How To Build a Podcast-Ready PC And Studio
Systems builders, listen up: Podcasting isn't just for kids anymore. Everyone from small businesses to corporate giants like GM are now offering podcasts. Building podcasting systems for customers is a great way for you to expand your products and services.
In this recipe, I'll show you how to build an efficient, affordable PC that can be used to produce high-quality audio content for podcasts, and recommend hardware and software for podcast quality.
The two most common formats for distributing your podcast are RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Atom. You won't need to know about the differences between them, but you will need an RSS-compatible browser or "feed reader" to start receiving podcasts on your PC.
You need only three main ingredients to build a modern podcast studio: a high-quality microphone in a suitable studio environment, quality recording software and a PC to act as a hard-disk recorder.
A Quality Microphone: Arguably, this is the most important component. Professional studio engineers generally prefer "large diaphragm" microphones, but the easiest to use for your purpose is the new breed of professional USB microphones designed for use with PCs.
At less than $200, the C01U offers good quality with a USB interface that will plug into any desktop or laptop. The C03U costs a few extra dollars but offers more features. Both mics use WinXP's standard audio drivers and work with all popular recording software. Recently, Samson has also created a Podcasting Pak by bundling its microphones with Cakewalk LE, a popular audio-recording software.
Another high-quality microphone is Blue Microphone's Snowball, which retails for about $100. To create professional-sounding podcasts, you need a high-quality microphone that's been designed to record voices.
Recording Software: There are several good choices, with prices that range from free to astronomical:
Whichever software you choose, you'll need to get your recorded podcast into a media file type that's suitable for syndication, or one with quality compression and that devices and software can handle. Today, that means MP3. Make sure you know your software's method of producing an MP3, because that's the file type in which you will want to publish your podcast.
The PC: Most recording software requires at least a 1.4-GHz CPU. Even better, choose a Pentium or Athlon processor for guaranteed compatibility with speeds of at least 2.6 GHz.
NEXT: Assembling the podcast PC
Follow normal assembly procedures, but pay special attention to anything that could create extraneous noise.
Ground yourself. I recommend wearing an antistatic wrist strap. Install the CPU and fan on the motherboard. Apply a thin layer of thermal transfer grease to the mating surface of the chip. Position the heatsink/fan assembly. Attach the clips.
Align the motherboard in its case, attach cables to headers, and make connections to case leads and the front panel. Then, perform the initial switch setup.
Install the motherboard. Get a snug fit on all screws and standoffs. Install DIMMs. In this case, there are two: One to DIMM0 of Channel A, and the other to DIMM0 of Channel B. If you're using an AGP video card, install it now.
Configure jumpers on the CD-RW and hard drives for Master/Slave/CableSelect. For best recording performance, configure your OS drive as IDE primary master, your recording drive as secondary master and CD-RW as secondary slave, 0.
Install the hard disk, diskette and CD-RW drives. Dress and secure the cabling. Attach the mouse, keyboard and monitor, and plug into a good surge protector. Power up the system and configure the BIOS settings.
Check the hardware monitor from BIOS. Confirm that the temperatures and voltages are OK, along with the fan speed.
Install the OS. Boot from the OS setup CD. Then partition and format the drives with NT file system. Download and install BIOS and other updates for the motherboard. Install the audio-recording software. You're now ready to record your podcast!