hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr4317.txt

Episode: 4317
Title: HPR4317: Recording an episode of HPR
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4317/hpr4317.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 22:53:54

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4,317 for Tuesday the 18th of February 2025.
Today's show is entitled Recording an Episode of HBR.
It is part of the series podcasting Hal2.
It is hosted by Kevve and is about 11 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is, Kevve goes through the steps of recording your first HBR episode.
Hello, hello, I'm Kevve, a co-host of the TuX Jam podcast, and you're listening to
another episode of HBR.
On a recent episode of Hacker Public Radio Community News, Ken Fallon asked me if I could
do a show about recording an episode of HBR.
So I thought, right, I'm going to go ahead and do this.
So in this episode, I plan to go over, planning your show, recording your episode with your
Android phone, recording the episode on the Linux desktop, and then uploading.
So first of all, plan your show.
So you've got to kind of think, what's it going to be about?
I mean, pick something obviously that you're interested in, and pick something that you
feel that you can talk about.
But consider what actually is the purpose of the show.
Is it going to be to introduce a topic?
Is it about giving information?
Will it be to entertain?
Is it going to be a tutorial or instructional show?
Or is it more going to take the form of an informal yarn?
So consider that straight away.
So write down the points that you actually want to cover.
And make sure you've got any links that you're going to reference.
And this will help you when it comes to both recording, and also it can more or less act
as your show notes.
I'm not saying you have to write out an entire script.
But very often, once you hit that record button, all the things you are going to think
about are going to go out to window.
And you're going to think afterwards, I wish I'd said this, wish I'd said this.
And keeping notes right in front of you as you're recording will just help you remember
everything.
Now the general recommendation for people recording a show for the first time is to start with
an introduction that a episode, and this is very often followed by another second episode
of how I got into technology or how I got into computing, something like that.
But once you've ticked those two boxes, remember that only guidelines, you don't have
to do those.
Then you can go on to whatever you wish for the whole point is not so much that it is
an episode about hacking or about open source.
It's about episodes that are of interest to hackers, so it really is very, very broad.
So next thing to consider is what will you be recording on?
But if this is your first time recording any show, then to be honest, the easiest method
is most likely going to be on your smartphone.
I mean, phones usually have a good default setting for voice capture.
And there's good reason for this, but historically, this was the primary purpose of a phone.
I mean, not so much today.
People don't talk very often on them, but traditionally, they were made for people talking
it.
Now, you're going to need a recording app.
And when looking for a recording app, then you want to make sure, firstly, that it can
record a flag or wave format, wow, basically describe it.
Why?
Because this will produce the best quality audio file.
Now, most people are familiar with MP3s, but these are losy files.
Now, what in the world does that mean losy?
Well, this just means that every time you save it, the audio will compress and the quality
will be reduced.
And this is what keeps the file size down.
I mean, that's great when you're downloading loads of things onto your phone, and especially
if you don't have particularly high end headphones.
But when you're recording, certainly, I would say you want to try and get the best audio
quality possible.
Now, the other thing that is worth noting is be careful what permissions you give this
app.
It's a simple voice recorder.
It has no reason to connect to the internet or require access to your contacts or messages.
Don't automatically say yes.
The only thing that it should be asking for is the ability to access the microphone,
so it can record, and the ability to access and modify your storage.
And obviously, the reason for that is it needs to save the file set records.
My personal recommendation would be audio recorder.
As it allows you to record in WAV, you can change the sample rate, and it doesn't include
any adverts or features that are paid for only.
And it's very simple to use.
All you do is hit that red record button and talk into the phone.
When you're all done, hit stop, and then it'll say, do you want to resume or do you want
to finish?
So if you think, oh, I missed something, fine, go back, and resume, then press stop again,
and then click on finish.
The app will then ask you what do you want to name the file that you've recorded.
So do that, that's you done.
All you need now to do is go to the HPR website.
When the top left click upload, pick a slot, enter in your show notes, upload your file,
and it's done.
It actually is that simple.
Now if you're more comfortable on a computer, then most PCs these days will come with microphones.
