#Podcast – Lessons learned after a year recording podcasts

Hello!

When I decided to move to Canada, I thought that I would live all day locked up inside my house shoveling snow and running away from bears. Because of this, I added to my list of my community activities: “record a podcast“. I never tried this so and seemed like a great time to learn about this sharing format.

At the end, I found a much friendlier climate and also a great country with amazing very warming people. Everyone helped me to move ahead with my idea of the podcast. Today, nine months after the publication of the 1st episode, I think it is a great time to share some lessons learned along the way.

Hardware

• After recording a couple of episodes using a “classic Skype Conferences” headset, I decided to invest in a higher quality microphone. I was lucky to find a deal at Amazon with the Blue Yeti Microphone (Link). As a USB microphone, it is an excellent choice.
• The ideal complement to this microphone are Bose Noise Cancellation headphones. I have the previous model at this (link) and the truth is that it is one of the best purchase that I have made (Thanks Ramon!).

Recording and Editing

• The is an important topic. I started using Camtasia for this, and I think I have improved enough until a decent podcast quality. I also wrote a small Tutorial on How to record and edit podcasts with Camtasia (link)
• During the first episodes, I used to take notes directly in OneNote. This means that while we were having a conversation, I started to type like a boring monkey. The problem with this, is that the sound of the keyboard was also included in the podcast with high background noise.
• After testing some edition filters and several different keyboards, I decided to go back to an abandoned item: pen and paper. After this, the “background noises” in the podcast, have been almost reduced to zero.
• Also, after recording it, each podcast requires some editing time. In the next image you can see “rests” which I add a podcast to eliminate background noise.

• I have not measured in detail, however the formula for time spent editing for podcast is required recording time (RT) and 1.5 edition time (ET). As a sample
  • A 30-minute recording will require 45 minutes of editing
  • A 60-minute recording will require 90-minute Edition
• After listening “La Órbita de Endor” some time in iVoox (link), I liked the platform. I know that there are many more, but iVoox think that it meets and exceeds the target of my podcast.

Podcasts Contents

• The name of the podcast is “No Tiene Nombre” (translation: without a name). I choose this name after running 10 KM at -10ºC and I must confess this day I didn’t have enough lights to think in a much more cooler name.
• My original idea was that the podcast will not last more than 30 minutes. Today I have to “cut” the sessions when we arrive at 60 minutes. The guests are amazing, we can speak a lot, I mean really a lot.
• The format has always tried to be “relaxed”. My best talks about technology, always had taking place sharing a coffee or a beer with friends. My idea is to bring this kind of talks to the podcast.
• I have been lucky enough to be able to choose the topics of the podcast. Topics have always been on which I wanted to learn a little more, or topics on which I thought I could contribute something.
• Sometimes, I have contacted on Twitter to ask me to talk about some issues. Cases of .Net Core, functional programming and Server less computing, I think they are an excellent example of this.
• More downloaded episodes are those who play the most popular as Micro Services, Xamarin or Git topics. Top 5 more Downloaded episodes are (no particular order)
  • NTN 04 – Todas las novedades de #Xamarin de los últimos meses (leíste bien, TODAS!)
  • NTN 06 – Introducción a Microservicios
  • NTN 15 – Yo solo te pedí un Platano (una opinión sobre el estado de la programación FrontEnd en el día de hoy)
  • NTN 13 – Por qué odio Git
  • NTN 16 – Clean Code: buenas prácticas, algunas experiencias y un de risas

Podcast and Guests speakers

• The guests speakers topic requires a particular post. The truth is that people have joined right away and I have been fortunate to have excellent professionals and also great friends.
• This is the list of people who have participated. Surely I forget someone, and in that case will then update it!
  • Francisco Javier Fernández Piatek
  • Marcelo Villacorta Moreno
  • Luis Fraile, @lfraile
  • Matias Iacono, @matiasiacono
  • Eugenio Serrano, @eugenioserrano
  • Leonardo Micheloni, @leomicheloni
  • Braulio Diez Botella, @braulio_sl
  • Javier Suarez, @jsuarezruiz
  • Josue Yeray, @JosueYeray
  • Pedro Molina, @pmolinam
  • Jorge Canton, @jorge_magic
  • Jose Saturnino Pimentel, @SaturPimentel
  • Nicolas Herrera, @nicolocodev
  • Fernando Escolar, @fernandoescolar
  • Julio Avellaneda, @julitogtu
  • Quique Fdez Guerra, @ckgrafico
  • Omar del Valle, @omarvr72
  • Jordi, @jbmi9001
  • Lluis Franco, @lluisfranco
  • Pablo Escribano, @_pabloescribano
  • JuanMa, @gulnor
  • Juan Luis Guerrero, @JuanLuElGuerre
  • Eduardo Del Pozo
  • Juan Carlos Quijano, @jc_quijano
  • Juan De Miguel
  • Roya Chang, @RoyaChang
  • David Rodriguez, @davidjrh

