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Donnie Simpson is a radio personality that those of us in the WashDC area are very familiar with. I first saw Donnie on TV in the 80s when he hosted Video Soul, a smooth R&B video show. I was also a regular listener to his morning radio show, The Donnie Simpson Show, before it ended. To me, Donnie is a class act. He touched a lot of lives and left a lasting impression on those that listened to him.  I really liked Donnie because his guest always stated that they felt like they where having a conversation with him not an interview (very important). This made them feel so comfortable around him which is what I think everyone tries to emulate on their podcast.

So you’ve decided to do a podcast. This is great, however, there is a lot of work involved. There is a lot of scattered information out there. If you’ve tried to setup a podcast, like me, I’m sure you’ve had six browser tabs open at the same trying to figure the steps out. I got frustrated and decided to write this post.

I’m going to keep things very simple. Here’s what you need to even begin to think about Podcasting (for Mac):

• Snowball (by Blue Microphone).  This is a sweet USB microphone. As far as bang for the buck this mic has it. The sound quality is excellent. The price range is ~$80 to $110. I found the best price on Amazon.

• Headphones. Make sure you have a good set.

• Skype. You can’t beat the sound quality that Skype offers you. To sign up is free and Skype to Skype calls are free.

• Audio Hijack Pro. You need this program. This program allows you to record sound from any program running on the Mac. There is a cost associated with this ($32).

• Soundflower.  This is another program you need soundflower because this program allows you to pass the audio from skype and the snowball into Audio Hijack Pro. It’s freeware.

• Audacity. This program allows you to edit sounds. However, I use it because it allows me to save audio files in different formats (aiff, mp3, wav, etc). It’s freeware.

• Levelator. You don’t need this tool. I do highly suggest you use it. This cool tool makes all the spoken audio levels in the podcast audio file the same. If the speaking volume for everyone on the podcasts isn’t the same level the program makes all audio levels the same.

• Garage Band. This program comes with the Mac. I use this program to import audio from Hijack and merge it with my iTunes music collection.

• A hosting site. As much as I believe that my Alienware computer can handle the load of subscribers streaming the podcast. I don’t think Comcast would be happy. You are going to have to sift through the myriad of Podcast hosts to find the one that is right for you. I’ve gone with Cyber Ears. They have cheap rates with unlimited bandwidth. You may think bandwidth isn’t important but you never know when you’ll have that one popular show that everyone is dying to hear. Unlimited bandwidth will prevent you from paying expensive overage fees.

Now that you have all of your applications. Let’s put it all together. Please keep in mind that I’ve watered these steps down to keep this blog from being a five day series:

1. Setup Soundflower channels 16  and 2 (Skype).
2. Contact Guest via Skype (setup to channel 2).
3. Open Audio Hijack Pro. Hijack the microphone, and channels 2 and 16 (audio output). Please be sure to Select record on channel 16.
4. Show is finished. Deselect Record in Audio Hijack. The audio file will be in the recording bin.
5. Open GarageBand. Drag audio file from Audio Hijack into GarageBand. Now you can add, chop, edit or whatever you want to do to the file. Save file.
6. Launch Audacity. Open the saved GarageBand audio file. Save the audio file as a .wav file to the desktop.
7. Launch Levelator. Drag the saved .wav file on the desktop into Levelator. Levelator will save the output file to the desktop (as a .wav file).
8. Drag Levelator output file into Audacity. Save it as a MP3 file.
9. Upload to your Podcast to the hosting website.
10. Notify friends and followers via your blog site and feeds.
11. Boom your done.

Setting up the applications can be a little tricky. Nick O’Neil  has a great Youtube video that shows you how to set everything up. Now that I’ve gotten into podcasting I’ve found that it isn’t as easy as some make it look. Hopefully this blog helps you through the confusion of podcasting and helps you attain your goal of having your own podcast.

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