Category: Podcasting

It might fall the week after BarCamp Galway but so far there’s 20 people signed up to attend PodCamp Ireland which hits Kilkenny on Saturday September 29th. Yes – the very first PodCamp Ireland.

I’m counted amongst the organisers (alongside Krishna De, Bernie Goldbach, Conn Ó Muíneacháin and Brian Greene) of this event and being from Kilkenny I’m delighted to see it taking part in the city.

A near hour long conference call yesterday afternoon between afore mentioned organisers proved quite productive and insightful and if the planning goes, well, to plan, then we’re in for a great day on September 29th. One of the aces in pack already announced is the arrival of Neville Hobson, co-author of ‘How to Do Everything with Podcasting (How to Do Everything)‘ (affiliate link – which is on the way to me via Amazon US) and co-host of the For Immediate Release podcast. Neville will hopefully be spilling the beans on the success of the podcast, book and more so be sure and join us in Kilkenny.

So… with the floor open and seen as this is the VERY FIRST PodCamp Ireland what would you like to see? I’m looking at putting together an element on music (Podsafe music, approaching bands for music etc.) given my work with KilkennyMusic.com. The KKM crew in full will be on hand too on the day to chat about how we got into podcasting and using the podcast to promote a non-profit group working with musicians. But the day is about what YOU would like to see.

Would you like to learn about video podcasting? How to get your videos online, where to store them, how to encode them for the web? Maybe you know the technical details already but you would like some tips on framing your shot or using a video camera for podcasting? How about branding through podcasting? Or seeing how a podcast can help promote your business, create a revenue stream?

How how about learning the fundamentals – Podcasting 101. What equipment do you need? How to record audio to a computer? What the hell is an RSS feed anyway and why do you need one?

Whatever your questions about podcast, you’re likely to find all the answers and more at PodCamp Ireland in Kilkenny on September 29th. If you’re interested, join the 21 names already on the list by adding yours to the PodCamp Ireland wiki. Hope to see you in Kilkenny in September!

I’ve downloaded and watched Tom Raftery’s video interview with Conor O’Neill at PodLeaders.com (direct download link) this morning and I think its a great debut attempt for a video podcast, hopefully there’ll be more of it from Tom in the future.

I’m hoping that by the end of 2007 that KilkennyMusic.com will have ventured into video podcasting. We’ve managed to take the Sound System Podcast weekly and seen as we’ll be on a weekly gig basis for a large portion of the summer, a video addition would (I think) make a great boost to the podcast.

Shopping around on Komplett this morning for video cameras (Komplett, not an affiliate link) it seems now more than ever that digital video cameras, whether shooting to hard drive or dvd or mini-dv are becoming more affordable. Throw the video up on YouTube, or Google or Blip.tv and you’re set.

Personally, I’d love to see more Irish video podcasts (I’m not currently subscribed to any). While it might not suit everyone, are the Irish podcasts you’d like to see make the leap to video? Or would you even bother with it? After all, it is something that you almost ‘have’ to watch while a lot of the time with other podcasts I can bang on the iPod or leave iTunes playing behind me while I work on something else.

I’m looking at following the steps laid down at KilkennyMusic.com and bringing The Devious Theatre Company to the podcasting side of the web. Following some good discussion over the matter, we’ve put in motion steps to podcast some radio play material – or Podcast Play if you will – over the coming weeks.

As a tester, I cut my monologue from last year’s Heart Shaped Vinyl together in Audacity this afternoon and it sounds pretty good. The play itself (HSV) had the ten scenes open with a 2-3 minute monologue, so, in an effort to promote the return of the show later this year we’ll initially be releasing each of the monologues, likely coupled with thoughts by the actors involved on the character they portrayed during the show.

We’re really looking at the web as a great way to promote our shows this year and have also put the wheels in motion for a teaser trailer for our August show, Canniabal! The Musical. Tasty 🙂

First there was breaking 100 subscribers via FeedBurner, then there was breaking 5,000 spam comments blocked, now I’m delighted to say that the 1,000th Sound System Podcast has been served by KilkennyMusic.com. Might mean small figures to more regular podcasters but we’re new to the game and reaching 1,000 downloads has put a great smile on my face!

