Thanks to iTunes, podcasts have become increasingly popular, and with the power of the Mac anyone can harness that popularity and create their own.
This guide will walk you through every step of creating your own podcast, from getting the right hardware to publishing it online. This is the definitive guide to podcasting on the Mac -just add content!
You’ll need a few things before we get started.
Hardware
Any modern Mac should be powerful enough for podcasting.
All you really need to get started podcasting is a Mac and a microphone. Your Mac probably has one built in, but you might want to invest in a nicer microphone and a few other goodies.
As far as microphones go The Yeti Pro by Blue is a great choice for around $220, and, at only $70 Samson’s C01U delivers good sound quality, but at a much more affordable price. No matter which microphone you choose try to buy one that is USB powered, they tend to work nicer for podcasting purposes. You’ll also need a decent pair of headphones to avoid any echo/reverb, earbuds will work just fine, but remember, you’ll likely have to wear them for a while so they should be comfortable.
Anything else should really be considered optional. A good mixer is great if you have a dual microphone setup and a large hard drive is preferable for the huge files you’ll accumulate over time.
Also worth noting is the room where you’ll record the podcast., Use common sense for this part, avoid large and/or noisy spaces and opt for a small room without much echo or background noise, trial and error will be your best friend for this step.
Software
Luckily, the Mac includes much of the software you’ll need to get started. If it’s just you recording in-studio you only really need to use GarageBand, which comes preloaded on every new Mac.
Most people, however, will want to bring in guests over iChat or audio from their computer (sound effects etc.), for that you’ll want a really great app from Rouge Amoeba called Audio Hijack Pro. At only $32, it’s an awesome bargain.
Rouge Amoeba just released an app called Piezo which is essentially a trimmed down version of Audio Hijack Pro, it’s only $10 and should work well for more simple projects.
In addition, for remote guests Skype works okay, but I’ve found that iChat sounds and works better overall, so we’ll use it for this guide. Like GarageBand, it comes free on every newer Mac.
You’ll most likely want to edit your podcast after your done, for that GarageBand will work, but the free Audacity is far more powerful. Finally you’ll need a free app from the Mac App Store called Podcast Assistant, which we’ll discuss more when we get to publishing your podcast.
Recording your Podcast
If you’ve got the right hardware and downloaded all the required software we can move on to actually recording your podcast. For this example we’ll record with one remote guest over iChat, which is a pretty standard scenario.
Audio Hijack Pro, working it's magic.
Step 1:
You’ll first want to fire up Audio Hijack Pro and click on the iChat Preset. Press the mute button to avoid an echo, then press “Hijack.”
Step 2:
iChat will now open, Audio Hijack Pro is now also listening to iChat’s audio as well. Call your remote co-host.
Step 3:
Once they’ve accepted your call and you are ready to begin, press the “Record” button in Audio Hijack Pro. When you’re done, hit the same button again.
Post-Production
Using audacity to edit our podcast.
At this point you’ve finished recording your first podcast and you’re ready to make it nice and shiny with some post-production. If you like you can edit it in a program like Audacity or GarageBand, these programs are very popular and you should have no problem learning how to use them with a quick Google search (we have a great GarageBand intro series). You’ll also want to have some album art at a 600px by 600px resolution in jpg format.
Getting it Published
Some services such as Podomatic offer to do the rest of the work for you, but their free plans are limited and their “pro” plans are really overpriced. Instead, we’re going to do a little DIY magic and publish your podcast on the cheap.
Step 1:
You’ll need a flexible Web Host of sorts. For beginners try Weebly. If you’re feeling more advanced WordPress should do the trick. I’ll use Weebly for this example, their Pro service is only $32 a year and it allows unlimited file bandwith and individual file uploads of up to 100mb each. That’s enough for an audio podcast up to 2hr15min uncompressed.
Weebly also allows you to easily make a website for your podcast.
Step 2:
Open up Podcast Assistant, click “Start a Podcast” and fill in all the fields. Be descriptive, iTunes likes having thourough descriptions. You’ll need to have uploaded your first episode and album art to your server by now.
Step 3:
Upload the XML file you created with at least one episode to your web host. Keep the URL to this file the same every time you add an episode. For example it should always look like mysite.com/podcastname.xml so iTunes knows where it should look.
Step 4:
Now head over here to submit your podcast to iTunes. Thanks to Podcast Assistant you won’t have to do any additional work. Just know that Apple reviews their podcasts so it might take awhile before it appears in iTunes.
Conclusion
Making a Podcast is a great way to get your voice heard. With the help of the Mac and a few tools your podcast can really shine, and more importantly, be seen, thanks to it’s presence in the iTunes Store.
Believe it or not this post covered just the basics, I didn’t even mention live streaming your show or distributing a video podcast, but I might cover those topics in a future post of their own. The Mac can be a really powerful tool for content creation and a podcast is just the tip of the iceberg.