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Audio Production

A guide outlining resources and instruction available for audio recording, editing, and podcasting.

Best Practices

Your microphone is your most crucial recording tool, so get a good USB mic.

Many personal devices, such as phones, tablets, and laptops, have built-in microphones, but using a dedicated mic will provide better audio quality for your projects.

  • Conduct thorough soundchecks to ensure your recordings are clear: record test audio, listen back and take notes on mic placement based on how it responds to different voices.
  • When setting up an improvised studio, choose a small, irregularly shaped room with soft surfaces, like a walk-in closet or blanket fort.
  • If possible, record a minute of ambient sound (room tone) to help cover edits later.
  • In your final podcast, recognize the recording space, as the audience may hear its imperfections as part of the background rather than errors.

Editing is a solo activity, even in a group project.

  • Provide your editor with an outline or storyboard to create a rough cut. The team can listen to and review this before refining it into the final product.
  • Editors should listen multiple times while cutting audio and avoid preserving every vocal nuance. It's essential to remove filler words that could distract the listener.
  • When designing sound, ensure that music and sound effects enhance the podcast's meaning and aesthetic.
  • Every editing decision should have a clear purpose, enriching the listener's experience.

Sound Design

A podcast encompasses much more than spoken words. Music, sound effects, and various audio tones can significantly enhance—or detract from—a listener’s experience. Utilizing a digital audio editor like Audacity allows you to incorporate music, loops, ambient sounds, sound effects, and other sound design techniques to create a rich soundscape for your podcast. Understanding sound design will greatly benefit your project.

Editing Your Sounds

The audio editor workspace in Audacity, Garageband, and other visual editors:

Unless you have an audio editor that you love and know how to use very well, Audacity is your best starter editor.

  • Audacity is open-source, free, and robust but not overly complicated.

  • Includes effects and special tools you can use after you’re comfortable with the program.

  • Open-source means a large, involved user community that provides tutorials and advice.

  • You can manipulate sound much like you do text in a word processor.

    • All of your ums, uhs, and pauses are easy to take out or fix.

Screenshot of an audacity wave form with arrow indicating movement from left to right.

First Steps:

  1. Download from AudacityTeam.org. You will also need to download and use the FFmpeg library to export MP3s.

  2. Set up your input and output devices (your microphone and speakers) using the Audio Setup toolbar above the workspace and test your audio levels.

  3. Note that your audio will appear as a waveform, with louder sounds represented as larger waves and softer sounds or no sounds represented as a "flatter" line.

  4. Remember that time (the horizontal axis) moves left to right, and loudness is vertical. Everything on a vertical axis (the loudness) happens simultaneously.

  5. Note that Audacity projects are not sound files, and you must export an Audacity project to get a WAV, MP3, or other kind of audio file.

Getting Your Podcast on the Internet

This is the easiest part of podcasting, so don’t fret. There are multiple free and for-pay services to maintain your RSS feed and store your audio files.

You need two things to start distributing your podcast:

  • A maintained and updated RSS feed.
  • Web space.

You might use a podcasting service like Libsyn or Podbean, a blogging service like WordPress, or an audio distributor like Soundcloud. Whatever you use, they will have step-by-step guides for you. Note that the free versions of services like WordPress and Soundcloud require you to provide the web space to store your audio files.