*We’ll get the footnote out of the way. The Mac that you buy is not free, but once you have it, GarageBand is a part of the iLife suite that comes with every Apple Macintosh purchase. The other software that will allow us to record a Skype call to GarageBand is free.

GarageBand on the Mac is a great program that allows you to produce some very professional podcasts. That includes enhanced podcasts, which essentially are slides timed with the audio and are displayed on the iPod that you’re listening to the podcast on. Setting up a recording of multiple people is a matter of using an audio mixer and giving everyone their own microphone and recording it in GarageBand. However, if you can’t get the people all into one space, how do you record them? One way is to use the free voice-over-Internet (VOIP) service called Skype. Skype allows anyone with an Internet connection and a microphone to talk to anyone else on the Internet. You can talk to multiple people at a time.

There are two ways that a group of people can record a podcast using Skype. One is to have everyone involved use their own copy of GarageBand (or other recording software), and then edit all of the audio files (after emailing or uploading to a common space) together as one. There are many advantages to this method. Generally the recording quality will be better as you won’t have to rely on the quality of the Internet connection, which in turn affects the Skype call quality. You also have more editing control over each individual. The disadvantages are the editing after the fact. You need to receive all of the individual audio files and assemble them in GarageBand and make sure the conversation is synchronized. A very detailed overview of this method is written up at the Hivelogic website.

The other way to record a Skype conversation is the method we outline on our Digital Media Cookbook site. Essentially one person does the recording of all of the participants. One person serves as the recorder and editor. The other people just have to worry about getting connected to the Internet and be heard by the person responsible for doing the recording. Each participant will only need the Skype software. The editor will need GarageBand to do the recording, along with the Skype software. In addition, two other free programs are used to re-route and pass through system audio to GarageBand. Soundflower simply allows software to pass sound on to other applications. LineIn allows sound input devices (microphones or other line-in devices) to be passed through to recording software. The combination of GarageBand, Soundflower and LineIn allow the mixing of system sounds and live microphone input to easily be recorded without complicated hardware setups.

The recipe called Recording a Skype Call Using GarageBand, SoundFlower, and LineIn outlines the setup. This procedure was inspired by a post by Ahmad Humeid’s. Go to the recipe page to see the programs and links to get the software, as well as the screencast showing how to set the preferences for each program. Below we’ll quickly outline the settings.

System Preferences Input and Output

GarageBand Audio Settings

Skype Audio Settings

LineIn Audio Settings

Note the the “Pass Thru” button is enabled.

In theory you don’t really need to even own an MP3 player, let alone an iPod. Podcasting gets it’s name from the iPod (Start with the word Broadcasting, take out Broad and substitute Pod). It’s the idea that you are broadcasting to an iPod, but you are actually broadcasting to any MP3 player or even just a person’s computer through the web. It is also not LIVE broadcasting, it’s more like a magazine subscription.

Myth #2 – You need an iPod to listen to podcasts

As we said in Myth #1, you can listen to podcasts on any MP3 player, UNLESS, the podcast is ONLY available in AAC format from iTunes. Even then there are some portable players that support some AAC files (Microsoft’s Zune, Sony’s PSP, and the SanDisk Sansa).

Myth #3 – When I make my recording and save it as an MP3 file, that’s a podcast, right?

Well technically, no. Though many people say that they are recording a podcast, the podcast is actually the recording plus the backend mechanism that syndicates the recording. The ability to subscribe (using RSS) to this special type of broadcast is the reason we call them podcasts.

Myth #4 – Podcasting is complicated

It certainly CAN be, and to get very high quality and high production value podcasts takes lots of know-how. However, there are many ways to make it a very easy and enjoyable process (the satisfaction of broadcasting your production is VERY rewarding).

What you (and your subscribers) need:

• A web-hosting site (do a Google search for web hosting), or a specialized site such as Podbean.com (which hosts podcasts). Hey, if you are a UMW student or faculty member, how about UMW Blogs?
• iTunes – or other “podcatcher” – Here are instructions and a screencast on how to subscribe to a podcast using iTunes.
• iPod or other MP3 player, or a web page
• Microphone/Recording device*
• Recording software* (like Audacity)

*Notes: A USB Headset microphone we recommend – Logitech USB 350. If you’re using a Mac, GarageBand is a great program for creating a very professional sounding podcast. For recording hardware we have used and recommend the Marantz PMD660 or similar, and the Edirol R-09 or similar. You can even record using an iPhone!

Audacity is a free audio editor that can be used on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems. By itself, Audacity can record, edit and save uncompressed audio files, as well as add special effects. You can also convert sound files to MP3 format for use on web pages, to create podcasts, or to play on an MP3 player such as an iPod. You will need to download an additional file to perform the MP3 export, but it is easily installed on your computer. You can find further information about using Audacity on their wiki page (support site).

You can view a screencast (about 7 1/2 minutes) that will show you how to install and set up Audacity and install the MP3 export feature. You can also view a 1-page PDF document on how to record and save an audio file to MP3 format.

Latest version of Audacity

• Audacity 1.3.12 Beta

courtesy of FileHippo.com

Official Audacity website

http://audacity.sourceforge.net