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.

Mac
• BZ Soundboard (Free)
• Soundboard by Ambrosia Software ($29)
• Sound Byte ($39)
• Übercaster ($79.95)

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)

Battling noises might just be the hardest thing a podcaster deals with, I my self live about a mile from a private Airport and am inline with the planes that love to play touch and go (A fake landing).
Among the noise coming from TV’s, fans and surprise guests, they like to play a key roll in my podcasts, in this blog post I will tell you how to lower/eliminate noise that is being picked up in your recordings.

1 The first line off defense is your microphone, their are 3 types of microphones out there that we need to cover, Condenser, Dynamic, and Ribbon microphones.
Most podcasters cant afford ribbon mics due to the fact that the price tag ranges around $900+, so I’m only going to use the other two (Condenser and Dynamic).

Condenser Microphones
Condenser Microphones are almost as common as the cold, and when it comes to picking up noise Condenser microphones are the worst. Condenser microphones are used in a lot of consumer products, from a cellphones, Webcam Microphones, and the cheap $10 headset/microphone combos. Condenser’s love to pick up everything, Why?

Condenser microphones capture sound using a conductive diaphragm with a capacitance charged plate behind it. The charge is supplied by a DC voltage source from a battery or from the 48 volt ‘phantom power’ supply present in most mixers and mic preamps. Air pressure changes meeting the conductive diaphragm cause it to move, which causes an analogous AC voltage to be formed in the charged plate. These tiny AC voltages are sent to a tiny preamp built into the microphone, which brings the signal level up to where it can drive a typical microphone preamp. This is why a Condenser microphone picks up ALOT of noise.
So the trick with this type of microphone is to turn the volume down, buy a pop filter, and talk closer into the mic.
This will eliminate about 75% of all noise.
I have a friend that owns a CAD GTX2200 Condenser Microphone, Not a bad mic, he sounds great on it, but the problem is not the mic, it is the phone and bird about 20 feet away. By doing this it eliminated the phone and took the volume of the bird so low, we where able to record a distant podcast with out the recording being pegged when the bird talks.

Dynamic Microphones
Thank you god! Dynamic microphones do not have problems like condensers. Why? well Dynamic mics use a ‘moving coil’ to sense the changes in air pressure that makes sound waves. The wire coil is connected to a thin diaphragm, and the whole assembly is suspended over a permanent magnet. When moving air hits the diaphragm it causes the coil to move over the magnet, which causes a process called electromagnetic induction to take place. This causes an AC voltage to be formed that is an electrical ‘analogy’ of the original sound and lowering the noise being sent. This is why you have to what we call eat the microphone for your self to be heard.
although a fan or a loud noise can be picked up from this type for microphone its a lot less then Condensers

2 The second line of defense is a mixer. A normal mixer Has a Gain, High, Mid, Low and Vol nobs or sliders.
the first is gain when dealing with noise you will be dealing with this and the vol. you want to dial this in to where you dont hear any noise, but sill can record at a decent volume.
High, Mid, and Low are freq for your voice Highs tend to bring in some noise and give your voice some warmth, Mids tend to just stick around, unless you have a bass voice. And then you have Low… Low is what you would expect from the word, the low end of your voice, If you want a bassy voice but you sound like a chipmunk, the low nob should help you out.

3 Among all the great hardware that helps someone to eliminate noise is is the third line of defense a Gate/Limiter/Compressor. What the gate does is keeps the microphone off until it hears a signal at the level you have set, Limiters do as what the name describes Limits the ammout of audio, and Compressors keeps the volume at a consent level as to not clip or peek the recording/performance. The Cheaper ones you can buy only come with Compressor/Limiter and or a Gate, but you can be purchased with all three.

4 The forth line of defense is you, Take the time and close the windows, turn off the fans, give the kids $10 for the Ice Cream Man/Lady, lock the dog up, memorize the train schedule, etc. Things are going to happen, and that is why God made a pause button.

As a word of advice the closer the better, is to reduce background noise .

Have something to add?, Please leave a comment below.