If it's a laptop, generally it'll be built in, or if it's a desktop, chances are it'll
be on the webcam.
There's also headsets as well.
A lot of people have headsets with included microphones, and then they're usually quite
serviceable.
Now if this is your first time dipping your tool into the podcasting waters, then I would
hold off picking up a dedicated microphone at this point.
At the end of the day, you don't want to be spending money on something that you might
only use a couple of times.
And let's be honest, if it turns out that podcasting is not for you, then only not expensive
microphone.
It's a bit excessive when it only gets used to video chat with your relatives.
To begin with, I would recommend something simple, like Rico.
Now like I said at the start, this is recording on our Linux desktop.
I do not own any Windows PCs.
I do not have anything other than Linux on all the computers in this house.
So I can't help you with any Windows applications.
That might be something you'll have to go and find out.
Rico as far as I can tell is Linux's only application.
Now many will advise things like audacity, and this is indeed a great app, and one I
use regularly.
However, it's a complicated app, and it has a very steep learning curve, especially when
you are just starting out.
It's going to be more than you need, and it can also be quite daunting to look at.
But as Rico, it's a nice simple interface, and allows you to record in both Flak and
Wav.
All you need to do is simply select your chosen microphone, set the format you want.
Again, make sure it's Flak or Wav, it probably does default to MP3 or AUG, and hit that
red record button.
When you're done, hit the stop button.
Now Rico does allow you to pause as well, but when you're pausing, you've got to make
sure to complete the recording you press stop.
Now if you want to talk to somebody else, then you're going to have to use a PC.
Now why do I say this?
Well Google has banned applications that have the ability to record calls.
Yes, there are ways around this, but I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible.
Now Rico has a great feature that allows to record both from the microphone and also
from the computer's audio.
Now this isn't just for recording conversations.
It could be that you want to actually talk about a game, and you actually want to include
some of the game in the background there, some of the actual sounds that it creates.
That's fine, you can use it for this.
So all you just do is simply click on record from button, and you will be given a choice
of microphone, system audio, or both, set to both, and whatever way you wish to chat
somebody, whether it's through Skype, Teams, Jitsi, Telegram, Mumble, whatever.
Rico will record the entire conversation.
Now please bear in mind, this can't be a surprise.
You have to get permission from the person who you're talking to to help load this.
You cannot say, hey surprise, you're on HPR, I don't think that's legal in any country.
So just make sure that you are letting them know this will be recorded.
Now again, once you've got the file there, all you just simply need to do, go to the
HPR website, click on upload, pick the slot you want, fill in all the details that you
need there.
It's not going to allow, no, for a lot to be honest, the most details you're actually going
to need are what's going to be in the show notes.
The show notes don't need to be too extensive, just some key points, what it's about, but
especially important is if you have included any commands or any links in the actual show,
then please leave them in there because not everybody has a pen and paper next to them,
what a computer, standing a computer, when they're listening to an episode of HPR.
So you want to make this as easy as possible for somebody to go back and say, here's the
link, click on it.
Okay, and literally that's it.
So I do apologize for those of you who have probably submitted hundreds of shows and
this is going to be of no benefit to you, but I would actually like maybe a possible
follow-up show by somebody else.
There's bound to be people out there who use Macs and who use Windows PCs, right?
I'm not one of them, I cannot help you in that aspect.
However, if you know of a nice, simple recording application, then maybe record a follow-up
show and just say, if you're on Windows, use this.
If you're on Mac, use this.
If you can recommend another application, great, maybe Rico's not for you.
Right, so now that you know how to record, really there's no excuse.
So please, do keep on submitting shows.
I love this project and I really do want to see it continue.
So join us tomorrow for another episode of Hacker Public Radio.
Bye.
You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public Radio.
Today's show was contributed by a HBR listener like yourself.
If you ever thought of recording a podcast, then click on our contribute link to find out
how easy it really is.
The hosting for HBR has been kindly provided by an honesthost.com, the internet archive
and our sings.net.
On this otherwise stated, today's show is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License.