How I produce my audio shows

I have been producing blogcasts (I call them blogcast since people think you need an iPod if you produce a podcast, and calling them blogcasts made a little more sense to me) since December 2004. I have tried various hardware and software combination, and I have finally settled on a production process that works. Here is what I use to produce my shows.  I will warn you: I am bit of an audio geek (years in radio will make that out of a man) so some of this may be over kill.

I record audio either in my studio in Seattle, or while on the road as I travel around the world covering events for Xbox. I will break out the equipment list for both:

For field recording:

When I head out on the road, I use a Marantz PMD 660. This is an amazing device that I really enjoy. I love this thing, I just wish the CF door did not feel so darn cheap.
I have a SanDisk 8 GB Exgtreme III Compact Flash card I use with the Marantz. I have the record set to record PCM 48k WAV files, and the 8 GB CF allows me over eleven hours of recording time.
Depending on the ambient audio situation,  I either use my Shure Beta 87A or Shure 58A mics with the Marantz. I own two of each . I then take the WAV files and import them into my laptop (below)

For studio recording:

I am using the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra for studio recording. I have this connected to two Shure SM7B studio microphones.

I am using a Lenovo T61 that set up to dual boot into Vista and Windows XP. I have Vegas Pro loaded on the Vista parition. I do all my editing and post-processing in Vegas Pro.  

During the production process, I use multiple tracks (sometimes up to 10 individual audio tracks) See a screenshot of Vegas while I am producing a show here. The key to any good audio production is the abiltity to isolate audio tracks, so you can tweak each one as needed.

When I am done editing, I output the show as a 64kbs MP3 file. I add the appropriate metadata and add an image to each file using AudioShell.

If I need to do any interviews via phone, I use my Broadcast Host which is a digital hybird similar to what radio stations use to take phone calls on the air. I tried using Skype to record phone calls, but trying to record the calls proved troublesome.

I then upload the files to my hosting provider, Centracomm. Centracomm cache’s the files at multiple data centers around the world to ensure delivery. Once the caching is complete, I post the show on my blog and iTunes.

If you use iTunes, you can click here to open up my show in iTunes, then click the subscribe button to add my show to your sync list and have my latest show automatically sync to your iPod. Or you can subscribe to the MP3 version or the WMA version of the show.

As of 1/08 I have dropped WMA support and increased the bit rate of the MP3 version.


I am often asked what the name of the music is that I use to open and close the show. It is from the Atari "Driv3r" Sound track. I use cut 8 - "Move Over."

Updated: 2/11/08