Hackszine.com: Podcasting Archives

Archive: Podcasting

September 26, 2008

Zoom H2 microphone modification

Berto Aussems wrote in again with another modification to the Zoom H2 recorder:

Listening to soundrecordings made in the 360 degree surround pattern mode of the Zoom H2, I found out that the directional sensitivity is bad. Even the stereo recording sounds mono. The front/back channel separation is the same story. So I had to turn the microphones in 4 times 90 degree. With 2 crossed disk's on top of the H2, the directional resolution is now much better. Maybe there are other ways to get better results; this is one. I hope to have some discussion with other H2 owners about this theme.

I'm not sure how much further you can push the recording quality of this little field recorder, but it's promising to see the results of warrantee voiding efforts like these.

Zoom H2 Microphone's Modification

Previously:
Zoom H2 line input hack - make a 4 channel field recorder

September 15, 2008

Zoom H2 line input hack - make a 4 channel field recorder

Berto Aussems wrote in from the Netherlends to tell us about his hack which replaces the microphones in the Zoom H2 recorder with 4 line inputs, perfect for 4 channel field recording. The Zoom H2 has gotten a lot of glowing reviews in its standard form, but converting it for line input gives you the flexibility to use external mics and direct input sources for a higher quality recording.

The Zoom H2 is a popular portable soundrecorder. It records HQ audio on the 4 build-in microphones on 4 tracks. This hack makes it possible to switch over to 4 self made line inputs on the back of the device. With a few electronic parts for about 10 USD people can make a 4 channel fieldrecorder.

This 3 minute instruction video shows the way you can make yourself a 4 track field recorder. I don't say its easy....but it can be done in an evening. Now I can record 4 channels from my computer audio interface when the softsynth is running.

This is a pretty affordable modification and the device itself is just short of $200. It might be just the solution for a decent 4 track recorder on a budget, whether you're recording your garage band, environmental sounds, or interviews.

Zoom H2 modification; now with 4 line inputs!

August 20, 2008

Text-to-speech in PHP

It's been a while since I've played with the open source Festival TTS software, and I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the speech output. Some of the voices that are available sound so much better than the old diphone-based voices that evoke WOPR from War Games.

This got me thinking it'd be fun to integrate some of this functionality into a web application. A quick search and I discovered Tony Bhimani's Linux Text-To-Speech Tutorial which has a sample PHP application that uses the Festival text2wave utility and the lame mp3 encoder to produce mp3 files from user submitted text.

I mentioned that some of the voices are pretty outstanding. In particular, the "unit selection" voices, demonstrated on the Festival demo page, are able to synthesize a lot of sentences with few noticeable glitches. These voices sound so nice because they contain a much larger database of common sound units, only falling back on heavy processed output on less common utterances. There's a howto and discussion over on Ubuntu Forums that'll guide you through installing and using the more enhanced voices with Festival. With a decent voice file, Festival, and an adaptation of Tony's PHP text-to-speech demonstration, it wouldn't be too hard to add audio output to your blog or create a script that turns your RSS feeds into a podcast for the daily commute.

Have any of your own text-to-speech ideas or demos? Please share them in the comments!

Tony Bhimani - PHP Text-To-Speech Example
The Festival Speech Synthesis System
HOWTO: Make Festival TTS Use Better Voices

July 22, 2007

Sharing lists of podcasts for the iPhone, iPod, iTunes... OPML, .pcasts and more...

I was talking with a friend who has an iPhone and was sharing some of the videos and audio (podcasts) I have. It's a pretty good mix of current news, updated videos, science audio shows and best of all, free... The audio shows are good for running and the video shows are good for commuting (subway/bus). Since I don't have a TV this is a nice commercial free way to get a lot of great content. Not many people know you can share your Podcasts fairly easily (by share I mean the list of them).

First, the not so easy ways... You can't make an iMix since that's just for things you can buy (see image below).

Make 844

Make 849
Here's a screen shot of the ones I have...

Make 848
In iTunes you can see the XML feed, but you can't copy and paste it.

Make 847
One thing that is possible is to drag the podcast title from iTunes on to the desktop, it creates a .pcast file (Podcast subscription file) which contains the feed location.

Make 846
It's possible to cut and paste from a .pcast file once you open it in a text editor - and you can paste the url in to iTunes... (*Note, you can also drag RSS/XML feeds in to iTunes from a browser). If you like the shows listed here - download my .pcast files linked below or all of them in the zip file - Link.

That said, the easiest way for folks really in to this is to just use an OPML file. iTunes can export and import OPML files (a list of locations / feeds of the podcasts, audio, video and PDF). Here's how...

Make 851
In iTunes click podcasts in the main window.

Make 852-1
In the menu choose File > Export.

Make 853
In the pull down list choose OPML. That's your OPML file, you can now send this to someone, post it online and import it... Here's how -

Make 854
In iTunes go to the menu, choose File > Import and select the OPML file.

Make 855
You'll get this dialog and you're all set!

Here's my iTunes OPML file - Link.

That's it - go fill up those devices! It's what all those gigs are for.

Bonus tip: If you have your own podcast you can make a one-click subscption link. Just replace http:// with itpc://

For MAKE ours is: itpc://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/make_podcast/index.xml

This opens up iTunes and subscribes.

Or, you can use a link to the show within iTunes - here's ours again...
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=74069835&s=143441

Make 857
To get a URL location of any podcast just right click (or on Mac ctrl - click).

I'm pretty sure this works on both Macs and PCs, if it doesn't post up in the comments.

January 11, 2007

Make Shorter iTunes Podcast Links

Podcast URL

Anyone who's had to share a link to a podcast in the iTunes Store knows the painfully long URLs you're forced to deal with (in this case, for the Make Magazine Podcast):

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=74069835

Well, over at the O'Reilly Network, Digital Media blogger David Battino uncovers a quick hack to chop it down to its essentials, based on the podcast ID at the end of the string, turning it into this:

http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=74069835

You can, of course, also use a service like SnipURL to create something even smaller, as well as a bit more recognizable and memorable:

http://snipurl.com/makezine

Finally, for the most sophisticated and useful URL, David adds:

If you own your own domain, you could simply set up a page with a meta refresh, name it index.html, and place it in an appropriate subdirectory like myshow. Then your link would be http://www.yoursite.com/myshow.

Check out his article for the details.

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