Making a Podcast - The Basic Tools

By Terry Daniel

So you suspect you are a great voice talent just waiting to be discovered. Maybe you've done a commercial or two, or maybe you want to do a commercial or two. Maybe you'd like to be a voice talent for hire, or maybe you simply have a message to get out to the world and think that the spoken word will be more effective than the written word or, at the very least, a nice compliment.

If this sounds familiar, then making a podcast may just be the ideal way for you to get your message out there. For one thing, it's hot, new technology. For another thing, it's becoming more and more popular as the videos on YouTube get better and better. There's still time, however, for you to perfect your voice talent, and the method of getting it out there before the public demands perfection from the starting gate.

Sound good? Great. At this point you're probably wondering how the heck you actually go about gifting the world with your amazing voice talent. Well, for one thing, you need a computer. You don't have to own your own. Your podcast equipment is not going to know the difference. All your equipment will react to is the quality of your voice talent and your computer expertise, and you don't have to have much.

The second thing you will need to put your intense voice talent on public display is a website of some sort. A blog may actually do the trick. You will need to use the bandwidth from that to power your podcast, but more on that in a later article.

Now it is time to perform the magic that turns a simple computer into a recording studio, and you into a voice talent phenomenon, which means that you'll need a microphone and a set of headphones. Chances are, you already have headphones lying around the house somewhere, so you can use those. You can pick up a mic for about $10. The headphones are for listening back to your recording to make sure unwanted noises haven't crept in there anywhere. You want a nice, clean recording. No desktop noise covering up your mad voice talent.

The very last thing you will need, besides a great idea to showcase your voice talent is a recording program. There are all kinds of choices here, from the very basic Windows program to programs that allow you to really show your studio skills, to freeware. You should make sure that the program you choose is compatible with your computer.

About The Author: Voice Over Talent Terry Daniel Creates High-Quality Voice Overs For All Types of Media. His Company Is Quickly Becoming One Of The Leading Voice Over Agencies In The United States