hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr0984.txt

Episode: 984
Title: HPR0984: Going Linux: Introduction to Podcasting with Linux
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0984/hpr0984.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-17 17:00:08

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Welcome to the Going Linux Podcast on Hacker Public Radio.
In this episode, podcasting with Linux, an introduction.
I'm your host, Larry Bushy.
And I'm your co-host, Tom.
Going Linux is designed to provide you with practical, day-to-day advice on how to use
Linux and Linux applications to get things done.
If you are new to Linux, moving to Linux or just thinking about going Linux, then this
podcast is for you.
And in today's episode, we're going to talk about how to record a podcast using Linux.
For those of you thinking about doing your own podcast, we hope you'll find this and
allow our episodes helpful in learning about Linux and its applications and using them
to get things done.
This episode is about how to use the software that is available in Linux to record a podcast.
Sure.
And we've had a few people ask about how do we record our podcast.
So in thinking about that, I thought we'd take this episode and the next user experience
episode to discuss this is a topic on our podcast.
So it's kind of a recursive thing.
We're podcasting about how to create a podcast on our podcast.
Wow, that's deep.
Not deep, it is, but it's definitely recursive.
Okay, so let's go ahead and give an overview of the software and the hardware that we use.
I know you covered that in a listener feedback episode a couple of years ago.
And we can also talk about some of the other options.
Right.
So let's in particular discuss how someone might do this for free.
There's certainly some more expensive ways to do it than free, but let's kind of concentrate
on the free way of doing a podcast.
Right.
So let's keep it simple for this one.
And then in the advanced episode, we'll talk about an application we both know something
about.
Audacity.
Right.
Audacity in our advanced episode will discuss how to use it.
Audacity to record and edit a podcast like ours.
Great idea, Tom.
Sounds like a plan.
So let's start our introductory episode with an overview of how to record an audio podcast.
Of course, your podcast doesn't actually have to be about Linux to use Linux for recording
the podcast.
Regardless of the topic of your podcast, there are definitely some advantages in using Linux
to record it.
Right.
A lot of people thinking about starting a podcast might be uncertain that they'll want
to stick with it.
And that does happen.
I think they call it pod burn or something.
Using your existing computer, the Linux operating system and Linux applications, if you're
just starting out.
You can record a podcast for free or close to it.
Yes, even if you are sure you want to take podcasting seriously, why pay more than you need
to to record your podcast?
That just seems silly.
Exactly.
Using Linux and Linux applications can make recording any sort of audio or even video
podcast extremely affordable for anyone.
Yes, we've had Dan Sawyer on our show a couple of times.
He operates a professional audio and video production studio using Linux.
And if I remember right, that's Dan's source of income, that and writing articles for Linux
magazines.
Right.
So let's start with what do you need in the way of hardware and software to record a podcast?
Well, first of course, you need some kind of recording device.
Some people use a Zoom H2 or other standalone recorder and some use a Nokia N810, Internet
tablet.
And I know a guy over in England that uses a Zoom ZUNE, it really sounds pretty good.
And we use a computer and software.
Once we have the file recorded, we need a way to edit that file, somewhere to post the
show notes and the episodes themselves and a podcast feed for subscribers using podcasting
software.
Right.
And as far as editing goes, you really don't have to do that if you're really confident
that you can say what you're going to say without mistakes.
Just like us.
Yeah.
We never edit this.
Never.
I wish.
And by now, if you're still listening, you likely already know what a podcast is.
But in case you don't or in case you need a refresher, we'll provide a link in the show notes
to our page describing how to subscribe to a podcast.
There's a common craft video on that page entitled podcasting in plain English.
So let's start with the hardware, Tom.
It has been accumulated since 2005 when I began podcasting.
I have now a computer that is made by HP, which is a fairly new computer, just a few months
old, even though it's probably an antique by now.
The way computer technology moves ahead.
But it has a fairly fast processor and all the things that you need in terms of inputs
and outputs to make it work.
And really, for most of the recording, you're going to be doing you simply need a USB input.
And maybe the standard audio inputs and outputs depending on what you're going to be using
to do the recording.
