Best software/hardware podcast setup for serialized audio books

After a couple months of trial and tribulation, I have finally come up with the best podcast recording setup for serialized audio books. It's easy! Only eight steps to follow:

1) You must first make sure that your hardware is capable of streaming audio without dropouts. If you are using Windows, install DPC Latency Checker. Follow the guidelines on the Product Sheet for shutting off drivers that are causing unacceptable latency. Make sure you have your recording hardware, like your USB headset, plugged into the computer when you run the latency check. You will probably have to temporarily disable your wireless driver from Device Manager to get all green during the check. You may also have to stop your anti-virus service. Once you find the right combination of drivers to disable for acceptable latency, you will have to disable them each time you make record an episode from your book.


2) I found that my Dell Latitude E6500 laptop failed the latency checker even if I disabled all possible drivers and stopped all possible services. If your hardware does not pass muster, you may need to purchase a different computer. It is almost an impossible to buy a computer, sight unseen, that will have adequate latency. However, NoteBookCheck is a fantastic site that reviews laptops and netbooks, and includes stats from DPC Latency Checker for each one. If you want to track down an acceptable netbook, go to Google and search on this combination:
    netbook dpc latency site:http://www.notebookcheck.net/

3) The best recording software for Windows is Audacity. Limit your recording to less than 45 minutes per episode, usually one episode for each single chapter of the book that you are recording. After you record your voice track, export to a .wav file.


 4) Install CN Levelator. Levelator adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. Run Levelator, then drag and drop your .wav file onto the Levelator window for automatic processing. Levelator will create an output .wav file.

Rick

5) Then import the .wav file created by Levelator back into Audacity, and mix in separate intro and outro music tracks. A great source for royalty-free music .mp3 files for your podcast intros and outros is Rick’s FREE Royalty-free Music Download Page.

6) From Audacity, export your podcast with the intro and outro to an .mp3 file. Make sure you tag it according to Podiocast's ID3 tagging convention, as given at the Authors Guidelines link which can be accessed from the Podiobook Authors page.


7) Upload your finished .mp3 to a file sharing site. I use Divshare. You will be staging your files there for ultimate delivery to Podiobooks.

Podiobooks.com

8) The best site for distributing your serialized audio book is Podiobooks. The term podiobook was coined by Evo Terra to describe serialized audiobooks which are distributed via RSS, much like a podcast. Listeners to Podiobooks.com can choose to receive the episodes of their books via an RSS feed or by listening to episodes by directly downloading episodes from the Podibooks site. Some listeners keep the audio files on their computers, some transfer the book to CD, but most transfer the file on to their MP3 player so they can listen no matter where they are. See the Podibooks FAQ.

Look for my first podiobook series sometime in 2011!

Marko

Transform Bible verses to short URLs for Facebook, Twitter

http://ref.ly lets you transform your Bible references to short URLs, good for Facebook posts and Twitter tweets! Your fans and followers can then click on your reference to immediately pull up the verse! You can enter a single verse, or an entire passage. For example,

John 3:16 becomes http://ref.ly/Jn3.16.
Hebrews 11:1-3 becomes http://ref.ly/He11.1-3.

"God's word is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword!" Do you know where that verse is?

Too Smart to Believe

From a Russian pastor who saw the fall of the Soviet Union:

“Growing up, we only had one Bible among a 600-person congregation. Sadly, after communism fell we got a number of people who got degrees in the U.S., came to Russia, and started to spread really weird stuff. Like, ‘I have a Ph.D.; why do you believe in a six-day creation?’ And when I try to speak to them, they say, ‘You don’t have a degree. You can’t speak.’”

“When I started to come to the U.S., I was really surprised to hear things like that. How can you be a Christian and not believe in a six-day creation? It doesn’t make sense at all. If God is great, He could create for one day! He chose six days, so why do they try to limit Him?”

(excerpted from Dao, C. 2011. Russian Pastor Visits ICR. Acts & Facts. 40 (2): 22.)

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Mayor comes to Christ by way of an awful sermon

Fifteen years ago, Nathan Lewis, pastor of Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Beaverton OR, found himself preaching what he thought might be his "all-time worst" sermon to the newly established church plant. To make matters worse, the mayor of Beaverton happened to be visiting that Sunday. But when the service ended, Nathan was astonished to see that the mayor was deeply moved. "I finally understand what the Gospel means - I want to become a Christian," he said. Says Nathan, "I realized that the Holy Spirit had taken what I thought was a bad sermon and used it to make a change in the mayor's life."

(from "Multiply", the Mission to North America newsletter, Spring 2011)

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Japan Does Not Face Another Chernobyl

"With all the death, devastation and disease now threatening tens of thousands in Japan, it is trivializing and almost obscene to spend so much time worrying about damage to a nuclear reactor.

"The containment structures appear to be working, and the latest reactor designs aren't vulnerable to the coolant problem at issue here.

"The decay heat must be absorbed, and as a last-ditch effort the emergency core cooling system can be activated to flood the entire containment structure with water. This will do considerable damage to the reactor but will prevent any further steam releases. The Japanese have now reportedly done this using seawater in at least two of the troubled reactors. These reactors will never be restarted.

"If a meltdown does occur in Japan, it will be a disaster for the Tokyo Electric Power Company but not for the general public. Whatever steam releases occur will have a negligible impact. Researchers have spent 30 years trying to find health effects from the steam releases at Three Mile Island and have come up with nothing.

(excerpted from William Tucker, Japan Does Not Face Another Chernobyl, Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2011)

Please pray for the Japanese people who are suffering in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami!