The L&S LSS Podcaster s Tutorial for Audacity

The L&S LSS Podcaster s Tutorial for Audacity The L&S LSS Podcaster s Tutorial for Audacity... 1 Audacity Quick Reference... 2 About this tutorial... 3 Some Thoughts Before You Get Started... 3 Do Academic Podcasts Have a Place?... 3 Planning your first Podcast... 3 Before You Record... 5 Setting Inputs and Adjusting Microphone Volume Levels... 5 The Basics Recording and Playback... 6 Recording the Welcome Message... 6 Listening to your Recording... 6 Basic Editing... 7 Deleting, Silencing, and Trimming (Keeping)... 7 Zooming in and Zooming Out... 7 Importing audio and working with Multiple Tracks... 8 Importing your Theme Music... 8 A note about multiple tracks in Audacity... 8 Re-naming Tracks (optional)... 8 The Time Shift Tool... 9 Creating Simple Fades... 9 Completing your podcast!... 10 Saving and Exporting What s the difference?... 10 Saving an Audacity Project... 10 Exporting... 11 Appendices... 13 Installing the MP3 Encoder... 13 Advanced Audacity Tricks for even more fun... 14 L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 1 of 15

Audacity Quick Reference L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 2 of 15

About this tutorial This tutorial guides you through the production process of a basic podcast. As you create your first podcast, you ll learn about the tools and features of Audacity that are most useful for podcasters including recording and editing audio, inserting pre-recorded audio and music, and saving and exporting your podcast. Some Thoughts Before You Get Started It s important to remember that people subscribe to podcasts. Think about the podcasts, magazines or academic journals to which you subscribe and ask yourself what it is that draws you to those particular resources. It may be one or more of the following: Relevance The resource contains information about our field of study. Timeliness The resource contains information that is current and topical. Unique We are getting material that is personal and special. Useful We are getting information that is applicable to our lives. Entertaining The resource contains information that entertains us. There are probably even more reasons that one would subscribe to such content, and we think it s important that you keep these reasons in mind as you create podcasts now and for the future. Do Academic Podcasts Have a Place? This is an experimental program so we re trying to answer that question and we want to know what you think about it. As you go through this process, we ll be interested to hear about what worked or did not work. At the end of the program you should be prepared to talk about the instructional advantages and disadvantages of using podcasting to deliver content to your students. Planning your first Podcast The most important thing to do is relax. Recording your voice can be a bit stressful if you seek perfection with every recording. Luckily, podcasting is very informal, so you don t need to worry too much about making mistakes! Your listeners will tolerate the occasional restatement or ummmm. The most important thing is to establish a relaxed and personal relationship with your listeners. Our advice is to just hit record and go! You can always go back and edit things out later (or not!). Most podcasts follow a typical format or structure. In this tutorial, we ll work on a podcast with the following format (adapted from How to Build a 10 minute podcast). 1) Introduction the introduction to a podcast typically includes one or more of the following: a) Welcome Message - Also called the podcast promo or teaser, the welcome message is the first thing your listeners will hear. It is your opportunity to greet your listeners and identify the name and purpose of your podcast. The LSS welcome message is always something like, It s Thursday, December 29 th, and this is your LSS podcast! b) Theme Music Many podcasts have a short piece of theme music that introduces the show. This is not a requirement, but does help to create a unique and recognizable mood for your show. c) Preview Just like any good lesson or lecture, most podcasts benefit from a preview or outline of the main points of the show. In addition to letting the listeners know what to expect, the preview also gives you a chance to get your listeners primed and interested in your featured content - something like, Today s podcast will include secret tips not covered in yesterday s lecture. L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 3 of 15

2) Feature(s) The features, or main content of the show. The features may include a mix of new and prerecorded audio segments. 3) Conclusion This is the closing, or conclusion of the show. Here you might give your listeners an idea of what s coming up in future episodes, provide information on upcoming classes, introduce upcoming tasks and assignments, or simply thank your audience for listening. This generic podcast format is only meant to give us a starting point. One of the most important rules to remember about podcasting is that there are very few rules! As you get to know Audacity and get more comfortable with podcasting, feel free to experiment with your format and try new things! In this tutorial, we ll work together to create the introduction to your first podcast. By the time we re done, you ll have the skills you need to record, edit, and export your podcasts with Audacity. L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 4 of 15

