Production Tips
How to Successfully Record a Podcast
Programs:
- Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) open source and platform independent
- GarageBand (http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/) free with Mac OS
To produce the raw sound file, the program you use to do the initial recording isn't that important, as long as the recording is saved in the program's native file type (this is so you can go back and edit the file if required) at the highest quality.
The next step is to convert the raw sound file to MP3. To do this there are a couple of steps that need to be followed. In the program you are using make sure that you set the MP3 export settings as follows:
Adjust the bit rate value, the lower the bit rate the lower the quality and the smaller the file size. Choose the bit rate that suits your Podcast needs:
- 48–56kb/s Mono: lectures, audio books, talk radio
- 64kb/s+ Stereo: music, music & talk combinations
- 128kb/s Stereo: good quality music
To avoid the recording sounding like a ‘chipmunk’ encode the audio at multiples of 11.025 kHz: 11.025 kHz, 22.05 kHz, 44.1 kHz. This is because Flash, the programme that streams the Podcasts cannot understand other encoding frequencies.
An optional extra for exporting to MP3 is setting the ID3 tags. These tags provide information about the Podcast and are used by Audio Players such as iTunes to display the information you wish them to.
Now you are ready to export the MP3.