1) Launch iTunes (duh?)

2) Click on the Podcast icon in the Source area on the left side of iTunes

3) Goto …

File > Export Song List

In the dialog box that appears select OPML from the formats drop down menu near the bottom of the window. Don’t forget to name your opml file and make sure there is a .opml extension on it.

5) Click save & your done!

Import OPML from iTunes

1) Launch iTunes (duh?)

2) Click on the Podcast icon in the Source area on the left side of iTunes

3) Goto …

File > Import

In the Import dialog box find your OPML file. Click choose.

4) You’ll see a box comes up that says, “Are you sure you want to add XX subscriptions?” Click yes, of course. (XX is a place holder for the number of RSS feeds in your OPML file that iTunes is importing.)

This tutorial was created with iTunes 6.0.1 on a Mac OSX 10.4.3. I’ll test it on a PC and report back.

To see a difference in your present playlist try exporting a OPML file then clearing a podcast feed or two. Go back and import that OPML file you just made. Your RSS feeds should be back where they were.

Another thing I noticed was iTunes gives errors when trying to import OPML files made by Radio Userland. I’m guessing it’s the difference in the xml syntax.

First you need a bit of cheap gear.

A) A computer w/internet access – Drop by your local computer technology center, library, or a friends to use their computer.

B) Olympus DS-2 – A wonderful voice recorder with a stereo microphone, a microphone input, earbud headphones, a external speaker, USB, and software that creates uncompressed versions of your recordings!

C) Cheap External Mic – (Optional) The Labtec AM-222 is a good handheld mono microphone with a 1/8_ high impedance jack. Works great with the Olympus DS-2 and isolates a persons voice well.

D) Weblog – Lots of varieties help you podcast. I like the Open Source php/MySQL based Word Press. See this article about how to Podcast with Word Press 1.5. It should work out of the box.

You can learn more about this stuff here. The Olympus DS-2 is only $120, lots of Weblogs that can podcast are free, and you can access a computer for free at a library or community center.

Podcast Interviews Step by Step

1) Find a Story – everyone has one, find one that interest you

2) Write Some Questions – There is bound to be something you and others want to know about the person you’re interviewing.

3) Practice Asking Questions – Ask a friend some of the questions you wrote. It’s good to get comfortable with your questions before start recording audio. Get feedback from your friend on how you did. Research the subjects areas you want to discuss.

4) Get an Interview -

1. Schedule – Email or call the person you’d like to interview. Ask them very nicely. Tell them you’re an amateur and will not profit from this. Most people love to talk about themselves.
2. Spontaneous – You can also just walk up to people in public places and ask them questions. This takes humility and kindness too. It’s intimidating for some to be interviewed on the spot. Smile. I’ve heard wearing a funny hat helps.

5) Prepare – Now that you have an interview scheduled make sure you have everything you need. Batteries? Check! Voice Recorder? Check! Ear buds? Check! Questions? Check! Are you relaxed? Just take lots of deep breaths. Do you know how to pronounce interviewee’s name?

6) Interview – Meet the person your interviewing. Find a quite place to talk. Relax and think about having a conversation with an old friend. If your using a external microphone plug it into the voice recorder. Point the microphone at the person your interview. Don’t hold the microphone too close to their mouth. Remember to point the microphone at yourself when you ask a question.

1. As soon as you start recording don’t say anything for about three seconds.
2. Introduce yourself. Say your websites name too.
3. Introduce your guest. Say their name and a bit about them
4. Ask your questions
5. LISTEN, try not to talk too much or over your guest
6. Say goodbye to the people listening, say your name, say your websites name
7. Say nothing for about three seconds. Hit stop.

7) Thank the person you interviewed – Tell them your weblog URL. Be sure to write down their URL and the CORRECT spelling of their name. You might want a bio from them too.

Copy audio from Voice Recorder – The Olympus DS-2 connects to a computer via USB. It will mount on your desktop just like a hard drive. The DS-2 comes with software that will make downloading the audio off of the device easier AND it will convert the audio to a lossless audio file type AIFF (Mac) or WAV (PC). This will make it MUCH easier to convert your audio into a MP3 that everyone can play.

9) Tweak Audio (Optional) – I like to raise and or lower the gain on the audio so it sounds good on lots of speakers. Plus sometimes I put a fade in at the beginning and a fade out at the end of the audio. Here are some articles on how-to use a great free piece of Open Source audio software called Audacity.

10) Convert your interview into a MP3 – The majority of software and devices out there right now can play MP3 encoded audio. There are lots of other audio file types that sound better and are Open Source but right now we have a majority standard so if you want the most people to have the ability to listen to your audio use MP3. I suggest that you convert your audio to a mono file that’s encoded at 64kbps and 16 bit.

