MP3 Trimmer – PodcastingTricks.com

If you distribute your podcasts in MP3 format, it’s almost a sure bet that at least once, you’ve wished you could edit the final MP3 file without having to start from scratch, going back to your original, editing and re-converting.

Thanks to a nifty Macintosh-only utility called MP3 Trimmer, you can remove unwanted portions of your MP3 files without losing quality.

Beyond the simple things, you can even do fades, change gain, join or divide songs or files, repair or analyze the MP3.

The program is sold as shareware. And for the $10.95 registration you get free upgrades, Registering will remove the reminder pop ups for good, allowing you to work much faster. It will also enable you to use MP3 Trimmers drag-an-drop functionality to full extent.

Open Source DAW – PodcastingTricks.com

If you’re into open source products, you probably think I am going to talk about Audacity. But you’re wrong. Instead, I am going to point you to a much more robust, (and harder to learn) piece of software called Ardour.

Ardour is a digital audio workstation (DAW). Podcasters can use it to record, edit and mix the audio for their podcasts. While products like Audacity allow for quick and easy sound recording, DAWs like Ardour are more about crafting and refining sound. This product would be more comparable to ProTools or DigitalPerformer.

There is one big difference between Ardour and other high-end DAWs…it’s free. The makers do accept donations but they’re not required.

Ardour doesn’t run on Windows but it does run on Macs or Linux. It supports VST plug-in architecture. It has one big advantage over some commercial DAWs in that it doesn’t interact with any particular hardware. If you want to run ProTools, you have to use Digidesign audio interfaces.

Since this is an open source tool, and free of charge, it’s not quite as robust as some of the pro-line DAWs. It’s not a sound file editor, a MIDI sequencer or a loop-based music system. But if you want to record, edit and mix audio for your podcast and you want something that does that fast and free, Ardour may be the DAW for you.

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!

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.

Sound Ideas – PodcastingTricks.com

Audio production is an artform. And podcasters need to study that artform if they want to create professional sounding productions that stand out from the crowd. While programs like Apple’s GarageBand 3.0 come with a nice assortment of basic music beds and sound effects, (SFX) the selection is limited and sooner or later, everyone is going to get sick of hearing the same GarageBand-inspired needle drops.

Mainstream radio and television producers all have access to large libraries of music and SFX to help them round out their production needs. Shouldn’t podcasters use the same approach? After all, we are competing for some of the same audience.

Until now, the companies that make these production libraries paid little attention to the podcasting market. That all changed when a Canadian company called Sound Ideas introduced “The Podcasting Production Toolkit.” The kit contains 1000 128 kbps-MP3 files containing all the basic items a podcaster would need. The CD ROM features production elements, music beds and SFX.

There are 41 one-minute music beds, 189 basic production elements like accents, whooshes and zaps and 770 sound effects including everything from human to animal sounds and all manner of traditional sound effects. Here is a complete track list for the Podcasting Production ToolKit. The CD is fully indexed and the cuts are described accurately.

All music and SFX beds are not created equal. The quality of the cuts in this set is first rate. As someone with major market radio production experience, I can safely say this collection of sounds would hold its own in any market.

And since most podcasters don’t have the big budgets of a traditional radio station, Sound Ideas was smart to price this collecion at $129. I’d rate it nine out of 10 stars. The only small complaints I have are that the collection could use a few more music beds and I’d like to see the audio distributed as .wav files. MP3 is a lossy compression scheme and MP3 is designed as a final delivery medium. Since most podcasters will bring these files into some sort of editor that will again compress them, we’re stepping on them at least twice and in a perfect world, that should be avoided.

Those small nits aside, I highly recommend The Podcasting Production ToolKit from Sound Ideas.