The Making Of Chilled
Here’s a brief rundown of how I make an episode of Chilled:
First, I search for podsafe music and sort the tracks into playlists from iTunes. Finding the music is very time consuming. I usually use Promonet for legal music.
An episode’s playlist is taken into Ableton Live for mixing. Lots of time is spent getting nice transitions, either through mixing the tracks beat-wise, or blending from one to the next (I have my tricks). Remixes for special episodes are also done in Live.
The mix is exported and brought into Audacity for mastering (track volume and timing are cleaned up). I also use Audacity to record each episode’s intro voiceover. I make a new voiceover every time.
The final mix and voiceover are combined and enhanced in Garageband. It’s a surprisingly good program for enhancing podcasts. I add chapters, album artwork, even more audio leveling, and links for downloading or buying the songs. The mix and enhancements are exported into a m4a file.
I use Podcast Maker to keep track of my podcast’s feed. It can also upload the episode to the podcast’s server, but I like Fetch for FTP uploading. I use Dreamhost for my server, by the way.
February 11th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I feared when I saw this post that you may be done with Chilled. Are you walking away triumphant in the 100+ episodes you created or just taking a break?
February 11th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Hey Nick,
Sadly, I have decided to take a long break after producing 100 episodes. It’s mainly because I’m in college now and my free time is slim.
Also, I got frustrated with using IODA Promonet for finding legal music to mix. It has gotten really buggy and slow.
Outisde of the podcast project, I recently completed my second track, Ea. You can download it for free at my Last.Fm page.
March 5th, 2009 at 6:25 am
I miss my weekly dose of Chilled Podcast a lot. That was a great ressource of novelties for me. I really hope you will resume making the cast in case you have some spare time in college…
April 13th, 2009 at 9:12 am
I really loved your podcasts. I love listening to them at work as they’re not too distracting! Hope you’ll be making more podcasts soon, but until then, I’ll listen to all 100 over again!
April 13th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Thanks, Jen!
May 9th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Absolutely love your podcast. Its great for an all night study session and perfect for unwinding after a long day. Thanks so much!!
May 9th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Thanks, Ivana!
June 6th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Ted, you did such a great job with Chilled. I listened and donated from about the 6th episode on and enjoyed it a LOT. Still do. Hope you’re doing well in your new life in college. You should definitely be proud of the 100 chapters of very well mixed Chilled music you created. Thanks so much.
June 6th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Thanks Jason! You’re a wonderful person and I appreciate your compliments.
I’m doing quite well in college. I’ve been in a pretty creative mood lately, and I’ve been making my own chilled-ish music. I might post some soon.
July 25th, 2010 at 12:33 am
Hey Mate!, these are amazing mixes that you have made. I have downloaded every podcast , so great to relax both after work and while studying.
All the best wishes from the land down under!
July 25th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Thanks, Munaf!