Before You Record Setting Inputs and Adjusting Microphone Volume Levels 1) Set your input to the correct microphone. a) On the Input/Output Toolbar select your microphone from the list. 2) Test your microphone levels. a) From the Monitor Toolbar click the down arrow next to the microphone expand the menu. to The Input/Output Toolbar Figure 1 - The list of inputs will vary based on your soundcard. b) Select Monitor Input from the menu. c) Speak into the microphone. 3) Use the microphone volume slider to adjust the microphone level and avoid clipping (see Monitoring Microphone Levels, below) Monitor Input Figure 2 - Selecting Monitor input allows you to adjust microphone levels before recording. Monitoring Microphone Levels Average - The brightest part of the bar shows the average audio level. Current Peak - The darker part of the bar shows the peak audio level. Recent Maximum (peak hold line) - The peak-hold line to the right of this shows the maximum audio level achieved in the last 3 seconds. Clipping Indicators - The clipping indicators on the far right of each meter will light up if clipping is detected (meaning that the audio was too loud and will sound distorted). If clipping is detected when you are recording, you should stop, lower the volume of your input source, and start recording again from the start. The Monitor Toolbar Figure 3 - Watch the monitor toolbar to avoid clipping L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 5 of 15

The Basics Recording and Playback Recording the Welcome Message 1) Click Record 2) Record your welcome message. Here are a few examples for you to follow: Hi, I m name and you re listening to title. It s date and this is title, your weekly exploration of subject. It s time for title, subject. Welcome to title, a production of _department_. 3) Monitor your microphone levels. Be sure to avoid clipping (see monitoring microphone levels above). 4) If you want to pause while recording click Pause 5) When you are done recording, click Stop Listening to your Recording 1) To listen to your recording, click Play 2) To listen to a particular part of your recording: a) Choose the Selection Tool (from the Main Toolbar). b) Click where you would like to begin listening. If you really don t like it, delete it Figure 4 - Deleting a track c) Click Play L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 6 of 15

Basic Editing Congratulations! You ve recorded your welcome message! Now let s do a little bit of editing. Most of the time, editing just means cutting out mistakes and quieting extraneous noises. Audacity gives you three ways to do this deleting, silencing, and trimming. Deleting, Silencing, and Trimming (Keeping) 1) Choose the Selection Tool 2) Click Play to listen to your recording. Listen for sections of audio that you would like to delete, as well any extraneous noises that you would like to delete or silence. 3) When you find something that needs editing, click Stop and note where the problematic audio begins. 4) Click with the Selection Tool at the beginning of the problematic audio. Then click play again and find the end of the problematic audio. When you have a clear sense of where the edit should begin and end, follow the steps below. 5) To delete a section of audio a) Click and Drag to select the audio you would like to delete. b) Press the Delete or Backspace key on your keyboard. 6) To silence a section of audio a) Click and Drag to select the audio you would like to delete b) Click Silence (on the Edit Toolbar). 7) To trim (or keep) a section of audio, you select the audio that you want to keep. a) Click and Drag to select the audio you would like to keep. b) Click the Trim Tool (on the Edit Toolbar). Selecting Audio Figure 5 - The gray bar indicates the selected audio. Note For Deleting and Silencing, you select the audio you don t want. For Trimming, you select the audio you want to keep. Zooming in and Zooming Out Zooming in and out is very useful for editing audio. Sometimes you ll need to zoom in to delete a very small segment of audio, other times you ll want to zoom out to make changes to larger sections of your recording. Four buttons on the Edit Toolbar control zooming. Zoom In Zoom Out Zoom to Selection (zooms in to a close-up of the selected audio) Zoom to entire Project (zooms out to show you all of your work) L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 7 of 15

Importing audio and working with Multiple Tracks Importing your Theme Music 1) From the Project menu, select Import Audio. 2) Browse for the audio file you would like to import. (Note - Audacity imports WAV, AIFF, AU, MP3, and OGG formats.) 3) Click Open. Import your theme music Figure 6 - Use the project menu to import audio. A note about multiple tracks in Audacity When you import an audio file into Audacity, it is placed on a new track. In general, each part of your podcast will be a separate track within Audacity. This allows you to keep the various parts of your podcast organized. It also makes it easier to do common editing tasks. A Multi-Track Podcast recording Figure 7 - This example of a completed podcast has four tracks, one for each part of the podcast (intro music, welcome, feature, and conclusion) Re-naming Tracks (optional) Working with multiple tracks can get confusing. To stay organized, you can change the name of each track. 1) Click on the down arrow next to the current name of the track. 2) In the dialog box, change the name of the track to something easily recognizable (e.g., intro music, welcome message, interview ) Re-naming a track Figure 8 - Changing the name of a track to something easily recognizable is a good way to stay organized. L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 8 of 15