We’ve slowly begun to put what we feel is a good shape to the shows and we’ll be developing it further during the year (have about 26 more podcasts or so to record over the course of the year).

I don’t know if this site was brought up during the podcasting talk at Bar Camp last weekend but I stumbled across MyPodcast.com today and it seems like it could do the trick in terms of getting people podcasting.

From the feedback at Bar Camp and reading some of the reviews, many people are surprised at how quick a podcast can be put together and that there isn’t a real myth to the process. Sure enough, when we record our own podcast for KilkennyMusic.com we’re using a Pro Tools rig, a combination of SM58s, a Behringer B1 or a Samson C01U, and a heap of plugins (to produce some broadcast quality sound) but a mic from the local pound shop and a few minutes of your time can go a long way.

MyPodcast.com gives you the software to do it all, for free, gets you recording, hosts your podcasts with unlimited bandwidth and allows you to earn some cash back by allocating ad spots that are dotted into your podcast when uploaded. You get to choose where abouts you want to insert the ad, plus over time and as your podcast potentially grows in terms of popularity, they offer the chance to gain exclusive advertising deals. For people looking to host podcasts, it might not be a bad idea – unlimited bandwidth for popular podcasts, with free hosting, sounds pretty good to me.

Of course, always read the terms and conditions…

By posting content to any public area of MyPodcast, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to MyPodcast and its members, an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully-paid, worldwide license to use, copy, perform, display, and distribute such information, rights of publicity, and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works and other media, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

…which are quite good and informative if you’re into that stuff (which you should be, after all, these are YOUR recordings!)

Anyway, check it out for yourselves…

KilkennyMusic.com‘s Sound System Podcast (hosted by myself, Ross Costigan, Alan Dawson and Michael Keogh) is now available on iTunes.

Joy oh joy 🙂

If you’re unfamiliar with it, the podcast is an hour long show looking at the music scene in Kilkenny, KilkennyMusic.com related events, while carrying music from our own line of hosted gigs and the One Take Sessions. The Christmas special, covering the ‘Sessions from December 14th (which featured Majella Murphy) as well as taking live tracks from the Christmas party on Saturday night was recorded last night and should hit the web before the weekend.

Means I’ve got to improve that iTunes graphic now as well…

Sitting in the office at half eight absolutely wrecked. Following on from Sunday’s post, ‘Just Do It‘ in relation to podcasting, here’s a tip I should have added to the list.

• Don’t wait until 1am to start recording an hour long show, especially if you’ve been working since 7am. The potential is there to add a sense of “tired comedy” to your content, you may mix up your tracklisting of bands and you may find yourself speaking on such distant topics to the show as global warming, the lotto on RTE and who would win in a fight between Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris amongst other things.

Apart from that, when the show is released, likely this week, you’ll get to hear music from Itchy Trigger Finger, Panda Radical, 20 Bulls Each, Myp Et Jeep and Laminate.

All the talk of Bar Camps and Mini-bars of late got me reading into whats going on around the Barcamp scene at the moment, which is where I found Podcamp West, Barcamp for podcasters (or in this case aimed more specifically towards bloggers, podcasters and video bloggers).

One site in particular, Silicon Valley Watcher (where Tom Foremski writes) had on good piece of advice after Tom dropped into the Podcamp West in San Francisco – “Just Do It”.

Just do it. Don’t worry too much about the quality, just get it out there. A podcast can be any length, whatever is comfortable to you. Don’t let the technology get in the way, just get it done. Don’t worry about how many listeners you have. Find something you are passionate about. Don’t feud with other Podcasters. Keep doing it.

He’s absolutely right too. I hummed and drummed about podcasting for ages but finally decided to get the ball rolling back at the beginning of October for KilkennyMusic.com (well, about the second week in anyway). Since then there have been three podcasts, with the fourth being recorded tonight night in the studio (look at us with our swanky gear 🙂 ) and we should have Sound System #5 and #6 on the web before Christmas. Not only that but we’ve also arranged a schedule for around 40 podcasts for 2007 (nothing like a little forward planning).

It doesn’t take a whole lot to do – grab some free recording software, grab yourself a mic and get a plan together. We’re quickly developing our structure for the podcast and each time we record it becomes more and more relaxed and more natural to the point that after three podcasts we actually look forward to recording the next one and the one after that etc.