11) Upload MP3 to web – I use a ftp client to get the MP3s on my webserver. Some weblog software will allow you to upload files via a web browser. Be sure to remember where the files is uploaded too. You’ll need to know the full URL that you MP3 resides at. (ex. http://www.yourwebserver.com/your_podcast.mp3)

12) Blog about Audio – The best podcasters are good bloggers. You need to write about the person you interviewed, what you asking them, and what you talked about. Link directly to the MP3 you made in your weblog post. Including the size of the MP3 in Mega Bytes and how long it is in minutes and seconds is a good idea.

13) Podcast your MP3 – RSS 2.0 is the key to Podcasting. The rest of this how-to is nothing new really, but once you ENCLOSE your MP3 in a RSS file people can automate the download of the audio you made. My Podcasting Into and Tutorial can give you all the details of how this works. For now if you are using the weblog software the MP3 you linked to should automatically be in your RSS feed.

14) Tell people about Your Podcast – Email or call the person you interviewed and tell them where they can find the MP3 you made. Many times your guests can be your best word of mouth advertising. List your site and podcast URL on Podcast directories like the one at Podcast.net.

15) Start OVER – The more you create podcasts the easier it gets. At first this looks likes a lot of steps. But as you do it you’ll see they all sort of run together and this process becomes quite natural.

If you have any questions about Podcasting or get stuck with any of these steps please contact me and search Google with the keywords Podcast and How-To. Please leave any creative criticism you might have in the comments.

via: Hack A Day

1) A computer w/internet access – Drop by your local computer technology center, library, or a friends to use their computer.

2) Olympus DS-2 – A wonderful voice recorder with a stereo mic, a mic input, earbud headphones, a external speaker, USB, and software that creates uncompressed versions of your recordings! [Thanks for hipping me to the DS-2 Sooz!]

3) Cheap External Mic – (Optional) The Labtec AM-222 is a good handheld mono mic with a 1/8″ high impedance jack. Works great with the Olympus DS-2 and isolates a persons voice well.

[Check out last weeks podcast One Man Protests Racism at WalMart for an example of this gear in action.]

The Details:
First, I’m assuming that most computers now have a USB port. So does the Olympus DS-2. This is the exciting part of this kit. The Olympus DS-2 records digitally to a internal flash drive. This means when you’re done recording you have a audio file to share immediately. With the USB connection you can quickly copy the audio files to your computer. No more digitizing of your audio. It’s already done. Once it’s on a computer you can upload it to the internet and share.

I like to convert the WMA file the DS-2 makes to AIFF then to MP3. (You don’t have to…) The Olympus software can convert the WMA to a AIFF. Why AIFF? It’s a lossless audio file format. This way I can edit a bunch of audio together and have good sounding results in the end. Plus AIFF is a good archiving format. (BTW…the Olympus software for the PC converts to uncompressed WAV.) You can also just convert the WMA file straight to MP3. (I couldn’t notice any quality loss from the conversion process.) We share MP3s because it’s the most used audio file format in the world.

The Olympus DS-2 has a built in stereo mic. It works great. The stereo left and right channel can be important to create the auditory illusion of space. But for interviews a stereo mic sounds weird. Focusing on one person speaking, like in an interview, sounds more full and clear with a mono mic. (FYI – mono audio still has a left and right channel. It’s just the same signal in each side.) Using a external mono mic with the Olympus DS-2 really helps the sound quality.

This is all consumer audio gear that can produce professional sounding results. This stuff really helps the creative amateur to make and share audio as good and better than pros who spend thousands of dollars more. (Of course if you want to edit several files together and work in the field for days at a time you might need the Ultimate Mobile Audio Creation Kit.)

As of this minute I only have one way to create my Podcast RSS 2.0 feed with Word Press 1.5. My old install of Movable Type had a plug-in that added the mp3 link and all info into my RSS 2.0 feed automatically. So far I haven’t found a method as easy in Word Press. But here is a HowTo to make it work in Word Press 1.5 anyway. This is what I did to get my enclosure tags for RSS 2.0 working and part of what I do each and every time I release a Podcast. IF ANY ONE KNOWS OF A PLUG-IN OR EASY HACK FOR WORD PRESS 1.5 THAT MAKES PODCASTING SIMPLER PLEASE PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

Update: Supposedly WP 1.5 should add links to MP3s in the post to your RSS feed automatically. Here is the Word Press Codex page that describes this. I’m not getting this functionality. Hmmmm.

HowTo podcast with WordPress 1.5

1) Make sure to upload the mp3 your want to podcast to your webserver.

2) Get the full URL to the file
ex. http://www.yourwebserver.com/myfile.mp3

3) Find the file’s size in bytes. That right bytes not MegaBytes (MB)or KiloBytes (KB) but bytes
ex. a number like 37611020

In the unix terminal the following command will tell you how many bytes large your mp3 file is.

ls -l

Here is an example output of what ls -l will tell you. A number similar to the one I made bold is what your looking for.

