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RECORDINGS
So to begin, you would need to have all of the recordings you’ve made in the previous chapter. You would also need to have a rough outline of how your podcast is going to flow. And you will need to have any sound elements you would want in your podcast. With the sound elements, we recommend either finding an .mp3 of the sound online or recording if yourself. So for example, if you would like the sound of knocking in your podcast, you can simply click record on your recording software and record yourself knocking on a door or desk. If you want music in your episode, you should be able to find great royalty free music online to incorporate into your episode. You must first gather your materials before you begin editing your podcast. I’d like to think of this initial stage as gathering a large marble stone. Editing a podcast is like sculpting and polishing the marble stone into perfection. Let’s move on.
PHONE
As mentioned before, to edit the episode with your phone, you must first have all of your recordings in the audio folder of your episode. To add recordings or sound clips, simply click on the purple add button in the bottom.
Now that you have all your audio clips ready, you can hold and drag them in the order you want them to be in. So if you want a recording to be the first recording, you would need to hold on that clip and drag it to the top of the pile. After you have your recordings in order, you can begin editing each individual clip as needed.
So once you identify which clips you need to edit, click on the 3 dots on the right of each sound clip to see your options. Here you will see the option to:
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Add background music - You can browse a directory of different sound clips to add a background music to your recording. Anchor will automatically fade out the music once you speak, so you don’t have to worry about adjusting the volume. We recommend adding background music to the first sound clip of your podcast.
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Edit audio - With this option, you will find the soundwaves of your recording and a slider to adjust your positioning on that specific recording. If you want to trim a track, drag the slider to the intended position and tap on the triangle on the slider. You will find an option to split the audio. So now that you have a split audio track, you can click and hold on a specific track to either rename it or delete it completely. Many times, podcasters don’t want the accidental “uhh” or the cough that always sneaks itself into recordings. So to remove this, simply split the audio in both parts of the you want to cut out, click and hold, then delete. To save your changes, hit save and you will be redirected to your episode. It’s as easy as that, really! All it takes is a little bit of practice.
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Rename segment - You can rename the segment so that it will be easier to organize your episode. With good, informative names of different sound clips, you will find it easier to create a strong layout of your episode.
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Delete from episode - This option is to simply delete a sound clip from an episode. Make sure that you only delete a sound clip if you are sure that you don’t want any part of that recording.
Please, you must practice. We know it’s tough editing a group of audio files, but we promise that it will get much easier as you practice more and more.
WINDOWS
Once again, you should have all of your sound files inside a singular Audacity project. To import specific sounds that you have downloaded from the internet onto your computer, simply click on import which is under file.
To add another soundtrack to house an audio file, simply click tracks -> add new -> mono file.
Many times you will find yourself wanting to split an audio file at a certain location. Whether it be because you want to add more information between what you’ve said or simply because you want to move different parts of an audio file independent of each other. Regardless of the reason, you can simply click on an audio file that you want to split and click edit -> clip boundaries -> split.
When editing your episode in Audacity, the 6 tools to the right of the record button are your best friend.
The first tool which looks like an “I,” is your selection tool. Usually, this is the default tool. With this, you can drag and select a certain segment of the audio file to delete.
The second tool, next to your selection tool, looks almost like a bow and arrow. It is called the envelope tool. This functions by changing the volume in an audio file. So for example, if you want to have music fade into the background of your voice, you would start with loud music, and once your voice comes in, lower the volume of the music so that your voice runs over the music. To use this tool, you must select an audio file that you would want to alter, and click on where you would want to adjust the volume. Once you have done so, drag the lines that have appeared inwards to lower the volume or outwards to increase the volume.
The third tool is the draw samples tool. This is a very interesting tool. Essentially what it does is help redefine any accidental clicks or bumps or quick sounds that may have leaked into your recording. To use this tool, simply click on it and locate where you want to alter the track. Once you do so, begin zooming in until the waveforms are rendered to small dots. These dots make up the waveform, and once they appear, you can drag them down into the center line to mitigate any noises that they would have produced originally.
The fourth tool which is under the selection tool is the zoom feature. This is pretty simple. If you want to zoom into a certain spot to get a better look at the audio file there, just use the tool and click on where you want to zoom in on.
The fifth tool which looks like a timeline is the time shift tool. With this tool, you are able to drag and drop audio files into anywhere on the project. This should be used when you want to rearrange sounds.
The last tool is the multitool. It essentially allows you to use all the tools without physically changing the tool. For beginners, we don’t recommend using this tool because it is difficult to deliberate between different tools in this mode.
Audacity is a tough piece of software. But with practice, you’ll find yourself whizzing through all the options with ease.
MACBOOK
Personally, I find Garageband to be the most intuitive tool to edit podcasts. It’s probably because I use it the most, but I also think that the graphics are very modern looking unlike Audacity. To begin, make sure you have all your recordings and sound files placed into a Garageband file. You should have your file set up already, if you don’t, go back to Chapter 6 and look at how to set up your Garageband file. For each file, we recommend a separate track for the sake of organization. To add a new track, click on the + button which is right below the stop button.
To import certain sounds that you may have downloaded from the internet, right click on top of the track and select add audio file. Then you will be able to browse your files for the right sound.
When editing your episode, one of the most common tools that you will find yourself using is the split function. Essentially what this tool does is it allows you to split a region into different parts. You might want to do this if you accidentally coughed or made a clicking noise that you want to get rid of. Or, you might want to split a track into 2 parts which can be moved independently from each other. Whatever the case may be, it’s quite simple to split tracks. All you have to do is move the playhead to the location where you want to split the track, hit edit and split regions at playhead. Now you will find that you have 2 sound files instead of 1. A shortcut for splitting a sound file is Command + T.
To select on a certain sound file, simply click on the file, and it should be highlighted. Now you can choose what you want to do with this file. For example, if you want to delete that certain file, simply click that file and press the backspace on your keyboard.
If you want to move that file to somewhere else on the project, just drag it and drop. To zoom in and get a better view of a certain segment of your track, you can just scroll in on your trackpad or mouse. This is great for changing some minute details that are hard to see and annoying to hear.
If you have music incorporated in your episode, you may want to overlay the music so that it fits into your voice without overpowering it. So you might want to change the volume as the track plays on. To do this, you must click on mix and then show automation. Once yellow lines appear, click on the track you want to edit and you can place yellow points on the track to alter the sound. To lower the sound, simply drag the yellow line inwards; to increase the sound, drag the yellow line outwards.
All of these options may seem hard at first, but the more your practice, the easier it gets. Trust me!
EDITING
Now that I’ve taken you through the various options with editing, it’s up to you to go through the entirety of your episode and edit it through. There are many more options that your software has; however, you do not need to toggle around with these options to create a nice episode.
Make sure to keep replaying different edits you have made and make changes until you get what you want. I’m telling you right now, editing your podcast will probably take up more time than recording your episode. Sometimes I spend 5 or 6 hours editing a 1 hour episode. It’s hard, but with practice, you will soon find editing quite easy and sometimes, relaxing!
Once you’re done with editing your podcast, and you’re ready to share it, move on to the next chapter where we walk you through publishing your episode. Very exciting!