What specifically are you trying to do? It's better to focus on just one particular thing, instead of trying to "learn all of Audacity". As far as starting a podcast, just record the content now and worry about figuring out the editing stuff later.

I use audacity and I hate it. Don't be afraid to google each step.

"How do I connect a microphone to audacity"

"How do I see if audacity is recording?"

"Should I use stereo or mono tracks in audacity?"

Literally just google everything. Its a massive learning curve at first and it takes a long tedious time but once you get it you'll get faster.

Word of advice when you do finally master the basics. Record and edit sounds and etc in seperate projects -so background music in one, recording in another, interviews in another - and then export them separately when they're done, and mash them into a new final project. Audacity remembers each tiny edit you make per project. So if you clip and cut and paste on the same open window for hours, it will eventually slow down so much it will corrupt your file and you won't be able to even open it.

Audacity is free and good to get started but it's also absolutely garbage software. Good luck!

Check out this YouTube playlist, which covers all the basics of Audacity and more. You can skip a few videos which focus on music more than podcasting: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZWGTnpapial7S0qIRzJCoGTpky_DBIzx

Hey! Don't know about audacity as I'm using reaper (which I suggest you to try it btw). Every DAW is different but at the same time concepts are the same. As an audio engineer myself I could say Post production can be a bit overwhelming though. I'd suggest learning basics first (leveling, pan, static mix, etc)

There's still a lot you can do with editing in Audacity (it has the best editor there is). Don't worry about the 'bells and whistles' like EQ and noise reduction; start with

'topping and tailing' - you often want to get rid of the beginning and the end of what you've recorded. Do this by

- clicking near the beginning, close to where you think you want your edited audio to start

- place the cursor - without clicking - to the left of where you've clicked. Then press the B button on your keyboard; this will play the audio up to where you've clicked earlier. Then place the cursor - without clicking - to the right of where you've clicked, and press the B button on your keyboard. This will play the audio from where you clicked earlier, and effectively previews the edit. If you're happy, go to the 'select' menu, select 'region', then 'track start to cursor', and use the scissors to make the edit. If you're not happy, click again in the audio where you think you might want your edited audio to start, and repeat. You do something similar at the end of the audio, except this time you use 'select' - 'region - 'cursor to track end'

Let me know when this works for you.

Theres a pretty good Google doc that gives a general tutorial (+ links to required FREE extensions) on how to get your audio to sound nice post-recording but it leans towards a more bass-ier voice, so take it for what you will.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fmS0Wp6EantjSmQiBnPWyCCOSNpiawjgCOdUJknKbnE/edit?usp=drivesdk

1. Get a mic that is not the Blue Yeti (I love the Rode Podmic USB)
2. Get it about three finger widths from you and point it at the corner of your mouth.
3. Have a windscreen/pop filter
   Check out Mike's Video https://youtu.be/WsmMMKRZp5g?si=dUsIEp7HjXEkvOOi

Moderator Required full disclosure: I am the head of Podcasting at Podpage and the founder of the School of Podcasting.

After I've done all the narration, I make sure to go through the following editing.

Noise Cancellation (Absolute MUST to have decent quality)

Equalization (look on youtube for walkthroughs of which settings give you a good EQ curve for voice)

Normalization

Compression

Then re-do the Normalization.

Quality comes out much better than the raw recording before edits.

compressor EQ and limiter

Define "professional". If you are talking about why your voice doesn't sound like you THOUGHT it should sound, no.

That is just what you sound like. We all went through it.

These are my steps for editing:

1. Clean up each track
   1. Noise Removal on Audacity (best NR I know)
   2. Run it thru Levelator, it's free and will help you a lot
2. Sync your tracks
3. Clean all tracks together
   1. Remove stutter, dead air, breathing, coughing, etc...
   2. Rearrange any time someone is talking over another person
   3. Remove anything that's not needed. Ex.: someone goes out of topic for a couple of minutes that don't add anything to the conversation
   4. Remove repeated lines. Sometimes people repeat themselves, keep the best version, remove the rest.
   5. Resync as needed. Sometimes tracks can desync after an hour or so of recording.
4. Separate talking topics in blocks
   1. Yes, even if your recording is not organized, organize it. Pull things left and right to make more sense to the audience
   2. Don't be afraid to remove anything that doesn't add to the cast
5. Add soundbites (optional)
6. Add background track (get freeuse songs)

Always start your podcasts with the same intro, then fade into the recorded audio tracks for the introduction. This creates a sound signature that your audience will quickly relate to and know who/what they are listening to.

Just listen to the podcast and if it sounds bad, make it sound better. Others have mentioned best practices, and some of those things will work for you and some won’t. Try stuff and see what you like and what sounds good.

