Create Your Own PodCast

What you need

• Windows XP (or maybe an earlier version, haven't tested)
• Audio recording software, I used the open source Audacity. Be sure to also download the lame encoder library there to convert your output to mp3
• A microphone
• Optionally: Some songs, jingles, whatever and a player to play them (iTunes, Winamp)

First you have to connect your microphone to your computer. Depending on the microphone and how close you sit next to your audio speakers, you might want to route your audio output to your headphones instead.

Then, the hard part. You have to find the correct settings to record both your voice and music at the same time. To do this open up your volume controls. You can do that by clicking on the Volume tray icon or through Start > Control panel > Sound and audio devices > Audio tab > Click one of the volume buttons.

You’ll most likely see a screen looking like this:

You’re now on the Play Control screen. You can switch between the Play Control screen and the Record Control screen through File > Properties:

In this window you can also enable the volume controls you see. Be sure that with the play controls at least the Microphone one is enabled. With the recording one, be sure the Record Master one is enabled.

Go to the record control screen and select the “Record master” volume control as the active one. This will make Windows record all audio being played (including media players, but also MSN logon sounds, so be sure to switch that kind of software off during recording).

Now switch to the play control screen and uncheck the Mute checkbox on the “Microphone” volume control. If you talk into the microphone you should now hear yourself through the speakers (or headphone, if that’s what you’re using). If not, increase the volume of the microphone using the slide bar.

You should now be set. Start up a media player, play a tune and while it plays start talking, if you hear both through the speakers you’re probably OK. Now, start up your audio recording software. In my case Audacity:

Record a little something and play it back to see if it works. If not, the problem most likely is in your play and record control settings, fiddle around with them a bit until it works. It’s really hard to give settings that work with every soundcard setup, so you’ll just have to test things out.

Now you’re almost ready to record your show. First you have to set the sample rate to something lower, I use 16Khz. This is done in Audacity by going to File > Preferences…

On the “File formats” tab you have to locate your lame encoder installation and set the bitrate for your target MP3 file (I use 48kbit):

After this, you’re ready to record your first show.

When you’re done you can export it to an MP3 using File > Export As MP3.

When that’s done, test your MP3 file in a media player to see if it’s OK. Then, upload it to your webhost and somehow get an enclosure into your RSS feed. Such an enclosure is placed within the <item> tags and looks something like this:

<enclosure url="http://www.thehotfix.com/podcast/hotfix.com_podcast_1.mp3" length="10306438" type="audio/mpeg" />

People can now aggregate your podcasting show using iPodder by adding the URL to their list of channels.

Have fun!