And then there was one.
It all started with Podpress, what was a great plugin that a lot of podcasters had used including my self, back in the day. The development this plugin has been halted since Dec of 2007 and from rumors around the Internet, development has stopped. Now FAST FORWARD to this month (Dec 2009) the Podcasting plugin has now dropped development of the plugin. And according to the blog post, the Podcasting Plugin does not support the latest WordPress install 2.9.
Its a shame that developers within the WordPress community, do not want to to fight for podcasters within this space. Most creators of these plugins don’t get payed for what they do and some rely on donations from people to get payed, and then the users expect them to fix bugs and add things on a whim.

Blubrry’s Powerpress plugin is now the ONLY WordPress plugin for podcasters to use. Even though I think Powerpress is a great tool, and I dont think Blubrry is going anywhere soon, I am fearful of what might just happen to Podcasts, if we loose support for the only solution to get iTunes, Zune or other feed readers to recognize our feeds.

Are you worried?
Should we be?
Let me know what you think, Please leave a comment below.

About a month ago I published a new podcast for one of my shows, At the time I thought nothing of it, until I checked the stats of the podcast. Now mind you this podcast has a small but growing audience, But when one episode grows to over 300% of what it was in under a week, a small plane began to fly a red flag over head. 95% of the traffic for the podcast is from iTunes and I began searching the store to see if I got on the new and notable or on a featured list. Well I was on none… not that I could find.
After sleeping on the thought, I woke up the next day and began to find out what really made my podcast jump in listener-ship.
I desired to Post a new episode for a test. One hour of posting the show I had over 20 downloads, not the norm for this show, so what was making it jump?
I looked at the server logs and it was showing that the file was only downloaded 2 times both from friend feed…
Why? Well I went into my sever logs and there was 404 errors UP the WAZOO. (404 errors mean that the file was not found)
So why? I had checked the post and the file played, checked the feed on the server side, it played. and then feed burner… 404 error… ok thats odd!
What Feed Burner does for podcasters is makes podcasting on other blog software a little easier, If your using blogger, drupal, or typepad, it retags your RSS feed into an something that iTunes or other podcast readers can read (it also makes the RSS feed look all pretty)
Feed burner also has a feature that you can track your downloads, although it doesn’t work that well it does give you a jist of what they are. and that was the problem.. the tracker.
I scrambled to have iTunes get a new feed from my server, which takes some time.
Now heed this warning IF you use feedburner you get NO user end support. none at all… why? because it is FREE, google who owns the software cant support all the users who do use it.
If you do use it, only use feedburner for a rss redirect and dont put your faith in some thing that could make you loose your listeners.

A new version of Blubrry’s PowerPress Plugin version 1.0.2 just came out about 2 days ago and I am stocked about this version. Writing about it can not describe how great this new version is. So I made a video I hope you enjoy.

(10/15/09) Update: I uploaded the video to more video servers.
Watch On Vimeo, Youtube, Blip.Tv, and Yahoo! Video

Review: Blubrry PowerPress Plugin 1.0.2 from Ben Straw on Vimeo.

Note: I did not get payed for reviewing this plugin.

Record Skype Using Hardware – Mixer Mix Minus

A Mix Minus is one of the best sounding and I think the easiest way to record Skype, Most software available cuts the guest off when the host starts talking, this can make for a bad mix within the recording, especially if you argue a lot with your co host.  I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts and believe me its bad.
Setting up a mix minus is fairly easy, I’m going to start with what you will need to start off with

1. 1: Computer able to run Skype and record using the mic and line-in
2. Opt; External Recorder such as the Edirol R-09HR WAVE/MP3 Recorder.
3. Opr; Griffin iMic 2 USB Sound Card.
4. 1: Mixer with at least 1 AUX Send
5. XLR Microphone W/ XLR to XLR Cable
6. 2: Phone(has two mono 1/4 cables at one end) to 3.5mm Cables
7. 1: 1/4 to 3.5mm Cable

Take a look at this image below of the mixer I own a Yamaha MG102C Stereo Mixer (10 Inputs) and you will see the highlighted parts you will want to plug into on the mixer.

First take your Phones to 3.5mm cable and connect the 3.5mm end the speaker output and connect the Phone end to Line of Mic 5/6 (This could be any line input, To find out what inputs you can use by reading the manual that came with your mixer)

 
 
 
 
 
 
Turn the AUX nob up for the Mic channel you choose for your XLR Microphone (half should suffice, Skype will adjust the volume as needed )

If you want to record multi track you can by using the Pan nob to do this. (have you on the right and the guest on the left) This makes it a lot easier to edit out a cough, dog barking, or a plane flying over head (all of which I have problems with, mainly air planes. I think they know when I’m going to record a podcast and do it to piss me off).

