How to Podcast - University of Arizona
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1. E EE eee Bowo ii ie n case you haven t noticed we re in the middle of some hard economic times There s really no way to know how long this cur rent economic slump is going to continue or how deep it will ultimately get before the choppy waters begin to recede But one thing s for sure it s not a bad idea to revisit what you do and how you do it in order to better serve your own pro fession now and in the future No matter what your place in the music business begin ner enthusiast or profes sional it s vitally important to use every tool at your disposal to increase your visibility and potential You might be ask ing How can get my musical ideas out to a larger audience How can get more people to come out to the clubs to hear my band What can do to get more students and to create a better educational experience for them What can I do to help generate more income from my recordings How can get more session work drummagazine com June 2009 DRUM 73 There s obviously no single answer to any of these ques tions but a partial answer to all of them might come from podcasting In case you haven t experienced one before a pod cast is really nothing more than a short radio or TV show that s stored on the Net Many people listen to the radio or watch TV simply for its entertainment value Others access media to get news information on pr2. drummers to come study with you Podcasting software lets you combine different types of audio files and edit them individually making it a snap to have a song playing in the background with an informa tive voiceover explaining a particular concept or technical idea For example you might point out how cleanly and crisply the tom patterns come through the mix just as the fill moves from the verse to the chorus Or notice that mov ing between the top and edge of the cowbell really gives the Propaganda is designed from the ground up for podcasting 74 DRUM june 2009 drummagazine com wee em met ee ee eR BP ee ee eee ee ee eee ee ee ee eee ee ee ee ee ee ee eee eee eee eee impression of two different instruments Your students could receive these lessons automatically via podcast and could listen to them and review them anytime they wanted If you play in a band your fans would love to hear or see clips from some of your recent performances By getting your best performances out on the Web you ll strengthen your support base and quite pos sibly recruit new fans How about using the podcasts to highlight the group s newest songs publicize upcoming gigs or offer interviews with the group s members or fans As a private drum teacher you could create podcasts that feature different students from your studio Each podcast might include a short inter view with the student talking about his or her scho
3. mak drummagazine com June 2009 DRUM 75 PLUGGED IN ing podcasts on a somewhat regular basis Once a week will likely drive you crazy and con sume a lot of time A monthly program is a great way to Start It gets you some exposure and offers variety and your audi ence will get used to hearing from you on a regular basis STUDIO SECRETS ae ee r e e a ee When you post your podcast be sure to include complete and thorough information about your creation This way your podcast audience can quickly and easily find you on the Web It s a big virtual world out there and you don t want your pod cast to get lost in the chaos By Jake Wood e 76 DRUM June 2009 drummagazine com EE E e a a a a a a a a a a a ee ee He ee ee ee ee ee ee ee eee ee ee ee ee ei eee ee ee ee ee ee eee ee LL LL How To Podcast In order to create great pod casts listen to great podcasts A good place to start is on iTunes Once you open iTunes go the iTunes store and click on the podcasts label From there you ll be able to experi ence some of the most popular podcasts on the Net Listen to a few of them and take notes about what you liked and what you didn t like and emulate the aspects you feel would work well on your site Posting And Hosting As mentioned earlier one big advantage of a podcast is that your audience can sub scribe to future productions Software programs that bring podcasts to your com
4. ast a simple Voice Over E Music Bed w Audio Region Real Instrument Male Basic Male Basic 1a ry A simple podcast in the making with Garageband The voiceover is in the upper track and in the audio window while the background music is in the lower track Notice the effects that are available on the right side of the screen push of the Publish button will create the podcast and publish it to your host site If you have a Mac creating a podcast is especially easy GarageBand comes with all new Macs And if you re using an older Mac you can get the newest version of GarageBand in iLife 09 for less than a ten spot This one piece of soft ware will do everything you need When you first boot the program you can select a Podcast project and get to work You can import audio files add still photographs or upload movies into the pod cast Recording your voiceover material is extremely easy and like many audio editing pro grams GarageBand has a good selection of editing features and audio effects that can be applied to the project Once you ve got audio into your computer you ll have to do some editing Moving audio around the timeline is essential for a professional quality pod cast as is the ability to cut and paste audio tracks Other useful features to look for are auto matic or programmable gain controls for ducking tracks and creating special effects that can give your podcasts
5. ff your computer screen but teleprompter programs will also help you with your pacing and keep you relaxed and on track I ve had a good deal of success using a program called Videocue It s easy to use and includes features that can help produce video podcasts too Create opening and closing bumpers Short bumpers with a musical theme and introductory information can be very useful to the listener and help creates a branding identity for your podcasts For the optimal effect keep them short and focused And be sure to use original audio material or music that is free of copy right restrictions Keep your podcast limited to a single topic In this age of short attention spans and instant karma having a five minute podcast covering a single topic in depth is prefer able to a 20 minute session that bounces from one idea to another However if it takes 20 30 minutes to thoroughly cover your topic you shouldn t shy away from longer produc tions though you may think about breaking it up into a series of bite sized chunks which have the added benefit of hopefully keeping viewers coming back for more If your podcast Is going to include interviews plan your questions in advance and share the questions with your guest That way they ll be able to prepare and have a good expe rience with the process Getting into podcasting is making an investment in your future strongly recommend that you commit to
