How Do I Podcast? Some Podcasting Tools

Posted by raj on 04/22/06 in How do I, Weblogs, Web feeds, Podcasting + vodcasting + vlogging

Services such as Feedburner and a number of podcast hosts are reporting that the number of podcasts is steadily increasing. With this popularity, there are new podcasting tools popping up. However, creating a podcast doesn’t have to be a high-tech, expensive production.

Believe it or not, you can produce reasonable quality podcasts for next to nothing, provided you already have a computer with soundcard. Here is a basic podcast equipment list, including software and hosting services:

Computer and soundcard. I have both a very high-end professional soundcard on an old noisy computer, as well as a default $100 soundcard on a quiet, fast new desktop computer. I was suprised to find that newer setup gave me the best signal-to-noise ratio (that is, best quality recordings).
Microphone. I’ve used $300 mics on my professional soundcard and old, noisy computer, and the resulting audio was of similar quality than using a $1 mic on my newer computer. I’m not kidding.
Headphones - optional, if you already have speakers, but highly recommended. In fact, it’s better to use headphones while recording so you will not run into feedback problems.
Audio recording/ editing software. When I had a full-blown recording studio, I spent a few thousand on audio software alone. Then along came Audacity, which is free, OpenSource, works with the VST plugins that were originally designed for the high-end audio recording/ editing/ composing software Cubase created by Steinberg Media. Audacity really is all you need for basic podcasting, unless you need to sequence raw audio tracks while composing music.
Weblog with RSS/ Atom web feed. Because podcasts are distributed via RSS or Atom web feeds, you’ll either a need a regular website with a custom feed, or a weblog - possibly one with its own domain. You can podcast from a free weblog service such as Blogspot.com (where you get a unique subdomain off the main domain name), but then you will have to find a suitable podcast hosting service. While there are free podcast hosts, they usually limit the quantity of disk space you use. Free blogging hosts do not typically allow you to upload files, so you either have to pay for podcast hosting, or use your own domain. Keep in mind that your bandwidth costs are going to go through the roof if you become ultra-popular. There is at least one podcast hosting service that charges you monthly by the amount of disk space you use, not the monthly bandwidth. (More on such services in a later post.)
Podcasting plugin. While you can simply include a hyperlink to each audio file in your podcast, it’s a lot nicer for your weblog visitors to be able to see a miniature MP3/audio player in each weblog podcast post, and just click “play”. Some web feed readers and web browsers will also support these mini-audio players when you browse a podcast’s web feeds. An appropriate podcasting plugin will make it very simple for you to publish your podcast files, and will tweak your RSS web feed to include an “enclosure” for each post that has an audio file. I may be wrong, but as far as I know, at the time of this writing, only the RSS web feed format supports enclosures. Which means that if your blogging platform generates only Atom-format web feeds, you may not be able to podcast. However, if this is true, my feeling is that this will be rectified soon, possibly with the new Atom V1.0 standard format.

One final way to create podcast audio content is to use VoIP client software. Some IM clients allow you to record a VoIP conversation on your computer. Others allow it, but require a third-party piece of software. Alternately, you can use a free service such as Audioblogger to phone in your podcasts. You’ll have to pay the cost of the phone call, but if you’re on the road a lot, you can speak your daily weblog posts into the phone, and the audio recording will be automatically published on your Audioblogger account, which can then be linked to from your weblog. At present, it seems that a few celebrities and semi-celebrities are the only people using Audioblogger, but that’s just the impression of someone who hasn’t set up an account and checked out the competition.

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