the end of the track is iconic Oz rock in my opinion. - Baby Animals - Rush you
- The Baby Animals were formed in Sydney in 1989 by singer Suze DeMarchi, drummer Frank Celenza, guitarist Dave Leslie, and bassist Eddie Parise. De Marchi had previously recorded threes singles with EMI in the United Kingdom, and before that had played with Perth bands Photoplay, The Kind, and DD and the Rockmen.
- Sunnyboys - Alone with you
- Sunnyboys was an Australian post-punk, power pop band formed in Sydney in 1980. Fronted by singer-songwriter, guitarist Jeremy Oxley, the band "breathed some freshness and vitality into the divergent Sydney scene". Their first two albums, Sunnyboys and Individuals both charted into the Top 30 of the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart
Read a podcast book
About Hakamike
by hakamike
Tradesman, author, technical writer, self confessed Blogaholic. Seeker of knowledge through ongoing self education. Alternate energy and sustainability... more »
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