Related link: http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_art_podcasting/index.html
My December 2005 cover story for Electronic Musician, “The Art of Podcasting,” is now online for free. (Looks like you’ll have to buy the paper version of the magazine to see the graphics, though.) Strangely, there’s no link to the supplemental material I created to enhance the story, although EM did faithfully render a link to Example.com.
Anyway, seeing the article in print again made me recall an odd discussion I had with Apple last year while I was researching the story. I had asked an audio product manager if he could share some tips on how readers could use Logic and GarageBand to create better podcasts, or even comment on the future of the field. He seemed interested in helping, but said he’d have to run it by PR first. The result: I was given just two URLs—to an iLife page on recording a podcast with GarageBand and a bare-bones tutorial on recording with QuickTime Pro.
I could understand the company’s being defensive of its product managers’ time with the press, but why turn down free publicity in one of the top music technology magazines? Hmm.... Were they planning to announce a podcast creation system at Macworld and hoping to deflect attention?
Here’s what I’m thinking: Rather than releasing a standalone app called iCast or something, Apple will show a new version of GarageBand with a “Save as Podcast” command. To further the integration, this GarageBand 3 will come with podcasting templates, including effects designed for voiceover work and loops designed to work as “bumpers,” those musical transitions between sections of a broadcast. For people with .Mac accounts, the podcast files will be hosted on .Mac and automatically submitted to the iTunes Music Store. (Though it would be interesting if Apple were to offer those services for free in exchange for a percentage of sales made through the store.)
And the iPod will get a software update (and plug-in microphone) that turns it into a usable field recorder, à la the M-Audio MicroTrack.
Incidentally, Chris Adamson makes some great suggestions for other features an Apple podcasting program should have at the end of this insightful blog by Chuck Toporek.
So, what does Apple have up its sleeve?
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I've been using Soundtrack Pro for a while as one of the tools for producing Distributing the Future (http://www.oreillynet.com/future) . Although I only use it for sound, the product is really built as a tool that supports video. For example, markers (as near as I can tell) stick to the time at which they are set and not to the audio content. If you mark up a session for editing, your first cut makes any subsequent markings wrong. It would be nice if you had the choice for what you want the marker to stick to as you do in BIAS' Peak. The other Peak feature I'd like to see in Soundtrack Pro is Normalize RMS and not just Normalize.
Surprisingly, Soundtrack Pro and other Apple applications do not take full advantage of Automator. Even though you can't export to MP3 from STP you can using iTunes so it would be easy to include a script that automated this (you can build your own). In fact, editing audio is filled with tasks you perform over and over - automation would be very helpful.
Finally, Soundtrack Pro has way more than most people would ever use. That's why I'd love to see an express version of Soundtrack that's targeted at podcasters. Like a Final Cut Express or Photoshop Express. An inexpensive version of STP with the features that podcasters need.