Re: [ARSCLIST] Podcasting--was: File Size Confusion

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It pretty much goes without saying that you should transfer any analog material into uncompressed 
WAV format, then edit to your podcast length/sequence, then as the last step (after any digi-EQ, 
level changes, etc) crunch to MP3.

By the way, nothing says you have to have super-sophisticated or expensive software for any of this. 
Almost all DAC cards and USB/Firewire units include recording software, usually an "LE" version of 
something like Protool or Steinberg. For what you're trying to do, that would be more than enough. 
As for crunching to MP3, nothing says you have to go out and buy anything sophisticated or expensive 
for that either. Here are a few free programs that will crunch WAV to MP3, in any bitrate you 
specify:

-- iTunes (wide choice of crunch formats and, to my ears, good MP3 output)
-- MusicMatch (free version has some limits on MP3 formats, but very good output and fast crunching)
-- Exact Audio Copy (you need to install the LAME encoder package -- no big deal). EAC also is the 
best I've found for reliably extracting WAV from audio CD's.

There are also podcasting production programs out there. I haven't used any.

Hope all this helps.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "steven c" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 11:17 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Podcasting--was: File Size Confusion


> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Richter" <mrichter@xxxxxxx>
> > There is freeware to edit MP3s in simple ways such as splitting. Since I
> > do not use it, I cannot offer a recommendation except to explore the
> > WWW, try some until you find one that does not attempt to do too much
> > and therefore can/will split the file for you without expanding it.
> Is there freeware to combine MP3 files, and thus create what is usually
> called a "podcast?" When I find my soldering iron and get my "78 deck"
> up and running, I think I can create individual MP3's from my 78's
> using Audacity...so, how does one combine these into multi-78 larger
> MP3 files?
>
> Steven C. Barr