The Time Shift Tool So far, you have your welcome message and your theme music in Audacity. At the moment, however, they both start at the beginning. Let s move things around with the Time Shift Tool (the slider). 1) Click the Time Shift Tool (from the Main Toolbar). 2) Float your mouse over your welcome message. 3) Click and drag to move the welcome message to the right of your theme music. Or, click and drag to move your theme music to the right of your welcome message. Time-Shifting! 4) Click Play to listen to your recording. Figure 9 - Arranging tracks with the time-shift tool. Creating Simple Fades Audacity makes it easy to create fades, or gradual changes in the volume of a track. The Fade In effect makes a track start out quiet and gradually increase to full volume. The Fade Out effect does the opposite, gradually reducing the volume at the end of your track to silence. Fading In 1) Select the audio at the start of your track. For a short fade, select a short segment of audio; for a longer fade, select a long segment of audio. 2) From the Effect Menu, choose Fade In. Fading Out 1) Select the audio at the end of your track. For a short fade, select a short segment of audio; for a longer fade, select a long segment of audio. 2) From the Effect Menu, choose Fade Out. The Effect Menu Figure 10 - Audacity makes fades easy. L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 9 of 15

Completing your podcast! So far, we ve recorded and edited a welcome message and imported and edited theme music. With these skills you re ready to finish up your very first podcast. Once you record and edit your features and closing comments, you ll be ready to export and distribute your podcast. Saving and Exporting What s the difference? In Audacity there is a big difference between saving and exporting. If you re not done editing your podcast, you should save it as an Audacity project. This will allow you to continue editing and recording at a later date. Keep in mind that Audacity projects can be opened only in Audacity. If you have finished editing a segment of your podcast, you can either save it as an Audacity Project, or export it as a WAV file. If you have finished editing your entire podcast, you should export it as a WAV file for a high quality archive, and then export as an MP3 file for internet distribution. File Format Quality Size Compatibility Best format for Saving Audacity Project Excellent BIG! Only Audacity! Podcasts you plan to continue editing in Audacity. WAV format Excellent BIG! Most media players Archives of completed podcasts and other recordings. Completed segments of podcasts to be used at a later date. Exporting MP3 format Good Small Most media players Completed podcasts for distribution online. Saving an Audacity Project While you are still working on your project you should save it as an Audacity project. This will allow you to continue editing your project at a later time. To save, go to the File menu and choose Save Project As. Note that when you save an Audacity project you create both an Audacity file and a data folder (see Saving an Audacity Project at right). Both the file and the folder must be kept together in order for the project to open. Saving an Audacity Project Figure 11 - Remember, saving an Audacity project generates an Audacity file (.aup) and a data folder (_data). Be sure to keep the file and the folder together! L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 10 of 15

Exporting Exporting as an MP3 When you finish your podcast, you ll want to export it as an MP3 file for distribution online. Note that Audacity does not automatically export to mp3. The first time you export to MP3, you will first need to download an MP3 encoder (see the appendices for help on how to do this, or contact your L&S LSS consultant). If you have more than one track in your project this will mix down your tracks. In other words, the audio on each track will be combined into a single track. 1. Click File and choose Export as MP3 2. Choose a destination and a name for your file. 3. Click OK. 4. Next, you ll be prompted to include more information about your track (ID3 tags). For the ID3 tags, we usually choose ID3v2 (more flexible). We have not had any problems with either format. If you re using non-english characters, note that ID3v2 claims to have better support for Unicode. 5. Enter the recording information (optional). 6. Click OK (note - You must click OK. In some versions of Audacity, clicking Cancel on this screen causes problems with the export). Provide Information About Your Podcast Figure 12 - The information you provide on this screen will appear when your students play the audio file. Providing consistent information in these fields will help your students keep the podcasts you create organized. L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 11 of 15

