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In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a new term started to surface in certain technology circles – webcast. In the early days of the web, the term originally applied to independent media producers. They were the first to harness the power of the World Wide Web to distribute their work. As the years went on and technology relating to this field evolved, several terms to describe this manner of distribution entered the tech vernacular. Among them, net cast, web radio and webisodes.

Then Apple invented the iPod. This device, coupled with its sister program, iTunes, revolutionized how the western world bought, organized and consumed media. The hardware/software duo popularized the term "pod" in the tech world and the term "podcast" was born to describe all the aforementioned terms. Today users recognize the term podcast as the de facto standard for distributing both independent and professionally produced media.

Industrial Audio Software has been in the podcast software game for several years now. They produce an entire family of podcast creation products: ePodcast Producer, ePodcast Creator, and ePodcast express. Of those products, ePodcast Producer offers the most comprehensive feature set for podcast creation. That feature set plus excellent tutorials and postproduction tools earned this podcast software our TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award.

Content Capture:

When you launch ePodcast Producer you are presented with three options: "Record A New Podcast," "Open An Existing Podcast or Podcast Series" and "Create Podcast From Existing Audio File." Click the first option to launch the podcast software’s recording interface.

Once you’ve hooked up your hardware and opened a new file, you’re ready to record. On the left side of the recording interface, you will find a button that reads "Voice & Music." Click this button and begin speaking or playing into your microphone or other audio input device.

You can adjust the volume level of your microphone or audio input device via the L & R sliders located to the left and right of the "Rec Source" button. The location of the scrubbers on the sliders represents the maximum volume for their respective tracks. If the volume of a recording is too loud, the quality of your podcast will suffer. This feature allows you to avoid peaking out as you record. If a recording starts to wander into the red zone, you can adjust the scrubbers to fix the problem.

In the center of the recording interface are two large black rectangular fields that represent your voice and music tracks. While you are recording, use the master mix slider located to the right of these fields to adjust how much you want to favor voice to volume. This is a useful feature if your podcast features an opening musical intro and an ending musical playout.

When you are done recording, click the "Stop Record" button. The podcast software then provides you with a visual representation of voice and music tracks you just recorded in the aforementioned rectangular fields.

Editing Features:

Once you have your podcast files recorded, it's time to move into where the real magic happens – editing. You have three options for editing in ePodcast Producer: Voice, Music and Mixed. A button for each is located under the Edit Track section located directly below the recording section.

Click on the "Voice" button to launch the ePodcast Editor loaded with the voice track currently in the black rectangular field. If you are already familiar with sound file editing, this section will come naturally to you. If you are a beginner, don’t worry – this podcast software doesn't have a steep learning curve.

Click the "Effects" tab for a dropdown menu of all the options ePodcast Producer offers for modifying your voice track. Once you’ve selected a section of your voice track, you can choose to enhance, amplify or normalize the file. The editor also gives you options to add effects such as reverb and echo among others.

When you’re through editing your voice file, save and exit the program and ePodcast Producer will automatically update the file when you return to the record interface.

Clicking the "Music" or "Mixed" buttons directly right of the "Voice" button launches the editor for its respective track. Keep in mind that the "Mixed" option combines both tracks for editing as a single file.

Publishing Options:

When you are done editing your files, the save option will serve up a screen for you to input all your metadata. This information includes fields such as Title, Artist, Album, Track Number, etc. You don’t need to fill out all these fields; however, it would be a good idea because it will help iTunes and other podcast catchers identify your files for listeners.

When you’re ready to publish your podcast click the button directly above the voice field marked "Upload Podcast." This closes the recording interface and launches ePodcast express.

The publishing options are quite simple to use. The first screen in ePodcast express allows you to select your FTP client, address and login credentials. Once that is completed, the next screen asks you to input your feed information such as each field's name, title and description. You must complete all these fields before you publish your podcast.

The next few screens in ePodcast Express cover the nuts and bolts of your podcast information. Data such as podcast links, titles and descriptions will auto-populate with the metadata you entered when you saved your file.

Once you’re finished filling out all the details of your podcast, ePodcast express uploads your podcast to the feeds you specified. Then your podcast will be available for download via iTunes and other podcast catchers around the world.

Ease of Use:

Creating and publishing a podcast can be a daunting task at first. However, once you know how it is actually quite simple. ePodcast Producer makes learning the ropes a little easier. It’s not as intuitive as we would have liked; some beginners may not know where or how to begin with its user interface. However, there are instructions and explanations on almost every screen explaining what each feature does and how to work them properly.

Help & Support:

Industrial Audio Software’s website provides a number of video and written tutorials for the entire ePodcast product line. Just click on the Tutorial section from their homepage and you’ll be treated to a selection of podcasting topics ranging from "What is Podcasting" to "Promoting and Publishing your Podcast." Most everything you’ll want to know about podcasting and the software itself is located in this section.

Summary:

At the end of the day, ePodcast Producer by Industrial Audio Software has all the right tools and features you need to create, edit and publish a podcast. It could use a more intuitive user interface; however, this is countered by their large library of help material and tutorials offered on their website. This is a solid buy for podcast software.

ePodcast Producer Screenshots

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