Podcamp Barcelona

This weekend coming is the Podcamp Barcelona and I will be doing a session there for Podcasting virgins. That’s right a beginners session for podcasting. I have been talking to the host person in charge today and we and not sure about the feasibility of doing a hands on session due to technical constraints but if it is possible then there will be some hands on.

I will be covering microphones you might use and how you use to get the best sound, software that works well to make a good Podcast, obviously I will be a bit biased there with being a Mac User. About how to get a Podcast hosted and put on iTunes. Why you might use a service like Libsyn instead of your regular hosting to put your content online.

With regards software there is of course the old reliable Audacity that does just about all you need and is available to All platforms. I have on my Ubuntu machine also. I will mention Levelator which is another free program. Personally I use Garageband to start with and then put it in Amadeaus Pro to do some wave level tweaking. Then I turn it into a WAV file to drop onto levelator to get the sound just perfect before putting it back in Garageband to enhance it and add jingles etc.

One of the things I like in Garageband is the way you can enhance your voice and have a software gate. What the gate does is to cut off some sound so that you don’t get the sound of a dog barking outside or a car going by but you do get the voice in full still but you have to get close to the mic to do it. So long as you use good mic technique to avoid the pops or have a pop filter in front of the mic you will get a great sound.

I will mention that it is good to get close to the mic and even get in an environment that will lose the echo that you find in some rooms. I know of podcasters that record in the wardrobe  or underneath a blanket or sheet. Just got to have somewhere that has soft furnishings.

I will mention about scripting and whether it is a good idea or even suitable for the type of podcast. Personally I make a script but leave myself free to ad lib and deviate from it if I want to.

Types of podcast – one person informing or chatting about a subject matter that he or she knows a lot about, two or three people talking in a conversation mode about various subjects. More people than that as a round table type of podcast perhaps with one person in charge so that participants are not talking over each other. Video podcast with the host or host talking into a camera, either a web cam or a top quality HD machine, doesn’t matter, so long as the content is good. Then there is the screencast as per the Screencastsonline of Don McAllister for example.

Other news

Today I signed up with Wizzardmedia who are the owners of Libsyn and they have a way to upload video to multiple sites – I counted 19 of them in one go and it is with a partner called tubemogul. I signed up with all of them and I plan to do some video soon. I have already dome some video podcasts but lately it has been more with audio. Nice to be able to cut the time need to upload the content by using just one site. It seems that as soon as it realises that I have uploaded a new video into my libsyn feed it will spread the love and put in on other sites.