The headset I have is a set of headphones and a boom mic combined.
I was using it for the first few episodes to record the podcast.
Now I use something different for a microphone.
But I still use these as headphones for monitoring and when I do the editing.
It's a Logitech, Notebook, headset, USB and analog mic.
So I'll include links to some of these things in the show notes just so that you can see
what our hardware looks like.
So that's what I use for a monitoring headset.
The microphone is an audio-technica ATR 30.
I've been using this since I switched over from the headset and it's worked quite well
for me.
I don't know if many of our listeners realize that I was doing another podcast before this.
And this particular microphone I used for that as well.
And we had our own hardware at work for doing this, including a mixer.
We were using an Alicis Multimix 8, which is a mixer with 8 channels that plugs into
the USB port on your computer.
And I found that so useful that I went and purchased one for use here on the going Linux
podcast.
And we've been using it ever since on my end of the conversation for doing the recording
and doing the mixing and running it through a mixer actually took some of the noise out
that was inherent in the old IBM ThinkPad that I was using before my HP computer.
And that's for anyone doing a podcast.
If you do find that your computer introduces a lot of noise when you're trying to do recording,
it's probably your audio card or maybe even the audio jack.
And by using a digital input like a USB input, whether you have a USB microphone or whether
you run it through a USB mixer like I'm doing, that will virtually eliminate that noise,
that background noise that you get that's inherent in some audio cards.
The mixer isn't absolutely necessary, right?
No, it's not necessary.
You can use a headset mic like the one we first started out with here.
You can use a USB mic that plugs directly into your USB port.
And the advantage of using a mixer is that you can take multiple inputs and record them
on your computer through a single USB input.
You can also change the level of the different inputs.
So if you have one input that's a little bit softer than another, you can boost it by changing
the volume level on the mixer itself.
And it just gives you additional flexibility that you don't have if you have a single input.
And of course, the final thing that we use here on going Linux to produce our podcast
is a telephone.
And I have one of those.
Right.
Right.
Me too.
Well, that starts your list of hardware, Tom.
And I know you're going to go on for like 20 minutes here just talking about your hardware,
right?
Yeah.
OK, you got as far as antics go, you got nothing on me.
I cobbled this thing together in 2002.
I don't even remember what's in it anymore.
It's got an 800 megahertz Duron processor.
Wow.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
And it does have the latest high tech duct tape holding it together.
That's a prerequisite, isn't it?
I got that going for me.
The headset is a Sony PlayStation headset and it's got a USB connector on it.
So that's good.
I get to bypass my audio card.
And it's the kind that just has an earpiece on one ear and a boom.
OK.
And I need that because my other ear has the the bud and the microphone for the telephone
in it.
So I'm listening to you in one ear and it's a it's stereo.
Yes.
Yeah.
And I've got a cell phone in my shirt pocket and that's my whole setup.
Well, and that kind of shows you the fact that you really don't need a lot of modern hardware
to sound good on a podcast.
You're using a fairly old computer, a simple PlayStation headset.
And I know we've played around with various headsets to try to get the sound a little bit
better and one of the headsets you tried was the boom mic was moving around and crackling
a lot, creating a lot of pops and clicks that I had to edit out.
And unfortunately, if a pop happens while you're talking, you just can't edit that out.
So some of them came through in the recording.
So you have to watch for that kind of thing.
So you want to do a little trial and error recording before you actually publish something.
That was actually this headset, but I replaced the vinyl cushion with a fabric one that came
with it and that seemed to help a lot.
The thing is, if my head, if my face moved at all, the vinyl would rub on plastic and make
that popping sound.
So I could have either done what I did and replaced the material on the cushion or had
major Botox injections to kind of face for more.
Well alternatively, you could have gone down to the local hospital and asked if you could
borrow one of those big halo contraptions they used for brain surgery.
Yeah, it screwed into my skull.
Yeah, I would have held your head very solidly.
Probably not the average podcaster's hardware they would want to use, but it's an option.
Yeah, something to keep in mind.
All right, so let's get into software.
Now starting off on my side, I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 to do the bulk of the work.
