📋 Production Guide - Oops All Microphones

GEAR

What You Need

🎙️ Plug in Samson Q2U microphone via USB

🎧 Plug in Apple EarPods (3.5mm) for monitoring

🔊 Farrago - soundboard for sound effects ($29)

🔀 Loopback - audio routing to combine mic + Farrago into one input ($99)

📹 StreamYard - recording studio in the browser (free tier works)

✂️ Audacity - audio editor for trimming and exporting (free)

PHASE 1

Setup

1. Open Farrago (sound effects) and Loopback (audio routing). Set Farrago master volume to 40% to avoid clipping.

2. Go to StreamYard: streamyard.com/xmz2ups7jq

3. Set microphone to "Loopback Audio"

4. Set output to your headphones

5. Hit Record

PHASE 2

After Recording

6. In StreamYard, download the recording as .wav

7. Open the .wav in Audacity

8. Trim the start and end

9. Export as .mp3 (File > Export Audio > MP3, set bit rate mode to Constant, quality to 128kbps, sample rate to 44100 Hz)

10. Note the file size in bytes (right-click > Get Info on Mac)

11. Note the duration (shown in Audacity, format as 00:MM:SS)

12. Upload the .mp3 to Neocities in the episodes/ folder. Name it episode4.mp3, episode5.mp3, etc.

PHASE 3

Edit the XML Feed

13. Open: podcast.xml on Neocities

14. Update lastBuildDate near the top to today's date:

Format example: Sat, 26 Jul 2026 12:00:00 -0700

15. Add a new <item> block above the existing episodes. Copy this template:

<item>
  <title>YOUR EPISODE TITLE</title>
  <description>YOUR EPISODE DESCRIPTION</description>
  <enclosure url="https://likeobjects.neocities.org/episodes/episodeNUMBER.mp3"
             length="FILE_SIZE_IN_BYTES" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <pubDate>Day, DD Mon YYYY HH:MM:SS -0700</pubDate>
  <itunes:duration>00:MM:SS</itunes:duration>
  <itunes:episode>NUMBER</itunes:episode>
  <guid isPermaLink="false">epNUMBER-YYYY-MM-DD</guid>
</item>

Replace the pink parts:

YOUR EPISODE TITLE - episode name
YOUR EPISODE DESCRIPTION - short summary
episodeNUMBER - match your filename (episode4, episode5...)
FILE_SIZE_IN_BYTES - from step 10
00:MM:SS - from step 11
NUMBER - episode number
YYYY-MM-DD - today's date

16. Save the XML file

PHASE 4

Edit the HTML Page

17. Open: index.html on Neocities

18. Add a new episode card above the existing episodes (right after the "Episodes" label). Copy this template:

<article class="episode-card">
  <p class="ep-number">Episode NUMBER</p>
  <h2 class="ep-title">YOUR EPISODE TITLE</h2>
  <p class="ep-date">Month DD, YYYY</p>
  <p class="ep-desc">
    YOUR EPISODE DESCRIPTION
  </p>
  <audio class="ep-player" controls preload="none">
    <source src="episodes/episodeNUMBER.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
    Your browser doesn't support audio.
    <a href="episodes/episodeNUMBER.mp3">Download it instead.</a>
  </audio>
</article>

19. Save the HTML file

PHASE 5

Test

20. Visit likeobjects.neocities.org and confirm the new episode appears

21. Click play and make sure the audio works

22. Check the RSS feed: podcast.xml

23. Validate feed (optional): castfeedvalidator.com

FINAL CHECK

Before You Walk Away

Episode title matches in XML and HTML
Episode description matches in XML and HTML
Filename matches in XML and HTML (episode4, not ep4)
File size in bytes is correct in XML
Duration is correct in XML
lastBuildDate is updated in XML
Audio plays on the live site