You can’t discover where and when to find your feet until you actually start doing it – so just do it. If you think that podcasting will some way benefit those using your site or service and get started. All you need is the time and a little patience to put things together.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking that ALL the talks for Bar Camp South East should be recorded for podcast… whaddya think?

So, the One Take Sessions kicked off at the start of the month and a selection of ten tracks from the podcast went live today over at Sound System, including an offering of two from myself.

If you’re interested, skip forward to about 32/33 minutes through the podcast, first of the tracks being a rare cover of ‘Toffee Pop’ by Damien Rice along with my own ‘Fairground’, slightly different to the reggae version featured on KCLR recently and also on the first Sound System Podcast.

Other acts featured include DJ Glendon, Kieran Byrne, KKM‘s Assistant Engineer Mickey Boo and Itchy Trigger Finger‘s James Doran.

As things go, we reckon we’ll have another three podcasts out before the end of the year. Finding our feet a little but enjoy the random conversational style of it all 🙂

Don’t know about you… but I like the sound and look of this….

MicroMemo plugs right into your dock connector to capture memos, meetings, lectures, or any audio content directly to your iPod. A flexible, detachable mic captures audio. Or you can use any microphone with a 3.5mm-plug.

• Full iPod integration and on-screen display
• Built in speaker for instant playback
• One-touch recording in stereo or mono
• Accepts other microphones and line-in cables
• Records 16-bit audio at 22 kHz and 44 kHz
• No batteries needed—iPod-powered

Supposed to be shipping again from next week but loves damn impressive… Has anyone tried it or know anybody who has tried it?

About time says you… we’ve gotten the podcast up and off the ground at KilkennyMusic.com.

The first show covers a little intro and outro by myself (only new pieces). The bulk of the show, a round table discussion on music in Kilkenny and what exactly KilkennyMusic.com is and does, was recorded over the summer in the KCLR 96 FM studios in Kilkenny as part of a special show we recorded exclusively for the station.

Its late at night, I don’t have exaxt show notes or anything but along with the chat between myself, Ross Costigan (our resident photographer), Alan Dawson (our resident engineer) and Jimmy Trigger (front man for Kilkenny progressive metal band, Itchy Trigger Finger) you’ll get music by

• Clergy – ‘Soliloquay’
• The Guggenheim Grotto – ‘Told You So’
• Ghost Town – ‘Make Your Life A Bit Better’
• Nearly Dead Jim – ‘Proximity Infatuation’
• The Happy Medium – ‘Fairground Attraction (demo)’

The show runs at 53:59 and stands at 37mb, MP3 format at 96Khz. Listen to it now or check the site.

The podcasts are going to continue in more of a structured show format covering band interviews, new music, and tracks from our new One Take Sessions which are kicking off on November 2nd with KilkennyMusic.com.

Of course, if any of you listen to the podcast, or have any tips or feedback – good, bad, or otherwise – then drop me an email or leave a comment.

Until recently, any of my vocal record either at home or in the studio would require a mic setup (usually a Shure SM58), XLR lead, small desk, stereo phono to jack lead and onwards into the soundcard. Of course, you could eliminate the need for a desk and phono load by using an XLR to jack converter and plug into your soundcard that way.

No more I say!

Picked myself up a Samson C01U studio condenser mic. Why a studio mic? Why not! Its quality you’re after and after playing with the mic for the last four days or so (it arrived on Friday morning) then you can’t go far wrong. Best of all, the mic has been upgraded from Samson’s C01 series – the U standing for USB. Plug the studio mic straight into the sound card via USB and you’re laughing. PC friendly, MAC friendly and it comes with its own controller software to adjust mic phase, watch for clipping and adjust your levels.

The C01U works perfectly on any computer, Mac or PC, and with any DAW software program. It immediately solves a huge problem for users of many laptops, many of which have no other input method for audio devices.

It’s a must for any musician on the road or in the project studio, but the C01U is going to offer solutions to more than just musicians. The mic opens up possibilities for anyone who records audio—from Podcasters, journalists, students, and business people adding audio files to websites and multimedia presentations.

Bagged the mic from Thomann, along with a mini mic stand (which you don’t get with the mic). What you do get isa quality mic, a ten foot USB cable and software drivers on CD, but you can pick up the latest version of PC/Mac from Samsontech.com.