And for the recording, I'm using Audacity, the current version that's installed on my
computer is 1.3.5, which may be the standard version that's available in the Ubuntu repositories.
I'm also using the Medi Ubuntu repository.
So it may be that that version of Audacity is one level up from what comes out of the
box with Ubuntu.
I'm not sure I haven't checked.
And the lame encoder version 3.98 is what's installed on my computer.
And that encoder, if you install the Ubuntu restricted extras, that's one of the things
that it installs, and what that allows you to do is to convert your audio recording
into MP3s.
Now there are other ways to convert your files into MP3s, but I do it from Audacity
after we do the recording in the editing.
I export the recording in three different files.
One is a wave file, and I export it in a wave format, primarily because that's a...
Lossless.
...format that is not lossy, in other words, you don't lose any of the quality.
And I use that as a backup in case I have to recreate the other two files.
And the other two files I export directly from Audacity as well.
One is the AUG format, which is the open source and free audio format.
And the last way, of course, is MP3.
The MP3 and the AUG, I then post to the site where we store our files, and those are
the two files that you actually download into your pod catcher, or you play directly
from the website, depending on how you listen to our podcast.
Right, right.
And as far as software, I'm using Zubone 2, 8.10, and the same Audacity as you, 1.3.5.
And I don't remember what made MP3 work, but I guess that was lame also.
Yeah.
Audacity is what Audacity uses by default.
And if you have it installed on your computer, or the first time you start up Audacity, it
goes and finds it and automatically sets that up.
In the past, in the former versions of Linux that we've used, and even in Windows, when
I was using that for the other podcast to do recording, you had to download the layman
coder separately, which technically you're doing under Linux as well.
And then you had to tell Audacity where you put it.
Oh, I remember that.
And then it would use it.
Yeah.
So today, Audacity goes and finds it on your hard drive and recognizes where it is.
So if you've installed the restricted extras under Ubuntu, or if you've simply just downloaded
the layman coder separately, or gotten that encoder some other way, the first time you
open Audacity, if lame is there, it recognizes it, finds it, and uses that as your MP3
export.
Okay.
And I remember when I first started listening to Linux podcast, it drove me nuts when
they used words like lame, and then didn't explain them.
So lame stands for, it doesn't mean it's lame.
Stands for lame, eat, and MP3 encoder.
Right.
So now let's talk about the logistics of recording a podcast.
In considerations, if you're planning on using the free telephone, voiceover internet
phone service to do your recordings, you'll find that when you're doing the recording,
depending on what you're using, it's going to be difficult to get channel separation.
In other words, to separate the caller from the person you've called, and that can become
difficult when you're doing some editing, because both people will be on the same channel.
In other words, you'll be talking over one another, and you won't be able to silence
one person if they are making some sort of noises with their microphone while the other
person is talking.
It'll be very difficult to do the editing.
And that was a problem with some of the early recording software that allowed you to
record from Skype.
The day's Skype call recorder, which Tom, you brought to our attention as a software
pick a couple of episodes ago, is very good at separating the channels.
So it's no longer that much of a problem.
The real issue you'll come up with with Skype is the call quality, and that varies a lot
from call to call.
And it depends on how good your phones are, as well as the connection you've got, your
internet service, if you've got a slow service, if you're working on dial-up, for example,
your calls might not have the same quality as if you're connecting using cable.
So there's a lot of variability if you're planning on using Skype rather than regular
telephone lines to do your recording.
Yeah, you can tell right away if somebody's using Skype to do a podcast, if there's more
than one person.
You get dropouts and echoes, transmission delays, and as you said, inconsistent quality.
And usually there are long pauses because it's just the nature of Skype that when you get
done talking, the next person doesn't start talking for a second or so, or two or three
or five seconds.
And you can hear that if you don't edit it out.
Right, and when we're doing our recording, we don't seem to have that as a real problem.
We're doing what in the podcast world is called a double-ender.
That's where the two participants or more participants talk over the phone and each record
their own end of the conversation on their own recording device or computer.
Right, so when we get done recording today, I will save this as a high-quality org file.
