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You are here: Electronic Musician » Tutorials » Producing Pro Podcasts

Producing Pro Podcasts

Dec 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Mike Levine

The Electronic Century Part 4

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Mix It Down

Place the various elements into your sequencerÕs timeline and arrange them as you wish. Then record transitional VOs before mixing.

Fig. 5: Place the various elements into your sequencer's timeline and arrange them as you wish. Then record transitional VOs before mixing.

Rather than dealing with the aforementioned editing issues during the final mix of my Podcasts, I find it easier to edit and mix my interviews separately and then import the mixed stereo files into the final Podcast mix and place them where I want in the timeline along with any transitional music elements (see Fig. 5).

I generally wait to do any introductory, ending, or transitional VO segments until I've got all these other elements in place. You have better context for writing or improvising your voice-over once you have the Podcast's structure fully fleshed out.

If you've premixed your interviews, the biggest issues you'll be facing in your final mix will be evening out levels between the various elements. Be particularly careful when you're mixing a voice-over that's going over a piece of music. Use volume automation to duck the music down significantly for the duration of the voice-over, and then bring the level back up if the music continues after the VO. Typically, you'll want to smoothly fade out music elements to end them.

When you think your mix is ready to go, double-check the consistency of the levels between the beginning, middle, and end of your Podcast. I do this by setting the volume of my monitors to a comfortable level for the intro section, and playing back random snippets from various parts of the Podcast (without touching the volume control) to make sure the levels are even.

Overall, you want your Podcast to be at a healthy level without clipping. Pay attention to gain-staging protocol: don't raise your master fader over 0 dB; boost your individual channel faders instead. When you've finally got your mix sounding the way you want, bounce it to disk (still at 24-bit).

One Last Pass

After you've mixed down to stereo from your multitrack, I would suggest taking a break from the material for a couple of hours or, even better, overnight. As with a music mix, that time away from it will allow you to regain your perspective. After you've given it a break, load your file into a 2-track editor application. Check once more for any offensive breaths, pops, or vocal stumbles and mismatched levels. All of those glitches can be addressed in a good 2-track editor.

When you're satisfied, convert it to a 16-bit file and then into MP3 format. (Many applications will let you do this in one step.) MP3 is the universal format for Podcasts and is compatible with both Macs and PCs.

If your Podcast is music centered, I would recommend encoding your MP3 file in stereo at a minimum of 128 Kbps (kilobits per second). If talk is the focus and music is secondary (or nonexistent), you can probably get away with a mono, 64 Kbps or 48 Kbps file. Remember that the higher the bit rate, the better the sound quality, but the longer it will take for users to download or stream the Podcast. Also, make sure to add ID3 tags, which are metadata embedded in MP3 files to identify them (see the sidebar “Tag, You're It”).

On the Web

Taking the time to make the audio in your Podcasts sound as good as possible will pay off in improved enjoyment for your listeners. Of course, content is the most important aspect of a Podcast, but if the sound quality is lousy, with stray noises, jumpy volume levels, and bad-quality interview recordings, people will be less likely to want to download, stream, or subscribe to it again. I try to make my Podcast production as radio-like as possible. If it sounds like it could be on the air, then it's ready for the Web.

Mike Levine is an EM senior editor and the producer of “EM Cast,” the twice-monthly, interview-based Podcast available at www.emusician.com/podcasts.

TAG, YOU'RE IT

Once you have the converted MP3 file of your Podcast, you have one more step left, which is to add ID3 tags. These embed important metadata into your file, such as the name of the Podcast, the artist, and a description of the contents. If you're setting up your Podcast so that listeners can subscribe to it in a program like Apple iTunes, the ID3 tag is a critical item.

I usually drag the MP3 file of my Podcast into iTunes to edit the ID3 tag. I've tried editing in other audio applications, but sometimes the results aren't satisfactory (entries can get truncated). Standalone ID3 tag editors are also available.

Select your Podcast in iTunes' main window and hit Command-I, and you'll get the Info page (see Fig. A). Choose a standard naming convention that you'll use across all your Podcasts, and which is descriptive and will serve as your file name. The reason for standardization is that if you have a number of your Podcasts together in, say, an RSS subscription feed, or even in a list on your Web site, standardized file names will make your list look a lot cleaner and more professional.

Also, make sure that you put a concise description in the Comments field. When your Podcast is subscribed to, the comments are important because they help potential listeners choose which episode they want to download.