Podcasting Basics

There are many different ways to produce a podcast. This lesson will walk you through one method using Audacity, a free program available for download from the Internet.

What is podcasting? Podcasting is simply a way to place an audio file in an RSS feed on the Internet so that others can subscribe to your feed and automatically be notified of new audio content placed in your feed. You may hear others refer to podcasting as simply placing audio content on the web. Others may talk about enhanced podcasting by placing visual and other files on the same pages as they have placed the audio content. In short, does it really mater? The basic idea is to make audio content easily accessible from the web. and while it is true that podcasting involves an RSS wrapper for the content, who is going to tell the millions of people that "podcast" that they need to call it something else if they do not include the RSS coding? Now, on to creating your first podcast.

Podcasting is as simple as 1,2,3...

  1. Record your audio file. This can be done using an mp3 recorder, your computer or even your phone. For this lesson, we will use the computer and a program called Audacity.
  2. Edit Your Recording. Using Audacity, you can edit your recording. This will allow you to "clean up" your recording, splice several recordings together or if you are really good, simply enjoy the fact that you got it right on the first take.
  3. Place a Copy of Your Recording Where the World Can Listen. Now all you have to do is place the audio file on the Internet so that everyone and their brother can listen. Don't look know but you just podcasted.

Get Your Software

For this lesson we are using Audacity. The first thing you will need to do is download and install Audacity on your computer. You will also need to download the LAME mp3 DLL file which Audacity uses to encode files as an mp3.

  1. Download the appropriate version (PC/MAC) of Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.
  2. While you are on this site, download the LAME mp3 DLL. This is listed under optional downloads.
  3. Install Audacity and LAME. It is important that you keep track of where you install LAME as you will need to point Audacity to that location the first time you create an mp3 file. It is suggested that you place the LAME file (lame_enc.dll) in the same folder as the Audacity program. Once you have encoded a file as an mp3, Audacity will know where to go to link to this file. Do not move the LAME file after you have encoded an mp3 or you will have to relink the file the next time you want to create an mp3 file using Audacity.

Now we will take a quick look at how to use Audacity to record and edit your sound files.