And then I will transfer it over to Larry, send it to Larry via Skype file transfers.
Right, and that's when I take the file and begin the editing process.
And speaking of editing, there's some software you will need to use for editing and finishing
the podcast.
Some of the software that I use in that process is some software for adding ID3 tags to the
final result, the org file and the MP3 file.
And that software is called Easy Tag.
It's available in the repositories of Ubuntu, and I imagine it's available from most Linux
distributions as well.
The current version that's available in Ubuntu is 2.1.4, and it's gone through progressive
upgrades since I began podcasting back in 2005, and it hasn't changed all that much except
that it does a really good job of adding ID3 tags.
What I used to do when I first started recording the Windows podcast was to take the final
MP3 file, open it in iTunes, use the iTunes software to add the ID3 tags, then re-save
the file, open it in Winamp, add some additional ID3 tags because iTunes added ID3 tags that
were compatible with iTunes, but weren't compatible with any other software.
So I had to open it in Winamp and add the generally compatible ID3 tags.
And if I just did it in Winamp, of course, it wasn't compatible with iTunes, so I had
to go through that double process.
It's just that much easier when you're using something like Easy Tag because it works with
everything.
Well, now, Audacity puts in ID3 tags?
Yes, it does.
And that works just fine for everything except there are a couple of situations that I found
with some of the Linux pod-catching software like Amerock that it looks in a little different
place to find the ID3 tags.
In fact, what appears on your player in Amerock sometimes isn't an ID3 tag at all.
It may pick it up from the feed and display that in Amerock, or it may pick it up from
the file in a slightly different location than it does in other places.
So I use Easy Tag just to make sure that I've got everything that is needed by whatever
software that I've been able to find to play these things.
And so far, I haven't had anybody who hasn't said that they can't find the information
about the podcast on their podcast player.
And just to define ID3 tags, that's a text that goes in with the audio so that when you
look at your media player, you'll see that text on there right now.
It probably says something like Larry and Tom.
Episode 59, that sort of stuff.
Exactly.
And it's also referred to, if you're doing some research on the internet, it's referred
to as meta data, M-E-T-A data.
So it's not the actual audio file itself.
It's data that gets appended or added to the file and so it's called meta data.
The other piece of software I use, not in the editing, but sort of as the finishing touch,
is I use some software to edit our RSS feed.
And an RSS feed is a little text file that is in XML format that we post to our website.
And that tells your podcatcher where to find the file, how to download it, gives it some
information about the version, some background, you'll see in our show notes, the timestamps.
And those timestamps are also included in the RSS feed so that in your podcaching software,
depending on which podcaching software you use, you'll see the timestamps there as
well.
Those aren't metadata that's included as part of the ID3 tags.
Those are actually picked up from the RSS feed or the XML feed itself.
And that's really the key to making this a podcast.
Anybody could take a file, an audio file, post it to the internet and say, go download
it from my website.
That's not a podcast.
But then your podcatcher wouldn't know where to look for it.
Right.
That is just putting your audio on the internet and letting people download it.
The thing that makes it a podcast is this magical little text file, the RSS feed that
allows a podcatcher, and that could be iTunes or Amorock or RhythmBox or G-Podder or anything
else to go out there, find the file and update it with the latest version or the latest
episode as soon as it's available.
Right.
All of this RSS things scare you.
RSS stands for real simple syndication.
Right.
So it's real simple.
Yeah.
And I don't think I'd mentioned what I used to do the editing.
The software I used today is a simple text editor, G-Edit.
I become comfortable in editing in XML format so I can do it without making mistakes.
And it's very repetitive actually from episode to episode.
I simply go in and copy the previous episode which in the XML file is identified as item.
So there's a little tag that begins with an angle bracket that says item and then it
ends with a tag that says slash or back slash, I think it is item and everything in between
is the episode.
And that text I edit using a text editor, G-Edit, under GNOME.
And I used to use a special XML editor when I was using KDE.
Of course KDE applications can be used in any desktop environment including GNOME.
And that application is KXML editor.
And the last version I was using is 1.1.4.
