Wizardgold

A Mac Fan Boy or girl is someone that will stand on the side of Apple whatever happens due to a love of the Apple Mac experience. The beauty of the hardware, the ease of use of the software and the fact that it is not Windows.
I am not quite a Fan Boy but I tell you it must be a close thing, I have just started a new web site called Mac 20 Questions. The idea behind it is to talk to Mac users and get a down and dirty view of how they spend time with their Mac.
There are loads of Mac fan sites where they talk incessantly about the Mac and the rumours about the Mac. There are sites that review software and talk about the rumours surrounding Steve Jobs. But there are not many sites that talk directly to users to find out what they actually do with the Mac on a day to day basis.
This is where Mac 20 Questions comes in. It is going to be a podcast in which I interview people and chat about the applications they use and how they use them. I should get a real world view of the, I think excellent Mac computer from the people that actually use them.

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.

I have just listened to the Spondicious podcast number Three on sites other than my own so that I could experience how it sounds and how it is accessed by listeners.

It didn’t sound too bad at all. So I want to make a note of my workflow of making the podcast. Partly to remind myself how I did it for next time and to let others know also.

I started with the script because I like a nice tight podcast. I don’t like it when you get a bunch of bozos in a virtual studio with no one really in charge and talking over the top of each other, repeating themselves and not have a proper direction.

The script is fairly loose though because at the same time I don’t like the sound of a podcast when it sounds like it is just being read from a script. The podcast can sound a bit dead and lifeless when done that way. So I read it as I go and make some of it up as I go too. If the off the cuff bits fit in then that’s just great.

I wrote the script on the iMac because that is where I have the best keyboard. I then move the file to the laptop and head upstairs to the studio. My studio is based around a Mac Mini with a G4 Processor in it. I have a mixer desk attached to it via a Griffin thingy which I connect to the USB of the MacMini. Then I have a studio top quality Behringer condensor microphone plugged into the mixer.

The microphone makes a huge difference to the process and when you are getting serious with podcasting you should try a few out and see which works best with your voice.

So today I used Garageband first of all because of the ease in making the preliminary recording. I say my bit and sometimes I get it wrong – I fluff the words and what I do is just repeat it over again. With Garageband I split the track where I have fluffed it and then move the mouse over the ends of the mistake so that I cut out the mistake. Then I move the better recording up to the end of where I did the cutting. When I have that take sorted I go on to the next piece of the recording.

I add jingles to split up the podcast so that my listeners don’t get bored with a long boring monologue without breaks. I hope it makes it more interesting and easier to listen to.

When I had all of the parts of the podcast recorded I listened to it from start to finish to see if I missed any bad bits. Then I moved back to the iMac with the recording and opened it up in AmadeusPro to convert it into WAV file. This is because the next software is the Levelator and it does just one thing and does it well. It is a normaliser on steroids. Here are the details from the download site.

The Levelator adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It’s not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It’s much more than those tools, and it’s much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler’s application window, and a few moments later you’ll find a new version which just sounds better.

Have you ever recorded an interview in which you and your guest ended up at different volumes? How about a panel discussion where some people were close to microphones and others were not? These are the problems the post-production engineers of Team ITC solve every day, and it used to sometimes take them hours of painstaking work with expensive and complex tools like SoundTrack Pro, Audacity, Sound Forge or Audition to solve them. Now it takes mere seconds. Seriously. The Levelator is unlike any other audio tool you’ve ever seen, heard or used. It’s magic. And it’s free

All you have to do is drag and drop the WAV file on to the levelator and wait a minute for it to do it’s magic. In the recording today the voice track was no where near the audio level of the music added as jingles. After the Levelator did its job it was all just perfect level wise. I was impressed.

Back in AmadeusPro again and I listened to it again and did a bit of tweaking of where I had extra sounds I didn’t want. like when I breathe in as I about to speak. It is not vital to do that but I prefer to reduce the level on those by select the wave in Amadeus and reducing the level on that bit by 10db. It is easy and makes me happier with the final result. I also cut out the umms and errrs.

I save the file when done in a format to get it back into GarageBand. WAV or AIFF or MP3 all do the job and all that is left is to make the podcast enhanced. I add pictures and links so that a person lisening in iTunes can see them and click on live links if they wish.

I click on share to iTunes or to disk and I am left with a file that has the m4a suffix, that I can upload to Libysn. Sometime I will also make an mp3 version so that my blog readers can choose to download that instead. Not everyone is able to use the m4a version.

Once uploaded to Libsyn I just have to make a post with the file embedded in it. The RSS feed is already linked to iTunes so that within a few hours it is findable on iTunes.

I get the link off Libsyn for the direct download and post it on to my Spondicious Photography Blog. I make a post with the Podcast logo and make the picture a link to the podcast. Just click on it to listen.

I then go to all the places where I promote the blog and podcast and post either a link or post up the actual podcast file.

Job done….

When Istarted podcasting I used my Mac Mini and I kept on using if for some time after getting my first iMac because it is so quiet in use. I now have a new iMac and still I will be using the MacMini G4 version to do the recording of the podcast. I have it in the rooms upstairs where it is quiet and all I need to do it to work out a way of damping down the echoes from the tiled floor. I can put a screen around me when recording and maybe put a bit of carpet on the floor. That will help things alot.

As for software I am going to try putting Soundtrack pro on the MacMini because I really like the control I have over the recording and editing. If not I will record using Garageband or maybe Audacity. Audacity is the closest to Sountrack Pro for the waveform editing but Garage band gives me the enhanced version of the podcast ready for iTunes.

The Microphone I will use is the Behringer B2 Pro studio condensor mic which I have on the end of a boom in a shock mount. The Microphone is connected to the computer via a Behringer 1002 mixer. Excellent microphone and a nice little mixer desk. I have just bought a Samson C03 U USB condensor mic for use on the main iMac computer in the office and I have heard very good reports on the C01 U which is the predecessor to this one. I did think about getting a Snowball mic from Blue, but in the end I went with my first choice.