podcast

What are people’s thoughts on enhanced aac as opposed to mp3 for podcast distribution? Enhanced AAC offers chaptering, links, and images, all of which can be very useful (especially for those of us who want to include shownotes that contain characters that don’t display well on most computers), but really only works for iTunes/iPod users. On the other hand, that is most of the market. Obviously one can do both, although this creates an additional production process wit the potential to annoy.

Also, does anyone use or have a use for the PDF enclosure option for iTunes podcasts?

• An iBook (about a year old)
• A unidirectional Logitech usb microphone with ridiculous-looking hand-knit cover to reduce pops
• Audacity for recording
• PodcastMaker for enhancing the files and producing the actual feed
• A Textpattern installation on Textdrive for the shownotes
• Feedburner for getting to iTunes, since for some reason Textdrive and iTunes don’t play nicely.

This is perfectly adequate to what I’m doing right now, which is a very narrowly-focused, short-format, highly scripted podcast (which is the kind of podcast I almost never listen to, with the exception of a couple of knitting ‘casts) with an audience between 0 and 3. (MMKCast)

However, if I transition at some point to a different format (if, for example, I persuade one or more of my Aaron Sorkin superfan friends to go in with me on a Studio 60 podcast), I may need to alter my setup—either to accommodate recording multiple parties in the field (i.e., at someone’s house) using my iBook and a different mic arrangement, or using some device that isn’t a computer, or recording over the internet, using something along the lines of skype and Audiohijack Pro (the setup used by the Mac Geek Gab, which is a great-sounding podcast).

Speaking of which, paying users of PodcastMaker can get a discount (I think $5) on Audiohijack Pro. Not sure how long the deal is good for. I don’t need it yet, but I may at some point, and I’m debating whether I anticipate needing it enough to actually pay money.

I personally don’t much enjoy it. I don’t mind a short intro and outro, but I find minutes-long breaks in the middle of a podcast for podsafe music that has no relationto the topic is deeply boring.

I’ve been playing around for a couple of weeks with a podcast, and I don’t have any audio other than me, which sounds kind of barebones. However, the podcast is a translation of a 2nd-century Buddhist philosophical text, so guitar solos (and most other open-source music available for podcasters) wouldn’t really be appopriate.

Of course, I also have to deal with some sound level issues and the facts that I talk fast and sound like a girl. Also my ongoing struggle not to receipt recite Sanskrit verses to the tune of “Paper Moon.”