Blank (Media) Slate

A couple weeks back, Keith Hopper tossed out a tweet asking me to fill him (and the Twitter crowd) in on the tools I use to produce the DataPortability: In-Motion Podcast. Since it takes a bit more than 140 characters to list out the basic ingredients, though, I figured a blog post made more sense.

At this point I was going to launch into a diatribe about how I cut my podcast teeth 10 years ago as an Executive Producer for the New England Patriots. My thought was to provide some context for how I ramped that operation from humble beginnings to eventually producing 12 hours of audio content a day, contrasting the tools I used there and what I use now… but then I realized how incomparable the situations are.

So, without any more preamble, where’s what I use now:

• Skype (free account)
• Noise-Canceling Headset (US$25)
• HighSpeedConferencing.com Account (US$40/month)
• Acoustica Mixcraft 4 (US$65)

I use HighSpeedConferencing.com to record the shows because I’ve already got an account. I was turned onto it by Phil Wolff, Editor of Skype Journal, and have been pleased with it’s simple functionality (including Skype integration, call recording, unlimited participants, local and toll-free numbers around the world).

If you don’t need all the extra features, you could probably use SkypeCast, but then you’d need Skype call recording software whereas HighSpeedConferencing.com has an automatic recording feature.

Either way you go, once you’ve recorded your show (or individual segments), you’ll probably want to edit it. You might be able to get away with a cheaper MP3 editing tool, but I’ve been totally blown away by the simple, yet feature-rich, Mixcraft 4. While it is primarily a multi-track music mixing tool, it works just as well editing plain old podcasts. In fact, editing large audio files has zero latency - not true of other software editors I’ve used (but don’t take my word for it, give ‘em a try).

At the end of the day, you’ll have an edited MP3 file you want to share with the world. I then upload the files to my server and create the RSS formatted XML file (goosed with some specific iTunes tags). Finally, I registered the feed URL with FeedBurner.com so folks can subscribe to the feed with whatever podcatcher they support.

There’s a ton of nuances I’m leaving unsaid, but I hope it’s relatively helpful to see the tools I use. If you Google “how to podcast” you’ll find a zillion and one helpful tutorials, each with their own flavor.

Feel free to ping me if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.