If you produce video podcasts, you have to make sure that your video content is will come out in search results. This is important because you increase the chances of someone stumbling on your video podcast and ending up liking it enough to come back for seconds by simply being searchable. After all, whether they really meant to find your video podcast, or was just looking for similarly themed videos, the point is that once they see your podcast in the search results you already get the benefit of increased awareness for your podcast and a chance at getting viewed.

To make sure you search engines find your video content, you should create a video sitemap and submit it to Google and other search engines. Video sitemaps work just like your ordinary XML sitemap, except that it points out all your URLs or pages that contain video content. Note that the video sitemap can contain content other than video podcasts.

When creating video sitemaps, note that Google requires you to include the following information for each URL in the sitemap:

• Title
• Description
• Play page URL
• Thumbnail URL
• Raw video file location and/or the player URL (SWF)

Videos found for each URL should also be tagged accordingly (see Google Video Sitemap Guidelines for details) putting in information such as duration, category, whether it requires a subscription or not, etc. These information will encourage search users to click on your video podcast when they appear in search engine results because they will see at a glance the information they need.

Image via ReelSEO

With so many things to consider when mixing your track, there is tendency to sometimes neglect the tiny details that sets a well-made podcast from a poorly made one. Here are two simple tips that addressed commonly overlooked issues:

Review individual tracks – Sure, the overall sound of the mix is what you listen to in the end, but each individual track you add to your podcast affects the final track. Make sure you don’t miss the small sounds that may not be much but can prove to be distracting (i.e. muffled cough or sneeze) by muting the background sound and music while editing the narration bit, or whichever specific track you happen to be editing at the moment. You can do this easily if you are using GarageBand by choosing the “Solo” option, or just drag the volume of all the other tracks down if you are using a different software.

Center all tracks – I hate it when my earphones go haywire and I just happen to be in transit with no option but to listen to glitch sounding podcasts and music on just one earpiece. What bugs me more than this though is when I have to listen to a podcast that wasn’t properly so that the people speaking sound like one they are speaking on each side of my ear. This can be easily remedied by simply making sure that all the recorded tracks are centered (Set the Dial on the Mixer in the Center or to Zero, depending on the mixer/software you are using). This way, the sound will be coming out from BOTH earpieces and not from the left or right.

Image credit: Knight Digital Media Center

Make Session Templates

Session templates are general parameters that define certain elements of a Garage Band recording session. These types of templates are found in many audio editors and are time savers because they allow someone using the program to skip setting routine session attributes that they use regularly. This will save you a lot of time in setting up your podcasts so make use of it.

You can either set these parameters as a template in and of itself and open this template to begin the podcast recording or editing session or you can simply open a previous podcast and delete the audio. In the latter case all the parameters will have been saved with the session, just as they would be with a template, so you can just delete the audio that has been recorded and change any other parameters you wish in order to begin your new session. Bear in mind though that if you take the time to create a basic template you won’t have the minimal extra effort of deleting the audio tracks.

Get a Display you are Comfortable With

There are various zooms and other screen viewing parameters that can be customized in Garage Band. For optimum work convenience, choose a zoom and general screen view that works for you and stick with that. You want to have a decent amount of visual information on the screen while at the same time being able to see things clearly. The better you can see various elements on the screen, the easier it will be to work on your session effectively and efficiently.

Podcast Track

The podcast track shows your artwork and various other “meta-data” that is associated with the podcast. This is a newly added feature designed especially for podcasts. Make use of this tool to make sure that all the elements of your podcast other than the audio itself are in good order, editing them as needed from podcast to podcast.

Use Ducking

Ducking refers you assigning certain tracks greater preference than others in the overall sound scape. You can, for instance, set a basic sonic background of music and have the music get softer when people are speaking. This will save you have to go through and painstakingly bring volume levels down on the background track when there is voice data. It will also mean you don’t have to set the background track to an overall lower level throughout the podcast which is something you may not wish to do.

How to Edit Levels

There are some tips that make editing levels easier. You will want, for instance, the voices of everyone on the podcast to be set at the same level. It’s important to do this after a break when you haven’t been listening to things for too long and become habituated to the sound. Standing further from the speakers is also a good idea. This will help you discern which sounds are louder and which ones are softer.

About Guest Author:

Ross loves writing, when free you can find him working at office, doing online faxing, fixing other fax machines, and other work related to fax. He has been in fax industry for 8 years and loves every minute of his job.

Here’s a short video of a guy talking about pop shields or pop filters.

The first thing that should be said is so utterly basic that you will think “what does he take me for? An idiot?”. I don’t take you for an idiot, but too many people just don’t take this basic fact into consideration.

If you record it well, there is little or no need for the things that I will talk about in this post.

So how do you do that? Well, first of all, you might want to keep the mic away from your noisy computer. You don’t think the hum is captured? It probably is, and when you boost the volume it might be a very annoying thing on top of that. Secondly you might want to keep your desk, or wherever your sitting, rather clean from unnecessary papers and other things that makes a sound if you happen to touch them. And don’t put your harmonica next to the fan!

Search and destroy

But accidents do happen, and sometimes they’re not that hard to fix either. If the noise is a loud click, pop or any other sudden sound with a high level, it usually isn’t hard to find. Just listen for it while looking at the waveform, it should be easy enough to spot it. If you use a proper audio editor (and you should!) then it most likely supports non-destructive editing. This means that you can cut all you want in the sound in your editor without harming the original file. Seek for the noise and go in and cut it out, alternatively lower the volume where the noise is.

