Some small groups of people are so smart--or so funny--that they can regularly sustain an audience’s interest. For this genre of podcasting, it might seem that production is a simple as finding a snowball microphone and pressing record, but often lots of preparation and subtle editing go into it.
Come up with an idea and make a plan.
Do some research for your panel discussion or comedy.
Come up with prompts or questions for your panel discussion or comedy. n the biz, this is called your “Q Line.”
Meet as a panel or comedy group and record your performance. Before you record, make sure to confirm good sound levels. Don’t be afraid to throw out your Q Line if it’s not working or if you improvisationally come across better conversation. To be recording is to be getting your “Tape.”
Transcribe all your Tape. O Transcribe is a useful tool for this.
Review all your recordings and transcriptions, cut out the best parts, and organize them into “Tracks.” You might also need to write some “Acts” to serve as transitions. Your Acts are what you’ll use to set up or deal with your Tracks.
Record yourself reading your Acts.
Determine if you need music and sound design.
Create, license, or find Creative Commons music and sounds.
Put everything together with Audacity--your Acts, Tracks, music, and sounds.
Share the draft of your podcast and get feedback.
Consider, reject, or incorporate feedback. Reflect on your process and the meaning of your podcast. Repeat previous steps.
In a spreadsheet, enter the metadata for all the files you created or used.
Finish your complete transcript. Your complete transcript is the one you will provide for you audience. It will be a combination of your Acts, Tracks, and descriptions of any of the music and sounds you used.
Create, license, or find Creative Commons music and sounds.
If you are going to put your podcasts online, do an audit of your online safety and security. Do you have safe passwords? Consider making passwords using the “diceware” method and using LastPass. If you Google yourself, what information do data brokers have about you? Consider contacting data brokers and requesting they remove your information.
No! The ways are infinite! You might find that you don’t have to--or don’t want to--edit your panel discussion at all. Getting your tape and Tracks might actually be as simple as pressing “record.”