Podcasting

Crafting a professional podcast entails not just creative content but also adept audio editing, let's face it no recording is flawless. In addition to cutting out mistakes you may also want to add music, sound effects, and even engineer your sound to achieve your desired result. The type of editing you do will inform your choice of software.    

• Audacity: an open-source audio recorder and editor that works on PC or Mac. Excellent choice for beginners. The software is easy to use, quick to download, and free! It is also available as part of the standard Douglas College Computer Lab Software set. Note: you will need to install the free LAME MP3 encoder to export your audio file as an MP3
• Garageband: Mac, iPad, and iPhone users have the option of editing in Apple's free app Garageband. It is touted as a "fully equipped music creation studio" and comes with a sound library and instruments. 
• Adobe Audition: Adobe Audition, available by subscription, gives users multitrack control over every aspect of the audio recording and editing experience. Designed for more experienced editors. Look for educational discounts!   

Common editing terms

• Level / equalize audio - adjustment of specific frequency components in an audio recording to achieve a desired sound balance and quality.
• NR (Noise reduction) - reducing unwanted or distracting background noise or artifacts
• Compression - reduces the dynamic range of a sound, making quiet parts louder and loud parts quieter, resulting in more balanced audio.
• De-reverb - reduce or remove the reverberation or echo from a recording
• Trim / Cut / Crop / Slice / Splice - cutting or removing a portion of an audio or video
• Fade in / Fade out - a gradual increase or decrease in the volume, brightness, or transparency of the content, typically applied at the beginning or end of a clip for smooth transitions

Fee based podcasting solutions are available that streamline the creation and distribution process. They offer advanced audio features, audio libraries, text-to-speech, AI voices, syndication help, monetization options, analytics and more! Most of these are "all in one" web based solutions tailored specifically for podcasters, they're user friendly and require much less technical knowledge than using your own audio editing software. 

We do not endorse any particular product or solution and offer these simply as examples:

AI tools for audio editing have revolutionized the way podcasters enhance their content. There are AI automated solutions for tasks such as noise reduction, transcription, and even voice enhancement and replacement. You'll find some of these AI capabilities integrated into all-in-one platforms while more advanced tools are offered for a fee on third party sites. For instance: