Podcasting Takes Time, But They’re Coming Back

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m currently ‘Smitten‘. In a pure theatrical sense that is. Since the third week of May this year for three nights a week or more, plus weekends (taken up with theatre and gigs) I’ve been spending my nights at a variety of rehearsal venues, nights I had previously dedicated to other things I thoroughly enjoy such as the Sound System Podcast and the Playlist Mix.

Now that we’ve hit show week on our second of three productions for the year I can look forward to having my evenings come back and getting into the podcasting groove again.

There’s a perk in this for me as for the third production, I’m looking at producing a radio play. We had been speaking to one radio station to look at carrying the play in October but whether the show goes across the airwaves or not, we’re going to be releasing it as part of a short series of podcasts from the theatre company, a nice way for us (as the theatre company) to embrace podcasting and reach a new audience.

What I’m also looking forward to is returning to the Playlist Mix (Tuesday nights) and the Sound System Podcast with KilkennyMusic.com (Wednesday nights). Producing podcasts, the way we’ve gotten into producing them, can take anywhere up to 3 hours if you allow a half hour for pre-production and notes.

While the Playlist Mix will return with it’s regular and healthy dose of podsafe music, the Sound System Podcast will be showcasing highlights from gigs since May this year, for the first few shows with five weeks worth of live music to offer (20 live tracks) though an overall format change has not yet been decided by myself and co-host Ross Costigan.

Thanks to my theatrical commitments and weekend engagements, three hours is a lot to ask when you’re in “show mode”. So from the first week of September, both podcasts (which collectively have almost reached the 90-mark in the last year) will be returning to an iTunes store near you.

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The PodCamp Ireland Podcast Series

In case you’ve been in hiding for the past few weeks or haven’t yet heard, myself, Krishna De and Bernie Goldbach have started a PodCamp Ireland podcast series, distributed through Blog Talk Radio and iTunes every Wednesday. As it is hosted through Blog Talk Radio, the show goes out live at 9am each Wednesday morning and you’re able to listen live or dial in to the show to take part.

The podcast, heading into its fifth week, features a weekly tech / domain / hosting tip from Michele Neylon, a feature interview by Krishna with a new guest each week as well as other topical discussion on the build-up to PodCamp in Kilkenny this September.

Already interviewed have been Johnny Beirne (DownloadMusic.ie), Campbell Scott (IGOPeople.com), Cathy Fitzgerald (ArtLinks.ie), Darragh Doyle (re: 4DayMovie.com) while this coming week sees an interview with Deborah Hadley (Tast.ie).

If you would like to get involved, offer yourself available for an interview or suggest a topic for discussion then drop an email to podcampireland [@] gmail.com.

More From The Playlist Mix Podcast (And Podcasting)

The 27th Playlist Mix podcast has gone live and it marks (at least technically) a full year since the launch of the podcast. Granted, after three shows I took the bones of five months away from the podcast to decide whether or not I would make a full run of it but having revived the podcast in October last, it has become a weekly habit of mine and I’m delighted I decided to press ahead.

Such to the point that my 2008 diary (I keep a physical diary for the music / theatre side of life) is marked with podcast recording dates straight up to the end of December which should see the Playlist Mix having well passed the 50-show mark and the Sound System Podcast having passed the 70 or 80 show mark, that podcast too having gone weekly late last year.

There is an element of ease at this point in recording a solo podcast, the gremlins instead tending to hold off until the Wednesday night when the Sound System Podcast records for KilkennyMusic.com (listeners to both podcast shows might realise).

The transition from working in Adobe Audition to working in ProTools has been a slow one. The last two weekends away in Sligo have given me time to toy around with different recording setups, discover the ins and outs of the various plugins at my disposal, find out where things are hidden in the menus, learn off a few keyboard shortcuts, that kind of thing. But, I’m adapting.

From a podcasting point of view I will say that I’m delighted with the purchase of the Mbox 2 (Factory bundle) from Digidesign. It’s a purchase I had been toying with for far too long but its sheer portability (lighter and more suited to a podcasting environment compared to the Digidesign 002 rack we used in the live environment) is worth the investment. It’s lightweight, fits in my laptop bag or backpack (depending on the setting), packs 2 XLR / line / DI inputs as well as phantom power for the condenser (which I must get back!). The fact that it’s powered via USB as well helps portability matters, meaning there’s room for high quality recordings wherever I wind up.

Given the nature of the One Take Sessions and recordings for their respective podcasts it’s a certainty it will be travelling with me every three weeks to the venue (it will actually be there tonight as well as we welcome Bonnefires, John O’Hanlon, Nassau Royal and Joey Ryan to Kilkenny - Cleere’s Theatre tonight at 9:30pm).

Anyway, check out PlaylistMix.com for this week’s podcast or see the links below to play / download.

Playlist Mix Podcast #27 (Download @ 26mb)

Finding Me Online Made Easier

Given that so many of us have online presences across various networks I’ve decided to add a little feature to the header of the blog, replacing my 468*60 AdSense text banner with shortcut icons (links) to my Twitter, Jaiku, Bebo, MySpace, Skype, Podcast and RSS feed.

I’m leaving out one or two links for the time being including Linked In (which I don’t really use at all) and Facebook (which I’m only recently getting into).

I should also note that the Sound System Podcast isn’t just from me, though in most cases I’m acting as the anchor for the show, but it is hosted by the KilkennyMusic.com team.

The icons do add a little splash of colour to the header don’t ya think?