Part of the mission of this website is to share what i’m using so that others who wish to do something similar can take advantage of what I have learned and get up to speed more quickly. To that end, here is a Tools, Techniques and Teams post about the new Podcast effort. Here are two of the tools i’m using to help put the podcast together.
Freesound.org
One of the biggest challenges of doing anything with audio or video is copyright. It’s the same with the images I use in the blog. I have to be very careful about what I use to make sure everything I am creating with is labeled creative commons. The last thing I want is to receive a ‘takedown’ notice. To be realistic, there are many services that offer lots of royalty free sound, videos, and images, but you have to pay a subscription to use them. I don’t mind the subscription at all. So the best way to create something unique is to go to sources of subscription and royalty free images and use those as raw materials for the creation combining them with other assets and even creations of my own. I personally think this does a pretty good job of approximating professional quality media.
When It came to the podcast I use freesound.com Freesound supplies me with the raw materials I need to create the intro’s to the different podcast segments. It’s really just a collection of sound snippets uploaded by people who like to experiment. An example is the clickly clack of the Peluso Presents sound. I wanted that sound to signify the fact that the podcast is a blog and that the focus is writing but I also wanted the intro to be a build up. So I wound up layering multiple sound clips of typing on top of each other and included other sounds such as the Dubstep to generate the build up. It’s the same for the other intro’s. The soundclips on freesound.org are virtually unlimited. It’s the perfect foundation for whatever I want to convey.
Audacity
Ok, I have the raw materials… but how do I do all that mixing? I use Audacity, an open source audio editor. There are other audio mixing solutions, but several of the good ones cost money, and fortunately Audacity is a good one that doesn’t. I got started on Audacity years ago when I needed to do some audio mixing for another project. It is a sound mixer and recorder. The software is both easy to use and very powerful. Even though I’ve been using it for years I find it’s a bit like Microsoft Word. I say that meaning that I believe most people who use it will never understand every function, just the ones they need. Part of the reason for this is that I don’t really understand the program more deeply is that I don’t have a strong background in audio nor do I have the time to learn what to do with a Nyquist Prompt when i’m trying to record a weekly podcast, keep up with a blog, and write a book all the while holding down a full time job and managing a family. That being said, the tools I do need (recording, clipping, moving, and audio leveling) are all there and easy to use, and who knows, maybe one day I ‘ll teach myself how to do something cool with the vocoder setting.
The Peluso Presents Podcast intro sound shows how I can use the Audacity tools and Freesound.org samples to create something unique for the show.
These tools are far from the only tools I use to put together the podcast, but they are definitely some of the ones I spend the most time working with. In future podcast Tools, Techniques and Teams related posts I’ll discuss the hosting solutions I’ve finally settled on, the costs, and maybe the microphones and other equipment. Unfortunately those tools aren’t free.
Tools, Techniques and Teams – Tools, Techniques and Teams posts are designed to be a look behind the veil of this project. The posts are about the tools i’m using(or considering), such as hardware, software, and services. The techniques I’ve discovered to help process my workflow, and the team members i’m relying on to help me bring it all together.
Home of Peluso Presents 