Photo by Daniel J. Lewis
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Five updates to podcasting tools that you should know about, and how to take advantage of them.
PowerPress 5.0
This latest update to the best podcasting plugin for WordPress brings features for beginners and advanced podcasters.
Easier setup for beginners
Simplified Mode makes the setup process easy by breaking it down into steps: Fill out podcast settings, create a blog post with an episode, submit the feed to iTunes.
This simple interface presents you with the most important options.
- Program title
- iTunes Program Subtitle
- iTunes Program Summary
- iTunes Category
- iTunes Explicit
- iTunes Email
- iTunes Image
- Display Media & Links
- Below page content
- Above page content
- Disable
- Display media/links in WordPress excerpts
- Template compatibility mode
New features for advanced podcasters
Most of PowerPress 5.0's Advanced Mode will seem familiar to current podcasters. But there are several great additions.
- Change podcast title without activating custom channels!
- Enable Feed Episode Maximizer without activating custom channels!
- New artwork tab for all podcast cover art versions.
- Support for episode images
- Taxonomy Podcasting
- Post Type Podcasting
- MediaElement.js player
What is “taxonomy”?
“Taxonomy” is how WordPress organizes content. This is a higher level than post types (such as pages, posts, and custom). Taxonomy can include menus, post formats, tags, keywords, and more.
Taxonomy and Post-Type podcasting a huge features for large websites and other clever purposes. A custom post type would allow you to run one or multiple podcasts from your site without the need of putting those episodes in your blog feed.
This also makes it easy for listing the latest episodes from a particular post type or taxonomy.
LibSyn Four
For media hosting, I highly recommend LibSyn (get a free month with promo code “noodle”), and they're updating their system!
You may have already seen LibSyn's new website design. That's coming to the customer interface, too. The design looks great and everything is now a lot easier to find and understand, thanks to the visual changes.
LibSyn Four will even work well on mobile devices when it launches.
WordPress 3.6
WordPress recently updated to version 3.6. I haven't noticed any compatibility issues with 3.6, but it does present some cool new features.
- Easier revisions management
- Easier menu editor
- Native HTML5 audio- and video-players
- Improved integrations with Spotify, Rdio, and SoundCloud
Audacity 2.0.4
Audacity 2.0.4 replaces all previous versions, with these improvements:
- New Effect > Reverb (based on Freeverb), that replaces GVerb.
- New View > Go to Selection Start and Go to Selection End commands.
- New Tracks > Align End to End command to append selected tracks.
- WAV files import/export now supports “Album Title”, “Track Number” and “Genre” LIST INFO tags and ID3 tags.
- (Windows) New support for Windows WDM/KS host which can provide very low latencies if you reduce “Audio to Buffer” in Recording Preferences.
- (Windows Vista and later) You can now record computer playback by choosing the new Windows WASAPI host in Device Toolbar , then a “loopback” input.
- Bugs have been fixed, involving Keyboard Preferences, Equalization curves, and Effect > Change Pitch, and several more.
See the 2.0.4 Release Notes for more items and details.
The biggest feature in Audacity 2.0.4 is the new ability to easily record your computer's playback!
Social Subscribe & Follow Icons 1.1
Lastly, I just pushed out an update to my Social Subscribe & Follow Icons plugin for WordPress. Version 1.1 brings the following updates.
- Switched to standards-friendly display system, which fixes double characters in RSS readers (like “!iTunes” and “FFacebook”).
- Dropped support for Internet Explorer 8.
- Improved backend accessibility.
- Added new networks: TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Blip, StumbleUpon, Instagram, Dribbble, GoodReads, Etsy, and GitHub.
- Reordered icons into podcast, video, social network, photo, specialty.
- Changed LinkedIn icon to match the other icons better.
- Sortable icons are coming soon! You may notice that you can drag and drop networks, but this doesn't save yet.
Social Subscribe & Follow Icons is a great way to turn any standard website into an awesome blog or podcast website that encourages your visitors to connect with you.
Bonus: new Noodle.mx Network podcast themes
Things may not look very different on the Noodle.mx Network podcast sites (except for Beyond the To-Do List and Under the Dome Radio). But each site is now running the latest Genesis Framework and I took this opportunity to optimize my workflow with Sass and Compass. This allowed me to quickly push out redesigns for each site.
The main update you'll notice is that every Noodle.mx Network podcast site is now mobile-friendly, even our bbPress forums for the Once Upon a Time podcast!
Need personalized podcasting help?
