Long distance podcasting, how does that work?

August 21, 2011 4:07 PM

Long distance podcasting: equipment, software, and how to make it work.

I am interested in doing a podcast with someone who is 5 hours away.

We often FaceTime and have used iChat and Skype. I would like to use a platform where we can see each other somehow. He has a more professional mic while I do not have one at all (we can get one, but that seems it might be irrelevant to the problems we're having). We both have Garage Band. He has Logic as well. We have tried a variety of set-ups. He is recording it on his end since he understands better than I do how to do such things. My levels show up on whatever outside equipment he is running me through, but do not actually record into Garage Band or Logic. I can record us into my Garage Band, but the sound quality isn't great. He got Call Recorder to work with Skype, but then you could only hear him on the left side while I was in stereo.

I fear we are overcomplicating this as other people seem to be able to do it. We have read through a lot of things about it, but can't seem to make a combination work for us. Any ideas for us, hivemind?

posted by itsacover to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: I emailed Adam Lisagor, of the internet, to ask how he and the gang record You Look Nice Today. This is what he sent me. (Hope I'm not revealing any YLNT secrets!)

We record over Skype and use a plug-in called Call Recorder to save our calls to an audio file. Call Recorder allows you to have a recording with two channels: one with your side of the conversation and another with the other side of the conversation. That way, you get everybody to send you their own audio files and you split out the locally-recorded channel of each file and mix them together so you end up with only the cleanest audio. Here's a good post about it that Dan Benjamin wrote some months ago. I comment in the comments with our own technique: http://hivelogic.com/articles/how-to-record-a-podcast-with-people-in-multiple-locations

You end up with one track that is a mix of all the people on the show, one track that is you, cleanest audio possible and one track that is your friend's locally recorded track. You'll use the mix as a guide for syncing, you'll line up each of the individually recorded clean tracks, and then you'll throw out the mix track because that's just for reference. Then, you'll edit and mix down the clean tracks according to taste.

Hope it helps!
posted by andrewcilento at 5:32 PM on August 21, 2011 [2 favorites]

For recording the Metafilter podcast, mathowie has gone into detail on their setup - the mods use Skype to talk and Call Recorder to record.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:30 PM on August 22, 2011

we podcast from four places - LA, NYC, Westchester County and Boston.

We Skype + use Audio Hijack Pro to record our calls.

Sample: The View from Tab

Get good microphones. Sometimes we have a guest that doesn't have a great mic. it's really obvious... almost like a phone call.
posted by bietz at 5:29 AM on August 25, 2011