Podcast Help

Okay, here is what I'm trying to do. I want to create a podcast, upload it to my school server, then use a flash player like ODEO or other to embed into my LMS. These are the steps I use right now but would like an easier version or some clarification if you can.

1. Create in Garageband on my Mac
2. Send to Itunes in order to convert to MP3 (this doesnt always work so easily, what am I doing wrong)
3. FTP my MP3 up to school server
4. Get player embed code, and link to url on server
5. Paste into LMS in appropriate lesson

Somewhere in Step 2 and 3 I get stuck sometimes. I send my podcast to Itunes and it doesnt show up. I convert my podcast to an mp3 in Itunes and I cant find the file (right click on m4a file, convert to mp3, no idea where it goes because I cant see it). Even when that part works, it still seems like it should be easier than 5 steps.

What do you do?
What am I messing up on?

Tags: garageband, m4a, mac, mp3, odeo, podcast

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Permalink Reply by Carlos Raul Lopez Reatiga on October 8, 2008 at 9:45pm

Cory,
Nice meeting you.
Let me tell you what I do and works for me.

1. I record the podcast with Audacity. It's relatively easy to use.
2. Once recorded, I save it as an mp3 selection. You can personalize your recording by saying who the creator is and some other important stuff.
3. I go to http://www.archive.org/ open a free account and upload the file, the mp3.
4. Once uploaded, the site gives you the URL where your podcast is.
5. Go to the site and click on the right bottom corner of the player to get the embedding code, select it, copy it, and paste it in a webpage. You may use FrontPage or any other html editor. You can customize the design of the page by adding text or any other element you want.
6. Finally, embed the song or recording -mp3- and upload the webpage to your server. It has the player so everyone would be able to listen to it.

I hope this can help.
CU Around ;)
Carlos Raul

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Permalink Reply by Cory Plough on October 9, 2008 at 8:50am

Carlos Raul-
Thank you very much for the tip. I used Audacity in the past but have never used archive.org. I have to be able to upload this onto my school server and post in my LMS. I will try this out and let you know.

I am collecting info on this if anyone has some other tips?

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Permalink Reply by nlowell on October 9, 2008 at 11:59am

It seems like the biggest issues have to do with translating the output from GarageBand to MP3.

Audacity is really the key here. Unless you're using some feature of GarageBand to create music, the newer versions of Audacity work exceptionally well. You'll need to follow the download instructions to get an appropriate MP3 encoder (LAME library) but anybody who can handle FTP shouldn't have a problem.

It really doesn't matter where you put the file, actually, so long as your embedded player can recognize the file to pull it up .

I'd change the flow to:

1. Create in Audacity and save as MP3.
2. Upload to your server of choice.
3. Plug in the embed code on an LMS post.

And might I suggest:

4. Stop calling it a podcast because without RSS distribution it's just an audio archive. It's a perfectly good technology and highly useful for limiting access and controlling who gets the content.

I know many will consider this an unnecessary hair splitting, but the technologies are unique and diagnostic. It's important to understand the distinctions. Putting 8 bags of concrete in the back of your pickup doesn't make it an "18-wheeler" and putting audio content in a walled garden does not make a podcast.