Using an iPod for Podcasting ... It should be easy but isn't

[AllanC]

G'day

I recently posted this in the Apple forum but no help so far ... now Im trying here :) I would really appreciate any wisdom on this. This is for education use as well.

I am really disappointed that Apple crippled the iPod for recording voice memos to 8bit audio only ... can someone give me a reason BTW? They certainly dont want to support podcasting do they?

However I need further help. I am in online learning and teaching and my idea was to quickly generate audio learning objects for publishing as podcasts. i.e Use my newly purchased iPod Photo 60Gb and iTalk and discuss "hot" subjects with Subject Matter Experts (Academics) then create .mp3s and publish them to a website and into online communities of educators. I was green enough to think it would be a simple job of recording them inporting them into iTunes and because they are .wav files I would convert them to .mp3s to create smaller files. Simple .... I wish.

I can't get them to convert in iTunes without the .mp3 having weird distortions and when I try to export them as a .mp3 in Audacity it freezes half way through with this line:

Assertion (gfc->mf_size <= MFSIZE) failed in "lame.c" on line 1501

I have even tried to run them through QuickTimePRO and make them 16bit and still they are distorted in iTunes as .mp3s

Can anyone help me take a low quality soundfile (a voice memo .wav) from out of the ipod then simply turn it into a .mp3 for publishing as a podcast.

Regards
Allan

[moonglow]

Hi, I do all my mp3 compressing through audiograbber, its pretty easy to run and you can set it up to compress existing wav files ...

if you go to most shareware sites you'll should find applications to create mp3's ...

However, I found itunes did just as good a job of ripping and compressing as audiograbber did - so that might not be your problem ...

Im wondering if its just a result of trying to compress and pretty dirty recording? 8 bit is kinda low ... how does it sound when you play the wav? I take it it doesnt have the distortions there?

try this - grab a cd and get itunes to make a track into mp3 for you ... how does it sound compared to the orginal? any of your distortions?

[AllanC]

Thanks for the response moonglow

I thought I might try audiograbber but all I could find was a Windows program ... is that correct?

Sorry if I did not make myself clear in my first message I was a bit miffed about the limitations of an iPod for recording sound via voice memos.

I am on a current iBook running MAC OSX 10.4. Let me try again please

I took an iTalk and a 60gb iPod and recorded an interview. This was a 8bit wav of 7mb for about 8 minutes of audio. It sounded OK except for some noise at the start which would need editing for publishing. However it is way too large a file for publishing to a website

I opened iTunes 4.8 and tried to convert this wav to a mp3. It somehow distorts it and gives a sort of echo in places.

I hope someone reading this would be kind enough to try this the same way and tell me if they get a problem. It appears it is something wrong with the original wav file from the iPod.

If I am wrong I would love to solve this ....at the moment my podcasting aspirations are going nowhere. Surely I dont have to convert them on a PC ;-)

Regards
Allan

[sydney_b]

Allan,

When I just need to convert from .wav to .mp3, the program I use is called xhead.recorder. You can even do batch conversions.

/s

[AllanC]

Thanks mate looks intersting software. However I just purchased WireTap Pro and that seems similar. However I have solved this weirdness in the iPod memo to mp3 conversion thanks to a buddy online. You can actually get a great mp3 result by converting the memo wav in iTunes to an aiff first THEN convert to mp3 .... that fixes it. I can now get acceptable mp3s from the iPod voice recordings

Regards
Allan

[graphicgeek2]

If you are running an iBook why not use a usb mic off of that instead of the iPod. I know its called podcasting but I don't think anyone actually records with them.

[thedodgyguy]

The quality from an iTalk is pretty bad. While Podcasts may be undoubtedly best received in iTunes/iPod, I think the creation of them might be best left to... um... Sony Hi-MD to be honest. Exemplary recording performance and quite a decent built-in Mic preamp.