Podcasting Insights: Part Two

Last time we talked about how to record the raw material for a podcast. This month we’ll look at how you can edit it, add background music, and generate a finished MP3 file for your Internet or intranet site.

If you followed my instructions last time, you should have a .WAV or .MP3 file. If your recorder is an Olympus, there is a possibility that it is in .WMA format. If so, we need to convert it to .WAV before we can continue.

This is not too difficult: there are conversion packages available on the net. One is Switch, which is available for both Mac and PC.

While connected, you also need to download an audio editing program. You can spend a small fortune on these, but the one I recommend is free. It’s called Audacity and it’s open source. Don’t laugh, it’s easily as good as the paid options.

So Google Audacity and download it. While you are on the Audacity website, please also download the LAME encoding software. This is also free and will allow you to generate MP3 files from within Audacity.

Once you’ve installed both, you’re ready to go.

If you now open the audio you recorded earlier with Audacity, you’ll see the waveform on the screen. Pressing play will allow you to review your audio and you will see the progress bar move across the waveform as it does.

You can zoom in for a closer look. In fact, I recommend that you do just that. Now to edit any “umms and aahs” just click and drag on the audio you want to remove and press delete. As the Meerkat would say: “Simple!”.

If you’ve recorded a separate introduction for your interview, you can now highlight, copy, and paste it in front of the interview audio. It’s all pretty intuitive.

What about the music? You can’t just go and steal any piece of music you like, as that would be violating copyright. However, there is plenty of podcast-ready music you can buy and even pod-safe music you use for free.

Two sites worth looking at are Podsafeaudio and MusicAlley.

If you want to have music in the background with your speech, that can be achieved as well. Create a new track and paste your music on it. You can adjust the volume of the music using the pinch tool, which looks like two little triangles with a piece of tape in the middle. Now if you play the track, you will hear your voice and the music.

Once the audio is edited, you’re almost there. Save the project and then use the “File>>Export as WAV” option to generate your finished audio. I know we eventually need an MP3 file, but bear with me.

The problem with mixing multiple pieces of audio is that you end up with different levels of audio. This can be difficult to fix manually, but there is an easy way to do it.

Google Levelator: There are versions for Mac and PC. Now drag and drop your output WAV file into Levelator and let it do its magic. It will give you another WAV file with perfectly corrected audio levels.

Open this file with Audacity again and you’re almost there. First we need to set the quality level of the MP3. Go to Audacity preferences, select “File Formats” and set the MP3 bitrate to 64kbps. This is good enough for speech and will usually play over the network quite happily without stuttering or stalling. Now use the “File>>Export as MP3” option.

There you have it: your finished edited MP3 file.

Next time we’ll see how you can play it on your website or intranet and integrate it with iTunes.