Tag Archives: Podcaster

New Blastwave FX collections royalty free at UniqueTracks

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Blastwave FX at UniqueTracks Inc.
UniqueTracks has added four brand new Sound Effects Libraries from Blastwave FX to our growing collection of royalty free Sound Effects products.

Podcaster – Sound Effects for Podcasting
Podcaster has everything you need to produce a professional podcast. Add music or just a beat loop to your intro and immediately give a focus to the theme of your show. With over 500 sound effects (Animals, Cartoon Effects, Crashes, Human Effects, Vehicles, Weapons and more), this set will let you underscore the humerous, contentious and exciting moments of your podcast.

WebTones – Sound Effects for Flash and Web Site Production
If you design and create professional Flash productions or web sites, then you will want to add this large assortment of multimedia sounds to your production toolbox. The WebTones collection features 1000 unique buttons, clicks, rollovers, pings, beeps, hits and production elements that can easily be plugged into your next production. This collection will provide you with the tools you need to add sonic life to your virtual creations.

Spoilers – Movie Trailer Cinematic Sound Effects
If you’ve ever wondered where to find those great sonic effects that Hollywood post production editors lay into movies, trailers and commercials, look no further. This incredible set by Blastwave FX will amp-up your production with the latest, most modern audio effects available on the royalty free market. This collection, on 4 DVDs, has 300 stereo movie trailers and compositions with matching 5.1 surround files, plus 200 high impact stereo imaging elements.

Drones – Hollywood-style Sound Effects
Using long, sustained, audio drone effects is one of the most effective ways of using sound to build drama and interest in a media production. The material contained in the 4 DVD set Drones by Blastwave FX is specially made to give your production a professional, Hollywood-caliber sheen. In total, this collection has over 10 hours of unique sound effects in stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound.

Blastwave FX develops next-generation HD sound effects libraries for professional audio production. Their design and engineering team constantly pushes the sound envelope with innovative product formats, rich metadata, multi-channel libraries and the highest resolution audio that technology allows.

UniqueTracks welcomes Blastwave FX into our royalty free music library

Best Microphones for Podcasting

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I remember my first attempts to record the music I was creating back in the mid-80s. Home recording equipment was just becoming affordable to the average musician and I was slowly building up the components of a home recording studio. But, having just bought the equipment, I was rather surprised at how bad my initial recordings sounded. Not really knowing anything about proper microphone placement and other basic elements of a recording engineers skill set, I spent a lot of time with trial and error, got lucky sometimes but ended up ruining a lot of recordings because of poor recording studio fundamentals.

With so many people creating podcasts now, the basic knowledge of what makes a good recording is gradually coming from the specialized world of the recording engineer into the mainstream. Podcasters who want to improve the quality of their productions need, at some point, to learn about microphones – there’s no question, having a good, professional-grade microphone will immediately increase the quality of your podcast production. Today there are many microphones being marketed expressly for podcasting.

Here is really smart article by Cleveland-area IT Specialist, Aaron Shaffer A Review of Seven Microphones, The Heart of All Podcasting.

Aaron looks at seven different microphones including headset, lapel, wireless, and standard tabletop microphones and judges their strengths for podcast recording based on affordability and usage. He points out that a microphone should be chosen based on the recording situation in which it will be placed. For instance recording a lecture for a podcast requires a different microphone than recording a table interview between two people. Aaron gives actual recorded samples of each microphone and then offers his opinion on each mic’s strengths.

Here are his final conclusions based on the microphones he tested, but you should read the complete article because there lots of good podcasting information in it.
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“What would I recommend to you as a professor or lecturer if you want to podcast? Without a doubt the AudioTechnica wireless mic. You can connect it to any laptop or mixer and get great quality. What would I recommend to those interested in dialogue type podcasting with two or more people? The MXL-990. You can’t beat it for the price. And If you’ve got money to blow, go with the Heil PR-40 all around.”
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If you have a little more money to spend, consider these USB microphones, most created by the manufacturers to appeal to the new podcasting market.

Blue Microphones Snowball $134
Marshall Electronics MXL USB.006 $170
Rode – Podcaster $349
Samson CO1U $210
Samson Q1U $90

See also Podcasting In The Classroom and
Tools to take Podcasting to the next level

If you are interested in sound effects for your podcast to create openings, transitions and endings between your interviews and other broadcast segments, then check out this sound effects set created specially for Podcast production.

Podcaster by Blastwave FX

Podcaster – Music & Sound Effects for Podcasting

Audio Imaging and your podcast

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In his article for Podcasting News, Podcast Imaging: The Sign On Your Front Door, audio designer and producer Ed LaComb writes about creating an “audio image” for your podcast. He describes audio imaging this way…

“Simply put, audio imaging is the “fancy sign” that hangs out in front of your business. If your business is audio, then that sign is a highly (or at least creatively) produced show introduction, some “sweepers” which introduce other elements within the show, or transition from one topic to the next, and perhaps even a show outro.”

