Podcasting tools

Here are a few little schematics and stuff I have collected. I will be adding more as we go along. Each of these projects are under ten dollars each.

An old computer (that has a soundcard with a microphone input) to use with a free program called Audacity (for an internet radio station you could use shoutcast and icecast also) installed. Yes, we acquired an old computer from a local user group for free. People (obviously Microsoft users) thought It was worthless. Linux makes computer equipment more valuable.

$ sudo apt-get install audacity pavucontrol

Step 1 Simple Microphone.

Microphone: (Any good piezo buzzer should work.)

We tried several piezo buzzers and found the larger ones work better. I also plan to try some old speakers also. The real tiny piezo buzzers from old motherboards need a preamp (they are not loud enough and need additional electronics to help them work better). One interesting thing is that you can also use the piezo mikes as speakers in a pinch. I was able to use the piezo buzzer as a mike from  http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-another-amplified-acoustical-guitar/ without any preamp into my sound card. It needs a preamp. In fact, all I did was sing (if you want to call it that?) into the guitar.

Note: a lot of the dollar stores will sell a microphone for at or under a dollar. But if you do not have access to one this is an alternative.

Comments

[Computothought]

Yes, when I have more time. There are so many varying types of microphones and inputs it is hard to make a generic set up. I have the parts, just need to bit of breadboarding to do some more testing to see what works best with each other.

[lemonie]

Could you turn this collection of things into an Instructable that shows how to do podcasting? Pictures of your setup and that?

L