Of course, that must mean that there’s a podcast looming somewhere….

Excellent in The Office, and I loved Extras, but Ricky Gervais has gone and set another record for himself for the most downloaded podcast ever – averaging over a half million downloads per episode – going at almost €1.50 a download.

His free weekly podcast landed a place in this year’s Guinness Book of World Records with an average of 261,670 downloads per episode.

But that figure rose to 541,329 by the time the first series of The Ricky Gervais Show ended in February.

Some man for one man is Ricky Gervais… (via)

Well… its not just for podcasting, but its going to cater for an awful lot of sound production (and all the KilkennyMusic.com gigs). Time to tuck in this evening and get to grips with this (Allen and Heath PA28) which will be used in house for audio production coupled with a PC based system using previously mentioned Augidy 2ZS Plantinum Pro sound card and a Mac Powerbook G4 running ProTools 6.7 with a Digidesign 002 rack…

Further to that I would like to publicly acknowledge recently allocated funding to myself from the Arts Council through the Arts Act Grant for 2006 while kindly paid for afore mentioned desk and this setup.

Now all I’ve got to do is get down to brass tacks with the hardware, develop the schedule and away we go. There has already been interest in producing a fortnightly and monthly production to be carried across the ShoutCast network and rebroadcast in the United States on radio. As the schedule and plan of attack unfold I’ll make a report here on how things are progressing.

Podcasting is a factory that produces apple pies for whales.

Fact.

Back on my podcasting buzz for the day, Bernie Goldbach has posted an excellent list of podsafe music resources featuring a great list of Creative Commons-licensed works for inclusion in your podcasting developments.

The more and more I look into all the resources that are available, the more excited I get about the planned KKM series kicking off (hopefully) over the summer.

From people I’ve been talking to, the IIA’s Annual Congress was fantastic, and the IIA with Doop Design have released a podcast of the entire congress with mp3 links listed below. You can catch further details on the podcast release here.

1. Colm Lyon, IIA Chairman.s Introduction
2. David Jesse eBay Using eBay to sell online
3. Peter Cobley, Yahoo! Search Marketing
4. John Herlihy, Google, A New Marketing Paradigm
5. Mark Charkin, MSN, The Changing Consumer and Microsoft – what this means to you
6. Colm Lyon, Realex Payments – An Opportunity to Thank You
7. Extensive Q&A with full panel
8. Interview with Sean Foley microsoft & vox pop
9. Des Kenny, Kennys, Moving an entire business online
10. Jim Scheinmann, Bebo, Engagement Marketing on Bebo.com

Been looking forward to this….

Just came across this one today…. Podcasting Ireland, lead by Helen Shaw (former Director of Radio at RTÉ). Damn nice site too….

We are a new and dynamic Irish company. Digicast Ltd aims to exploit digital technology to fully maximise its potential to transform content creation and communications. We have created www.podcastingireland.ie as a portal for all things relating to podcasting in Ireland as well as a portal for new podcasting channels like Making Waves (free music podcast).

Seems to be on top of things when it comes to providing useful information. With free podcasts available from the site, there is also help available for those looking to start podcasting themselves…

Podcastingireland.ie provides free podcasts for all its members. Just register with some basic details to help us provide you with what you want, and then you can listen when you want. Programmes range from features on up and coming musicians in Ireland, to the best comedy antics from Irelands favourite comedians, to educational podcasts.

As well as listening to our content we can help you create your own podcasts. We also have a Podcasting Directory which will help you navigate the world of Podcasting. Here we have links to other Irish podcasts and popular global podcasting websites along with our top 10 podcasts for the week.

Certainly one to throw down in the del.icio.us bookmarks. Not sure when it launched…. but theres a great music selection in there (my main interest, given my podcasting plans). Nice to see how it works out as a free service…

As I did a little deeper in preparation for podcasting for KilkennyMusic.com I’ve happened upon the Podcasting Legal Guide recently released by the Berkman Centre Clinical Program in Cyberlaw and the Stanford Centre for Internet & Society.

Fair enough, the guide only focuses on the American side of the law but nevertheless includes some points that should be considered when it comes to copyright law and publicity rights. Give it a read, could be worth your while if you’re unfamiliar with copyright in relation to recordings.