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Back in the day, right at the beginning, we had a podcast and we each recorded seperate audio through our mics and had our land-lines going as we are in different locations - then we emailed the audio files to each other and synched it together. This was less than ideal. Then we posted the mp3s and hand-wrote our xml/rss feed and posted it all to a phpnuke cms. This was a pain in the rear - how is it done now? There must be some "tied-into-word-press-record-hit-save-write-blog-entry" podcasting fu that people use now?

We'd like to record both hosts at the same time, and do it more like a skype call that we record. Eventually we'd love to just do it live streaming, punch in live music and so on, take a call or two and the save it to an archive/feed.

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  • I think there would be somethingamajigger that does it all with one click. However, this is an audio recording and production q&a. I think we can help you with that part. For the publishing, you might want to ask on superuser.com. If you find out, let us know, as there are probably others with the same interest.
    – d-_-b
    Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 3:09
  • Mac or Windows or other? If you say Mac I have an answer for you...
    – Ian C.
    Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 4:34
  • You may be interested in this related question over on webmasters.SE.
    – BenV
    Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 5:04

4 Answers 4

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If you're on a Mac you can use Skype + Rogue Amoeba's Audio HiJack Pro + GarageBand to pull together some great sounding podcasts without breaking the bank.

You can use Audio HiJack Pro to record your Skype conversations in GarageBand. It'll let you route the Skype audio to a track in GarageBand. Once your conversation is in GarageBand you can splice it up, cut it down, and get it to exactly what you're after before you add in, on another track, your background music and what not.

Skype will let you conference in other people as you chat. So you can do call-in's (if you have a Skype number people can even call in from land lines) and still capture it all live.

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  • 1
    The alternative to Audio Hijack (and equally awesome IMO) is Wiretap Studio from Ambrosia..
    – notthetup
    Commented Feb 14, 2011 at 13:49
  • +1 on this. Skype is at the core of every podcast I've ever listened to. It's best to do the recording on the computer of the person that speaks most frequently, since they'll get the benefit of an uncompressed recording. Try to get some pre-show recordings to play around with too, so you can find out what mastering settings work best for each speaker.
    – Polynomial
    Commented Dec 11, 2012 at 10:24
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There are a few things to consider...

The main question is whether or not you will be live streaming, or simply recording--the answer will determine which path you will go down.

The podcast recording scenario is the simplest when considering how to capture the Skype feed. There is a Skype add-on app called Pamela Call Recorder that can capture and record your Skype call. I am sure there are other options out there, but this is the one I have used with ease and success.

Live streaming is a completely different scenario. The objective is to capture your mic audio AND the Skype audio together, which means mixing 2 different signals together. I have experimented with many different configurations/options and the one that seems the most straight-forward and makes the most sense to me is this:

  1. Use a non-usb microphone into an external audio console for your mic audio

2a. Route the Skype call through the internal sound card of your PC/Mac, taking the audio out (via the headphone jack) and feed it into the audio console

2b. Following the instructions in 2a, but making the Skype call using a 2nd computer, thus freeing up the internal sound card of your primary machine...

3a. Using a second (external) audio interface, feed the main mix out of the audio console into that interface. This will be your main feed for your stream.

3b. If using a 2nd computer for your Skype call, you can use the internal sound card on your primary machine for the stream's main feed...

Now, to get your audio for the actual podcast feed, there are a couple of options:

  1. Record your feed directly from your audio console

This option requires another available sound card. From the audio console, take an auxiliary feed--either an aux send, if you have one, a 2-track/tape-out feed, or (kind of a stretch...) split the left/rights off of the main feed to the stream, and run them into the available sound card, which is then routed to your DAW/recording software (Audacity, etc...)

or

  1. Use a recording from the live streaming service

In my experience, live streaming services like Ustream or Mixlr either have an option to, or does by default, record your session. In the case of Ustream, I have recorded sessions, and then downloaded the file (.flv format, I believe...) and run them through a utility that saves the audio from the file as an .mp3 file, which I used for the podcast.

Option #2 is the least complicated and least expensive of the 2.

I'm sure there are many other creative ways to accomplish this, but this is the conclusion I have reached after a lot of pain and searching for a solution to both record the podcast AND live stream the session.

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While Wordpress itself does a lot of RSS side of things. We use the podpress plugin to wordpress to make the updating of iTunes and tracking of downloads easy. It just makes management that much easier..

Also if you're on a Mac, I have a automator workflow to compress, add the tags and upload the files to the remote server. I will try to clean it up and share it with everyone.

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I have heard that IMCapture for Skype is a good Skype recorder too, but I haven't used it myself.

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