Podcasting: Sound like a pro

By Mike King on 19 March 2008

To create a compelling podcast that retains listeners, it must sound professional and free of amateur mistakes. Common gaffes include dead air, audible breathes and unstable audio levels.

In this quick tutorial, we'll show you some of the basic audio editing features in Audacity, a popular free audio editng program for dealing with podcasting no-nos. Wavosaur in another free program to try.

Step One: Download Audacity
Once you've downloaded the Audacity software, you'll see six basic audio editing buttons located in the top left of the screen, next to the Play button in the Control Toolbar. Of the six, Selection, Zoom and Envelope are the most useful.

Step Two: Target specific sounds
Click the Zoom function to target specific sounds within your podcast. With Zoom selected, simply left-click to zoom in on any portion, right click to zoom back out. This is perfect for zeroing in on breathes and pauses.

Step Three: Remove the unwanted
Once zoomed in, use the Selection tool to highlight the specific section for removal. Then go to Edit, Delete to delete the section entirely and snap the two ends together, or go to Edit, Silence to just remove the sound, leaving a bit of silent space.

Step Four: Add a bit of silence
It's probably best to use the Silence option first and then use Delete to shorten the break. Even though you are trying to tighten up the podcast, breaks in the audio allow it to retain a natural sound.

Step Five: Fade in/out
The Envelope tool is great for fading music in and out of podcasts and for lowering the volume of any podcast portion that is louder than the rest, like a shouting guest.

Step Six: Adjust levels
To use it, select the Envelope icon. Then use the cursor to place points on the audio track. Left-click, hold and drag the cursor to lower and raise the audio levels.

Step Seven: Get creative
Click Effects to experiment. Normalise is useful to automatically stabilise a podcast with very erratic audio levels.

Step Eight: Change your mind
Remember, if you don't like any effect you added, simple press CTRL + Z to undo any changes.

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