Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re talking about WordPress websites. If you’re looking for 100% full control, ownership, and customisation options, then WordPress is for you. Here, you can use all sorts of plugins and tools to make your site do pretty much anything. You can run your entire business on there. However, all of this flexibility comes at a cost. There are always things that can break or go wrong. If you don’t have the expertise to run a site like this, then you’ll need to hire someone who does. There’s nothing worse than waking up in the morning to see that your site has gone down overnight. So, is there a middle ground between a fully-fledged WordPress site and the default website given to you as part of your podcasting hosting account? Yes there is. And that’s what we’re going to cover on the next episode of Pocket-Sized Podcasting. For a deeper dive on this topic, head on over to http://thepodcasthost.com/websites

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re asking the question “Do I need a podcast website?” The short answer here is “no”. You don’t *need* a website for your podcast. But, the benefits of having one are almost too good to ignore. For starters, just having that one central place to send people means your podcast is a lot more shareable. We already know that podcast listening happens in hundreds of different places, so it simplifies things when you can just say “find us on my podcast dot com”, or whatever the url happens to be. Running your own website then means you have full control over your branding, and if you plan to sell products or services in the future too, then this is going to give you a massive head start. Your hosting provider does create a basic website for you by default. Some of these are actually pretty decent, and getting better all the time. However, there are a couple of options that can help you take it to the next level, and we’re going to cover them on the next two episodes of Pocket-Sized Podcasting!

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re talking about bit depth. So each audio sample – those little dots in your waveform – has a ‘bit depth’, which determines the quality of the sound. Some tools will ask you to select a bit depth prior to recording. The most common bit depths are 16, 24, and 32. As is often the case, the higher the number, the higher the quality. Higher bit depths are better at handling noise with substantial differences between its quietest and loudest parts. But this is much more relevant to musicians than it is to those of us recording the spoken word. So if you’re asked, just opt for 16, and set your levels so nobody is at risk of peaking or clipping. Bit depth is yet another thing Alitu handles behind the scenes, too. At this rate it’s going to be making you a cup of coffee and a sandwich, eh? Get a free trial at alitu.com - sandwiches not included. Yet.

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re talking about sample rates. Sample rates are measured in hertz, or “Hz”. Like bitrates, sample rates in audio determine audio quality and file size. You could compare them to pixels in a photograph. Some platforms and tools will ask you to set a sample rate prior to hitting record. The most common sample rate, and one we’d recommend, is 44,100Hz. If you were to load up your audio in your DAW and zoom right in as far as you can, you’d see your audio represented as little dots. The more dots per second, the higher the sample rate. Again, these are just like pixels. So next time you record in your DAW, choose 44,100Hz. Or, just use Alitu and yet again, you won’t need to worry about this at all. For a deeper dive on this topic, head on over to http://thepodcasthost.com/samplerates

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re talking about bitrates. Bitrates represent a sliding scale of quality and size when it comes to the MP3 file format. They’re measured in kbps, or, kilobits per second. Common bitrates for music files are 128 and 192kbps. As most podcasts are purely spoken-word content, we probably don’t need to go this high, though. With our own shows, we tend to opt for 96kbps, but some go as low as 64kbps - most famously, Marc Maron. And he does alright, eh? If setting your bitrates manually, you’ll also need to choose between Constant Bitrate and Variable Bitrate. For podcasting, you should always choose “constant”. These are options you’ll find in any DAW when you’re exporting your episode to MP3 form. And, surprise surprise, your pal Alitu just gets on with it and does it all for you. For a deeper dive on this topic, head on over to http://thepodcasthost.com/bitrates

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re talking about the difference between WAV and MP3 files. The major difference between WAVs and MP3s are size and quality. WAV files contain more detail, but are also much bigger. Think of a WAV file as an original painting, and MP3 files as prints of that painting. Podcast episodes are almost always released in MP3 form because it has a good file size to quality ratio. MP3s have their own size and quality scale too. They’re called bitrates, and we’re going to talk about them on the next episode. WAVs are known as a “lossless” format because they contain the full detail of the original recording. But only a handful of people in the world could listen to spoken-word content both in its WAV form, and on a good MP3 version of it, and be able to tell the difference. MP3s keep storage and costs down for you and your listeners. And you won’t be shocked to learn that Alitu exports your episodes in MP3 form for you, automatically. Remember, as ever, you get a free trial at http://alitu.com

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re asking the question “how loud should a podcast be?” We’ve talked about having consistent volume levels throughout your episodes. But what about the overall volume level of your show compared to other podcasts? Audio loudness is measured in something called “LUFS”, which means “Loudness Units relative to Full Scale”. Sound exciting, eh? Recommended podcast loudness varies, depending on who you ask, and whether your episode is mono or stereo. But a good ballpark to aim for is between -16 and -21 LUFS. You can set this process up in a DAW like Adobe Audition. Or, it’s yet another factor that Alitu takes care of for you automatically, without you having to know anything about it. However you go about it though, your listeners will be grateful when they land on your episode after listening to another show. For a deeper dive on this topic, head on over to http://thepodcasthost.com/loudness

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re asking the question “what is compression?”. No, this isn’t about blowing your car tyres up. Compression is an audio production technique where you take the loudest bits and quietest bits of a conversation, and bring them all closer together. It’s all about achieving volume-level consistency. Compression allows you to have loud laughter and soft whispering in your episode, and, if done well, your listener won’t even need to adjust the volume dial. Just like noise reduction, compression needs a subtle touch, though, and it’s easy to go overboard. We can teach you how to do it, free with Audacity, at http://thepodcasthost.com/audacitycompressor Or, once again, you can simply have Alitu do it all for you automatically without needing to know the slightest thing about how it works. Head on over to http://alitu.com to start your 7-day free trial.

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re talking about noise reduction and cleanup. Some types of background noise can be cleaned up in the post-production phase. The constant hiss of a fan, or the low static hum of a microphone, for example. Audio software has the ability to recognise this and strip it out, whilst leaving the vocals intact. Of course, it’s easy to go overboard with this and ruin the vocals themselves. Working with noise reduction is a bit like walking a tightrope. Or, using magic in a high fantasy novel. We can teach you how to do it, free with Audacity, at http://thepodcasthost.com/audacitynoise On, if you’re using Alitu, it’s all done for you automatically, so you don’t need to know a single thing about it. One final note on background noise - the environmental stuff like phones ringing and dogs barking aren’t going to be removed by standard noise reduction processes. So always make sure you’re recording the best possible source material. Noise reduction can help good audio to sound great, but it can never make terrible audio sound good. For a deeper dive on this topic, head on over to http://thepodcasthost.com/noise

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re talking about the minimum effective podcast editing approach. Remember we talked about making mistakes during recording? Our tip was to pause, click your fingers three times into the mic, then start again. Well, now you have a quick and easy way to spot anything that needs chopping out. Aside from that, you’ll want to “top and tail” your recording, cutting any preamble at the start and drawn-out goodbyes at the end. Then it’s the cleanup and volume levelling stuff which you can either learn to do in a DAW. Or, have Alitu take care of that for you, automatically. Piece together any segments, music, or other clips in your editing software or Alitu’s episode builder, and you’ll be ready to export and publish. Podcast editing doesn’t need to be a slog, especially with the right planning, processes, and tools at your disposal. For a deeper dive on our minimum effective editing approach, head on over to http://thepodcasthost.com/mee