That particular software I find is a little confusing.
It is designed for doing XML databases I think, or database indexes or whatever they're called.
And it's got a lot of features and functions in there that aren't designed specifically
for editing RSS.
Of course there are RSS editing software out there that's specially designed for podcasters.
But most of it is for the Mac or for Windows.
And all of it that I've been able to find so far is either not free or is a little bit
buggy.
So it's just as easy for me to go in and use a text editor.
The key thing to remember in looking at your RSS feed and editing your RSS feed that a
number of podcasters get wrong is that everything has to be in reverse chronological order.
In other words, your first episode should be at the bottom of the file and you should
add new episodes to the top.
So you'll have a header section, you'll have your most recent episode, and then you get
to the episode before that, the episode before that, and at the very bottom is your very
first episode.
Putting it in the other order works in some podcasters.
In other podcasters, they expect the most recent episode to be at the top of the RSS feed.
And if you're putting the most recent one at the bottom, just adding the latest episode
to the bottom of your file, some people won't get it.
Exactly.
Those podcasters don't find it.
They say, okay, let's go down.
Let's look at the top episode and oh, it's episode number one.
I guess they haven't done anything since episode one and it moves on.
So that's really the trick to editing your RSS feed, regardless of which software you
use to do the editing.
And all of that sounded way more complicated than it really is.
Yes, it's just editing.
This is not something to be afraid of.
No, not at all.
It's just a text file that you put online.
Yeah, the easiest way to figure out how to do an RSS feed is to copy one from somebody
else.
So you can go to RSS feed in your browser and see what it looks like.
You can take it from the browser to a text editor and you can see it very easily.
And in G edit, you can go in and choose the format and indicate that this is an XML file.
And it'll do text highlighting for you that makes it easier to see what's going on.
Got to love get it.
Yes, absolutely.
So the bottom line is there's a specific format for a podcast feed.
In additional requirements, if you want your podcast listed in iTunes.
One will include some links and resources you might want to use to ensure that your feed
is correct.
The RSS 2.0 specification will have a link to that and will have a link to iTunes information.
Yes.
And you may be wondering why we're mentioning iTunes since iTunes is Apple and Windows
only.
It doesn't run in Linux, whether you are creating a podcast that's about Linux or not.
In order to maximize the number of people exposed to your podcast, you do want to get it
listed in iTunes.
And unless you have an iTunes compatible feed, you're not going to be able to post it on
iTunes and you'll be cutting out in our estimation with our Linux podcast at least two-thirds
of your audience.
I think at least two-thirds of our audience subscribes to us on iTunes.
Yeah.
And we want people to listen to us that are thinking about moving to Linux.
So if you haven't yet, you're probably in iTunes.
So whether you are recording a podcast about Linux or open source or whether you're recording
a podcast about something else and just using Linux to do that recording to keep the
cost down, then you want to have your podcast listed in iTunes for sure.
For sure.
One last thing to consider is how you want to distribute your podcast.
Now that you've got an audio file, you need to consider whether or not you want others
to be able to copy and distribute your work to other people.
At least in the US, you can't just post your files to the internet and expect that everyone
will be able to share your files with others.
Right.
If you want people to be able to share your content with others, you have to make sure
that you give them permission to do it.
US Law actually prohibits them from doing it if you don't state otherwise.
As soon as you make your work available, it's deemed to be copyrighted.
That means that, for example, if someone wants to burn your audio files to a CD and give
it to a friend, they must get your permission to do so in advance.
And you don't need that.
You want people to be able to share.
Right.
To avoid this, you can use a Creative Commons license.
It will put a link to that in the show notes.
And basically what it is, it's a limited copyright that gives permission for some things to
your users.
Yes.
And Creative Commons gives you a number of different versions of a Creative Commons license
that gives you a lot of flexibility as to how much control you want to give to others
over redistributing your Creative Works, audio, video or otherwise.
It can range anywhere from, I'm going to give you the ability to distribute this to other
people as long as you give me credit and you don't do it to make money.
You can give them permission to give your stuff away and make money if you want.
Or you can say, not only will we give you permission to distribute it, you can use our
work to create your own work.
