Help! My Podcast File Is Too Big!

by Christy on July 12, 2009

You’ve spent hours fiddling with the content, the script, the actual recording, and editing out all of your “um”s and “er”s from the recording. You’re ready to load your podcast for the whole world to hear.

Until…

Until you find out that your podcast has topped the 100MB milestone and your server is freaking out screaming, NO! Please, NO!

Your file is too big. What now?

Well, just as there are 100 ways to record your podcast, so there are at least 100 ways to get it out to your adoring public. Some are easier/better than others. I’m not going to be comprehensive here; that would create the longest post in the history of blogging. Instead, I’m going to give you some basic options that should help you manage your workflow.

You Start Before Recording a Sound

It can seem like a really great idea to just sit down with your computer and record your thoughts/wisdom/recipes/fan fiction/political views/whatever off the top of your head. Let me be clear on this point.

This is always a bad idea. Always.

Unless you’re … um … I don’t know, Oprah. I suppose her random ramblings might be interesting to people, but then again, she’s too much of a professional to be that dumb.

Just trust me on this. You need to plan ahead. Before you start recording.

And yes, this will help to keep the size of your podcast file manageable. Why? Because you are learning here that the ideal length for a podcast is somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes. Yup. That’s all.

Now if you’re working up teaching materials for a class you’re creating, that’s a different matter. And that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’ll write a post on creating teaching materials from an audio perspective another time.

If you know your podcast is going to be between 20 and 30 minutes in length, you can plan out your clock for the recording. Here’s an example of how you might do it.

Introduction – (0:30 to 1:00) in which you say who you are, why you’re here, and briefly what you’ll be covering in the podcast

Topic 1 – (5:00) Your first topic of interest.

Topic 2 -( 5:00) Your second topic – perhaps an interview with someone relevant to the topic of your podcast.

Mid-point interlude – (0:30 to 1:00) A musical interlude or advertisements if you have them – and you can create advertisements for your blog or personal business if your podcast doesn’t have advertising revenue.

Topic 3 – (5:00) Your third topic.

Topic 4 – (5:00) Obviously your fourth topic … perhaps another interview? You could even do the second half of the interview you started in Topic 2.

Wrap-up – (2:00) In which you thank your guest(s) and your audience and perhaps give a preview of the next scheduled podcast.

Outro – (up to 2:00) Music, adverts, “where to find us on the web” sorts of information.

Then you make sure to stick to this clock’s schedule. By doing this, you force yourself to not ramble (thus boring your audience), as well as to be focused in the items/topics you wish to discuss. There are many ways to tweak this sort of schedule, but it is a good framework when you’re getting going.

Creating this sort of framework for your podcast helps you to be organized, focused, and generally sound like you know what you’re doing from a content perspective.

Recording

Next you go to the recording stage of things. The ideal here is to make sure there’s enough room on your hard drive to record your source sound at a high quality (a “high bit rate”). You want the raw sound to be as good as you’re capable of making it, because when you compress it later for distribution as a mp3, any imperfections in the source file will be accentuated. The fewer imperfections, the better the quality of your compressed mp3 file.

If you’re using a Mac, you can record with freebie software like GarageBand or Audacity. If you’re willing to spend a few dollars, I recommend Audio Hijack Pro.

If you’re on Windows, you can record with Audacity. Honestly, unless you want to move into the multi-thousand-dollar pro software, Audacity should do just fine for you if you’re on Windows. Plus, it’s free. Bonus.

Record your file in AIFF or Apple Lossless (for Mac) or WAV files (for Windows) at 24-bit and 44.1kHz (16-bit is fine too, but if you can pull off 24-bit, that’s good).

Editing

Do a “save as” and create a copy of your high-quality source file. Edit your copy. This is the place in which you can add effects if you want (please be sparing!) and get rid of the “um”s that you created in the source file.

This is also the time in which you can edit in your interviews that you’ve recorded separately, as well as those musical interludes.

