MFLE Guide to Podcasting Part 4 – Making Your Podcast Part 4.1 Equipment If you have stuck with me through films 1 2 and 3 then you are now, finally at the business end of this short series for MFLE. In the last film we looked at specific ideas for podcasts. here we are going to look at how to podcast. This film will provide you with a step by step guide to recording a podcast using a freely available audio editing platform called audacity. I will take you right from the downloading and setting up of audacity to the posting of your recording online. It isn't really as daunting as it all sounds. Before starting I am going to make a couple of assumptions: i) that you are reasonably computer literate (or you wouldn't be watching this would you?) ii) that you have an idea for your podcasting iii) that you have already prepared a script which is all ready for recording. So lets take this slowly: Step 1: Equipment. All you really need is a computer, a microphone of some sort and audio editing software. Most laptops have an in built microphone but this often picks up noises from the computer's hard drive as well as your voice. USB microphones such as this one by logitec are not expensive, USB mics are great because your computer will usually detect it automatically; or you can also use webcam microphones. Part 4.2 – Downloading Audacity
Step 2: Download and install audacity from the website seen here. Read and follow the instructions given. Note the different versions of audacity for PC and Mac, so make sure you download the correct version At this time you should also download a little piece of software called an mp3 encoder. Audacity itself cannot create an mp3 file so you have to add on the LAME encoder. you only need to do this once. I recommend that you save the required file to your desktop, then it will be easy to find when you need it. Note again the different instructions for Mac and PC, and the differently named files needed for each platform. Part 4.3 – The Setup Step 3: Check your set up. before you start to record make sure audacity is recording from the right source, i.e. has it recognised your microphone. It's very easy to do this. 1. first open audacity 2. Click on the audacity menu and select preferences. (A slight warning here. I am using an apple to do this so if you are on a p.c. the terminology may be slightly different) In the audio I/O tab you should be able to identify and choose the device you wish to record with in the “Recording” section. Don't worry about all the other settings as yet. as they are not necessary for basic recording.
Part 4.4 Recording and Exporting Step 4: Recording. Once you are sure that the set up is fine all you need to do now is record. As you can see the controls for audacity are relatively simple. Click on the round red button to record. Click the yellow square to stop. Green triangle to play etc. So here we go... “...as you can see as audacity records it shows you the waveforms of the audio you have recorded. Whilst recording don't worry about making a mistake. remember audacity is an audio editor and you can cut out the bits you don't want and rerecord as many times until you are satisfied.” I'm not very happy with my recording because there is too much space at the beginning. Click on selection tool and then click and drag over section of recording not required. From edit menu select “cut”. This cuts the selected part and drops the track to the beginning. Those who were listening will notice the deliberate mistake I made in my recording. Find the appropriate part to cut. Select and cut. If you want to record many tracks you can name each individual track. You might also want to add some music, just as I have done in these films. If you have some music which you own or have the owners permission to use then all you have to do is import it into audacity. Here I am going to import the music that is in the background to all these films, which I composed in garageband and which I imaginatively entitled...mfle podcasting..hmmmm! Select project menu, click import and find the music you want to import. Screen will shrink ti fit whole project on screen. Adding music underneath makes a big difference to sound of podcast.
Ok so you have made your recording, now what do you you do with it. First you have to convert the audio file to an mp3 file. This is to make your podcast as accessible as possible, mp3 being the most widely used audio file on the internet. Hopefully you have downloaded and saved the correct LAME 3 mp3 encoder. Now you are going to export your file. Click on the edit menu and select “export as mp3”. Audacity will ask you to name your file and then, as it is your first time using audacity, an export mp3 message will appear asking you to locate the LAME encoder. Click YES and find the file on your desktop (if that is where you stored it). Once you have done this you don't have to do it again so you can rest easy. You have now created your first mp3 file. Part 4.5 Uploading to Typepad Step 6: You should now have an mp3 file saved somewhere on your computer. But how does this become a podcast. One option is to upload to a typepad blog. Firstly if you are using one of the typepad blogs through MFLE you can upload an audio file directly to your blog and you don't have to worry about storage space. To do this first create a new post on your blog, then click on the upload file icon in the compose post screen, browse to find your audio file and upload. Time taken to upload depends on file size and internet speeed. A hyperlink will appear in your post body. To publish click save at bottom of your post. Once you have finished and published your blog post your podcast will be available to download for anyone reading your blog. And as your blog already has a feed you don't need to worry about it being findable.
Part 4.6 Uploading to Podomatic Another option is to use a web based service such as Podomatic. Podomatic will host up to 500mb of audio for free and it allows you to create your own pages to promote your podcasts. To use podomatic you first need to set up an account. I just used my schools name. Once you are set up login and click on the my podcast tab. Then you click on “post new episode” and it brings you to this page which will show you how to upload your audio. As you can see with Podomatic you can also record directly to the website using a microphone or a webcam. Click “upload media from computer”, then browse to find your file. Click upload. Podomatic tells you the progress of your upload. Once your audio file has uploaded you then give it a title and a description. At this point you can also add a wee picture from your computer if you want. We won't do that at this juncture. The next step is to tag your podcast. Tags are words which kind of describe the subject of your podcast and they enable potential listeners to find it. If you have done all that you are ready to introduce it to the world by publishing it. Voila. You are a podcaster. After that you can customize your podcast page and fiddle about with your settings. That is your Podomatic podcast. So now you are a podcaster. Where do you go from here. Well, find out more about making your podcast more pro on MFLE where there will be more details about how you can add music to your podcasts and generally jazz them up a bit. If you decide you are going to become a serious podcaster then there is another step you can take. In order to maximise the publicity of your podcast you could sign up to Feedburner to help promote your podcast.
Hopefully you found this useful and not too daunting. Once you get started I think you will find that making podcasts isn't all that difficult. Happy Podcasting.