My first confirmed listener! Here's a picture of my podcasting equipment

Today I received an email from my first CONFIRMED listener, Patricia-Ann. She is a fellow spirituality podcaster. Thanks for the note!

She asked a question about podcasting, so I thought I would post a picture of the equipment that I use to record my podcast. Here it is:

I use a 12" Apple Powerbook G4 1.33Ghz with 768MB of Ram running OS X Tiger.

I record in Garageband (the first one), export the file to iTunes and then convert it to MP3 and add all the metadata information from there. Once that is done I upload the completed MP3 file to the Web Server via FTP, log on to my Blogger account (www.blogger.com) via the web, add the posting, show notes etc., and a link to the file. I have an RSS 2.0 feed from feedburner (http://www.feedburner.com). My feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/dionsrandomramblings.

The other equipment that I use is a Berhinger UB 802 mixing desk, a Sennheiser 835S microphone, some cheap in - ear earphones (this allows me to hear more or less what the listener will hear when she or he downloads the podcast - a tip I picked up from John and Rob at topofthepods). The desk gives a line out signal (one of the MANY wires you can see on the desk). I take this line directly into the Line In input of my Powerbook and viola, there is life!

Two of the shows I have done thus far have been recorded on portable recording devices (because I was out at the time that I wanted to / needed to record). The two devices I use are: a Sony ICD-MS515 Memory Stick voice recorder (the quality on this is not too good). Alternatively I use my Sharp Minidisc recorder / player with the SUPERB Sony ECM-717 Microphone (the quality on this is almost as good as recording directly through the desk!) If I record on either of these devices I simply bring the sound into my computer via the mixing desk (use RCA cables), I press play on the portable device, record in Garageband, and then I go and make a cup of coffee!

By the way, my very first podcast was simply recorded using the internal microphone on my Powerbook with Garageband... I hope that things will get better from here on in.

The intro music and contact information are two seperate tracks in Garageband which are standard.

If you enjoy this podcast please could you vote for me at Podcastalley? Simply follow the link, search for "spirituality" in the top left corner of the page, click on the "Spirituality Southern Africa" link in the results that come up. Click on details, then click vote and viola! Every vote helps!!!

If you have any question or comments on this please drop me a line at this email) address. Or, alternatively, click on the comments link below and add a comment.