Blog Azeroth

Since there seem to be a fair number of seasoned podcasters here, I figure there is no harm in asking:

Are there any podcasting resources that you recommend? Anything from recording, to layout, to music, general tips ... or whatever else you can think of. I'm looking for links to tutorials, etc. aimed at beginners.

My boyfriend it thinking of starting a podcast (Elune save us all!) and I figure the poor guy is going to need all the help he can get. I know it is going to be gaming-focused, if that makes any difference (I don't know what it will be specifically: Warcraft, roleplaying, console gaming, or something else).

TUTORIAL
from: How to Podcast

CONFERENCE CALLING
Skype is a wonderful and free resource for hosting conference calls.

RECORDING SOFTWARE
For Multitracking: I use Adobe Audition ( http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/), but there are free/donation ones such as Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ).
Recording Calls: Recording directly from Skype is a little more complicated, but there is a freebie software called Pretty May (Basic Version) if you are starting out.

RECORDING VOICE EQUIPMENT
If you are just starting out, a good USB headset w/mic works.

The rest depends on the scope and range of your projects and vision. If you are ONLY doing podcasting and using conferencing and interviews over Skype, the headset is a good start. If you want a more professional sound quality then a mic like the The Snowball by Blue would be fantastic.

VOICE ACTING, SINGING, and DRAMAS
If you plan on doing more voice acting and/or are entertaining the idea of having people read for you or do any singing, that is a different set-up. I have people stand at a music stand to read their lines with the microphone hanging over their heads ala studio style.

My equipment is for music recording and singing, an affordable example would be the MXL Studio condenser microphone in a shock mount with pop/hiss screen. However, using musician equipment like this requires an interface to the computer such as the Lexicon Alpha. (The Lexicon is an interface/sound card for being able to plug a traditional microphone, synthesizers, guitars, etc directly into a computer).

Getting started...

One you have a recorded your show, then what?
How do I do this for little or no $$?

GETTING THE SHOW OUT THERE
A free place to start to get your show on iTunes and various other RSS is Podbean. This service not only provides tools to get the show up at iTunes, it also is a basic blog. The tools are fairly easy to use, and they offer a step by step guide to help you along.

YEP, YOU NEED A FEED
This was confusing at first, but the PODbean above offers a feed you can use. A really great tool for distribution and statistics is Feedburner(now owned by Goggle). You can link your RSS from Podbean to Feedburner if you want.

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If you are more programming and website saavy and have your own domain, you probably can cull all the required programming from what Podbean would offer, and put that in your own site via wordpress.