Production Times - how long does it take you to produce an episode?

[Podcastmatters]

The tartanpodcast usually lasts between 12 and 20 minutes and I can have it recorded, edit and online in about the same amount of time. It's very, very lo-fi. When I produced the Connected Live podcast at the Scottish Learning Festival last year I was putting out a podcast every 30 minutes based on interviews with delegates. I like a very quick turn around when I'm producing.

What about you, though? I know some of you here have very involved podcasts featuring great, in-depth interviews. What sort of production time are you working with?

[Tiggr]

well, I sat in LAX airport last weekend and wrote out my first episode... but I was learning Garageband for several hours this weekend. I think once I get going, I'll be looking a equal prep time for the length of a show.
**fingers crossed**

[Phil Coyne]

Turnaround is usually 20-30 minutes, depending on the time of the show and if the shownotes have already been written or not. In the beginning it was a couple of hours, but then, so were some of my shows!

[Tim Coyne]

I spend an insane amount of time on almost everything I put out. That's why it's so hard to put stuff out. It's all over the map. Some shows have taken 20-40 hours. Some more like 5-10. Bottom line, we're talking many, many hours. Not to mention, the time we don't count - the emails, the thoughts, the brainstorming, the calls, the travel. It's insane and a bit exhausting at times.

For example, my latest UNKEMPT episode

My intention was to record a version of the story and then put out a shorter live performance of it but I just couldn't get myself going so I just put out the live version. I couldn't muster the energy, time, etc. Even picking the music takes a ton of time.

If only I had a team behind me. But like all of you, I'm a one man show. Just doing my best.

[Alan Carr]

I know EXACTLY what you mean Tim. It takes SO long to make a show that I've gone 2 weekly now instead of weekly. I need recovery time and then there is the real world to slip back into for a short while (jobs and family etc).
Alan
www.DarkhorseRadio.com

[Brad P. from NJ]

I'll do my weekly show in one take. So, I get the first track down in about 10 minutes. Once I mix in the other tunes, create the mp3, upload it to LibSyn and post it to the half dozen or so sites where I post my show notes... I'm up to between an hour and an hour and a half for total production.

The long form show takes way more up front time to develop the content, or do the interview. I can spend hours editing the interviews and picking just the right music to set the tone... that's why I do the short form ones way more often, now.

[Frank Petrie]

The Video Sandbox runs 20-25 minutes each week. And it's draining. I must admit cutting corners though. Dennis Sellers, the head of Macsimum News and my boss when it comes to reviews, does a weekly op-ed. Plus I try to find the strangest things on the net that week.

[Rich Palmer]

I only wish I could turn my shows around as quickly as Mark.

My preparation time is MANY hours -- this includes research and contacting the artists I want to interview. Interviews are typically 30 minutes time on the phone, but twenty minutes of actual interview. Edits for the interviews take them down to about 12 minutes of actual show time. Editing can take 30 minutes to a few hours depending on the quality of the interview and the amount of "ums, ahs, erms, and breathy pauses."

The show itself goes rather quickly. I've listened to all tunes in advance, so I don't have to listen to them while doing the recording. The show intro and outs are templates that I built some time ago. I do a quick intro teaser and then record the in and out segments for each tune. The interview segments are pre-cut from the former editing, so they are dropped in. The show is completely post-edit. It takes me forty minutes to a few hours to do a 35-40 minute episode. That, of course, doesn't count all the prep-work and pre-production.

All in all, I probably invest about four hours per episode on average. Sure, I'd like to do it faster, but I've yet to find a system that gives me the production quality that I want "on the fly." I'm an ex-broadcaster/producer, so it's been hard to get it out of my system.

And, truthfully, I love the production aspect.

[David Noble]

Four hours (over a fortnight); that is: building up outline via wiki, organising show notes on del.icio.us, recording, editing, uploading (with show details, tags etc) to libsyn. Typical show length would be around 20-25 minutes.

[Gabor Kovacs]

Too long. I still don't do the "all in one take", real time thing. So ignoring the pre-listening and other prep work, it takes me on average 1 hour 30 to 2 hours. Then about 20 mins to do the shownotes - pics, links etc.

That's why I feel that I'm an amateur.

[paul nicholls]

Usually a couple of hours. I find my podcasts takes aaaages to upload, usually at only 12 - 15 kbs. I'm on a pretty fast Virgin server too. The music usually takes me hours to source and I often take notes on my iPod for discussion topics too.

I record in real time but am anal at setting levels / eq. I love it though!

[Martin aka GD]

I do between 7 and 10 podcast per weeks, some my own, some for clients and pre product varies depending on the 'cast. But for my own main show Bite Size Bonus my whole week is now spent sourcing new music for that one show (anything from 10 to 60 minutes per day).

I normally have around 50 tracks in my "show" folder by a Monday which I then reduce down to about 30 by Tuesday morning. From this 30 I make up my playlist which is usually about 24 songs, again this is decided by personal preference and my take on which songs work well together and allow the show to "flow". all this takes me around 60 minutes. Once the playlist is ready I then gather the relevant information for each artist with links to web sites etc and add this to the playlist notes, another 30 minutes.

I'm lucky as I work from home and can plan my recording schedule to suit myself, so Tuesday afternoon is my normal recording time for BsB.

I don't script my show at all, I more often than not had a note pad at my side with a few bullet points of subject I'd like to talk about during the show but these are not set in stone and if my mind wanders (as it does quite often) I might not use any of my pointers.

I record the show "live" in one take, so my 2 hours show takes 2 hours to record. (I use PodProducer BTW) So once I finish and hit save, it's dome and ready to upload. I resist the temptation to edit/alter anything as I like (and I find my audience do too) the live feel of the show.

Uploading normally take about an hour (119Mb of file to Libsyn on a "2mb" connection) during which time I write up the show notes for the various web sites I publish to. Wednesday morning with everything already uploaded and written up I start my round of "pimping" to about 15 different sites, including 3 of my own.

The final part of my production routine is to report to each artist that I have played them in that current episode, giving them links to where they can find it etc etc. (this to me is just as important as putting out show notes as it can help with cross promotion from the artists themselves for the show)

So there you have it, my product timing s for Bite Size Bonus.

[Brad P. from NJ]

"bite size"... man... that's a big bite.