I love the idea of using this program to do podcasts. The moment I launched the beta version of Ubercaster, I got it. It didn’t take me too long to start figuring out the ins and outs of the program. However, the major downside to being in beta, there are no help files yet. If anything, I just wanted a quick tutorial on the keyboard shortcuts, if there are many to speak of, but the maiden voyage went along pretty well.
My only, major complaint right now is quality. In the experiments that I did before actually producing a regular episode of the podcast, I found the MP3s that Ubercaster would encode itself to not be on par with the results I got from using GarageBand in conjunction with iTunes. The 96kbps/44.1kHz MP3 sounded more like a 64kbps/22.050kHz encoding, at least to my ears.
In episode #429 of the Daily Source Code, Adam Curry mentioned the development of Ubercaster in relation to the recently released Podshow+ and how no one had sent in any feedback to him about the program as of that time. So I took the opportunity to record a two minute audio feedback to send to him, using the built-in setting of Ubercaster of creating an 128kbps/44.1kHz MP3. Sadly, the quality was on par with the previous encoding that I described. We’ll see if Curry puts it into a future podcast, but this just kinda bummed me a little more.
Another issue that I found was with playing long sound clips, such as songs or bed music. When the clip would end, there would be a slight gap in the recording, causing my vocals to cut out. In my broadcast engineer mind, I’d compare it to hitting the dump button on a seven second delay. You might not notice it while listening to the episode itself, but it would sound like I would stop talking in the middle of a word or sentence, almost comparable to a vocal stutter.
I have been on the Ubercaster forums to post feedback on some of these observations. Like I said, this is a beta. I’m just trying to offer some more observations on those wondering more about the program at this time.
On the positive side, I love this program. There’s too much to list, but I’ll try to cover some of my favorite aspects that I discovered with this initial use. And don’t leave me a comment saying, “yeah, yeah, CastBlaster already has all that.” I’ll be honest to say that I’ve been long jealous of that program and crossing my fingers for a Mac version for quite sometime.
For starters, setting up templets. If there is something that you use with every podcast, such as your mic settings, opener, bumpers, clips, stingers, and so on, then you can create a templet for it. Starting a new episode, you create a new file from a templet and are half way to starting to record. Very time saving.
Hot keys. Turning your mic input off and on to playing a clip, you can define a particular key to be assigned for it. Press it once to start it, press it again to pause it, and so on. Lovely.
Editing. Very slick for those who get obsessed about their program. It’s all multitrack, dude. If you’re familiar with how GarageBand works in this department, then you’ll be very at home. The brilliant part is that it gets recorded this way for you. No need to seperate the tracks by yourself.
Even though the quality that comes from the encoded files right now, that whole process gets really efficient through the use of templets. Just double check to see all your settings look good, and you’re set.
As I said in the last episode, I’ve used GarageBand, iTunes, and QuickTime to do the podcast up until episode #104. I love… let me repeat that… love the concept of this program replacing all of that when it comes to recording everything “live”. Let’s be honest that when editing a bunch of audio from the minidisc would be more productive to in a multitrack program versus doing it live with Ubercaster.
I want this program to do for the Mac as to what CastBlaster has become for the PC. It’s about time someone stepped forward to program something like this. I would have done it a long time ago, but… I’m just not that smart. Ubercaster gots it going on.