Fade in, fade out

When cutting in a waveform this way you will want to be really precise to where you cut, other wise there is a risk that the cut in itself will produce a pop! So how do you figure out where to cut? Zoom in, really close and cut where the waveform is lined up as it was silent. Depending on how your audio editor displays waveforms it may look differently. It shouldn’t be a problem for you to figure out where the noise begins.

Clicks and pops occur from cutting when the ending section of the waveform is at a different place than the beginning. If it is impossible to make a cut like that (it can be hard if there’s several different sounds going on at the same time) you can use a fade out and a fade in if your editor supports it. This should be a very very short fade, barely not even audible, but because of this short fade the pop or click will disappear. Consult your audio editors manual for fades.

For information on dealing with more “colorful” noise, read the post “Dealing with noise”.

Beercasts are gaining a lot of fans in the podcasting community because it is a lot of fun and a relatively easy way of making a podcast. the setup for a beercast is quite simple. All one needs is a few microphones, a Behringer mixer and an MP3 recorder.

A beercast is actually  round table discussion. A topic is presented to the participants and the discussions begin. It’s an easy setup and when it gets going, it is so much fun. A discussion like this will be energetic, free-flowing and, if the participants are witty and eloquent, quite a great show of verbal repartee. Of course, introducing some alcohol into the mix could result in even more free spirited discussions.

Beercasting is a great way to get your feet wet in the world of podcasting simply because conversations come naturally, unlike a monologue. A podcaster is more likely to feel more comfortable when he’s talking with other people rather than just talking on his own while on the microphone. Conversations will allow you to actually think about what you will say next when the other participants in the beercast are talking. Beercasts and multiple host types of podcast are so popular and more engaging to audiences that you will notice that in any ranking of podcasts, there’s more multiple-host formats in the list.

If you’re interested in trying out a podcast, try to read the excellent resource Podcasting Hacks.

Until Flux released something called a de-compressor, I would have said that the expander is the exact opposite of a compressor. You can pretty much tell it from the name, right? While the signal above the set threshold is toned down with a compressor, it’s the signal below the threshold that’s toned down with an expander. Thus creating an image of more dynamic audio.

Typically the distinction between an expander and a gate would be the same as between a compressor and a limiter. In other words, if the ratio of the expander is set really high, it acts as a gate. Alright, enough about technical gibberish. What does this mean? Well, it’s in the words! A gate is something that can be open and closed. While the expander tones down some of the signal below the set threshold, the gate will not let any of that signal through at all.

With this in mind, I’m sure you can imagine why the term “noise gate” is pretty common. The gate is ideal for getting rid of unwanted low noise and rumble from bad recordings. So back to the technical gibberish. What are the controls on a expander/gate? And what do they do? Actually, they are typically the same as a compressor, and as with the compressor, the layout of an expander/gate can vary a little. If you understand how a compressor works, and just keep in mind that the expander/gate lowers the signal below the threshold instead of above it, you’ll be all set.

So for podcasting the typical application would be a noise gate to clean up crappy recordings. To make the expander a gate, try setting the ratio really high (remember, this is how much compression we apply). If the expander/gate has a ‘range’ setting, try to initially set it high as well. Now turn the threshold knob and listen carefully what happens. The higher the threshold, the more of the audio will be removed. Make very sure that you don’t interfere with the audio you want to keep. It can make it sound really stabby and ugly. Generally I’d rather keep a little noise than mess up someone’s speech. Now try playing around with the range (if there is one) and the other controls that can smoothen things out a little.

That’s it for now. I hope you have a little more understanding of gates and expanders now than you had before.

Time for another ‘gear roundup post’. Or perhaps I should categorize this as a ‘getting started post’? Whatever you call it I thought it was time for another one of those. I’ve decided to split it up into two posts. This first one will as the name suggests deal with what you need to start out podcasting if you’re not looking to spend any larger amounts of money. The second part in this serious will deal with more ‘high-end podcasting’ if such a term exists.

Because of my intention to separate this into two posts, this will be rather short. Fortunately for you that’s a good thing! Because that means that you don’t need a lot of gear to start podcasting. Good huh?

First off, if you’re going the cheapo-route and will record any voice at all then I suggest a USB microphone. Go to the USB microphone list and look.

Next of you’ll need a application to record and edit your podcast in. If you’re on Mac and don’t use GarageBand for this then you should really give it a go. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. If You’re on PC or Linux, check out Audacity.

That’s all some people will need. Others will want to do a little more, for instance record interviews on the field, or do a video podcast.

For video editing, try iMovie on Mac. It’s really easy to work with. Not surprisingly it’s the GarageBand of the video world.

As for field recording, I often report about new handhelds. This is what comes up if you use the search on this blog and type in “handheld”.

There are a lot of other useful tools out there that don’t really fit any of these categories. In the past I have for instance reported about

• Audio Hijack – record what comes through your computer.
• Snapper (and more Snapper) – a very clever sound browser. Also Audio Finder which looks like it does a similar thing.
• There are many other cheap audio editors out there besides Audacity and GarageBand. Wavelab Essentials by Steinberg and Acoustica for instance.

Unfortunately, even if you record your podcast in a studio, noise can still creep into your podcast if you do not take care about how the recording is set up. For example, background noise can be caused by something as small as the computer fan.In fact, it’s the most common source of background noise in podcasts — almost 20 percent of podcasts suffer from computer fan background noise. The solution for this is as simple as moving the microphone away from the computer. A distance of six feet is sufficient enough to prevent the microphone from picking up computer fan noise. Another good tip is to use a directional mic and then point it away from the computer so that it won’t pick up any sound or noise that the PC produces. Of course, the most radical solution is to use fan-less computers or laptops. If you’re planning to upgrade your hardware then you can go this route to eliminate noise while recording your podcasts.