Most podcasts today are edited, even though a lot of them may seem uncut. Taking the time to edit a podcast enables you a lot of freedom. For example, it allows you to take moments to think about what to say while you’re recording an episode since you can always cut down the pauses. Whether you’re just tidying up the recording quality, or adding sound effects and background music, editing is an essential step that will make your podcast sound more professional and enjoyable to listeners.
This page was designed around the free and open-source digital audio workstation, Audacity, due to its beginner-friendly layout. Instead of giving a comprehensive tutorial of the program, this page provides short video tutorials that will get you started with Audacity, but will focus mainly on basic podcast editing techniques that apply in any DAW.
For more information on Audacity, check the online manual, or check our "Post-Production" page for other DAW recommendations and tutorials.
This tutorial will explain the most basics tools for editing audio in Audacity.
Like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, Audio in Audacity can be moved around by cutting, copying, and pasting. This tutorial demonstrates how to do it, as well as some shortcuts.
This tutorial briefly explains what audio clipping is and how to avoid it.
This tutorial demonstrates the features of Audacity's track layout. This is especially important to understand for editing individual tracks recorded on the Rodecaster.
This tutorial will demonstrate the various ways to adjust a track's volume level in Audacity and the appropriate circumstances for each method.
Background noise is easy to remove using Audacity; however, you must have a clear sample of your noise floor, or base noise level. The longer the sample, the more accurate the removal process will be, so it's best to record it before you start recording your podcast. To learn how to do this, check out <LINK>.
If the podcast is already recorded, just find any section of your track with 3-4 seconds of silence, select it, then, go to Effect > Noise Removal and Repair > Noise Reduction. Then click "Get Noise Profile."
After clicking "Get Noise Profile," select the entire track, then return to "Noise Reduction" and click 'OK.' You can tweak parameters in "Step 2," but it works best without adjustment. Repeat this process for all tracks with background noise.
While recording, it's important to occasionally take an extended pause to craft a thoughtful response to your co-host; however, these pauses are usually undesirable in a final cut. Although you were taking time to craft your response, too much pause might cause a listener to lose track of the greater point you were trying to make or lose interest entirely. In Audacity, shortening or lengthening these pauses is an incredibly simple technique, and there are only a few things to consider:
Select the section of audio you wish to trim, but leave a little space. Press Delete to remove the silence.
Immediately after deleting the silence, press Ctrl + I to creating a new clip by splicing the new one.
After splicing the new clip, add a fade in by selecting the silent section at the start of the clip and going to "Effect > Fading > Fade In."
Mixing is a crucial editing step where multiple tracks are combined into one stereo image. Audio mixing is a pretty involved process while making music, but for podcasts, it is much simpler. For more advanced mixing tips and techniques, check out the "More post-production concepts" page. <link>
There are two primary parameters that are adjusted during mixing are track dynamics and track pan. In Audacity, both are in the track menu:
Panning
When editing tracks for multiple hosts/guests, you may find it hard to understand what everybody is saying if they’re talking over one another. This can be alleviated with a technique called panning.
Panning a track will move it to the left or right of the stereo field. To do it in Audacity, adjust the L/R fader in the track menu.
Dynamics
Dynamics refers to the volume level of each track.
The higher the dynamics, the closer the track appears in the stereo field, and the quieter it is, the farther away it appears. In Audacity, you can adjust the dynamics using the +/- gain fader in the track menu.
Suppose you want to add a sound effect to the mix, but you don't want it to distract too much from the main conversation. Placing it in the center of the mix will obscure the other voices, but if you put it at the farther edge of the mix, it will draw attention away from the conversation if you don't reduce the gain as well.
Balancing the gain and stereo position of all the tracks is crucial to an effective mix, and it will take multiple listens to get it right.
Subtlety is crucial during mixing. Avoid panning a track all the way to the left or the right of the mix, and . Remember that your ears are your best tool when mixing. If something doesn't sound right, change it until it does.
Remember: always check the Playback Meter for clipping. Clipping is a form of audio distortion that occurs when an audio channel
After finishing your podcast, make sure to export your file. You can do this by going to File > Export or using the shortcut "Ctrl + Shift + E."
If an area of the Audacity timeline is selected, it will only export that section of audio unless you set your Export Range to "Entire Project.
Use the WAV file format for its uncompressed audio quality; however, if it's for a school project, you may need to use a more compressed format to save space. Click export when you're done.