The Podcast: How did he do that?

This last weekend I premiered the first Mad Mad Media Podcast. I have to say, making it posed some challenges, but all in all it was a relatively basic process. Here’s what you’ll need:

A Mac (you can do it on a PC, but I make no guarantees on the process)
ITunes (Mac or PC)
A host (we’ll talk about this later)

Step One: I started by getting permission to use the music directly from the artists. There are other ways to do this — like finding the right person at a major record label to talk to get permission or play only music from artists with a creative common license — but I feel the direct approach is always the best.
Step Two: Once you’ve gotten permission, load the music into iTunes and convert the songs into MP3s. You will have to reset iTunes under the advanced tab in preferences to do this.
Step Three: Record your voice. Prepare a script and read it. Not hard eh? You’ll see. You can record your voice two ways. (Recommended) Use a microphone and Garageband. To do this, plug the mic in the mic input on the back of your computer and set track one for live vocals. This way you can listen to your voice through the headphones as you record — just like a real DJ! (What I did-Not recommended) Record your vocals on a digital recorder in a closet at work, import the WAV files to your desktop and convert them to MP3s in iTunes. This process doesn’t sound as good and you will have to sweeten your voice with Garageband’s effects (which is not easy and takes a long time — especially if it’s your first time). For those of you using Audacity or another sound recording program for PC, at this point you are on your own.
Step Four: Assemble all of the pieces in Garageband. Simply drag the sound files from the folder onto the Garageband virtual console. Each sound should be its own track. Then, put them in the order you would like. Do not adjust the timing on the bottom, it will screw up track placements, and keep an eye on your sound levels — they shouldn’t be in the red.
Step Five: Once you are done screwing around with that, save the cast and import it to iTunes. Once in iTunes you will have to convert it to an MP3 so everyone can listen to it. Listen to it with a big, cheesy smile, and tell everyone what you just did.
Six: Get it on the web. So, there’s a catch to this whole Podcasting craze. Bandwidth is hard to come by. My Podcast was over 20 megs. That’s pretty big, a lot bigger than my geocities site could handle. Being that my paper is not set up to host Podcasts (yet) I had to search for a host. I used a site called Multiply. People usually use this site to share playlists with friends, but in this case it worked for me. Uploading it took about 15 minutes with DSL and it was ready to rock!
Step Seven: Get the world to listen to it. I don’t know anything about this. I am still learning. The Mad Mad Media Podcast will be available through iTunes (hopefully) in the summer. But I still have to figure out the logistics of that. Until then, it will be available on this site only.

Good luck. Let me know if you decide to try this at home! If you have any more questions, leave a comment or email me through my profile. Later!