Getting the work flow for content creation down is one of my pet peeves, and to do that you have to employ a nice neat tool called a soundboard and or a sound rack.
What a Soundboard/Sound Cart/Sound Rack software does is it allows you to play audio without buffing, you might be asking Buffing? Well back in the day Radio stations used to use tapes on pause to que up Prerecorded interviews, Ads, Music, etc. Then CD’s came into play, but not for long due to the seeking time the disks had. Computers pioneered the way of cart machines, they where alot faster and alot better due to the person not having to que up tapes. Podcasting had adopted this way of of improving the work flow of there podcasts.
Today most audio players dont load the audio file on command when you open it, for most computers it will take 2-5 seconds to play a audio file in a player.
Take for instance an intro, you have that file in a folder and when you double click the file to play it, that audio program takes some time to buffer and play the audio through the speakers. Next Lets say you have an ad or a promo, you have to go back into the folder and find the file. That gap can become big and can causes you to edit out a gap, mouse click, or anything else.
So why not have a program that loads the file instantly when you click on it! And then on top of that have more buttons in the same program that can play an intro, promo, music, voicemails, etc without any gaps and its mouse click away.
Here I’m going to list programs that go this on Mac and Windows. For those of you who are Linux users, I’m so sorry. I’m not a linux user, But if you or I find them in our travels though out the Internet, let me know and I will add them to the list and I’ll give you credit for finding them.
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Mac
- BZ Soundboard (Free)
- Soundboard by Ambrosia Software ($29)
- Sound Byte ($39)
- Übercaster ($79.95)
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Windows
- PodProducer (Free)
- The Sitter Downers Soundboard (Free)
- SonicCart (Free)
- SoundBoard By Xnapid.com ($15)
- Sound Byte ($39)
- StudioRack (Limited Free version – $99-$199 to buy)
