Back To The Old Look

Sorry for the back and forth but I got some complaints that the blog was too hard to read using the new theme so I switched back to the old theme. There will be one more change. I am in the process of moving the blog to a new host, and away from WordPress. While I’ll still use WordPress as the blogging platform, I’ll have more control over the process and think I will be able to deliver a better user experience. Thanks for hanging in there with me while I make these changes.

About Tagging Your Podcast – PodcastingTricks.com

There are lots of ways people find your podcast. One way is to search del.icio.us or Technorati. But which tags should you use? Believe it or not, by adding or deleting even one syllable from a word, you can greatly increase your chances of being heard.

Here’s an example. . . suppose you decide to tag your podcast with the word “podcasting.” Would you be surprised to know that by dropping the “ing” and simply using the word “podcast,” you’ll likely get twice as many responses? How about “podcaster?” The word “podcast” generates 50 times (yes 50 times) more response than the word “podcaster.”

What if you broaden your tags a bit? Using the tag “RSS” you’ll likely get twice as many responses as the word “podcast.” Now realize, the tag “RSS” isn’t specific to podcasting, but it’s close enough that you should consider adding it to your tag cloud.

The takeaway here is simple. Do some research before you apply keywords to your podcast. Selecting the right tags potentially means more audience.

Sony PCM-D1 – a Podcaster’s Review

NOTE: Cross posted at O’Reilly Digital Media

They say that there are ten reasons to buy a new piece of recording gear and the first nine are lust. Once in a while a piece of gear comes along that proves that point. I am talking about a piece of gear that will turn your head until it’s nearly clean off your neck – “Exorcist” style. The Sony PCM-D1 is that piece of gear. In just one week, I’ve grown to realize that if any piece of remote recording equipment is worth $1900, this is it.

I’ve been using field recorders since the 70s. And for years, the Sony cassette recorder was my mainstay. But times have changed and digital is the way to go now. Prior to owning the Sony, I tried several recorders and each had its limitations. My most recent recorder was the M-Audio Microtrack. For $400 it did a great job, but its proprietary battery system and a cheap plastic case left me wanting more. Additionally, in the field, I grew tired of carrying the charger, memory cards, the mic, the cables, etc., necessary to make that unit work.

So I began to research the notion of a sturdy, all-in-one unit. I didn’t want to have to carry a mic or cable; just one box that did it all. The Sony quickly landed on my radar as not only the most feature rich product available, but also the coolest looking.

FEATURES

There are too many features to list in this short article but there are some that will be important to podcasters. First, this is one tough unit. It’s made of titanium. While I lived in constant fear of dropping the M-Audio, I have no such worries about the Sony. It’s built to last.

The Sony is lightweight (18.2) ounces and takes up about as much room as two packs of cigarettes placed end to end. I found the PCM-D1 easy to carry and all the knobs and buttons were ergonomically superior to anything else I’ve used.

I really like having internal four gigabytes of internal memory. That means I don’t need to carry memory cards. But if I decide four gigs isn’t enough, the PCM-D1 does work with Sony Memory Stick Pro.

Another nice feature is the availability to run the PCM-D1 off good old AA batteries. It ships with four 2500 NiMh rechargeable batteries and a charger. I average four plus hours of recording on a single charge.

And then there’s those mics. The matched pair X-Y electret condenser cardioid mics are built right into the Sony and can swivel to accommodate your desired recording angle. They are attached to a set of quality (virtually noiseless) pre-amps and sound good considering they are small capsule mics.

OPERATION

The PCM-D1 is very easy to operate. The manual is a short read and largely unnecessary since the controls are intuitive. The old fashioned analog style VU meters (one of my favorite features of the PCM-D1) are easy to read, but for those who are more comfortable with digital read outs, the Sony’s got them.

Most hand-held units suffer from handling noise but if you carefully hold the PCM-D1 by the bottom, there’s no noise. And better yet, there’s a tripod mount on the bottom of the unit that makes it easy to attach the recorder to any number of devices that would make it easy to hold or position for recording. I came up with my own system of steadying the Sony and avoiding handling noise. I found a Canadian company that makes a bean bag called <a href=”http://www.thepod.ca/”>The Pod</a>. It comes with a male tripod thread. When attached to the PCM-D1, it makes a perfect hand hold for the recorder and also works well at steadying the unit if you want to place it on a table or other flat surface.

