Chris Brogan asked for podcast workflows today. Mine follows:
We use an Roland Eridol MP3 recorder patched into the PA to capture the audio feed. One of the chior members turns on the recorder as they go out at the beginning of the service, and turns it off at the end of the service. We capture audio at CD quality (44100 sample rate, 24 bit).
After coffee, I go grab the SD card out of the recorder, and take it home. I use Audacity and my MacBook to trim the file – start just before the Gospel reading, and end at the end of the post-sermon prayer.
Once the file is trimmed, I do a high-pass filter with a cutoff at 70 Hz to get rid of any 60Hz that we picked up from the electrical system, and a low-pass filter at about 3.5 KHz to get rid of any higher frequency noise. I’ve experimented with the “Noise Removal” effect, but it either
1) Doesn’t do much; or
2) Adds digital artifacts.
I then export the file as a 44.1KHz/24 bit WAV, and run it through the Levelator.
Re-import the output into Audacity, and use the Lame MP3 encoder to export as 11.5KHz/8 bit MP3.
Our platform is WordPress with the PodPress plugin. I use the FireFTP plugin in Firefox (Flock, actually) to upload the file.
Then, it’s a matter of New Post -> Include audio file -> Post; and we’re done.
The only trouble we ran into was trying to figure out why our initial posts sounded like chipmunks in the flash player included with PodPress, but that turned out to a non-standard MP3 bitrate on our part.
This is awesome. Thanks so much for this. I’m throwing this on the PodCamp resources list, too. : )
Great advice- I do something similar with my edirol recorded stuff, and love the frequency filters- I found the same problem with the formal noise reduction, and I hate having to use sound soap all the time.