Curious to hear others' takes on this: I'd say upload as uncompressed mixed wavs if your platform auto converts to 128kbps mp3, because I've heard of people uploading at 128 only to have it re-converted to 128 by the platform - especially if they're adding any ads (not that that's an immediate prob for the OP, but I'm talking about best practice moving forward). You want only one stage of data compression. What's the current state of play with auto-conversion on the various platforms?

Goes without saying but make sure you get a separate audio track for every person.

Do use speech compression (loudness, not data rate - two totally different things with similar names).

Use it, but don't overdo it.

Why? Because you only have so many 'bits' of loudness before you get distortion, and the loudest sound (aka 'normalized') sets that maximum in your track. But most speech in your track won't be nearly that loud.

With speech compression, you grab those loud peaks and pull them down some. Now your track is all well below that digital ceiling, and you can pull everything up and make it (somewhat) louder. That's where not overdoing it comes in. A little is good. A lot is fatiguing to listen to.

The deets: While recording in Audacity, make most of your audio peaks hit about -15 dB. That leaves you room for someone to get excited and loud - hitting maybe -5 or so - without clipping. But that's a uselessly low audio track, so in 'post' (in editing) you have to bring it up. Set your 'threshold' at about -18, and your ratio about 4:1. Now any audio that rises above -18 is held down. If it starts 4 dB above your -18 threshold (so the peak hits -14), the result will be only a 1 dB increase. Finally raise the output (sometimes called 'makeup gain') so peaks reach around -3. Set a hard limiter at -0.5 dB and you catch those occasional transients that get really loud and keep them from clipping.

Audacity is great for editing and basic recording, especially since it’s free. But if you’re recording interviews or remote guests, I’d recommend checking out Riverside fm. It records each person locally (so no quality loss from internet issues) and uploads automatically. I still do final edits in Audacity, but having high-quality source tracks from Riverside makes a big difference.

Depends on what the issues you're experiencing are. What are you looking for in the word "better"? Is there something you wish would happen faster? Something that's missing from Audacity?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it and if you don't know what you're missing, the blissful ignorance is a boon.

Recording audio? The standard sound recorder is lightweight and free. All software records the input so there is no difference in quality.

Editing. That is a different question.

Audacity is pretty easy for a newbie. Free too!

For a podcast, I've got a recommendation to use Riverside for the start.

1. uninstall Audacity
2. install Reaper
3. enjoy

There's a short tutorial under setup on our website. www.unpanderers.com

Here is my audacity tutorial

​

When you're ready for something a bit better I'd recommend Reaper which I also have a tutorial of.

Here's mine, it's a few years old, but should still work. https://youtu.be/e4-T9h7EmeE

Audacity for PC users is well supported in the Reddit and all over the place. Get a work flow and a step by step list from Chat GPT and get in there and do some test work.

OK, thanks everyone. I’m on a Mac and it seems like GarageBand might be the easiest. I do have music at the beginning and end of the cast to splice in.

If you don't have a guest and its just solo, you can record directly into your editing software in the future

If you’re just trying to add intro/outro music, you might want to check out Shanda.

https://www.shanda.studio/

It’s designed specifically for podcasters who want something intuitive and fast. You just upload your audio + music once, and it automatically adds your intro/outro 

I use Garageband, and it is pretty straightforward. You just have to be using a Mac.

Don't forget to adjust loudness/LUFS as a final step before exporting. https://podnews.net/article/lufs-lkfs-for-podcasters

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for, thank you so much :) and we use the same mic!

Beginners - go to Auphonic.com It’s an algorithmic audio leveler and noise reduction tool. You get 2 free hours a month, so if your pod is less than two hours an episode, use multiple email address to get you through the month. This was a game changer for me when I started Auphonic

This is very helpful. Good on ya

Appreciate the information! Thank you.

What is your recording setup?

If any tips you get don't work, you can record through Riverside and Zencastr. Both will record each of you locally so you can edit the tracks in Audacity.

You can use Voicemeeter to route both your mic audio and the call audio to a virtual input that Audacity can use as an input. It will record it all in one track, but it will record it.

Unless you have an interface with the capability to record their track via USB (Rodecaster Pro, Zoom PodTrak etc), then you're out of luck.

The best thing to do in this situation is to have them record their own voice on their end and send you the recording. If they don't have a mic, get them to use the recording app on their smartphone.

Audacity is used to record the microphone locally on the computer's hard drive. You can talk on a voice chatting service such as discord or Skype or zoom and each record your own microphone with audacity. When you're done, everyone exports the audacity recording of themselves as an mp3 and sends their track to the editor, who compiles them all into one show.

Bonus tip: Zoom costs money to talk longer than 40 minutes and discord didn't have a glitch-free recording option the last time I checked. Skype has a free recording option. It's not as crisp as the audacity recording but it's a good backup in case anyone ever loses their audacity recording. Computers can crash and lose local files. Having a free cloud backup is nice.