• I maybe also forget some place here. Until today I have spoken with people in
  • Spain
  • Andorra
  • England
  • Bolivia
  • Colombia
  • Mexico
  • Argentina
• And in the coming days I will add
  • Uruguay, recorded podcast and publish it soon!
  • Peru, pending work for the coming week!

Podcast, Episodes

Until the day of today, this is the list of podcasts published in No Tiene Nombre (link)

• NTN 24 – Serverless computing, Azure Functions, Amazon Lambda y más Publicado el 14/12/2016
• NTN 23 – Informatica para niños (… esa excusa para que juguemos los mayores) Publicado el 07/12/2016
• NTN 22 – Connect2016: Google, Linux, .Net Foundation, Samsung TVs, Visual Studio 2017, Visual Studio for Mac y más ! Publicado el 28/11/2016
• NTN 21 – Agile en las empresas, y otro par de historias interesantes Publicado el 18/11/2016
• NTN 20 – Un poco de historia sobre Azure y claro, terminamos hablando hablando de MicroServicios Publicado el 01/11/2016
• NTN 19 – Sobre Arquitecturas, diseños, MicroServicios y ser un poco realistas (con 40º de fiebre que siempre ayuda!) Publicado el 24/10/2016
• NTN 18 – Tableros digitales vs físicos, un poco de ALM, la regla de las 2 pizzas de Jeff Bezos y más Publicado el 10/10/2016
• NTN 17 – Experiencias organizando un evento para la comunidad técnica (Geek-A-Palooza Andorra !) Publicado el 04/10/2016
• NTN 16 – Clean Code: buenas prácticas, algunas experiencias y un de risas Publicado el 26/09/2016
• NTN 15 – Yo solo te pedí un Platano (una opinión sobre el estado de la programación FrontEnd en el día de hoy) Publicado el 20/09/2016
• NTN 14 – Novedades en .NET Core y ASP.Net Core Publicado el 06/09/2016
• NTN 13 – Por qué odio Git Publicado el 30/08/2016
• NTN 12 – Novedades de Windows 10 Anniversary Update para Hololens y Windows 10 IoT Core Publicado el 16/08/2016
• NTN 11 – Introducción la programacion funcional y F# (Bonus: Un poco de Open Source, F# para C# Devs y Cross platform) Publicado el 11/08/2016
• NTN 10 – Creando aplicaciones para Microsoft Band Publicado el 01/08/2016
• NTN 09 – Wave Engine, Hololens y el ataque de un oso Publicado el 28/06/2016
• NTN 08 – Introducción a Contenedores o Containers o el famoso Docker Publicado el 22/06/2016
• NTN 07 – Emprendedores y la nube, algunas experiencias, opiniones y más Publicado el 03/06/2016
• NTN 06 – Introducción a Microservicios Publicado el 27/05/2016
• NTN 05 – Primeras experiencias con Hololens Publicado el 11/05/2016
• NTN 04 – Todas las novedades de #Xamarin de los últimos meses (leíste bien, TODAS!) Publicado el 01/05/2016
• NTN 03 – Arduinos, Azure, Spectrum y los inicios en la programación de varios amigos Publicado el 11/04/2016
• NTN 02 – ALM con Visual Studio, desarrollo en Cloud y novedades antes de Build 2016 Publicado el 04/04/2016
• NTN 01 – Windows 10, Raspberry Pi, Visual Studio 2015 y Karts Publicado el 21/03/2016

Greetings @ Toronto

-El Bruno

References

• El Bruno, Tutorial – Record a Skype conversation with Camtasia and produce an Audio output
• Amazon, Blue Microphones Yeti USB Microphone
• Amazon, Bose QuietComfort 35 Wireless Headphones, Black