6. major com outer platforms you ll want to be sure that the software you re using supports a num ber of features that will make your creative process go more smoothly Look for software that s versatile enough to get source audio material into your com puter easily You ll want to have the ability to record from the internal microphone on your computer an external microphone a line in signal or directly from your com puter s sound card If you plan to include remote interviews you may also look for soft ware that can record an entire voice over Internet session You ll also want to make sure that the software can import audio files from a CD or mp3 Depending on the materials you want to work with having the ability to import WAV or AIF files will be very helpful One popular piece of pod casting software Is called Audacity While it s not the most full featured program available it does have a couple of things going for it For one thing it runs on all computer platforms For another it s free A brief Google search will take you to the Audacity web site where you ll be able to down load the program read the user manual and even work with tutorials that will help you understand the program and the audio editing process Another common PC pod casting tool is Propaganda More than a simple audio edi tor Propaganda is designed from the ground up for pod casting In fact once you ve created your podc
7. od ucts and services or to learn Net so that people can find it and subscribe to it What s It All About If you get creative you ll quickly discover there is an infinite number of ways to cre ate a podcast that will get you noticed and let your audience become more familiar with who you are and what you do Below are just a couple of examples that you might think of as a springboard for your own ideas about a particular topic that interests them Your podcasts can offer all of these things to your listeners What makes a podcast so special is the way that it is delivered to a target audience While it s possible to create audio and or video content to post on your web site as a reg ular file or upload to YouTube people who are interested in your information can choose to subscribe to your podcasts so they can hear or view your programs anytime they choose Whenever you add new pod casts your subscribers podcast program will feed the infor mation to them Working with podcasts is actually a simple two step process First you need to cre ate the podcast Then you need to post it somewhere on the Propaganda Foothall Freaks Yal 14 mmp OUT TO ALARGER AUDIENC If you teach private drum lessons you create podcasts to get additional information out to your students Short podcast lessons could be just the thing to keep your cur rent students engaged and perhaps encourage other
8. ol band program the kind of music they enjoy or even hobbies or other interests that they have along with drumming The podcasts could culminate with the performance of an etude song or exercise that they have been working on A podcast like this would serve to sharpen a number of important skills for the student as well as help your business The student would benefit by taking part in the experience of the interview process while the preparation for the performance portion of the podcast would be an important goal for which to prepare Chances are good your students would want to share this podcast with their friends and family who then might be interested in taking lessons with you or recommending you to their friends If you re a freelance drum mer podcasts could be a great way to get your playing out to a larger audience Your podcasts might include examples of your drumming in various musical styles or performance settings If you re a group drummer looking to work with a new band getting your drumming podcasts in front of the right eyes and ears might just lead to that perfect relationship The exact content of your own podcasts is variable and entirely up to you But the end result should be the same getting your information and your skills out in front of a larger audience Creating Your First Podcast To get started you re going to need some software While there are many programs available for the
9. podcasts and the largest number of eyes and ears searching through podcasts for interesting con tent It s really pretty easy and as long as your podcast doesn t contain copyrighted materials that don t belong to you or too many explicit materials it is likely that your podcast will be accepted into the directory Final Thoughts While the software and meth ods covered here apply mainly to audio podcasts video pod casts are getting more and more popular and easier to create would suggest start ing with a few audio podcasts before venturing into the video waters but certainly for some situations video podcasts would be the way to go Creating and publishing podcasts can certainly be a plus for any musician While getting started might be a little confusing you ll soon find it fun and rewarding might suggest that you search the Web for additional information There are a number of excel lent tutorials and ideas that can make your initial plunge into the podcasting world as smooth as silk In fact there are plenty of podcasts about podcasting Give them a listen and get going H SOFTWARE SITES AUDACITY audacity sourceforge net FEEDBURNER feedburner com fb a home GARAGEBAND apple com ilife garageband PROPAGANDA makepropaganda com VIDEOCUE varasoftware com
10. puter such as iTunes Juice and perhaps a dozen others will query your host location to see if there are any new pod casts If new ones are found the software downloads them immediately This query hap pens several times a day so when you create and post a new podcast your subscrib ers will be able to check it out moments after its creation You can house your podcast on just about any server but suggest you try out one of the services that specializes in hosting podcasts Online services such as Liberated Syndication PodBus Podblaze AudioBlog and others will not only host your podcast they ll keep track of the podcast s activity and offer reports on the number of subscribers and other data you might find interesting or helpful A great tool for creating your RSS podcast is called Feedburner Feedburner will manage your RSS feed for you RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it s the brains behind the subscription mechanism Feedburner was recently acquired by Google and according to their FAQ it s designed to help publishers promote deliver and monetize their content on the Web and make feed based content more accessible and manageable for its end users If you wish to get your pod casts out to the maximum number of people consider submitting them to the iTunes Directory Not every podcast is available through the iTunes store but it certainly has the largest inventory of
11. some sense of place and style There are several good podcast creation programs available each with Its own strengths and weaknesses Several of the programs have demo versions that you can put through the paces before shelling out any cash And who knows maybe one of the free software programs might be perfect for you Some Podcasting Tips You re a professional Try your best to produce a podcast that has an air of professionalism around it Get clean audio no neighborhood dogs barking or babies crying that s recorded at a strong enough level to hear clearly without any digital clip ping or distortion If your laptop s onboard microphone is giving you a crappy sound upgrade to an external mike with better audio quality Even an inexpen sive microphone could be a big improvement over a built in model If you plan to do a lot of voiceover especially while you re playing you might con sider a headset mike Write a script for your pod cast Until you re a seasoned pro don t try to shoot from the hip Reading off a script will help you avoid the annoying uhhhh passages that are sure to intrude once the red light comes on Although you can usually edit those out if neces sary you re better off creating a script to help you organize your thoughts into something that stays coherent and on topic If you want to go the extra mile highly recommend teleprompter software Sure you can read the script o
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