Advice for Starting a Podcast....

[blairh]

Hey guys,

So after some years of contemplation, I'm finally going to start my podcast. I've found the right co-host and I'm ready to get this going.

I purchased the CAD U2 headphones a few years ago when I was going to start this but never did. I just purchased a second pair for my co-host.

I really could use your suggestions/help with how to move forward. I'll be recording the podcast with my 2011 MBA. I was planning on using Garageband but have refrained from doing my homework to see what you all thought first. I don't plan/want to edit the podcast. I just want to hit record and hit stop. We will be recording in a very quiet setting. I also want to be able to play the first 90 seconds of a song to start the podcast and 90 seconds of the same song to end the show. I'd like to record these two 90 second portions contained within the podcast itself, nothing in post.

Ideally I'd like your suggestions on a program to use and anything else you deem useful (bitrate for example). The show will most likely be (at the most) 2 hours per episode, once a week.

Thanks in advance for your help!

(P.S. I also want to be able to upload each show not only on iTunes of course but our very own website. I want the website to be as simple as possible. (Think Tumblr/Wordpress.) But it needs to be able to handle a potential 120 minute mp3 file uploaded every week. Any suggestions of sites that can do this would be appreciated too. Thanks.)

 

[ChrisA]

Hey guys,

So after some years of contemplation, I'm finally going to start my podcast. I've found the right co-host and I'm ready to get this going.

I purchased the CAD U2 headphones a few years ago when I was going to start this but never did. I just purchased a second pair for my co-host.

I really could use your suggestions/help with how to move forward. I'll be recording the podcast with my 2011 MBA. I was planning on using Garageband but have refrained from doing my homework to see what you all thought first. I don't plan/want to edit the podcast. I just want to hit record and hit stop. We will be recording in a very quiet setting. I also want to be able to play the first 90 seconds of a song to start the podcast and 90 seconds of the same song to end the show. I'd like to record these two 90 second portions contained within the podcast itself, nothing in post.

Ideally I'd like your suggestions on a program to use and anything else you deem useful (bitrate for example). The show will most likely be (at the most) 2 hours per episode, once a week.

Thanks in advance for your help!

(P.S. I also want to be able to upload each show not only on iTunes of course but our very own website. I want the website to be as simple as possible. (Think Tumblr/Wordpress.) But it needs to be able to handle a potential 120 minute mp3 file uploaded every week. Any suggestions of sites that can do this would be appreciated too. Thanks.)

About software. Use Garage Band until you can point to a good reason not to use it.


You really think you and your co-host are good enough to pull off a two hour show without even one mistake and get it done in one take with no post processing. Just figure it will not happen.

Also is you content really what good? Will people listen for two hours?

Any web site can handle a 120 minute MP3. Even if you used an older notebook PC as a server and ran it from your house. What makes it harder (and expensive) is the number of listeners you have trying to download all at once. It is the listeners not you, who place the load on the server. Are you expecting five people or 5,000?


I hate to say your goal is not realistic but 120 minute show done live with no edit? Why not start smaller. say a 10 minute show cut from about 60 minutes of material? Try that first.

OK, if you really must do this live in one shot with no edits then you certainly don't need any fancy software. You would only use the "record" and "stop" buttons followed by "save as..." you would not be using any other features. Even GB would be overkill. Then what you do is get a physical hardware mixer and plug in all your sources and then you recording engineer rides the levels and sues up the music and whatever else you need live. It is hard to pull off. Easier to do the mixing in post and then you can edit too.

 

[blairh]

About software. Use Garage Band until you can point to a good reason not to use it.


You really think you and your co-host are good enough to pull off a two hour show without even one mistake and get it done in one take with no post processing. Just figure it will not happen.

Also is you content really what good? Will people listen for two hours?

Any web site can handle a 120 minute MP3. Even if you used an older notebook PC as a server and ran it from your house. What makes it harder (and expensive) is the number of listeners you have trying to download all at once. It is the listeners not you, who place the load on the server. Are you expecting five people or 5,000?


I hate to say your goal is not realistic but 120 minute show done live with no edit? Why not start smaller. say a 10 minute show cut from about 60 minutes of material? Try that first.

OK, if you really must do this live in one shot with no edits then you certainly don't need any fancy software. You would only use the "record" and "stop" buttons followed by "save as..." you would not be using any other features. Even GB would be overkill. Then what you do is get a physical hardware mixer and plug in all your sources and then you recording engineer rides the levels and sues up the music and whatever else you need live. It is hard to pull off. Easier to do the mixing in post and then you can edit too.

