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Magnus · 8th August 2007, 17:43

Podcasting with Garageband
by Magnus

Garageband, part of Apple’s iLife, is probably one of the least used applications in the suite. But it’s a wonderful application for making music and podcasts.

Preparations
Before you even start doing anything in Garageband you need to think about a few things concerning your podcast. First of all, what is your podcast about and who is going to listen to it? Decide on the main theme or topic for your podcast, e.g. gardening, racing, Macs, etc. Combined with that you should also consider who the intended listeners are. Where are they located, who are they, what do they do, etc. This is a bit of basic marketing research you should do before starting to record and edit. Something else to consider is a publishing schedule. If you want to get regular listeners of your podcast, it’s good if you can publish on a regular schedule, e.g. once per week. All the work involved in making a podcast takes considerable amounts of time so you should consider what your schedule will be before committing to one.

Recording
After the initial preparations, you come to the part of recording your raw material, most likely you and perhaps some other people speaking. You want to make sure that you get as good quality recording as possible, so the output is as good as possible. You can record with a mobile device like your iPod or even mobile phone, with a computer like your Mac, or with some other device. If you are using your Mac, consider an external USB microphone, like the Bluemic Snowball (BlueMic :: Blue Microphones). You can also connect a regular microphone with something like the M-Audio FastTrack (M-AUDIO - Fast Track USB - Record Guitar and Vocals on Your Computerâ€”Complete with Effects).

Edit for content
Once you have the audio in Garageband, preferably different voices on different tracks, you start editing the audio for content. This means listening through it in order to remove the audio you don’t want. When you find a section you want to cut out, place the playhead at the start of the piece you want to remove, and select Edit > Split. Then place the playhead at the end of the section you want to remove and again select Edit > Split. Then you can click and remove the section. You can also put two segments back together by selecting both of them and clicking Edit > Join.

Adjust volume
Garageband has an automatic feature for ducking. Ducking basically means the volume of one track is adjusted according to the volume of another track. For example, the volume of a track playing some music can be automatically get a lower volume when a voice comes in on another track. You can do this manually, and sometimes you have to, but Garageband does a pretty good job of adjusting the volume automatically via ducking.

Add loops
At this stage you should have one or more voice tracks with the content edited. Then it’s time to add loops, jingles, and effects. Like before you’re going to have to Split your tracks in the appropriate places, if you haven’t already done so. Garageband comes with many loops and effects which you can add to your podcast. It could be a jingle between two segments of the podcast, or a special effect for something. You can also buy Apple’s JamPacks (Apple - GarageBand - Jam Packs). There are four JamPacks and they add thousands of jingles and effects. With all four JamPacks you’re well set to take on most any podcasting subject.

Enhanced podcast
By default Garageband outputs M4A format files. Apple refers to this format as being enhanced podcasts. This means you can add features to the podcast file, that users can take part. For example, you can add photos to the podcast track of an audio podcast in Garageband simply by dragging a photo from the Media Browser over to the Podcast Track. Then you can add chapter titles, and even URLs. These will show on an iPod but also on a Mac, when someone listens to the podcast. It’s a way to make your podcast a bit more user friendly, and add some value to it. This only works for M4A format files, and not for MP3 files.

Publish
Once everything is done, the simplest thing you can do is to select Share > Send Podcast to iTunes. Garageband then prepares the podcast, which may take a few minutes, and sends it to iTunes. From iTunes you can then listen to it. If you have a .Mac account you can send it to iWeb (Share > Send Podcast to iWeb) and it’s published for you. You can also send it to disk (Share > Export Podcast to Disk) and later upload it yourself (see review of Podcast Maker in this issue of shuffle). If you want an MP3 file, you send the podcast to iTunes, then set iTunes import to MP3 format (iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Importing > Import using), and right click on the podcast in the playlist and select “Convert Selection...” Then you end up with an MP3 file which will play on pretty much any mobile device and computer.

Final thoughts
Podcasting is exciting, and it’s a great way to reach a lot of people with little cost. That doesn’t mean little effort though. To get a regular audience you have to put in a lot of hard work into scripting, recording, as well as editing. Garageband is a great application for editing audio, and Apple built in a lot of functions especially targeting audio podcasters.

You can find a lot more information and resources about Garageband and podcasting at Apple - Support - GarageBand - Working With Podcasts.

If you edit and publish podcasts with Garageband, remember to keep the original Garageband files somewhere even after you’ve created your final podcast. Once you’ve saved to MP3 or M4A format, you can’t go back and do all the editing in Garageband as you could if you had saved the original file.