While recording, I’ve learned to love the Sony’s selectable software limiter. Every time I make a recording, the Sony simultaneously records a second mirror track at -20 db. This mirror track is stored briefly as the recorder checks to make sure there’s no clipping. If I accidentally let the transient peak overload to the point of distortion, the backup audio is normalized and instantly inserted in place of the clipped signal. In a noisy situation where it’s hard to ride the gain, this feature alone makes the PCM-D1 worth the money three times over. It’s one of those features that once you’ve had access to it, you’ll never want to go without it.

The Sony records directly to .WAV files. You can record at any number of standard sampling rates. Then you attach the unit to your Mac or PC with a supplied USB cable and the Sony mounts to your desktop like any other disk drive. You can then easily drag files from the recorder to your computer for editing and distribution. If you’re at all familiar with computers, you’ll find this about as simple as it gets.

CONCLUSION

I’ve used the PCM-D1 indoors and out, in quiet and noisy environments and no matter what I throw at it, the unit responds like a champ.

Other than a two-gig file size limitation and an inability to seamlessly switch between the internal memory and proprietary Sony Memory Stick Pro, the PCM-D1 is a nearly perfect field recorder. I expect years of service from this unit and there is a side benefit. It’s great to have something to work with that’s so cool looking, your interview subjects actually want to be interviewed!

Is Creative Commons For You? – PodcastingTricks.com

Many podcasters and bloggers have decided to use the Creative Commons License to protect their work. This is different from the U.S. Copyright Act. It doesn’t provide the same legal protections and in fact, no major court has yet upheld any part of Creative Commons in a dispute relating to blogging or podcasting.

So why do so many podcasters use CC? I don’t know. I can only guess that it’s a case of follow the leader. But you should be aware of the differences between U.S. Copyright laws and the CC.

If someone distributes, alters, sells or makes a copy of your podcast, for profit or not, under the U.S. Copyright Act, you have certain protections. If you register your show with the U.S. Copyright Office, and someone violates your copyrights, you may be entitled to money damages.

The majority of “experts” talking about this subject on the Internet aren’t lawyers. And neither am I. But I did talk with several lawyers about this and I think the podcasting community might be in for a rude awakening once the popularity of podcasts starts to attract big business and those who are not so ethical that follow.

The riff I read all the time on the web is that the U.S. Copyright Act offers the standard “All Rights Reserved” approach while CC offers “Some Rights Reserved.” The fact is, there’s more to it than that. The U.S. Copyright Act provides a list of exclusive rights to the podcaster and ONLY the podcaster has the right to sell or grant these rights. And if someone violates Copyrights, the U.S. Federal District Court has jurisdiction and there is an easy, well-known path to enforcement. Copyright attorneys regularly accept copyright cases on a contingency basis which means you don’t pay them unless they win.

In th case of CC, the rights protected may vary. And the license itself isn’t even a legal or binding contract in some jurisdictions. The biggest problem with CC is that there is no simple path to enforcement. That means, if someone violates your rights under a CC license, you’ll most likely have to sue them in a local court, where they do business or reside and you’ll have to pay all legal fees. Also, since there’s little or no precident for courts to follow, it could be years before we even know if the CC license can be enforced in a way that makes economic sense.

The goal of CC is to make information more freely available. And I think that’s a good goal. But if you are trying to make a living from your podcast as I am, beware. CC may not offer the protections you think it does.

NOTES: If you are a non-U.S. resident, the U.S. Copyright Act may still apply to you through various treaties such as the Berne Convention.

While her work is aimed at photographers, almost all of the information found at Carolyn Wright’s excellent PhotoAttorney website regarding Copyright would be applicable to podcasters. It’s a great resource worthy of your attention if you’re interested in this subject.

Recording Phone Calls – PodcastingTricks.com

I’ve been getting lots of calls and emails lately about recording phone calls for podcasting. A while back, I posted a link to an article on how to record using Skype. But if you want to do it like the big boys do, you need a telephone hybrid.

I use the Telos One. It’s around $600 and probably out of reach for most podcasters, but if you want to go Cadillac, you have to pay the money.

Most major market radio stations use this product because it delivers reasonably good sound. Keep in mind that it’s very difficult to get perfect phone audio, but the Telos One can come close. There are variables like the quality of your phone line, the quality of the caller’s phone line and even the quality of the caller’s phone handset comes into play. But the Telos will get you the best results you can get short of a dedicated ISDN line.

