CHARTING THE C’S 2010 Start Podcasting Today And be heard

What do you need?

You may not need any additional equipment to start EXAMPLES podcasting. If you have a computer and a All of these examples can be found on iTunes by searching for microphone then you have all you need. their names in the iTunes store.

GOOD PODCASTS Minimum 1. A.T.TIPSCAST Attipscast.wordpress.com Computer and a microphone or digital voice recorder: Christopher Bugaj hosts his own podcast on assistive technology. $0 - $80 He explores different ways to implement assistive technology in public schools. Typical

2. Stuff You Should Know www.howstuffworks.com/ stuff-you-should-know- Computer with consumer-prosumer software, mid to podcast.htm high quality microphone and portable voice recorder: This podcast is hosted by Josh $80-$500 and Chuck who write for the website How Stuff Works. It is a good example of a very simple 2 person podcast. Advanced

3. Radio Lab www.wync.org/shows/ Computer with professional audio recording software, radiolab high quality microphones and amplifiers, sound proof Lots of public radio shows are room, phone patch/recorder, and Radio quality podcasted. Radio Lab is a creative example of how to use portable voice recorder: $500 and up sound to tell your story. They also have a unique way of doing interviews.

PRESENTED BY JONATHAN CAMPBELL PACER Center CHARTING THE C’S 2010

HOW TO RESOURCES Software PLANNING AND RECORDING PC Audacity (Free): Free download from Recording Your Podcast http://www.apple.com/ audacity.sourceforge.net. This is a very basic audio support/garageband/ editor but it gets the job done. podcasts/recording/

Audio in Rich Media Propaganda ($49.95): More advanced and easier to use (Highly recommended) interface than Audacity specifically designed for http://www.apple.com/ pro/techniques/ Podcasting. richmedia/index.html

SOFTWARE HOW TO ePodcast Creator ($89.95): Multitrack podcast recording software with support of iTunes tagging and RSS feed Audacity tinyurl.com/ creation for hosting your own podcast. audacityhowto

Propaganda Mac tinyurl.com/proptutorial Garageband (Free): Included on every Mac (upgrades Epodcast Creator cost $79 as part of iLife). This program was originally tinyurl.com/epodcast created to record music but now has a built in podcasting Adobe Premiere Pro studio that includes royalty free jingles and effects. It is www.adobe.com/support/ well rounded and can meet almost any need. premiere

Garageband Audacity ($Free): See above. www.apple.com/ findouthow/music/ Also check the help menu Übercaster ($79.95): Advanced Podcasting software that lets you create audio templates, record online chats (such Übercaster Check help menu for tutorials as Skype or iChat conversations) and more. and guides

PRESENTED BY JONATHAN CAMPBELL PACER Center CHARTING THE C’S 2010 Recording audio Guidelines for getting high quality recordings

Check your levels

All audio recording software will give you a set of bars the moves up and down when you speak into the microphone. You want those bars to be hovering around the middle to 2 thirds of the way up. Make sure that the levels never hit the top or you will get distortion! That means speaking in a constant tone of voice.

Record in a quiet area

Finding a quiet place can be harder than it seems. Avoid things that might make ambient background noise such as refrigerators, heaters, air conditioners, certain florescent lighting, and of course other people. Also avoid large or empty rooms that might cause a small echo. This will give your recording unwanted reverb.

Background noise can be good

Background noises can create mood and help the audience paint a picture in there mind. But you have to be in control. Keep your voice recordings in a quiet place and then bring you microphone with you to places and record ambient noise you can add to your podcast. This will give you complete control over how loud and when the background noise is played.

Scripts are good but don’t over script

When some people read off a script it is obvious. Don’t be afraid of using an outline instead of a full script. Remember, this isn’t live so it’s okay to make mistakes, you can fix them later. If you do make a mistake then pause for a moment. Then repeat the entire sentence or statement again so that you can easily edit out the bad part.

PRESENTED BY JONATHAN CAMPBELL PACER Center CHARTING THE C’S 2010 I have a nice microphone but it doesn’t work with my computer

High quality stand alone microphones can offer you unparalleled audio quality, but there are two things you need to know to make sure they will work with your computer. First most high quality microphones use an XLR cable or have a 1/4” jack which doesn’t fit into your typical computer. You can buy an adapter from Computer places like radio shack but that brings us to the second thing you should microphone jack vs. 1/4” Jack know. Many high quality microphones use phantom power. What that means is the microphone needs some extra electricity to work properly. XLR Cable Adapter The little microphone jack on computers doesn’t supply that power so that means you will end up with poor or very faint recordings. To supply the power the microphone needs you will need a “audio interface.” These interfaces plug into the USB or Firewire port on your computer and supply the microphone with the extra juice it needs. You might also buy an audio interface if M-audio Fast Track USB Audio Interface you want to plug in multiple microphones to record at the same time.

Podcast Hosting Sites Free hosting with a customizable page. Built in submission to the iTunes Podcast directory. www.podbean.com

A simply and easy to use host with lots of features Blog posting is free but you have to buy a space upgrade for $20/ year to add Podcast audio www.wordpress.com Very popular site used by amateurs and professionals. Very customizable homepage. Can be difficult to submit to iTunes Apple’s MobileMe service is $99/year and integrates into Garageband and iWeb. Combined with the software you can www.me.com record your Podcast, create a webpage, publish it on the internet and submit it to iTunes. Simple to use software but you must have a Mac with iLife.

$4.95 a month for 500 Megabytes of storage space and a promise of high speed downloads for listeners of your Podcast. www.cyberears.com Cyber Ears also offers a 30 day trial of their services and offers marketing tools and technical support

PRESENTED BY JONATHAN CAMPBELL PACER Center