Podcasting for Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7. Cleanup, Podcast Aisle 7!

In This Chapter

• Pondering "To edit, or not to edit . . ."

• Adding bed music for a comfortable podcast

• Introducing intros and outros

Although a high-tech activity like podcasting doesn't exactly qualify as quaint, "the charm of podcasting" is (as Steve Jobs describes it) a Wayne's World approach to broadcasting. In Wayne's World (1992), two Illinois teenagers, Wayne and Garth, shoot a television show in Wayne's basement. They rock and roll their afternoons away for their local cable-access station, all on the budget that their allowance (and perhaps the odd sponsor or two) can swing.

Podcasts, much like Wayne's World, are often done on a shoestring budget and recorded in one take, with no editing. All the trip-ups and tangents are captured for posterity and sent to MP3 players everywhere. This is part of the homespun appeal that podcasting is not only known for, but prides itself on nurturing as new and innovative podcasters enter the podosphere.

Although podcasting purists may harbor animosity toward the editing process, sometimes it makes all the difference between a listenable podcast and an incoherent mess of senseless rambling. For example, you might want to eliminate the sound of a train going by or silence a cough that would otherwise distract your listeners from a brilliant riposte. This chapter shows you how to use editing to shape your podcast while retaining its natural atmosphere, adding depth to that atmosphere with music, and then give ...