Podcast with Audacity....

Want to take your words to the world? Adam Oxford explains how to create a perfect podcast with simple editing in Audacity.

Adam Oxford explains how to create the perfect podcast with Audacity.

Serial,FreakonomicsRadio,TWiT,MyDadWroteA Porno: the humble podcast is entering something of a golden era, with both the variety and quality of audio productions at an all-time high. Yet despite being one of the internet’s oldest and most enduring formats, the longevity of the podcast in the era of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter was at one time in question. Surely modern audiences didn’t have the patience for challenging audio documentaries? Could radio-type humour survive the onslaught of funny cat vids?

Fans should worry no more. Last year the number of podcast listeners increased by 23% in the US alone. Surprisingly, even though podcasts can be more challenging to digest than shorter, visual formats, Edison Research reckons that a staggering 85% of shows started are listened to right to the end.

Pay attention!

That’s a roundabout way of saying that if you enjoy listening to podcasts and are thinking of publishing one of your own, now’s a good time to do it. There’s a global audience hungry for shows, and producing a good quality podcast isn’t too difficult. In fact, you can get starting with that reliable go-to desktop audio editor, Audacity – and we’re going to show you how to make the most of it in this tutorial.

Sound advice

The first thing multimedia producers and journalists learn is that audiences are much more forgiving than they get credit for. Back in the day, we learned from BBC-trained professionals who would treat every cut and edit as a matter of utmost importance: video directors who would rather cross swords than “cross the line”, radio producers for whom a badly tuned mic induced migraines.

Then along came the internet and iPods, proving that the human race actually values cheap and convenient over quality every time. Shakycam YouTubes fill our screens, and no matter how much MP3-hating Neil Young tries to convince us otherwise, most of us couldn’t tell a 44.1Hz audio track from real butter if our very ears depended on it.

While audiences will tolerate pixellated video and compressed music, however, they won’t tolerate sound that isn’t clear and well recorded. Too much background noise, distortion, clipping or anything that unintentionally draws attention away from the words being said will see a podcast switched off and deleted from a smartphone or tablet faster than an unrequested U2 album.

You have been warned. There’s a very good reason why Netflix degrades video quality over slow connections, but keeps the audio top-notch.

That doesn’t mean you have to invest in a full 16-track mixing desk and soundproofed studio before recording your first podcast. It is possible to record a tolerable interview while at a rock festival using nothing more than a mobile phone; but it’s much easier and more reliable to do it with decent quality kit in a quiet room, preferably one where the mics won’t pick up an echo from the walls.

There are plenty of basic kit guides and recording tips online, but there are two golden rules which will improve everything you do if you adhere to them.

The first of those is always, always wear headphones. Always. When you’re recording, when you’re editing, when you’re listening back for a particular cue. It’s the only way that you can hear everything that’s been captured. And invest in good headphones too. Apart from improving your editing technique, you may miss a click or a bad edit because your speakers are too low grade to hear it, but if your audience is listening on good quality headphones or even earbuds, then they’ll quickly pick up any problems you’ve missed. If you’re a limited budget we’d suggest you go all out on top quality