-rw-r--r-- 1 username users 37611020 Feb 10 12:26 your_podcast.mp3

Go here for more info about the command ls.

4) Log into your WordPress blog Admin panel

5) Click on ‘Write‘ just like your going to compose a blog entry. (Make sure your Writing Posts in Advanced mode. If you do not see the Advanced area under the ‘Write Post’ area at the top then…

Go to:
Options > Writing > Writing Options
Click the radio button labeled ‘Advanced Controls’
Click the ‘Update Options’ button.

6) At the bottom of the page look for the form labeled ‘Add a new custom field to this post:‘

7) Click on the drop down form called -Select-. Do you see a option called ‘enclosure‘? If not type in the word enclosure into the form feild called ‘Key’ and click on the button labled ‘Add Custom Field’

Now you should have an option in the drop down form at ‘dd a new custom field to this post:’ called enclosure. Select that.

9) In the form feild called ‘Value‘ enter the following info on three seperate lines.

a. The full URL to the mp3 you’ve uploaded
b. The size of the file in bytes
c. The description of the mp3 mime type.

Here’s how it should look:

http://www.yourwebserver.com/myfile.mp3
13681184
audio/mpeg

Don’t forget to replace your specific info

10) Click ‘Add Custom Field’ button and be sure to click the ‘Publish‘ button when your done writting your blog entry text

11) Go check to be sure your enclosure got encluded in your RSS feed.
This address should be something like this:

http://www.yourserver.com/yourdirectory/wp-rss2.php

The key part to look for is wp-rss2.php. The rss2 part is describing the type of rss it is, 2.0. RSS 2.0 is the only one with the enclosure aggrument encluded in it’s standard. This is why we use it for podcasting.

A good way to look at the structure of your RSS 2.0 feed is by using the Firefox browser. It prints out the RSS in a clean color coded manner.

Good luck and email me if you have questions, corrections, and/or suggesions!
(This is a living document that might change from time to time.)
Date last Edited: o3/03/05

Earphones – a.k.a. headphones, cans, earbuds…

Mini-Disc Recorders – nice info on the mini-disc format and the recorders that record on them. Adam also tells ya how to get the audio off of the mini-disc and into your computer. (where it has to be to become a MP3 and a podcast

Digital Recorders – cool new pro audio recorders put digital info on CF cards like the ones used for digital cameras. For example: the Marantz PMD660, Marantz PMD671, and the Edirol R-1.

Podcasting with *any* website – a lot of blgos have plug-ins that do this, but Adam shows you a neat script that will do the backend tech of podcasting for any website!

Citizen Journalism Tech Kit 001

Parts
1) Telephone – A public phone, a prepaid cell phone, anything with a dial tone

2) Report – an idea to report on the fly or a fully written story to tell others.

3) Computer
      a. Internet connection – a pulbic computer in a library or Computer Technology Center with any web browser & ftp client
      b. WAV to MP3 converstion software, ID3

4) Blog – Your own website using blog software

STEPS
1) Make sure you have a web based email address and a blog account.

If your email provider doesn’t have web browser based access to your account go get a free web based account. Here are some good services that appear trustworthy. mail.yahoo.com, gmail.com, riseup.net

You can also get free Blogs all over. Here are a few: blogger.com, digitaldivide.net

2) Get a free voice mail to WAV account

Goto www.k7.net, or another free service, and sign up for a free account. This serivice provides you a voice mail number that sends WAV audio files of your messages to an email account. This will allow you to record a report we have and share it with the world.

3) Think about something you would like to tell others and make an story outline

Don’t work to hard on this the first time. Just look around you and focus on one thing. Do this quick to get the hang of it. Follow your own passion.

When you set main points down on paper it will help you communicate clearly and consisly.

4) Practice your story idea by telling it to a friend

Talking about your idea outloud can help you organize your thoughts. Your friend might even have questions. Take any constructive input into account and put it into your story if you want.

5) Call your voicemail number and record your story message

When you hear the beep just speak your story into telephone. Imagine your talking to your friend casually in a peacefull environment.

6) Login to your web based email account and download the WAV audio file you just created

When you download your file be sure you are either at a computer with the software to convert the WAV file to MP3 &/or a way to take the file with you. ex. USB drive, blank CD-R, etc.

7) Convert the WAV into a MP3 file. Put ID3 tags in the MP3.

64 kbps and mono are good basic setting for MP3 compression for your voice recording.

Here is a good FREE applicaiton to do this with:

Audacity – PC, Mac, and Linux
http://audacity.sourceforge.net

What are ID3 tags?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id3

ID3 is a tagging format for MP3s. It allows metadata such as the title, artist, album, track number, etc., to be added to the MP3 file.