Exporting your entire project as a WAV file If you d like to create a high quality archive of your podcast, it is best to export as a WAV file. Since you have more than one track in your project, Audacity will mix down your tracks. In other words, the audio on each track will be combined, or mixed, into a single track. 1) Click File and choose Export as WAV 2) Choose a destination and a name for your file. 3) Click OK. Exporting as a WAV Figure 13 - If you need a high quality archive, export as a WAV file. Exporting part of a project as a WAV file Audacity allows you to export any part of a project. This is useful if you d like to create an archive of a particular part of your podcast. For example, if you use the same introduction for all of your podcasts, you might export the introduction as a WAV file to save production time on your next podcast. 1) Select the part of the track that you want to export. You can select part of a track, an entire track, or contiguous audio on multiple tracks. 2) Click File and choose Export Selection as WAV 3) Choose a destination and a name for your file. 4) Click OK. L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 12 of 15

Appendices Installing the MP3 Encoder Because of software patents, Audacity cannot distribute MP3 encoding software. Follow these instructions to use the free LAME MP3 encoder to export MP3 files with Audacity. You will have to go through this process the first time you create an MP3 file. If you have any trouble with this process, please contact your L&S LSS consultant for help. Windows 1) Go to the LAME download page - http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/lame.html 2) Click on any link from the list to download the LAME MP3 encoder. 3) When you have finished downloading LAME, unzip it and save the file lame_enc.dll anywhere on your computer. I usually save the file in Program Files/Audacity. 4) The first time you use the Export as MP3 command, Audacity will ask you where lame_enc.dll is saved. Navigate to the lame_enc.dll file and click OK. Mac OS 9 or X 1) Go to the LAME download page - http://spaghetticode.org/lame/ 2) Download the version of LameLib for your operating system. 3) When you have finished downloading, use Stuffit Expander to extract the files. (This may happen automatically.) 4) Save the file called LameLib anywhere on your computer. I usually save the file in Applications/Audacity. 5) The first time you use the Export as MP3 command, Audacity will ask you where LameLib is saved. Navigate to the LameLib file and click OK. L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 13 of 15

Advanced Audacity Tricks for even more fun Adjusting volume with the Envelope Tool Audacity does have fade-in and fade-out effects (in the Effect menu), but these effects don t give you precise control over the volume of your tracks. For more precise control, it is best to use the Envelope Tool. Let s start by using the Envelope tool to fade-out the theme music. 1) Choose the Envelope Tool (from the Main Toolbar). When you choose the Envelope Tool, a blue line appears at the top of the track, and gray lines appear near the middle. You click on the blue line to make audio quieter, and one of the grey lines to make audio louder. 2) Choose the place where you would like the audio to start fading out. Click the blue line. A white dot called a control point appears on the blue line. 3) Click again at the end of the track, where you would like the fade to end to create another white control point. Click and drag this control point toward the center of the track. You will see the waveform getting smaller as you approach the center. The Envelope Tool Figure 14 - Using the Envelope Tool to decrease and increase the volume of a track 4) Click Play to listen to your recording. 5) You can click to create more control points for precise control over the volume level of the track. 6) Adjusting the levels on multiple tracks. a) Because most recorded music is louder than a recorded voice, you may want to reduce the volume level of the theme music as a whole. You can do this by creating another control point at the start of the music track and then adjusting the control points to achieve the desired effect. This will help balance the theme music with your voice. b) Another way to balance out the audio is to increase the volume of your recorded voice. You can do this by clicking and dragging the grey line on the inside of the track to increase the volume. Adjusting the Levels on Multiple Tracks Figure 15 - In this example, the envelope tool was used to fade the music in and out, to decrease the overall volume of the music, and to increase the volume of the welcome message. L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 14 of 15

Creating a Voice-Over Typically, when speech and music are combined, it sounds best to reduce the volume of the music so that the voice is louder than, or on top of the music (thus the phrase, voice-over ). You can use the Envelope Tool to adjust the volume of your tracks and make a voice-over. 1) Choose the Envelope Tool (from the Main Toolbar). 2) Blue and grey lines appear above and below your audio tracks. When you choose the Envelope Tool, a blue line appears at the top of the track, and gray lines appear near the middle. You click on the blue line to make audio quieter, and one of the grey lines to make audio louder. 3) Click on the blue and grey lines to create white dots called controls points. Click and drag the control points to adjust the volume of your track. Creating a Voice-over Figure 16 - The Envelope tool allows you to quickly create volume changes in your tracks. In this example, the envelope tool was used to reduce the volume of the music during the welcome message. L&S LSS Podcaster s Guide to Audacity Page 15 of 15