What I need to create a podcast?

[kanana]

Well, after asking a lot of people where can I upload my podcast, and without any answering, I have looked for my own and I have decided to enter in the podcast world.
I want to create a podcast of my trip in London to let my friends know how fun I have here!
I have a headset with microphone and a Laptop. It,s all I need to create my podcast?

Thanks,
Kanana

[X Pat Radio]

Well, after asking a lot of people where can I upload my podcast, and without any answering, I have looked for my own and I have decided to enter in the podcast world.
I want to create a podcast of my trip in London to let my friends know how fun I have here!
I have a headset with microphone and a Laptop. It,s all I need to create my podcast?

Thanks,
Kanana

That and software to record it.

[kanana]

Hi guys, thank you for the information. The truth is that I haven,t done it alone, so I need to thank you to my friend that has spent nearly the whole weekend helping me!
Thanks and reply me to say how it,s been my "first time" in the podcasting world!!

Hugs and kisses, kanana.

[thebeatsuite]

You need your Podcast to sound good, as that will be it's primary method of reaching people. Get some music and stings or idents put together that give your Podcast a unique identification.

[kopper]

If you're a PC user, get Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). If you're on a Mac, use GarageBand (http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/). Both are great for creating podcasts. Aside from that, a decent mic, a mixing board, maybe a turntable if you plan on spinning vinyl on your show, CD player(s), and the right cables to hook it up from the mixer to your computer.

And rip your MP3s at 64 kbps mono. You can go 80 kbps, too, for a slightly better quality. Ripping them in mono cuts your file size (and subsequently your download time) in half, but they sound great, because a 64k mono MP3 is basically equivalent to 128k stereo (and 80k mono = 160k stereo).

As for a good place to upload your shows, I highly recommend www.blip.tv ... unlike Podshow, they don't add advertisements or anything to your sound files.

[Rasheed]

And rip your MP3s at 64 kbps mono. You can go 80 kbps, too, for a slightly better quality. Ripping them in mono cuts your file size (and subsequently your download time) in half, but they sound great, because a 64k mono MP3 is basically equivalent to 128k stereo (and 80k mono = 160k stereo).

That is not true. 64 kbps is 64,000 bits per second, independent if its mono or stereo. The MP3 encoding is smart enough to detect if there is not much separation between the left and right channel of a stereo recording, and render a only slightly larger file size than the mono version of that same recording. Of course, you should use joint stereo for this.

If your podcast consists mainly of talking and you prefer therefore a mono version, you should convert any stereo recording into mono prior to encoding into MP3, just to be 100% sure that you're dealing with true mono, and the encoding is true mono MP3.

There is an issue with an older model iPod, when playing mono MP3 files with equalisation enabled in the iPod. If you want fully backward compatibility, you should convert your source audio file first into mono, then into stereo, by duplicating the mono channel into L and R channels, and finally encoding into stereo MP3. IIRC The size in bytes of this MP3 file will be the same as the same recording exported as a mono MP3.
AFAIK Audacity 1.3.3. beta only exports to stereo MP3, so you can skip the conversion from mono to stereo before MP3 encoding.

There is also an issue with Garageband. When you use the automated settings for MP3 export, and you go from stereo to mono, Garageband will turn a 128 kbps MP3 encoding into a 64 kbps encoding. This is wrong. You can override this by specifying the bitrate, instead of using the automated bitrate setting.

If you want to know more and have it explain better than I can, listen to the podcast "The Secret Lives of MP3 Files" by Doug Kaye (link (http://pa.gigavox.com/shows/detail1600.html)).

Remember, I'm by no means an expert, nor claim to be one, I just have picked up some knowledge here and there by listening to podcasts and reading books.

Edit: I just tested Garageband. Don't use this for mono MP3 conversion, because it is crap. If you try to encode into 64 kbps 44,1 Khz mono, it uses 32 kbps 44,1 Khz mono. You have to use double the bitrate to encode the proper bitrate in mono. If you try to encode 64 kbps stereo, iTunes protests, and you have to ignore that by not using the preferred setting. It is just too confusing for most people to be useful.

[kanana]

Thanks, I;ll try to do the best as possible, because all of this things about 64 kbps is 64,000 bits per second, even mono or stereo are "to much difficult things" to me. ;)

Kanana.