Podcast Academy – The #1 Source for Podcast Education

In my opinion a solid understanding of analog and digital audio, recording, production, mixing and mastering is a necessity in order to optimize the quality of your podcast production work-flow. I’d like to recommend a fantastic resource to those of you who are interested in striving for and maintaining high quality results.

‘Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science‘ by Bob Katz is considered by many to be the bible of audio mastering. Bob himself is an established Grammy Award winning mastering engineer who is responsible for countless hit records. Katz also created the K-Sytem monitor calibration and metering specification. The underlying concept of the K-System is intended to suggest and maintain consistent level and monitoring management for music production, film sound production, and broadcasting.

The first thing that struck me about this book was how easy it was to read considering the complexity of the subject matter. It is for this reason that I find it suitable for all levels of media producers. Are you curious about the technical aspects of dynamic range management, compression, equalization, monitoring, or level management? If so this book is for you. ‘Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science’ will assist you in building a foundation that in the end will help you to achieve optimum results. [$39.99 US]

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Do you believe in magic? The Levelator™ audio processor designed and distributed by GigaVox Media has created quite a stir among podcasters as well as audio and broadcast professionals.

I recommend that you tune in to our latest episode of Behind the Mic, hosted by Doug Kaye. Doug’s guest is GigaVox Audio Engineer Bruce Sharpe, the developer of the Levelator™. This is an in depth talk about the concept of the Levelator™, the process of developement, and suggested work-flows. Don’t miss it …

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In most cases I recommend the Mackie Onyx 1220 mixer to those interested in a high quality, small footprint device that offers excellent quality preamps and firewire I/O compatibility. This of course is based on budget considerations as well. In my opinion, Mackie quality is unsurpassed.

If you are in the market for a high quality, low-noise mixer option that costs less than the Onyx 1220, and firewire I/O is not a requirement, let’s not forget the Mackie VLZ Pro line. In fact, the classic 1202 VLZ Pro has been revised recently. The new model – 1202 VLZ3 has improved XDR2 preamps, improved equalization circuitry, and improved headroom.

Besides these enhancements, the build quality of this piece provides extreme durability. There is nothing else like it. It is for this reason the 1202 VLZ is one of the most popular and widely used pieces of affordable, high quality audio gear available.

The mixer retails for $299 US. This is an excellent choice for a high end podcast/new media production studio.

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The new and improved Levelator™ is available for immediate download. This is a stand alone processor designed to help correct variations in levels in your audio files.

Besides a brand new look, the processing algorithm has been improved. This includes improved handeling of background noise and a reduction in ‘breathing’ and ‘pumping’ artifacts in the processed files. This is a must have tool for producers. Best of all … it’s free.

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The DN-C640 CD Player by Denon Professional has some unique features that I find particularly interesting. Besides typical playback support including MP3, this player is capable of decoding MP2 audio files, and supports uncompressed PCM [WAV] files. You have the option of using standard CD Media or DATA DVD for extended playback options.

Due to an internal web server and ethernet support, the player can be controlled remotely from any workstation on a network by accessing a web based GUI control center, similar in concept to ethernet router configuration and management. Full remote transport control and playlist configuration is possible as well.

Finally, the 25 pin GPIO port will provide an important option in terms of connectivity support if the player is to be installed in a professional broadcasting or internet radio environment. Cool piece …

$699 US [Available January 2007].

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In this segment I will focus on file formats and transfer efficiency.

Many of us are members of organizations and/or networks. Some of us produce programs for clients. In this case we are faced with the inevitable task of transferring large files to and from various peers or logistical locations. Before I discuss my recommendations, it is important to make sure that we understand a few important facts in terms of file formats and their characteristics.

I think it is safe to say that *most* podcast producers realize that WAV and AIFF files are uncompressed, lossless files that yield exceptional quality. They are the recommended file formats for recording audio, and they integrate seamlessly with a vast array of post production applications.

MP3, or MPEG-1 Layer III is a compression codec that is specifically designed to produce a file that is prepared for final delivery. An MP3 file should never be converted back to an uncompressed file format and subsequently re-encoded to MP3, especially if the original MP3 was encoded using a low bitrate. In this case the results would be detrimental. That being said, if you present your MP3 encoder with a good quality uncompressed master and choose your encoding parameters wisely, the resulting file will be a fraction of the size of the original and it will provide excellent results in terms of sonic quality.

As noted above … if transferring and/or exchanging large files slated for post production is a necessity within your work flow, what is missing? The answer is an intermediate file format. Best case scenario would allow us to convert files into a format that would yield a substantial reduction in size in order to maximize exchange efficiency, and at the same time have very little affect on the quality of the original uncompressed master. Enter MP2 …

Let me stress that where MP3 = MPEG 1, Layer III … MP2 = MPEG 1, Layer II. This is not the same file format as the common MPEG-2 video codec/file format. The MP2 codec is widely used within the professional world of commercial broadcasting as an intermediate file format. An uncompressed file converted to MP2 will be approximately 75% less in size compared to the original. The key here is that when the file is converted back to its native state, most – if not all of the original fidelity will be retained. It’s not 100% lossless, however I promise that you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Based on your platform there are various software applications that are necessary in order to develop a work flow. Here are the tools that I use: to convert WAV files to MP2, I use the MP2 Encoder available at The Public Radio Exchange [PRX.org]. Mono files will be converted to MP2 at 44.1kHz, 128kbps and Stereo files will be converted to MP2 at 44.1kHz, 256kbps. The encoder is available for Mac and PC.

To convert MP2 files back to WAV [or AIFF], I use a nifty $10 encoder/converter called SoundConverter. This is a fantastic piece of software and it is highly recommended.

A few closing thoughts: I suggest that you look into joining PRX. It’s a tremendous resource. Lastly, I utilize the referenced MP2 concept and work flow for all the file transfers that I participate in [clients, IT Conversations, personal projects, etc]. Try it and let me know what you think …

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