IT@Cork, Podcasting

IT@Cork member podcasts begin

IT@Cork is a not-for-profit organisation which facilitates networking amongst IT Professionals – by the holding of evening events, mini-conferences and the annual conference. IT@Cork has 220+ member companies drawn from fmcg, to banks, to pharmas to IT companies.

I have been working with IT@Cork to set-up a members podcast and we published the first podcast yesterday. The most time consuming part of the process was sourcing a sponsor for the podcasts – thanksfully Microsoft Ireland stepped in and offered to sponsor the first five of the podcasts (if anyone would like to sponsor the next five, feel free to drop me a line at tom@tomrafteryit.net).

The first podcast was an interview with Shemas Eivers – Shemas is the MD of Client Solutions and an engineer by training. Shemas has some interesting views on software development (“software development hasn’t changed very much in the last 5 years”) and he reckoned that one of Client Solutions recipies for success is by avoiding the bleeding edge!

I changed my podcast production strategy fot this podcast – I wanted to try out GarageBand 3! I should have listened to Shemas and avoided the bleeding edge right there! Editing of sound files is painful in GarageBand 3 – I quickly reverted to editing in Audacity. I then imported the edited file into GarageBand to take advantage of its easy music integration – I added the jingle at the start and finish using GarageBand.

One real pain factor in GarageBand is that the Export function exports to .m4a, not mp3. It is possible to import the m4a files into iTunes and convert to mp3 (which is what I did) but what is the point in forcing that extra step on podcasters? Why not have an export to mp3 natively in GarageBand, as it is in Audacity?

I’ll have to play a little more with Garageband to see if it is worth keeping but right now, I am thinking the extra time involved isn’t worth it – anyone think the sound in the IT@Cork interview is superior enough that I should stick with Garageband?

6 thoughts on “IT@Cork member podcasts begin”

  1. m4a supports chapters, a feature Apple are pushing heavily for podcast creation. MP3 doesn’t, and as you said you can always just run it through iTunes. It’s another step but it is in the company’s interests to increase the adoption of MPEG-4 technologies as they work against Microsoft.

    I record and edit 2IGTV in AIFF and then drop it through iTunes to create MP3s, yes it’s another step and perhaps it should be automated but it’s not rocket science. We’re not at the point in podcasting where it’s your granny who doing her own show. If you can set up a microphone and record audio you’re probably smart enough to figure out the convert to MP3 option.

  2. Wohoo! Mark disagrees with me so I know I am right 😉

    Seriously Mark, the issue here is if Apple are serious about making GarageBand a Podcasting suite (and this is one of their selling points for it) then they should provide an Export as mp3 option as standard.

    I understand your point about Apple’s wanting to push m4a but the more options you provide, the wider userbase you will attract.

    Also, people should be attracted to MPEG-4 by its capabilities, ant not be forced into using it because of a lack of suport by GarageBand.

  3. Ha! My reputation as an iconoclastic weirdo is maintained.

    While yes it would take little, (We’re talking just a few lines of code as the QuickTime framework does the heavy lifting for all the iApps), to create an Export to MP3 an option, I don’t see why it’s in Apple’s long term interests to do so.

    There is a goldmine of features in the MPEG-4 spec which Apple will exploit going forward as they bring additional versions of GarageBand and other Pro/iApps to market. Giving people that path to MP3 in the app creates the whole, “Why does all my work vanish when I save it as an mp3 file� conversation.

    There is no lock in, but in the app they’ve traded features against legacy support.

  4. Yes, its is absurd that Garage Band doesn’t have an export to MP3 option. MPEG-4/AAC is not the existing accepted standard for podcasts. Why are Apple coming over all “Microsoft”? Podcasts are supposed to be cross-platform and cross-player.

  6. i thought you could go direct to podcast from garageband but i guess i was mistaken, they should really make it so you can publish it right from the app, that would be great, or even better, they should make a podcast app thats made just to record/quick-edit/publish podcasts.

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