This is a different type of post – more of a howto or a ‘what I tried’, in the spirit of moving fast and getting something done. So here goes.
Start the clock.
Write the title: XX minutes to your first podcast (we’ll fill a time in the title when we put the full-stop at the end).
The Rules
Make a really short podcast, edit it, and distribute it to a global audience (hosted on this website, hopefully registered on itunes, stitcher and wherever it needs to be in order for me to listen to it on Podcast Republic) in as short a time as possible – ideally less than an hour.
Inventory
Fair’s fair – time for full disclosure. I’ve done a bit of recording audio on my phone before and been thinking about this for a while. My equipment consists of:
- My Android phone – Motorola G4plus
- A Boya BY-M1 mic
- Voice recorder by Splend Apps – I’ve tried a few and found this to be the best functionality (records straight to .mp3, is easy to use, gives you what you need without requiring payment).
Steps
- Write the script
- Record the podcast
- Edit the thing
- Find out how to distribute it
Write the script
Intro music:
I love the first few bars of Everlong by Foo Fighters. As with my wonderful header image, I will consider myself an enormous success if the copyright holders ever ask me to change it, which I will gladly do.
Intro script:
Welcome to Driverless Crocodile, a podcast about making change happen, and building the future. I’m Stu Patience, and this is episode 0.
Episode 0 script:
I’m making this inaugural Driverless Crocodile podcast to celebrate 100 blog posts about building the future. I’m hoping to run an occasional podcast series as part of the blog featuring conversations with non-profit leaders and others working to make change happen and build a better future. My particular focus is on community development and education in Indonesia, but I’ll interview anyone interesting, so please get in touch if you have a suggestion.
I’m interested in sharing the most useful knowledge and tools for building effective organisations and making things happen. By tools I mean ideas, values, practices, skills and qualities, processes and digital technologies – all things that we add to ourselves to extend our ability to change the world around us.
Paused the clock at 21 minutes 20s to grab a snack.
This is episode 0, so it’s just an introduction, and I’m on a bit of a tight deadline – read the companion post at driverlesscrocodile.com – which may or may not be linked to in the shownotes – to find out more.
And that’s the end of Episode 0 – thanks for listening and see you next time.
Driverless Crocodile – out.
Record the Podcast
Right. I’m upstairs in my office, and it’s 32 degrees centigrade and a bit sweaty. I’m going to turn my phone onto aeroplane mode (to avoid interruptions and beeps while recording), shut the door and turn my fan off now before I record the introduction and episode 0, hopefully in one take each – because it’s going to get hot with the door closed, but also because my phone’s battery is down to 11%.
Done! I was wondering all the way through how silly I’m going to sound, but I’ll worry about improving things next time.
The fan is back on, the door is open, and I’m up to 36 minutes and 49 seconds.
Edit the thing
Find free editing software online
Quick search… audacity looks best. I’ve used it before I think, but it don’t have it on this computer.
And.. Audacity is installed. While it was installed I listened to my recording. It’s okay… I sound a little more American than I probably should (sorry parents!) – I blame the Americans on the podcasts I listen to.
And I’ve shared the files I recorded to myself on googledrive.
So with audacity open in a parallel window, I’m ready to start…
Lost a minute waiting for files to sync…
Editing Episode 0 with Audacity
Hmm, trying to import the files and there’s a problem with the libraries for .mp3 files.
I followed the instructions in audacity, went to the download page, downloaded LAME for audacity, ran a quick virus check and installed them. And it’s worked. Intro is imported.
… but audacity doesn’t like the file.
This is taking too long. Switching to editing program number two on the list – Ocenaudio. Thanks TechRadar!
Trying again with Ocenaudio
It’s taking a while to download so I’m looking at making an RSS feed from wordpress while I wait. Looks a bit technical. Ah, found something that looks a bit easier here.
Editing with Ocenaudio
Here we go again…
The files worked straight away, but the editor wasn’t working for me – I was hoping to see both audio tracks and be able to drag and drop as on my old version of Sony Vegas, and couldn’t quickly work out how to do it.
Back to Audacity
I looked a little more carefully realised that I had only downloaded the export library, and downloaded FFmpeg libray by going to edit -> preferences, then clicking the download button for FFmpeg, downloading a zipfile, extracting it, then using the locate button to find the library in the folder I extracted the files to. It worked!
More problems
My intro works, but Audacity doesn’t like my episode, despite it playing as an .mp3 in my normal music player.
Okay, it looks like there’s a problem with the file – not sure what.
Going to try and get this thing done with the theme music and introduction.
Impatient Patience
Wow, neither of those were working. I’ve switched over to my old video editing software, Sony Vegas 10.1.
It might be because I’ve used it before but it just… works.
I now have an edited podcast episode in .mp3 format. A bit rough, but… ready.
Getting it online
Back to that wordpress howto… which wasn’t that helpful.
Found Powerpress by Blubrry and installed the plugin
Activated and started filling in the information… There’s more to do here than I expected.
And stopped for the night, at 2 hours, 1 minute.
The episode is recorded, and I could post it here – but I want to get the RSS distribution up and running tomorrow, so will sit on it for now.
Footnote
Phew. 2 hours. My timing was way over ambitious. There are tweaks to make to the episode, but overall I’m pretty happy with how it sounds, considering it’s a one-take wonder!