What are “sweepers”? Sweepers are little bits of audio that are used to direct attention towards what’s coming next. They are attention-getters. You hear these all the time in broadcast. Radio stations use them to transition to commercials or special announcements and your local TV news broadcast uses them to transition between stories. Sweepers and other audio imaging elements: whooshes, hits, washes, stingers, stabs (they’re named for their sound), all contribute as production tools used to guide listeners towards your next feature.

Audio Imaging Sound Effects
Listen to the demo for this sound effects collection to hear examples of whooshes, hits, stingers and sweepers.

As a podcast producer you could create connections between your topics or your guests by utilizing these small audio transitions. Choose sounds that fit with your show’s intent or “image”.

As LaComb says in his article, “Properly designed and produced, audio imaging can attract listeners to your podcast and when used creatively throughout your podcast, it can keep them listening from beginning to end.”

UniqueTracks has a full line of audio imaging products. If you create your own podcasts, you may be interested in our Podcaster production music and sound effects product.
Podcaster - Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects for Podcasting

Just released – Podcaster – Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects. This massive collection by Blastwave FX has been created especially for Podcast producers. Podcaster has everything you need to produce a professional podcast. Add podcast theme music or just a beat loop to your intro and immediately give a focus to your show. With over 500 sound effects this set will let you underscore the humorous, contentious and exciting moments of your podcast.

New podcast studio software from Apple and M-Audio

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I’ve been watching Steve Jobs’ keynote address at the recent 2006 MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. As always, there are a lot of great new enhancements to Apple products.

Of special interest to me was the new Podcast studio, an addition to Apple’s GarageBand software .

The new GarageBand includes a built-in Speech Enhancer which optimizes sound for your gender and vocal range, improving the sound of your voice and simulating a professional microphone, even when you’re not using one. And a dynamic “ducking” effect automatically reduces music volume when you speak, so your listeners always hear the talk above the tunes. These are features common in radio stations and radio production studios so it’s quite a nice addition to the package. UniqueTracks royalty free music is fully compatible with GarageBand.

I’m wondering if any of you use GarageBand for podcasting. It does seem very easy to get up and running with a podcast very fast.

One thing about GarageBand that has always bothered me is its name.

A true garage band really is something that emerges spontaneously from a group of friends’ love of music – it’s not a software package – it’s a bunch of people who learn to make music together the old fashioned way, by actually rehearsing and playing it, trying things over and over, arguing, learning what works, learning to cooperate – becoming musicians in the process. There is a rawness, honesty and authenticity to the sound of a real garage band.

In fact Steve Van Zant (Springsteen E Street member) has a critically acclaimed radio show devoted solely to “garage” music. Little Steven’s Underground Garage. You can bet none of the music broadcast on this show was made using Apple’s GarageBand.

Instead of the garage, Apple should have turned to areas of the home where this product actually gets used – like the bedroom or the kitchen table or the den.
If you have experience with GarageBand, please post it here. Let me know if you have created a successful podcast or any other project.

If you create your own podcasts, you may be interested in our Podcaster production music and sound effects product.
Podcaster - Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects for Podcasting

Just released – Podcaster – Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects. This massive collection by Blastwave FX has been created especially for Podcast producers. Podcaster has everything you need to produce a professional podcast. Add podcast theme music or just a beat loop to your intro and immediately give a focus to your show. With over 500 sound effects this set will let you underscore the humorous, contentious and exciting moments of your podcast.

UniqueTracks Royalty Free Music for Podcasting

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Just Released – Podcaster – Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects. This massive collection by Blastwave FX has been created especially for Podcast producers. Podcaster has everything you need to produce a professional podcast. Add podcast theme music or just a beat loop to your intro and immediately give a focus to your show. With over 500 sound effects this set will let you underscore the humorous, contentious and exciting moments of your podcast.

Bill Grady, owner of Star Communications has over 20 years of professional experience in all facets of radio broadcasting. Like other professional broadcasters, Bill has recently become intrigued with podcasting.

His podcast – You Are The Guest – is a weekly show where you can “be the guest” and tell other people what you and your friends/neighbors are saying about today’s news and the issues of the day. The show is part opinion poll, part reality show.

The music Bill chose for the podcast was the UniqueTracks 2 disc set, Top Secret Loops Vol. 1 Rock/Metal. Listen to how Bill uses the music for introductions and transitions between topics. You’ll also hear how the music helps provide an upbeat and casual mood.
Top Secret Loops V1 - Hard Rock/Metal

Bill’s podcast is open to all guests, if you’d like to participate in his show, just drop him a line at You are the Guest . Here is the RSS link for the podcast.

Podcast Music Licensing and Performing Rights Organizations

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I found this description and discussion of podcast music licensing very informative. If you do any type of internet broadcasting, you may be interested in how Performing Rights Organizations are looking at this latest internet broadcasting technology.

Should Podcasters have to pay a fee for the right to play copyrighted songs during a Podcast? Yes, says ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. There’s also a good discussion of how much that licensing will cost.

Podcaster - Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects for Podcasting

Just released – Podcaster – Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects. This massive collection by Blastwave FX has been created especially for Podcast producers. Podcaster has everything you need to produce a professional podcast. Add podcast theme music or just a beat loop to your intro and immediately give a focus to your show. With over 500 sound effects this set will let you underscore the humorous, contentious and exciting moments of your podcast.