Solution to the Regegade Laptop Sound Card!

I have found the solution to my podcasting/sound card issue with my new laptop! Dewd! Check it out! A Zone-Tek External USB sound card that Intrex Computers is carrying here locally for $12.99! Plug it in, then set up a package I found called “Podcast Station” to recognize the USB sound card as the microphone source, and viola’! We are back in business! Check out Podcast Station at the link at the end of this posting… (the red “Podcast Station” box.)

I will be registering it very soon since it saved my podcast (at least doing it with my new laptop, see the posting a few days back.) Here’s the low down on it from the Podcast Station web site:

“Podcast Station is a Win 2k, XP and Vista program that will record, edit, mix and publish your podcasts. It’s like having a control console on your computer. Podcast Station provides an easy and fun way to create a Podcast from start to finish. Use your own mixers, amplifiers or compression/limiters or Podcast Stations built in options.

• One easy-to-navigate screen. Resize the window to add more carts and decks.
• Up to 30 on-screen deck buttons with crossfade sliders, countdown timers and the ability to pause and resume play of the file. Allows assignment of most common files types like MP3, WMA, WAV, AIIF ect. of any length.
• Up to 70 on-screen cart buttons can be assigned MP3, WMA, WAV, AIIF etc. of any length and can include sound effects, jingles, sweepers, liners, bumpers, interviews and any other kind of sound. Carts automatically re-cue when stopped, ready for play again instantly.
• “Pro” mode adds auto-crossfade and auto-segue functions to each deck button, as well as user-settable start and stop positions at each end of the deck progress bar.
• Loop mode allows any deck or cart to be looped indefinitely.
• Save deck and cart button configurations including assigned audio. If you produce several different podcasts that each require their own set of music, bumpers, etc., each configuration can be saved for fast recall later.
• Automatic gain control (AGC) – boosts the timid and limits the loud on either or both channels. Can be applied to the microphone input alone or to the carts, decks and mic together.
• Adjust individual volume on decks and carts with 3dB, 6dB and 12dB pads.
• VU meter (technically a peak program meter) displays playback and record levels over a 72dB range.
• Markers for marking locations and making notes while recording or playing back. Podcast Station shows a floating window with time line position and marker titles you have made. Text can be copied and pasted into RSS, ID3 and iTunes tags as desired. Ideal for long interviews when you want to mark important parts so you can come back and edit and assign to buttons to play back later.
• Zoom into the waveform with a 100X zoom feature for precise editing.
• Auto-fade to mute function on cart, deck and microphone sliders is activated with right click in the slider channel. Right-click again to restore level.
• Real time waveform scroll in edit window during recording. See your voice’s waveform move across the screen as you talk and record.
• User choice of folder location for files.
• Unlimited undo and redo for life of files.
• Keyboard map of all editing and transport commands under Help menu with roll-over definition labels.
• Effects:

-Adjust volume
-Bleep
-Fade in/out
-Insert silence
-Mute
-Noise reduction
-Normalize
-Reverse
-VoiceSlip
-Change Pitch
-Change Tempo
-Change Rate

• Additional effects available through the Advanced Effects menu:

-Chorus
-Compression
-Distortion (two kinds)
-Echo
-Flanging
-Parametric Equalization

-Reverberation (two kinds)

• Four sliders for controlling volume levels:

-Carts: master volume control for all cart buttons; can be linked to deck slider.
-Decks: master volume control for all deck buttons; can be linked to cart slider.
-Microphone: volume control for record input.
-Monitor: master output volume control.

• RSS publisher/editor with support for iTunes tags.
• FTP file upload manager built into the publication wizard.
• Import and export WAV, AIFF, WMA, MP3 and other popular file formats. Add ID3 tags to MP3 files.
• Export mono-right, mono-left, or two-track mono.
• Record in stereo, playback in mono or stereo.”