Podcasting

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Before I moved to Berlin I was part of the Nerdkunde podcast. Sadly it was not possible to be part of the podcast without being in Cologne. But since last month I am part of another awesome podcast called bits of berlin. Go there and listen to the episodes if you haven’t.

In Cologne I never had to deal with the equipment. Klaus and the home-office took care of that. For the new podcast I needed my own hardware. So I had to investigate what would be the best suited for me.

Hardware

The hardware is the expensive part of recording a podcast. If you aim for good audio quality, you need to invest a little bit of money.

Audio Interface

You can’t attach more than one microphone to a normal computer. You need an external audio interface for this. For example the Presonus AudioBox 44VSL or the Steinberg UR44. Both devices are capable of recording 4 people. If you plan to record more people, you need the bigger versions of those. Both do not offer a 4 channel output, so you need to buy a 1:4 headphone amp like this one.

Headphones and Microphones

Most people will advise you to get a Headphone/Microphone combination. You can move freely with them and don’t have to fear that the quality of the recording will suffer because of it. If you have the money, you should get the Beyerdynamic DT 297. Those are the best you can get. I understand that you maybe don’t want to invest into something that expensive if you start to do podcasting. If you want to go the cheap route, you should buy the t.bone HC 95. They are cheap, but they will do the job.

Hint: search on eBay for used equipment. Sometimes you will find Beyerdynamic Headphones.

Software

Luckily the software side of podcast recording is not that expensive. If you are able to speak German you have to try the Ultraschall add-on for Reaper. There is nothing like it. Reaper only costs 60$ and Ultraschall is free. With that combination you have the best recording and cutting software with all the features you need. Go through the extensive list of YouTube videos by the Ultraschall Team and you should be ready for your first podcast :wink: .

Processing and releasing

After you recorded and cut your podcast, you need to do the post processing. Removing background noise, adjust the volume and much more. This is very time consuming and not that easy for a beginner. Luckily you don’t have to do it yourself. Just upload your track to Auphonic and let them deal with it.

To release your podcast you have four options:

  • Wordpress with the podlove podcast publisher
  • Simple blog (like Jekyll) and use Soundcloud for hosting
  • Use a hoster that is specialized in podcasting, for example podigee
  • Do everything on your own and create the RSS feed with your own program.

After that you need to register your podcast in iTunes. Most of the podcast clients use the iTunes database as source for their libraries.

Now you should be ready for your first podcast. But do the world a favour: we don’t need another Apple news podcast. There are tons out there already. Find another niche.

Portrait photo of Bodo Tasche
Bodo Tasche
Polyglot Developer

I am a freelance polyglot developer and love HTML5, testing, TypeScript, Ruby and Elixir. In the last 20 years I have been in lots of different roles, from Java to Elixir, from backend developer at a 3 people team in an early phase startup to the CTO of a web agency. Some of my work can be seen on my projects page.

Need help developing your MVP or to add new features into your current app? Need a CTO or a front/backend developer for hire? Send me an email.