Next take the other Phone to 3.5mm cable and connect the 3.5mm end to the Mic port of your computer, or if you are using an external recorder such as a Edirol R-09HR WAVE/MP3 Recorder, Plug the 3.5mm end into it. Then connect the Phone ends to the stereo out (also called speaker out) on your mixer

Once done with that all you have next is one more cable Connect the 3.5mm end to the Line-in port on your soundcard and connect the 1/4 to the AUX port on your mixer.
If you dont have a line-in jack on your computer, than you must be using a laptop, If you are you will need to purchase a USB Sound card. I recommend buying a Griffin iMic 2 USB Sound Card. they are the most reliable and the smallest USB sound card out their.

Next I will tell you How to set up Skype to use the newly configured Mix Minus Setup

Being a Podcaster and publisher of audio content, recording my guests and interviews can be a big challenge. Recording skype on windows (mainly Vista 64 bit) is not fun at all, with a LONG list of programs that do so many different things and some programs require you to jump through hoops (uninstall, reinstall, install this, install that). Macs users have it a little easier and less hassle. The list below are links and a little run down for Free and Payed applications to record skype.

Record Skype from your Mac

iLife ’09 – GarageBand
It’s a great application to use for creating your own music or the almighty podcast. ($79.99) Using LineIn (Free) and Soundflower (Also Free) and a little workaround you can get GarageBand to record skype.

Übercaster
Ubercaster is a all in one production suite for podcasting. It lets a podcaster prepare, record, cut and release your show. With its Native Skype panel that records Skype conversations. This is due to the fact that Ubercaster uses the official Skype API to communicate with the popular chat application, and that is what makes it the best. ($79.99)

Audio Hijack Pro
*Editors Pick* Record from applications like iTunes, Skype, Firefox, even hardware like Microphones, mixers and other sound cards. Audio Hijack Pro is as easy as a selecting the application and clicking Hijack. ($32)

Call Recorder
Call Recorder is an add-on for Skype which automatically transforms your audio to ACC or MP3 and can also transform Skype video calls into QuickTime movies. ($14.95)

WireTap Studio
Using WireTap Studio, you can record the discrete audio output of any application, as well as all system audio, or record audio input from any microphone, line-in, or audio input hardware. WireTap Studio also boasts full Audio Unit effects support, for adding professional quality effects to your audio. ($69)

Record Skype from Windows

Voice Cloak Plus
Voice Cloak Plus has the ability to record Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN, Google Talk, AIM, & ICQ and able to save in Wav, WMA, Ogg, even MP3 file formats.
this program has some nice features in it like a 5 band Equalizer, robot voice effects, flange, echo, voice pitchshift, chorus, sound effects library, and the ability to hear yourself, a plus is you have a usb microphone.
Voice Cloak Plus looks with cool skins to match your every mood! ($29.99)

SkypeCap
SkypeCap is the complete resource for capturing and recording Skype audio and video sessions in real time.
The possibilities are endless! You control when recording begins and ends, as well as the file format and level of quality at which the recordings should be captured. SkypeCap lets you know when it recognizes that Skype audio and video sessions are occurring so that you can record them. SkypeCap can even record the audio and video sessions for you automatically! Only you will know that the audio or video sessions are being recorded.
SkypeCap Features, Record Skype audio conversation, Skype video conversation, Skype group brainstorming sessions, telephone and cellular phone calls via Skype, Detect session automatically and save it!, and more. ($49.95)

Virtual Audio Cable
*Editors Pick* Not a well known Program, and a very good one at that. What you can do is take a USB Microphone or microphone input, and the Sound cards “Sound Mixer” and pipe it to a Virtual audio cable and record the Vcable in your favorite recording program. The down side you have to open two of these programs and if you are using Microsoft Vista 64 bit you want to run this application in “Test Mode” but its well worth it. ($30 – Free to try).