One thing to consider is to record each segment of your podcast as a separate file, joining them together in the editing process. This gives you smaller files to deal with as you edit, which is simpler.

Compressing

Now that you have this wonderfully clean and shiny edited high-quality file, it’s time to prepare it for launch into the wide world.

It’s actually quite simple. In whichever software you’re using, export it as a mp3. (With GarageBand, you can do this as an import function going into iTunes. Just set the import settings in iTunes before you start the import.)

However you do it, you should end up with an mp3 file that is no larger than 40 (or so) MB. Yes, this is still a big file, but these files were never meant for emailing.

Releasing your Podcast into the Wild

You can distribute your podcast in an almost limitless number of venues. Of course there’s iTunes, which everyone knows. Do a bit of research and you’ll find the right venues for your podcast. Yes, I made “venues” plural on purpose. Your audience will best find your fantabulous podcast if you give them multiple venues through which to find you.

An option is to host your podcast on your blog. This will mean that you have hosting for your blog on server space that you pay for. Make sure that you have lots of server space on your hosting plan to ensure that your podcast can grow and grow in the coming years.

If you’re using WordPress as your blogging platform, there’s a lovely plugin called PowerPress for podcasts. It seems to work quite well, and has the bonus of having a highly-responsive creative team behind it that will actually answer if you tweet in their general direction.

Wrapping Up

That’s really all there is to it. And believe me, the most effective means of controlling the size of your podcast starts before you’ve recorded a single word. While you may have really large subjects to cover, there’s no reason you can’t organize your podcasts in such a way as to break it into multiple podcasts.

My thanks to @asiriusgeek for asking this question. Let me know if I’ve answered the question adequately, and what other questions are out there for you.

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A Foolish Grin and A Question

by Christy on July 10, 2009

First of all, I must say thanks to those of you who have come here, downloaded the e-book, given me feedback, asked me questions, and generally helped my fledgling ittybiz feel welcomed and loved.

Today, I was #followfriday-ed by the lovely and talented Sonia Simone (of Remarkable Communication, Copyblogger, and Marketing for Nice People fame). Here’s what she said:

Sonia_Simone_Tweet

I had the wonderful opportunity to help Sonia out with some audio recording difficulties she was having. I was happy to have been of help to her.

Needless to say, all of the wonderful kindnesses and encouragement has placed a foolish grin right across my face.

And Now, A Question

I want this blog to be a useful resource for all of you (and for anyone you know who needs help with the quality of their audio products and/or podcasts.  In order to make sure I’m getting off on the right foot, I need a bit of help from all of you.

What is it you want to know? What will help you most – right now?

Do you want gear tips?

Do you want to know how to fix a bad room?

Do you want to know how to create content you’re recording that works better for your listeners?

How can I most help you right now through this blog?

Of course, on the Products and Services page, you can hire me to assist you in a one-on-one way. And oftentimes, that’s really helpful if you’re stuck, or you’ve tried things and those things haven’t worked (or haven’t worked as well as you’d hoped). But I want to make sure this blog is a helpful place too.

What do you want to know?

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Tips for Recording Teleconferences

by Christy on July 7, 2009

More and more online teachers, coaches, gurus, and regular folks are using teleconferences to get together with people in far flung places. There are dozens of teleconference providers, and all of them work on the same basic premise.

You call in to a designated telephone number, and the teleconference provider creates a virtual room in which you all meet. Some of them allow you to dial in from the internet; most want you to use the telephone.

Typically, the teleconference service records the conversation on your behalf; providing you with an mp3 or wav file once you’re done.  When this happens, you can’t control the recording process itself. What you have some control over is the input you’re giving it.

Here are some tips to help the audio quality of your voice on any teleconference.

Call using an actual land line

Not your cell phone (which has terrible sound quality, no matter what the adverts say). Not a VOIP line (which is subject to bandwidth fluctuations). And preferably not your computer (which enters an entirely other set of variables into the stream).

