Podcasting 3: Production Techniques & Media Literacy

Coming soon...

If you've done this you might be interested in furthering your skills: Podcasting 2: Sharing your audio online

What people have said:

"Great fun again"; "Excellent"; Loads of great ideas that I know I will use"; "Great - lots of practical"

Course Summary

Previous knowledge should include a working knowledge of Audacity or Garageband, or attendance at Podcasting 1: Creating Cool Audio.

In this course participants aimed to answer the following questions:

• What makes a good radio show or podcast?
• What techniques can I learn easily to share with my students?
• Can I create a good podcast from scratch in 40 minutes?

Software to download & equipment to buy

Software

(if the software is not already on a Council machine then you will have to request installation through the IT Helpdesk):

• Mac users require no additional software: Garageband and iTunes are the two applications to useOtherwise you will need:

• Audacity
• LAME MP3 encoder

!

Equipment

• One PC or Mac
• If your computer has no internal microphone you may need a Logitech USB Microphone

(Approx £10-15 - contact IT Helpdesk for most recent models and competitive prices)

• 'Line-in' microphones are less versatile, and do not work on Apple Macintosh computers
• It's useful to use portable audio recorders, such as iRivers, to limit the number of computers you need to record audio.

Top Recording Tips

Many of my top tips come from the BBC Training Manual (of course!). It provides great examples of where interviews and vox pops go well (and not so well)

• Record voices first, then all the sound effects and jingles
• Starting with a vox pops is a good way to quickly introduce a topic (ask one question to lots of people)
• Try making your own backings and sound effects - it's sometimes easier and more along the lines that you want
• Avoiding popping - using an old sock
• Microphones - USB Microphones vs inbuilt
• Order of recordings - voices, sound effects, music
• Use of script or no script? - matching importance of position in the show with importance of scripting
• Backing sounds - getting the balance right

Ideas for show segments

• Intros and outros: the 15 second intro rule
• Vox Pops: What are they? Getting the best out of people Lots of examples
• Call ins - using a mobile phone for recording and Audio Hijack (trial download) for conversion (10 mins at a time for free) or Snapz Pro (pay for, but can also copy video and audio, and screengrabs)
• Longer interviews: Getting students to research the subject beforehand
• Roundtable 'discussions': have a scripted leader

Teaching ideas

• Use sound effect backings as the stimulus for learning about other places around the world or other environments (countryside, seaside, cities, towns...)
• Use a monthly podcast as an audio learning log - students can record a few seconds here and there as they see an outcome from their learning. By the end of the month there is a show!

Tips for Backing Music and voiceovers

Sometimes your music department or music class just doesn't have the time to create original music for podcasts, so you need to use 'podsafe' audio. Podsafe audio comes with special copyright that allows you to use the audio, sometimes with a small reference to the artist or website that created it.

• Ewan's podsafe music links