Why should I use ID3 tags?
The text included with your MP3 will tell people more information about you and your file.

Upload your MP3 to your space on a web server

9) Go to your blog and link to your MP3

This process is different for each blog software. Read the help and documents with your specific blog software. But the html tag is sure to be involved.

<a href="name_of_audio.mp3">My Mp3</a>

Why use a blog when you can just link to a MP3 in straight html?
Because then you can podcast! Here’s How

A bit of Technical Explination

There are four essential parts to any audio recording process. The microphone, the pre amp, the recording device, and the audio monitoring device. In this example the Labatec is our microphone, the Sony Mini-Disc is our pre amp, the Samsung Yepp is our recording device, and the headphones are our audio monitoring device. Most audio recording devices built to work with external mics have a built in pre amp. The Samsung Yepp, our recording device, doesn’t have a pre amplified mic input so we need to provide one.

Why am I using a Mini-Disc recorder AND a Samsung Yepp together?

The biggest reason is that the Samsung Yepp can record straight to MP3 at 128 kbps. This removes several time consuming steps. I could record high quality audio on the Sony Mini-Disc recorder, but to put this audio on the Internet I would need to digitize the analog audio in real time. I’d end up with a large uncompressed audio file, such as a WAV or AIFF. In other words if the podcast I made was thirty minutes long I would have to spend about another hour rerecording it to a computer hard drive and encoding/duplicating/compressing the master audio file to a MP3. There is software that can record straight to MP3 but the encoding process requires a lot of CPU cycles and RAM. If your computer can’t provide this power errors can occur in your MP3 file resulting in skips or software crashes.

Unfortunatly the Samsung Yepp only has a 1/32″ line in. The signal required for this device to record is approximatly -20 dBu. Most inexpensive microphones can not provide this power. Thus the microphone must be amplified BEFORE it’s signal is connected to a line input. This is where the Mini-Disc comes in. It has a mic input that can amplffy an unpowered mic and a line out that ballences the signal further so it can provide the signal the Samsung Yepp needs. This process is also know as a mic level to line level converstion.

Part 1: Recording Levels

1) Connect the Microphone into the Mic input on the Mini-Disc
2) Plug the 1/8″ jack into the Line Output of the Mini-Disc
3) Plug the 1/32″ jack on the other end of the 1/8” into the ENC Input on the Samsung Yepp
4) Connect the 1/8″ jack on the headphones into the heaphone input of the Mini-Disc
5) Put the headphones on Duh?
6) Press pause then push record on the Mini-Disc untill the words ‘manual record’ appear
7) Speak into the mic ex. “Mic checka’ 1, 2, 3″ Push the Forward button or the Back button to change the microphone input levels. Notice the change on horizontal bar and the difference in the vertical input levels.

Once you’ve found a good spot for you levels your ready to record with the Yepp. The goal of setting proper audio levels is to get the highest signal level without distorting the sound of the recording. Because you can’t be in pause record mode on the Samsung Yepp while setting levels on the Mini-disc acting as external preamp you need to do several test recordings to get it just right.

Part 2: Recording straight to MP3

1) Turn on the Mic (a lot of mics don’t have on/off switches)
2) Put on your headphones
3) Press pause then push record on the Mini-Disc untill the words ‘manual record’ appear
4) Press the record button on the Samsung Yepp
5) Wait until the time countdown on the Samsung Yepp starts. When it does your recording. If for somereason it doesn’t move in the first second or so, say somthing into the mic like. “Welcome”
6) Speak all that you have to say
7) When your done click the record button on the Samsung Yepp Press play on the Samsung Yepp to listen to what you just recorded. Make sure that you can hear yourself well and that the recording appears loud enough.

Part 3: Downloading the MP3 off of the Samsund Yepp

1) Connect the small USB adapter or USB cable to the Samsung Yepp and your computer
2) Make sure the Samsung Yepp is on
3) Use your Finder on the Mac or the Explorer on Windows to look on the USB drive you just mounted. (Modern operating systems should make it very easy to mount a USB drive like the Samsung Yepp. Consult you operating systems website if you have problems. Searching google.com is a good idea too)
4) Find the MP3 file you just made. It’s name is not discriptive but based on when you recorded it. Try listening to the MP3s you find to determine which one to copy.
5) Drag and drop or cut and paste the MP3 you just made to your computers hard drive.
6) Rename the MP3 you just copied to your hard drive to a name that describes the content of the audio. Here is the naming convention I use:
website abriviation_show abriviation[yearmonthday].MP3
ex. AA_3URLs_20041204.MP3

At this point you need to get your MP3 onto a web server. This can be done with ftp and a few other ways. Here are a few links about how to do that. A good ftp client I use for the Mac is called Transmit. FineFTP is a cool ftp client for the PC that’s also free. It’s an extension of the free mozilla based web browser Firefox.