Use a telephone or headset that has a physical cord

I know it’s more convenient to be able to wander around the house as you’re on a teleconference, but if the sound quality of your voice matters to you for a recording, cordless phones and headsets are not helpful.

Why?

Simply put, you’re entering a variable into the recording stream that is subject to various sorts of interference.

For example, have you ever heard popping in the earpiece of your cordless phone or headset when you’re standing near the microwave as you’re reheating that cup of tea? That’s interference. And guess what … it may well come through on the recording.

Cordless phones and headsets operate over radio frequencies. Just as you can get static on your car radio, your phone can get static too. Rather than risking static marring your brilliant thoughts and advice, use a phone or headset with a cord.

Another reason for not using a cordless setup is that you will typically get better gain (volume) out of your corded phone than you will with any unwired device. You want your gain to be good and strong on the recording so that you are heard and understood.

One last bit. Hold the telephone to your mouth. Not below it. Not off to the side. Not pinched between your chin and shoulder. Speak into the telephone sitting up straight (or even better) standing.

Slow Down!

This one isn’t about equipment … well it is, it’s just that the equipment in question this time is your body and the way you use it. Specifically, it’s about your voice.

My high school history teacher loved to talk fast. His excuse was that the human brain can process information 11 times faster than anyone can speak. That may be true, but it’s not a good practice.

No doubt you know your subject very well. Perhaps you’ve talked about this before. It’s easy to just rattle off information … and by “rattle off” I mean to speak too quickly for your listeners to really hear what you’re saying.

Speak more slowly. Seriously. Unless you’re a born-and-bred rural Texan, I can pretty much guarantee that you need to talk slower. It’ll feel weird to you, but your listeners will appreciate it. They won’t know they appreciate it, but they will.

Believe it or not, you can solve somewhere between 80% and 90% of your recording problems with tricks and techniques that have nothing to do with microphones, mixers, or software. The room you are in, the position of your body, the way you use your voice – these are some of the biggest tricks you can use to improve the quality of your recordings.

One More Thing

Always remember that you’re not going to get studio quality on a teleconference. There are technological challenges that come from involving all of the switches and lines involved in the telecommunications system. And that’s okay.

Your audience will know that this is a recorded teleconference and will unconsciously adjust their expectations accordingly. What you can do is remove as many of the variables as possible to exceed those expectations.

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Questions? Comments? Join in below.

Let me know what it is you want to learn and I’ll do my best to help.

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Open for Business!

by Christy on July 3, 2009

After much work and a lot of help from friends, here I am. Online Sound Advice is open for business.

On the Products and Services page, you may download my shiny new (and free) ebook that will give you a good sense of what this is all about. Of course, I’m happy to answer any questions that you may have, and hopefully I can be of help to you now and again.

What is helpful to you? What do you want to know? How may I be of service?

Up, up and away!

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Welcome!

by Christy on June 22, 2009

You’ve found Online Sound Advice . . . where I can help you create audio products and podcasts for your online business or high-end hobby that sound great without needing to rent a $1,000 per hour professional studio!

And if it hasn’t occurred to you already, utilizing sound production in your online business will come up eventually. Let’s say that you’ve been doing one-on-one coaching for a while, and you realize that you’re still trading time for money. The official “Man” may have changed, but it’s not so different from a “real job.” By creating audio classes and products, you suddenly transform your coaching from one-on-one to one-on-many and your whole business changes.

The introduction of built-in microphones on computers and free applications like Garage Band changed everything. Now pretty much anyone can create nearly free audio content. There’s a problem though. Most of what’s readily available out there could stand some . . . improvement. Okay, I’ll say it. Most audio content on the internet sucks.

But it doesn’t have to.

It’s not particularly difficult or time-consuming to learn some little things that can improve the quality of your sound radically.

And that’s what I’m here for.

Go to the Products and Services page to download my e-book on creating high-quality audio content without being a professional audio engineer.

Hopefully, this will be the start of something great!

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