I no longer offer one-on-one consulting outside of Podcasters' Society, but request a consultant here and I'll connect you with someone I trust to help you launch or improve your podcast.
Ask your questions or share your feedback
- Comment on the shownotes
- Leave a voicemail at (903) 231-2221
- Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com (audio files welcome)
Connect with me
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- Follow @theDanielJLewis
Disclosure
This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.
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Hi Daniel! Congrats or updating your plugin. I’m glad to see that it’s doing so well for you. I have a question about it. What color are the icons? I notice that your’s are black but in the image in this post they are brown.
I’m still a little confused by the new Libsyn interface. I see the destinations listed over on the left and then they are listed again on the box in the middle of the screen. What’s the difference?
Thanks for all the updates on the updates 🙂
Hi, Ileane!
S&F allows you to customize the icon colors, as I have done on my sites and many of the other users have, too. I have some slick updates planned that will make colors even more powerful and easier to use in the future. But in that particular image in my post, you’re seeing the promotional image I designed for the plugin.
The LibSyn destinations interface is a little redundant, but I think that’s good. The main panel allows you to easily add or remove the destinations, while the left panel shows more context when you’re editing a particular destination.
LibSyn would love to heard feedback! You’re welcome to email Rob at LibSyn. If you can’t guess his email address from that sentence, then I can send it to you privately.
Thanks for the response Daniel.
Heading over to purchase the plugin now and I’ll be sure to send you some feedback on it soon too.
I have Rob’s email so I’ll get in touch.
I’m curious about this WASAPI thing but I don’t understand how it works. Can you listen to the audio and record it at the same time? If I’m using an ATR-2100, can I use that for audio (to headphones) and also to the computer for recording.
You can listen to your computer’s audio and record it at the same time. But your question is about recording multiple devices at a time. The only way you can do that on Windows is with Virtual Audio Cable or by buying a separate mixer.
I might not have written the question clearly enough. Let me try again because I don’t know if your answer quite addresses it:
So if I’m on skype, this will allow me to record my own voice on the mic, the audio I hear (other people’s voices) from the computer AND still hear them on the headphones?
Thank you for the clarification. My answer does address that, but allow me to also clarify. 🙂
Your guest’s audio comes in through Skype and that’s considered computer audio. WASAPI is designed to record that.
But your voice is coming in through your microphone, which is a separate audio source/device. Audacity can’t record from multiple sources, only one at a time. A mixer can mix these sources into a single source, but Virtual Audio Cable can also do that on the software side. So VAC would create a new virtual audio device that combines your mic and your Skype audio.
This is still new, so I would highly recommend testing it before using it for important stuff.
Word. That’s what I wanted to hear. Yeah, I was messing around with it last night but didn’t want to do anything too crazy until I tested it out thoroughly. I’ve been thinking about a mixer for a while now but haven’t pulled the trigger. I might go with an audio recorder for my own audio and use audacity for the other audio then sync the two in audacity in post. Or maybe I’ll use the virtual audio cable. Thanks for the clarification!
Hi Daniel, if I’ve already started a podcast (10 eps in) using Podbean, will using Powerpress republish my site to iTunes? I.e. is Powerpress only for use if your about to start a show, or can you use it for existing?
Thanks, keep up the good work!
Phil
Ah, think I’ve found the answer to my own question! You explain it very well in the show notes for episode 72 ‘How to Use PowerPress to Setup Your WordPress Blog for Podcasting’. Basically, yes you can use an existing feed!
That’ll teach me to search first, ask questions later!
I’m not sure I completely understand your question. So please forgive me if this doesn’t quite address it.
PowerPress is for turning a WordPress blog into a podcast feed that you can submit to iTunes and other podcast directories. It isn’t for republishing an already-existing podcast feed from somewhere else.
If iTunes is using your podcast feed from PodBean, it’s possible to leave, but it can get expensive. The reason you would want to leave would be to control and own your podcast feed, and publish from your own WordPress website.
Does that help clarify things?
Ah, yes, many thanks, it does clarify it thank you.
Be very careful with Audacity 2.0.4 on Mac. It’s known to crash importing media–there are several threads in the Audacity forums. Running 2.0.4 I started a new project, imported an mp3 and it immediately crashed. Using TimeMachine I quickly reverted back to 2.0.3. I’m going to stay there until there are better reports on the forums.
Yes, they did just send an email mentioning this.
[…] Episode 152 of The Audacity to Podcast which mentions Libsyn4 plus other awesome podcasting tools […]