mic test, mic test, miiiccc teeestttttt

February 15, 2018 10:45 AM

What's the best-working preferably-free OSX software for both connecting and recording podcasts on two+ ends?

Last time I was doing this we'd connect on Skype, with each person running Audacity on their end to record their end of the conversation, and a Skype plugin on at least one person's end to catch both streams as a backup. There has to be a better and less jankety solution now, right? Also, what do the Professionals who have to record at least one person remotely do? I mean assume they're not using free software but I just want an idea.

posted by griphus to Technology (5 answers total)

I've been a guest on a podcast recorded with Zencastr, which runs in the browser. It worked well for me on macOS, although I didn't see any of the setup of edit work. There is a free plan and the basic paid plan has a free trial.
posted by caek at 10:59 AM on February 15, 2018

I'll cheerfully second both Zencaster, and Audio Hijack, though I don't know what the setup looks like on the former.
posted by Alensin at 12:08 PM on February 15, 2018

I'm not a professional podcaster, but I do do a bit of home recording and have done a teeny bit of podcasting. If I was to do this, I'd record separately from the Skype call - i.e., use Skype on a headset or something to have the conversation, but also stick a totally seperate dedicated mic in front of both people and use that for recording the actual audio for the podcast - it'd require an audio interface with multiple inputs, plus a separate (good) mic, which not many people happen to have lying around - but even a hand-held digital recorder or similar will get much better results than just recording the audio from the Skype call directly; the person at the other end can email the recording to the presenter/editor and they can splice them together after the fact.

(yes, this sounds like a lot of work; I think a lot of people would be surprised how much work goes into producing even a short professional podcast)
posted by parm at 12:51 PM on February 15, 2018

Is this something that Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack and their new , Farrago app might be helpful with?

http://rogueamoeba.com/farrago/
posted by terrapin at 1:45 PM on February 15, 2018

Zencastr automates the process of recording separate tracks on each participant's computer, letting them hear each other over VoIP, and then collating the separate tracks for editing.

I understand it also has some basic editing and post-processing functions built in, too.
posted by robcorr at 4:58 PM on February 15, 2018