By way of a BloggingPro post (links below), I found Dan Kuykendall's PodPress plugin for podcasting via the WordPress blogging platform on his MightySeek blog. Dan also has an explanation of how to set up your podcast, as well as the equipment he's using: a laptop, an USB-based audo interface ($250), microphone ($125), pop filter ($30), sound box ($25), and audio software.

While Dan is using relatively high quality audio equipment, you don't need spend a lot. I did spend a lot, at first. For example, I have an older custom-built computer for which I installed a Cdn$1700 professional sound card a few years ago that was an end-of-line. I got it at half price but paid good money for a variety of audio software. I used to have a bunch of good quality microphones.

Fast forward from about 5 years ago to the last 2 years. I bought a $1 mic from a "dollar store" and tried it with the default sound card on a newer MDG desktop computer. I tried recording with my older expensive audio software, as well as a fantastic free OpenSource audio package called Audacity. The plugins are mostly free, and plugins for specific other popular audio recording software will do.

Which setup sounded better? The cheaper setup, but primarily because my old computer generated a lot of hum from the hard drive. Try as I might, I couldn't filter all of the hum out. No doubt, if I could install the professional sound card into my newer computer, recordings would sound better, but not as good as the top-of-line, standalone 44/16 Yamaha hard-disk recording system I used to have.

Is that overkill for Internet podcasts? I think so.  In terms of broadcast quality, you have to ask yourself what your goal is. If you're just doing simple podcasts, you don't need to spend a great deal. If you plan to sell your recordings in a compilation, you may want to splurge. But consider that some semi-celebrities are podcasting from their cellphone to a free host.

BTW, If you're on the lookout for where to list your podcasts and vodcasts, check out PodFeed and IdiotVox. If you need a host for your media files, visit LibSyn. They use the novel pricing model of only charging you for the space your files take up, not the bandwidth. Imagine that!

Back to Dan's PodPress plugin for the WordPress blogging platform. It even has a feature called Comment Casting. I'm hazarding a guess that this lets you set up an RSS feed with audio comments, although I'm not sure until I experiment with it.

One note of caution: It's not clear from the instructions, but to get PodPress to function, include text similar to "[podcast:filename.mp3]", replacing only the "filename" portion, at the end of your journal/ blog posts.

If you just want to include MP3 files (and the player) on your WordPress blog pages, but not in your RSS feed, you can use 1PixelOut's MP3 AudioPlayer plugin for WordPress, upon which PodPress is based. Both use the same slender, exandable MP3 player graphics.  More on podcasting in the future.

Links/ Sources: BloggingPro - WordPress Plugins; Dan Kuykendall - Mighty Seek - PodPress; Audacity; PodFeed; IdiotVox; LibSyn; 1PixelOut - AudioPlayer WordPress Plugin.

(c) Copyright: 2006-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://www.chameleonintegration.com/

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