Creating a podcast II

After posting two lectures and an interview prepared for classes I decided I was ready for the next step in podcasting. First I read a book about podcasting and learned more than I thought possible about creating and publicizing podcasts. The I had to decide on what I wanted to accomplish.

In my synagogue a recent college graduate sits behind me. His father is a friend and about my age. This young man created his own business to scan photos and create digital files for them. This is a way of organizing and a connection to what a cataloger does.

The book had a chapter on equipment. One can start with minimal equipment, a microphone and a program to record and edit MP3 files. My study is very good for recordings. There is no echo because of all the books and other sound dampening on the walls and almost no outside sound enter the room unless the window is open and the sound is loud.

Before starting I tested all my microphones. I have cheapo microphones that came with my computers, a small condenser lavaliere microphone, a high quality stereo microphone from Radio Shack, a Logitec USB microphone attached to a headset, and a Logitec hand held USB microphone. For my lectures I used the headset microphone because it produced high quality sound and didn't require me to hold it. All the audio microphones from the low quality to the high put an audible buzz in the recording. The sound is small enough to not notice if not recording the sound, but terrible for recordings. The USB microphones produced a high quality recording without any buzz. I used the hand held one because the recording system only allows input from one source. I do not have a sound mixing device. When the microphones are used for recording on tape recorders there is no buzz. Since I don't have a digital recorder yet, I was not able to test the microphones on one.

A next step would be to figure out the best way to record a phone interview and to purchase a digital voice recorder so that I am not limited to in studio interviews.

To produce this show I had to talk with the guest and tell him what I wanted to accomplish. I listened to him tell me about his work. After the recording we had about 19 minutes of material. I edited the file to remove the pauses, mistakes, and the "you knows" and "ahhs." This made the final product sound smoother and much more professional. I added my beginning and ending themes from music that I acquired the rights to and an additional four minute segment on Google and copyright. The final episode is about 18 minutes long.

Please make comments and send me about ideas for future programs. There is no schedule. I will produce shows when I have people to interview and the time to devote to the task recording and editing.

To listen to this episode, follow the link below:
Librarian's Lobby Online