Podcasting (& Live Streaming) Tools:

When I say that I’m a ‘newbie’ to podcasting, I mean “I’m a newbie.” However, I am excited about the possibilities and potential that podcasting lends to my already established social media footprint. Plus it will give me a chance to re-live a portion of my on-air life from the mid-to-late 1980’s when I was a Mass Comm student at Texas Tech University at the on-campus radio station KTXT-FM 88.1.

So here’s another of my work-in-progress (WIP) blog posts, and I’ll update it as I learn more on the subject. I’ve read several things in blog posts by some podcasting experts like Jason Van Orden (on Twitter @jasonvo) as well as John Jantsch (on Twitter @ducttape). Both have recommended a free download called ‘Audacity’. At the writing of this blog post on the eve of 2010, there are several versions of ‘Audacity’ available; 1.2.6 as well as 1.3.10 Beta. I’ve downloaded both. I’m more familiar with version 1.2.6 in some previous non-podcasting experiences.

Both post from Jason Van Orden and John Jantsch (<<< you'll have to scroll down a little after you click here) had very useful information. From Jason’s blog post, I learned that you need a LAME MP3 Encoder to take the raw ‘.wav’ audio file created by ‘Audacity’, to be able to convert it to MP3 and be able to upload it to iTunes, etc. It also appears that MP3 files are much more “energy efficient”; by that I mean you can ‘jam more audio’ into a MP3 file than a ‘.wav’ file of equal audio length which will be much bigger in size in terms of kilobytes or megabytes. I could be wrong about this, but this has been my personal experience. Plus the LAME MP3 Encoder will allow you add the additional ‘info. elements’ you would be accustomed to seeing in any other audio file on iTunes and make you look more professional as an added bonus.

In reading John’s blog entry on the subject, it lead me to info. on Skype.com (which I’m very familiar with from days gone by) and Skylook.biz (which is an application for Microsoft Outlook). I really didn’t need the Outlook part of it, but it made reference to Callburner.com “if you just want to record phone calls via Skype” (but don’t need the Outlook integration). That’s when the proverbial light went off in my head (which seems to happen more rarely which each passing year). Callburner.com in conjuction with Skype was exactly “what the doctor ordered” in my simple little mind ‘for a podcast host and a podcast guest(s).’ Callburner.com also has a companion product called Vodburner.com for including the video portion of Skype if you’d like (<<< you can read more about it at this link). For now, I’m going to limit the use ‘Audacity’ to monologues and ‘in-studio’ guests until I can figure out some more of the ‘bells and whistles’ as well as how to be able to have multiple audio inputs into the recording stream (i.e., ‘bumper music’, etc.). If you have any ideas, thoughts, suggestions on that, I’m all ears!

I hope to be able to incorporate some of this new found knowledge into developing informative webcasts as well. Now at this point, I hope I haven’t confused you, but I’m going to leave it at that until I learn more on this subject and do some experimentations. I’ve also put some other useful links below on the subject that have helped me and I think you will find very helpful too.

Lastly, I’d really like to hear your comments and podcasting experiences in the area made available below so that we can learn more on this subject together. I look forward to your input and feedback.

– Other great info. in this post >>> “What is Podcasting”

– 10 Questions to ask during Podcast Interviews when Stumped

– Very Interesting Idea for a Video Blog with none other than John Jantsch as the guest.

– Here’s an interesting ‘case study’ on using ‘Skype for Business.’

– Skype Coming to HDTVs for Video Calls from the Couch

– How To Start Your Own Internet Talk Show

– Skype Introduces 10-Way Video Calling

– Also try ‘Power Gramo’ to record Skype calls

– ‘Smart PC Recorder’ save all kinds of sound(s) on your computer into ‘mp3/wma files’

– The Smarter Faster Cheaper Guide To Online Video Tools

– Where do you find ‘voice talent’?

– Bumper Music – Find exactly the music you’re looking for to use in videos, podcasts and more using…

…Free option >>> dig.ccMixter Music Discovery tool
…Small Annual Fee option >>> MusicBakery.com
…Royalty-Free Music, Stock Music, Sound Effects >>> AudioJungle.net, Shockwave-Sound.com, MusicAlley.com, iStockPhoto.com, SoundSnap.com AND StockMusic.net

– Background music and sound effects – Free is good

– More Sound/Wave Files @ FreeSound.org

– Free, Eye-catching Screen Effects – OmniDazzle

– Video Clips and Transitions – Flowtility.com

– (Royalty) Free Stock Footage

– Are you allowed to use popular music in your YouTube videos?

– YouTube begins trial of new live streaming platform

– Two-way interview with Skype and Wirecast

– Complete (Video) Training for Screenflow for Mac

Below is a sample of the Wirecast software capabilities. Above is a link to a great tutorial using Wirecast & Skype simultaneously.
(Finding Chroma Key Backgrounds for Wirecast)

This article will give you some insight into Cliff Ravenscraft’s knowledge on the subject matter of podcasting…he’s a real pro!!!

Here’s a link to his website

Watch this YouTube video below too…Cliff gives some pretty compelling business reasons to consider podcasting…plus, he’s a podcasting consultant and can help you get started:

One of Cliff’s students, Pat Flynn, does a great 6 part podcasting how-to’s…here’s the first video, then there are 5 others you can find by searching YouTube:

***Royalty-Free videos from Videohive.net as well as how-to videos on software programs like Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects, Photoshop and much, much more can be found at Lynda.com***