I really appreciate your response however I'm a little puzzled by why you doubt my co-host and I could record 120 minutes of audio without screwing up once. The podcast is a discussion between two people about a variety of subjects we are very knowledgeable in. We also both have extensive experience both on radio and television. I'm not saying we are error proof, but no, I have no worries that we can simply record the podcast in one unedited file.

There will be no engineer or anyone else involved. We are simply recording directly into my MacBook Air using the headphones I linked in my initial message.

If anyone can add to the discussion and either give a vote to Garageband or another software, I'd appreciate it. Also any words about how to play the song at the start and end of the podcast without having to do it in post would be appreciated.

Lastly with regards to the website. I'm simply asking if there is a simple interfaced web service where I can upload large audio files (120 minutes at most). My belief is that something like Tumblr will not suffice. Also any words about bitrate or anything along those lines is appreciated.

 

[paolo-]

I'm not really sure why you don't want to add the track after the fact if you're not live? The only ways I can think for doing it with GarageBand would be very complicated compared to doing it within GarageBand. That's a very basic function of the software and you'll probably need to trim some silences at the beginning of the recording at a minimum either way.

As for storage, if you're hosting a website that's running wordpress or tumblr, you might be able to host it yourself fairly easily. Since it's mainly voice, your compressed file could be around .5 to .7 MB/second at like 96kbit/sec. Or 60 to 120MB per 2hr episode . I personally have 50GB of storage with 500GB transfer for 6$ a month. Otherwise, I just googled a bit and there seems to be some free content hosts but most seem somewhat dodgy. http://www.podbean.com/ Weird how you can easily find places to to host GBs of video but nothing for audio... Otherwise, you could use dropbox which will let people download the file up to 10GB/day before it gets flagged. Dropbox isn't really meant to be a content host but this might interest you http://nerdcast.org/post/4719670352/podcasting-using-tumblr-and-dropbox

I'm guessing you know what you're doing if you're from a radio/tv background but a 2hr show every week is a lot of content and it's definitely not something for amateurs and will require quite a bit of work. Anywho, good luck!

 

[blairh]

I'm not really sure why you don't want to add the track after the fact if you're not live? The only ways I can think for doing it with GarageBand would be very complicated compared to doing it within GarageBand. That's a very basic function of the software and you'll probably need to trim some silences at the beginning of the recording at a minimum either way.

As for storage, if you're hosting a website that's running wordpress or tumblr, you might be able to host it yourself fairly easily. Since it's mainly voice, your compressed file could be around .5 to .7 MB/second at like 96kbit/sec. Or 60 to 120MB per 2hr episode . I personally have 50GB of storage with 500GB transfer for 6$ a month. Otherwise, I just googled a bit and there seems to be some free content hosts but most seem somewhat dodgy. http://www.podbean.com/ Weird how you can easily find places to to host GBs of video but nothing for audio... Otherwise, you could use dropbox which will let people download the file up to 10GB/day before it gets flagged. Dropbox isn't really meant to be a content host but this might interest you http://nerdcast.org/post/4719670352/podcasting-using-tumblr-and-dropbox

I'm guessing you know what you're doing if you're from a radio/tv background but a 2hr show every week is a lot of content and it's definitely not something for amateurs and will require quite a bit of work. Anywho, good luck!

Thanks for your reply. Not really sure what you mean by this though:

"The only ways I can think for doing it with GarageBand would be very complicated compared to doing it within GarageBand."

 

[paolo-]

Thanks for your reply. Not really sure what you mean by this though:

"The only ways I can think for doing it with GarageBand would be very complicated compared to doing it within GarageBand."

Hahahaha what a comprehensible sentence I wrote there. I meant to say that putting in your song live would be very complicated compared to doing it after the fact.

 

[blairh]

Hahahaha what a comprehensible sentence I wrote there. I meant to say that putting in your song live would be very complicated compared to doing it after the fact.

Haha. I took 30 seconds to try to figure out if maybe I just wasn't getting it.

So I've just about decided that I'm going to record within Garageband. Seems rather simply to do so. Still haven't figured out how to play a song during the podcast (whether it be the start, end, or some point in the middle) so it can be recorded alongside the podcast itself instead of post. If I can't figure it out I'll just add it in post as you said.

I just came across a tumblr site that was the home of a weekly podcast, so clearly I can just use tumblr.

I think that's it. If anyone wants to chime in about an easy way to create cover art to put up on iTunes, etc, I'm all ears. And if I have any additional questions I will let you all know. Thank you.

 

[blairh]

A quick but accurate answer would be appreciated. Can I use copyrighted music in my podcast and if so, in what regard? Does their need to be a time limit? (Say 30 seconds to start and end the show?)