You hook this unit to your mixer and route the caller audio and your audio in such a way that the caller can hear you talking over your mic and you can hear them talking over your headphones. You put the mixed signal to your computer interface and record into GarageBand, ProTools, Logic or whatever your favorite recording software might be, and then you treat the track as you would any other. Apply EQ and any other audio post-processing you need and away you go.

In a future post, I’ll provide a routing diagram that shows how to hook the Telos One to a simple mixer and document the signal flow.

Cool Mac Audio Application – PodcastingTricks.com

Thanks to David Battino at MacDevCenter I learned about some cool little audio applications for Mac users. They’re free, they’re fun and they’re valuable. A great combination.

For me, the most valuable is the Xtract2Wave44 app. It will let you convert QuickTime movies or audio files (like MP3, Aiff or other) to 16-bit, 44.1 kHz Wave audio files just by dropping the files on top of the icon.

Musicbed DV – PodcastingTricks.com

NOTE: Cross Posted At O’Reilly Digital Media 

Most podcasters use music in their show in one way or another. And you can’t legally use mainstream music in your show unless you’ve paid to license it or unless it’s royalty free or otherwise “podsafe.”

Many producers turn to “clip music” for use in podcasts. Like clip art, this is generic music that can be used by pretty much anyone.

With the advent of Apple’s GarageBand, podcasters and others could easily make their own music. And it works well. The problem with GarageBand is that everyone who has a Mac also has GarageBand. Accordingly, the music starts to sound the same in every podcast.

So if you’re a Mac user who wants to set your show apart, you need to explore other alternatives. One such alternative is a program called Musicbed DV from Synk Audio. It’s an OSX application that allows you to browse music clips much the way you would browse Apple Loops. But there are some major differences. For starters, this program was originally designed for use in video, but the company realized that podcasters were a growing market and wisely offered this technology to a wider audience. And since the software was developed to help video and film producers score their projects, the feel of MusicbedDV is much different than Garageband. And ultimately, if you’re looking for a new sound, that’s a good thing.

I have been playing with the program for several weeks now and really like it. Instead of using individual loops to construct music, you use stock beds that you can modify by changing several parameters.

I have been experimenting with using the program to create intros and outros. You can adjust timing, mood, texture, builds and accents.

One of the most interesting features of Musicbed DV is the ability to change the intensity of the music. Whereas you would need to employ Garageband’s ducking feature to do a voiceover on top of most Garageband loops, in Musicbed DV, you simply change the intensity and mood of the music by drawing a curve and the music responds. It’s easy to set impact points where the musical dynamics need to change.

Some other nice Musicbed DV features include the ability to make beds that are virtually any length without comprimise. You can also make adjustments to pitch and tempo independently.

I have few complaints with Musicbed DV but there are a couple. The selection of stock clips is limited and unlike GarageBand where you can add music from multiple sources via Apple Loops, Musicbed DV appears to only be expandable in the event that its maker, Synk Audio plans to add additional stock music. A company spokesperson confirmed additional music is coming soon, but as of today, there’s only the original stock pieces to work with. Synk Audio also said there are plans to make the Synk Music production tools available to other music producers. When and if this happens, Musicbed DV will be considerably more valuable.

I’d also be more enthusiastic about Musicbed DV if it were optimized to run on a Mac Intel machines. Once again the company says they are testing a Universal Binary version in-house so it should be out soon. And lastly, there’s the price. At $199, MusicbedDV is certainly not outrageous, but it is on the high side. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. Video people are used to working with big budgets and to them, $199 is nothing. But podcasters are typically operating on a shoe string and since GarageBand is free with every Mac, forking over the additional $199 for Musicbed DV won’t be easy for some.

And finally, this is not a complaint so much as something to note: The learning curve is a bit steeper on Musicbed DV than Garageband only because the methods used to build the final beds are so different from anything else out there. But that can also be a good thing because it encourages experimentation.

Overall, I found Musicbed DV to be a great tool for building podcast music. It could be used for any type of media production. And if you want to stand out in a crowded field of podcasters, this is probably a pretty good way to do it. On a scale of one to ten, I’d rate Musicbed DV a solid eight. Once the UB version ships and new music becomes available, I’ll up that to a nine out of ten.