How to create a Podcast Intro

Are you a podcaster looking for a way to make your podcast sound a little more professional? A podcast intro is a good start.

First, you need to decide on the right music. If you're doing a company podcast, corporate music (horns, strings, woodwinds) usually fits the bill. If you're creating a personal podcast about a light topic (the joy of living in a high-rise condo), then a jazz track might be suitable. If you're doing a podcast about organic products, then you might want to consider a more mellow new-age track.

After you've decided on the music for your intro, I suggest you write a brief opening. Something like, "Podcasting from Austin, Texas -- the live music capital of the world, the city that gave you Stevie Ray Vaughn, Willie Nelson, and Lance Armstrong -- this is Audio Advice, a podcast about everything audio. Hear the latest audio news and techniques for making better recordings. Hello, I'm Jack Josey. Welcome to another edition of Audio Advice." Establish a few seconds of your music before pulling the music volume down slightly to read your introduction. And then it's nice to have a few seconds of music to finish up the intro.

It's important that you use royalty-free music for your intro. Anything else other than royalty-free music could get you sued by the recording artist. We offer royalty-free music tracks at Audiobag.com. Yes, this is a blatant advertisement to sell music tracks ... but, hey, you gotta buy 'em somewhere. You might as well buy them from a company that produces music with podcasters in mind. Our 30-second music tracks are $16.77 each.

And now for the next topic. A brief musical interlude between topics helps make your podcast sound a little smoother. Audiobag offers short music tracks (under 30 seconds in length) called transitions starting at $5.77. We especially like these because it's so much nicer to move on to the next topic without having to say, "And now for the next topic." Let the music say it for you.

If you're just not up for producing your own podcast intro, consider having a professional voice over talent do it for you (we create custom podcasting imaging as well as have ready-to-go podcast intros available at http://audiobag.com/intros.html). Regardless of whether you do it yourself or have someone else produce it, we believe an intro will definitely improve the sound of your podcast. Good luck with it.

Now, go be creative!

Where to put the emPHAsis when doing voice overs

I'm on vacation in Canada (yes, again) and I'm hearing "eh?" at the end of every sentence. "Beautiful day, eh?" And, my favourite (note the Canadian spelling --- Canadians love to add the letter 'u' in words), "You're not from around here, eh?" I heard that after I accidentally asked a nice Canadian family sitting outdoors at a restaurant in downtown Bobcaygeon, Ontario, "Are the black flies eating y'all up over there at your table?" You may be wondering where this is going. It's all aboooot watching your pronunciation and colloquialisms when recording your voice for public consumption (your podcast or voice work you've been hired to do).

Texans have a tendency to replace the letter 's' with a 'd' in some words. "This is darn good barbecue, idn't it?" And we put the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle in many words. For example, "That's a mighty purdy (yes, we mispronounce that word, too) veHICle you've got there." After finally admitting to myself that I'm guilty of mispronouncing words in my voice work, I found a solution.

I have my wife, who is Canadian, listen to every piece of voice work I record (I occasionally do voice over work). I do the same for the voice overs she produces. She's a strict disciplinarian, too. She's pointed out how after correcting my mispronunciation of 'w' (I said, "dubya"), that I was too slow in stringing the 'w's together. I've learn to speed up the 'www' in, "Be sure to visit our website at double u, double u, double u dot audiobag dot com." I've even deleted space between the "w's" in my sound editing program in order to speed up the flow of the sentence.

My wife and I produce voice overs for individuals and companies from all over the world. No one ever asks me to sound like a Texan or my wife to sound like a Canadian. Unless you're purposely trying to sound like a local, I'd suggest you have someone listen to every voice recording you do before putting it out there for the world to hear. It just sounds more professional. You may be surprised how much you'll improve.

Now, y'all go be creative.

Start pulling those mid freqs for a crisper sound

Do your voice recordings sound too muddy? You know, not enough high frequencies? Instead of boosting the higher frequencies (the range between 4k and 16k), try pulling (lowering) the midrange frequencies (between 125Hz and 2k) and then bring up your volume level. What this will do is reduce sibilance while giving you a crisp sound. Don't forget, most people are listening to your podcast on tiny little earplugs. The last thing you need to do is pierce their ears with "S" words.

Now, go be creative.

Production Music for Podcasters

Every morning I walk around the neighborhood and listen to podcasts. My favorite podcasts are the ones that are less than five minutes long. I like them for two reasons. I can download them quickly into my iPod and I can listen to several different topics during my twenty-minute walk. I especially like podcasts that teach me something. One of my favorites is the One Minute How-to -- a podcast about everything from how to do get a book published to how to talk like a pirate. This podcast has a brief musical opening as the announcer introduces the podcast. I like that he jumps right into the topic quickly. A brief musical intro is a great way to do just that.

Audiobag has increased our commitment to podcasters by concentrating on the creation of music tracks that can get you into your podcasts quickly -- offering you 30-second music tracks as well as music transitions that are under 30 seconds in length. A 30-second track is ideal for beginning your podcast as you introduce yourself and your topic, and for ending it by thanking people for listening and telling them where they can find your website. A transition is nice for moving from one topic to another in your podcast.

We believe the music you choose for your podcasts should be memorable. So we've started creating more quirky tracks. Quirky works in the podcast world. In fact, the quirkier the better. After all, before podcasting came along did anyone ever offer to teach you how to talk like a pirate?

We hope you'll check out our production music online at http//audiobag.com. We think you'll find something that fits your podcast mood and your budget.

Another transition in my life

Here we are into the first week of September and it's raining in Central Texas -- just like it has every first week in September since I was a child heading back to school. I'm always a little sad to say goodbye to summer and this year is no exception. My wife and I had a great month-long trip to Canada in July; we've had several fun family get-togethers; and we stayed busy with audio projects when we weren't on vacation.

Today I'll prepare for a colonoscopy. And by prepare I mean I'll be in the bathroom most of the day cleaning out my colon for tomorrow's procedure. I made a New Year's resolution back in January to take better care of myself -- and that includes checking my colon for polyps. It's a routine procedure that helps prevent colon cancer -- among the most common cancers in the United States. I just watched an informative video about colonoscopies online at http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ped/ped_5.asp (American Cancer Society website). That's what I love about the Internet. If you have a question about anything, you'll find good information online.

Before I begin the cleaning out procedure, I plan to create a couple of music transitions on my keyboards. I'll do my best to keep them upbeat.