Hey all...
so I'm planning on starting a podcast and wanted to pick your brains regarding setups, means of processing and producing and platforms. I have published in the past, think I was using amadeus pro for sound editing, but it was a long time ago. the format of my podcast will be me prattling on with some interviews and possibly some listener contributions.
I've got an okay little mic ready to go, working on scripts and content, but I want to make it sound good too with a high production value.
I have put this in the mac section though I'm not aposed to using my iPad for editing should that be better. Are there all in one solutions that are accessible? What do people use for compression, leveling and so on to give some nice clean output? What is the best way to cut and move audio, remove botches, dead space, lip slapping and all those delightful sounds?
Your input will be most appreciated.
Ollie
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podcast
@Ollie
Many blind people (including myself) are using Reaper to record, edit, and produce podcasts. Although it can look a bit overwhelming at first because of its many options and functions, there are very good tutorials available for learning to use it with a screen reader. It is also fairly inexpensive at about $60.
Here are two good resources:
1. The Reaper Accessible Wiki:
https://www.reaperaccessibility.com/wiki/Main_Page
There you will find a good knowledge base of how to perform certain functions. You can also find a number of audio tutorials from beginner to advanced.
2. You might want to join the "Reapers Without Peepers" (RWP) e-mail forum. You can subscribe to this forum of very friendly and knowledgeable blind users of Reaper at:
https://groups.io/g/rwp
Also, if you go to the Eyes ON Success web page at www.EyesOnSuccess.net you can type "eos_show" into the search field and find a number of episodes on how we put the show together, what tools we use, etc.
When recording, try to be in a small room with no echoes. A real microphone helps (rather than one built into your computer) since you will sound better the closer you are to the microphone. Use headphones when recording other people so that their voice doesn't come over your speakers and bleed into your microphone.
There are a number of services you can use to post your podcasts (including YouTube), but perhaps the easiest is to use Wordpress. Many hosting providers offer a simple way to install Wordpress on your site as part of their service. For Eyes On Success we have been using 1and1 (now ionos) as our hosting provider for over 13 years. That is inexpensive and has been working well, but there are many other options too.
Good luck. Hosting a podcast can be a lot of work, but it can also be very rewarding.
--Pete
As a longtime Mac music…
As a longtime Mac music producer, I'm used to using Logic Pro for all my music production and mixing.
First of all, VoiceOver is great on Logic because Logic is an Apple program, so the accessibility is very good.
Secondly, the recording quality of Logic is higher than other DAWs. I installed Logic and reaper on my Mac, and with the same interface and microphone, the same gain and parameters of the interface, and the same recording environment, it is obvious that I get better recording quality with Logic. Also, since Logic is a major DAW, there are tons of tutorials and instructions available on the web.
The only drawback of Logic is the price, if you are a student you can get a student discount, but if you have a little budget I strongly recommend you to buy Logic Pro 11, because with Logic once you buy it, you get the benefit of lifetime use and lifetime updates. I don't think you can get that with any other DAW. CueBass, for example, is one of those DAWs that you have to pay for every major upgrade.
Also if you are a beginner in audio recording, I think GarageBand is a good choice. It's just a free version of Logic. You can do some basic mixing, such as adjusting the EQ, adding a Compressor, adding a Noice gate, and so on.
So once you decide to work on the Mac platform, I think Logic Pro is the first choice.
Thank you both for your…
Thank you both for your suggestions.
I'm a student so have gone for the pro package from apple, even if I probably won't use the other apps. I am also looking to get back into my music so mainstage is a nice thing to have as is logic pro for plugins and generally messing about. I can also use it to make some jingles.
Similarly to Reaper, are there any good resources for blind logic users?
Hopefully this will be the start of me using mac for it's strengths, rather than struggling with it's weaknesses like text editing and so on.