Apr 25, 2017
On this episode, we answer a frequent listener question (coming most often from people who work in government): "What do I really need to know about starting a podcast? Equipment? Approach? Editing?" There's a jungle of online resources for that, but they're frustrating to sort through. A lot of them conflict with or contradict one another, or are just marketing materials to get you to purchase some specific podcasting solution that might not be right for you. So this episode serves as our plain-English, how-to guide (especially for folks who work in government or public service, though anybody can apply these lessons) on getting started in podcasting. We list equipment, software, best practices to help you stay out of the ditch, and some philosophy on podcasting for public agencies (or any other field, really). It's a big primer packed into a listener-friendly 36 minutes. And hear why Ben thinks virtually any local government can do something positive with podcasting. Show notes: GovLove Episode 95 (Ben among guests talking about podcasting) - https://soundcloud.com/govlove/95-a-bottomless-pit-of-ideas-leaders-in-localgov-podcasting Ben's example gear guide (just an example) - https://kit.com/benbrownmedia/your-podcasting-studio More good advice on buying a mixer (with product recommendations) - https://www.thepodcasthost.com/equipment/podcast-mixers/ Reaper (the program Ben uses for editing) - http://www.reaper.fm/ Simple tutorial on using EQ for voice (in Reaper, but it works the same way in other audio software) - https://youtu.be/V6XtciKhgUY Make your voice sound cleaner with a noise gate (again, in Reaper, but ditto last comment) - https://youtu.be/zVWoxC3m4cc Simple tutorial on editing in Audacity - https://youtu.be/uAyF-i604Hs Audacity download - https://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/