So if you wanted to include portions of our podcast, for example, into another podcast,
you could clip it out and include it in your podcast without asking our permission because
our Creative Commons license allows you to do that.
So a lot of flexibility there.
Yeah.
We've pretty much got about the loosest possible Creative Commons license.
And intentionally so.
I still don't want to hear myself in a hip hop son.
I still think that would be kind of interesting.
And if you're wondering about some of those legal considerations for podcasters, we will
put a link in the show notes.
Right.
And that's a resource provided by the Creative Commons folks as well at Creative Commons.org.
So now Tom, what about a website?
Wow.
Some sites like LibSyn or Liberated Syndication Network.
And that's LibSynLibSyn.com, offer sites for hosting podcasts and offer a number of
valuable services.
And although such sites can be a big help to make podcasting easy, they're not free.
Some blog sites are free and they're a popular way for posting episodes and adding the podcast
file and creating an RSS feed for the blog.
And coupled with a service like Google's feed burner, that's at feedburner.com, you also
have a podcast feed to give your audience.
What we use for the going Linux website and for file storage is as follows.
We use site 5 for our web hosting and they're at www.site5.com, SITE, the number 5.com and
we'll have a link in our show notes to that if you're interested in getting some web hosting.
And the software that we use for editing the contents of the website or creating the
contents of the website is Composer 0.7.10.
That is web editing software that gives you a nice blend of flexibility between the capability
of editing HTML directly, if you know how to do that, or using a whizzy wig, what you
see is what you get editor.
So you can just type into the web page and change fonts and change spacing, add bullets,
add numbers, change colors, move things around very easily.
Composer is that it is a fork of what used to be NVU, which is NVU.
We used to use that to edit our website until it stopped being developed and was taken
over from Composer.
Originally, all of this software was part of the Mozilla suite of web browser and Composer
was the name that they used for their web creation tool that was part of that suite.
And although that is still available, the standalone Composer software, which is spelled
K-O-M-P-O-Z-E-R or Z-E-R for our non-US listeners, is the child of that.
And it has much more capability than even today's Composer within the Mozilla suite has.
And finally, to store our audio files, we store them at the Internet Archive.
We don't post them to our website because we use an inexpensive website hosting package.
And I don't want to have a lot of costs related to people downloading the episodes directly
from our website because the downloads under some packages cost a significant amount
of money.
And if your podcast becomes very popular, all of a sudden, it could cost you an awful lot
of money.
So by posting them to the Internet Archive, which is at archive.org, they allow us to post
any of our audio files there for free.
You can download them from there for free.
Of course, when you download them from our website, if you look at the link you're downloading,
you'll see that it points at the Internet Archive.
And when you subscribe to our podcast from your pod catcher, you may not notice.
But the files actually come from the Internet Archive as well.
Another advantage we get from using that is they count the number of downloads.
And we can tell which episode is most popular directly from the number of downloads.
And I don't know whether this is a disadvantage or just something that we give up in terms
of rights.
And that is when we post to the Internet Archive, they become listed within the Internet Archive
itself, which was originally designed as a storage for the whole Internet.
Exactly.
It is a library of audio, video, written, and other creative works that are available from
there for free.
And it's also the place where they store the Wayback machine, which is indeed a history
of the Internet through links.
You can go back to 2005 and look at the way the Going Linux website looked in 2005, if
you want, and browse around and make fun.
Yes, exactly.
And you can go and look and see what products IBM was selling or HP was selling back.
And you can even look at websites from companies that are now defunct, that you can't find
on the Internet.
Sure.
Interesting stuff.
Yeah, when Microsoft is gone, we'll still be able to go back and look at it.
Yes, exactly.
So we've spent a good deal of time, Tom, talking about how we record our podcast.
We've talked about the hardware.
We've talked about the software.
And in our next episode, we'll talk about how you actually use the main software that
we use for doing the recording, and that is Audacity.
So until then, please email us with your comments, questions, and suggestions.
That email address is GoingLinux at gmail.com.
Until next time, thanks for listening.
Talk to you later.
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