About Podcasts

Well, after spending several hours online, I have shortlisted two podcasts that didn’t sound too bad to me. Let me declare that I am no podcast expert. I haven’t produced one before and I am still struggling to come with a sound plan of action for our class project. The absence of a personal philosophy, therefore, made it somewhat difficult for me to come up with an instant podcast production recipe. So, apart from checking out podcasts on the web, I also spent a lot of time visiting blogs, tutorials and “beginner’s guides” to podcast production with the objective of finding out what experienced podcasters have to say about the subject. Predictably enough, there’s a lot of (overlapping/conflicting) advice floating around on the web. In this blog, I am noting down some of the most commonly proffered advice.

1. Like good blogging, good podcasting is all about the content. In other words, the better the content, higher will be the quality of production.

2. Most podcaster’s seem to agree that on- the- spot improvisation is not always the best strategy to follow in podcasting, especially if we're not good at speaking extemporaneously. We should have a rough content outline before initiating the recording process. In other words, we should know exactly what's going to be on the podcast, and when.

3. High audio quality is an absolute requirement and this is not only about being professional. It also has to do with the conditions in which podcasts are accessed – travelling, exercising, on public transit, driving. So, if the narrative is not clearly audible, listeners will soon lose interest and move on to something else. This essentially means that we need to use a good recording instrument. Some of the bloggers strongly dissuade the use of internal /embedded microphones for recording. The argument is that they pick up ambient noises. Unfortunately this is exactly what I was thinking about doing. My Dell laptop has an embedded microphone. I have used this once before with moderately satisfactory results.

4. As far as the editing part goes, most podcasters seem to prefer Audacity.

5.I f we are planning on a lengthy production, it’s a good idea to have multiple speakers. But when recording with multiple speakers, we need to be careful about ensuring that all of them have distinctive voices. Listening to similar sounding speakers, can be a confusing and chaotic experience for the listener.

Well, this list is by no means exhaustive. It’s just a rough attempt from my side to consolidate scattered bits of information into a cohesive blog entry. Now let me move on to a couple of podcasts that caught my attention:

My first pick is an audio podcast edition from the Inside Rensselaer, a monthly newsletter publication, “intended to communicate the many and varied things happening with Rensselaer people and programs, from research highlights to professional milestones, from faculty accomplishments to events and everyday news you can use.” As an abridged version of the full-length publication, the podcast does a good job of highlighting some of the most important news and announcements. I like the way in which the edition and date is mentioned at the beginning. This is a good strategy to adopt when producing a series. The transitions in the narrative are clearly demarcated with either music or transitional sentences. The narrator’s voice also comes out loud and clear over the music bed.

My second pick is also an audio podcast entailed “ For Whom the cowbell tolls” in which a female voice gives us a somewhat humorous tale about her dog. While the podcast is really unremarkable in many respects, I enjoyed listening to the narrative. It’s a good example of a podcast structured like a “mini- essay” with a clear beginning, middle, and end. I also thought that the recording is clean and professional sounding.