Diary of a Podcaster Part 16
Life is often about the things we’d like to do or wished we had done, rather than the things we’ve actually achieved. My last post in this blog series was back in 2nd October 2018 and the last podcast that I published was in January 2019. Since then most attempts to produce more content of this kind have come to nought, as spare time for both recording and editing have been in short supply. However, I did manage to record some material on the 22nd of December with my long-time co-host Brian. The idea was to release the finished podcast as a surprise show at the end of the year. However, due to real world commitments, that deadline has not been met. Now there’s a surprise. I do intend to finish editing the show and may add some extra material to make it a little more topical. But overall, I am not too upset by this delay, because in the process of organising this podcast, I discovered a quick and convenient means of recording via Discord. Something that has been seen as Holy Grail of podcasting over the years.
The two of the main obstacles that face anyone hoping to produce a podcast are scheduling guests and recording. Getting your co-hosts online at a mutually convenient time has always been a complex task, akin to herding cats. And then finding a simple and reliable recording package is also a challenge. I initially started recording podcasts back in 2010 and used Skype to facilitate the conversation and numerous third-party apps to record the proceedings. These were often created by gifted amateurs and would often break once Skype was updated. Eventually I started using Zencastr which offers a bespoke VOIP service and records each track individually. As a web-based solution this proved good although there were glitches every once in a while, as well as occasional syncing issues. And then I came across Craig, just before Christmas. You simply invite Craig to your Discord server and then use simple text commands in your chat channel to start and stop recording voice chat. Upon finishing your recording Craig will send you a Direct Message with links to download your files. There is a choice of formats available and each participant is on a separate track. The icing on the cake for me is downloading the files as an Audacity project, ready for editing.
Peter Cushing recording an early podcast
However, it is worth remembering when making a podcast, that irrespective of whether you have the best recording system in the world, it cannot compensate for those participants with cheap microphones who sit at the bottom of a well or out in the middle of busy traffic, while shaking Maracas or using a Belt Sander. Plus no amount of post-production editing can improve poor material. But I guess that those sorts of problems are for another blog post. I’m hoping that the technical success of my most recent podcast recording will kick start my productivity once again. Maybe I can press gang a few of my former podcasting colleagues into appearing as guest on future episodes. Because I still think there’s a lot of life in podcasting as a medium. And having a show that goes hand in glove with the website is good for brand continuity. We shall see. The New Year is a traditionally a time for aspirations and “plans”. Sadly, reality often has other ideas.