8th August 2007, 17:43	#3 (permalink)
Magnus Administrator Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Dubai Posts: 8,328	Podcasting with Garageband Podcasting with Garageband by Magnus Garageband, part of Apple’s iLife, is probably one of the least used applications in the suite. But it’s a wonderful application for making music and podcasts. Preparations Before you even start doing anything in Garageband you need to think about a few things concerning your podcast. First of all, what is your podcast about and who is going to listen to it? Decide on the main theme or topic for your podcast, e.g. gardening, racing, Macs, etc. Combined with that you should also consider who the intended listeners are. Where are they located, who are they, what do they do, etc. This is a bit of basic marketing research you should do before starting to record and edit. Something else to consider is a publishing schedule. If you want to get regular listeners of your podcast, it’s good if you can publish on a regular schedule, e.g. once per week. All the work involved in making a podcast takes considerable amounts of time so you should consider what your schedule will be before committing to one. Recording After the initial preparations, you come to the part of recording your raw material, most likely you and perhaps some other people speaking. You want to make sure that you get as good quality recording as possible, so the output is as good as possible. You can record with a mobile device like your iPod or even mobile phone, with a computer like your Mac, or with some other device. If you are using your Mac, consider an external USB microphone, like the Bluemic Snowball (BlueMic :: Blue Microphones). You can also connect a regular microphone with something like the M-Audio FastTrack (M-AUDIO - Fast Track USB - Record Guitar and Vocals on Your Computerâ€”Complete with Effects). Edit for content Once you have the audio in Garageband, preferably different voices on different tracks, you start editing the audio for content. This means listening through it in order to remove the audio you don’t want. When you find a section you want to cut out, place the playhead at the start of the piece you want to remove, and select Edit > Split. Then place the playhead at the end of the section you want to remove and again select Edit > Split. Then you can click and remove the section. You can also put two segments back together by selecting both of them and clicking Edit > Join. Adjust volume Garageband has an automatic feature for ducking. Ducking basically means the volume of one track is adjusted according to the volume of another track. For example, the volume of a track playing some music can be automatically get a lower volume when a voice comes in on another track. You can do this manually, and sometimes you have to, but Garageband does a pretty good job of adjusting the volume automatically via ducking. Add loops At this stage you should have one or more voice tracks with the content edited. Then it’s time to add loops, jingles, and effects. Like before you’re going to have to Split your tracks in the appropriate places, if you haven’t already done so. Garageband comes with many loops and effects which you can add to your podcast. It could be a jingle between two segments of the podcast, or a special effect for something. You can also buy Apple’s JamPacks (Apple - GarageBand - Jam Packs). There are four JamPacks and they add thousands of jingles and effects. With all four JamPacks you’re well set to take on most any podcasting subject. Enhanced podcast By default Garageband outputs M4A format files. Apple refers to this format as being enhanced podcasts. This means you can add features to the podcast file, that users can take part. For example, you can add photos to the podcast track of an audio podcast in Garageband simply by dragging a photo from the Media Browser over to the Podcast Track. Then you can add chapter titles, and even URLs. These will show on an iPod but also on a Mac, when someone listens to the podcast. It’s a way to make your podcast a bit more user friendly, and add some value to it. This only works for M4A format files, and not for MP3 files. Publish Once everything is done, the simplest thing you can do is to select Share > Send Podcast to iTunes. Garageband then prepares the podcast, which may take a few minutes, and sends it to iTunes. From iTunes you can then listen to it. If you have a .Mac account you can send it to iWeb (Share > Send Podcast to iWeb) and it’s published for you. You can also send it to disk (Share > Export Podcast to Disk) and later upload it yourself (see review of Podcast Maker in this issue of shuffle). If you want an MP3 file, you send the podcast to iTunes, then set iTunes import to MP3 format (iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Importing > Import using), and right click on the podcast in the playlist and select “Convert Selection...” Then you end up with an MP3 file which will play on pretty much any mobile device and computer. Final thoughts Podcasting is exciting, and it’s a great way to reach a lot of people with little cost. That doesn’t mean little effort though. To get a regular audience you have to put in a lot of hard work into scripting, recording, as well as editing. Garageband is a great application for editing audio, and Apple built in a lot of functions especially targeting audio podcasters. You can find a lot more information and resources about Garageband and podcasting at Apple - Support - GarageBand - Working With Podcasts. If you edit and publish podcasts with Garageband, remember to keep the original Garageband files somewhere even after you’ve created your final podcast. Once you’ve saved to MP3 or M4A format, you can’t go back and do all the editing in Garageband as you could if you had saved the original file.