Hot Recorder
This program has High rave reviews, But as I was looking over thw website it gets an “A” for ease if use “F” for the creators bad taste in IFrame Image pane . But over looking that HotRecorder is an advanced tool that allows you to easily record, play, store and convert voice communications held over the Internet. A perfect tool for podcasting, online journalism, conducting business, and much more! Works with Skype 3.0™, Google Talk™, AIM ™, Net2Phone™, Yahoo! Messenger ™, FireFly™ and many other VoIP applications. It converts the proprietary ELP format into MP3, WAV or OGGfiles, and includes Emotisounds ™ to add humorous sounds to your online conversations!. ($14.95)

i-Sound
Also a nice program that has a good Voice-Activation (VOX) system that automatically monitors the input source and activates streaming recording when the input volume reaches a specified level. You can record sound from internal or external source into MP3, OGG, WMA, WAV, APE format sound file directly without costing any other disk space. i-Sound WMA MP3 Recorder allows you to record sound without running out of memory as long as there’s enough disk space. By using WMA MP3 Recorder you can record sounds from MIDI, Internet broadcasts, streaming media (e.g. QuickTime Player, Realplayer, Games, DVD Players…) and your microphone.. ($29.95)

Pamela Call Recorder
Pamela Call Recorder has Skype Call Recording (Free version has a 15 minute per Skype call limit), Take notes during a call or add them later, Automatic call recording (Inbound, Outbound or both), Disable call recording warnings, Automatic Skype chat reply while you are away, and Records in MP3 and WAV format. (€14,95)

PowerGramo skype recorder
PowerGramo skype recorder, I can say looks like a bad translated program… but has some good features that most don’t. Memo/Note while recording a call (Very good to note if someone droped the F bomb and what to note the time), Logs skype chat messages together with voices, and mix music with callers during a skype call. ($14.95 Basic, $44.95 Enterprise)

PrettyMay Call Recorder
This application is almost a spitting image of Pamela, one nice feature is the ability to record chat and multi-chat history, I dont know how many times I forgot a link to throw into the show notes. (Free 15min, $24.95 Pro)

Skylook and CallBurner
Both the highest priced windows skype software. Skylook is an all in one app with including a answering machine($100). Callburner is just a skype recorder with out any bells or whistles($50) . Most wouldn’t think twice about buying this software, the price it just to high.

MX Skype Recorder
MX Skype Recorder is one of the most popular and most basic recorders around. One nice feature is the ability to record conversations in either single or dual audio track (one channel for input (Guest), other for output (Yourself)). The Pro version allows you to record Google Talk, Y! Messenger and other VOIP Applations. ($14.95/Basic $24.95/Pro)

Skype Recorder – Skype Recorder created by Extralabs Software was one of my favorites it recorded a nice skype call. On vista 64 it does have some problems reliability is one when testing it wouldn’t always allow you to record. ($18.95 Single user)

Skype Call Recorder – During my test I was unable to use due to a .Net runtime error that I couldn’t get fixed But you get what you pay for… mmm oh wait its FREE

CallGraph
Call Graph Skype plugin is a desktop application that allows you to record your conversations and save the recordings to mp3 or an wav file. This Program is completely free for personal and business use. and can record all kinds of Skype calls, Skype P2P, SkypeIn and SkypeOut.
There are no time limits or restrictions for Call Graph which is great.
Call graph also offers services like Transcription for as low as $0.50/minute and Group Collaboration Tools. (Free for personal and business use)

Record Skype from Linux

Linux is one of those OS’s the gets alot of flack about compatibility with programs, and hardware. I did find a few programs but most people are using builtin programs.

Skype Call Recorder
Skype Call Recorder Records calls to MP3, Ogg Vorbis or WAV files and automatic and manual recording
Configure Skype Call Recordert to automatic recording on per-caller basis and split stereo recording
With most linux programs its completely free, unlimited and open source, released under the GNU GPL, and works and a number of linux distros

Scx Tools
Scx-tools is a set of utilities for Skype VoIP client. The project goal is to provide several useful tools for such task as Skype calls recording and management. Currently only the call recorder (version 0.1.1) is available.

Skype-rec
Skpye-rec is a library and wrapper script to allow a user to record conversations using the popular Skype internet telephony software on a Linux system. Conversion to OGG or MP3 is also supported.

Missing a Program? Please leave a comment below.