Podcast Challenge No. 1: Five Minutes to Finished Project

If you have downloaded and installed Audacity and the LAME MP3 Encoder; if the program is opened on your computer; if you have in your hand a paragraph or two to read; and if you have plugged in your microphone, tested the microphone, and verified it is working. . . that’s the point at which you can create your first podcast in 5 minutes.

A podcast is easy to create in the Audacity audio editor, easy to export to MP3 format with the LAME MP3 Encoder, and easy to share by email.

Your five-minute podcast will inspire you to learn more about Audacity, because your podcast goals will be performed in “baby steps” which are easily understood and quick to complete. However, your results will be gratifying.

  • A podcast may be done quickly:
    • It may be done in stages (read now, add sound effects later).
    • It may be considered finished at any stage.
    • When you work on it the next time, you are not starting from the beginning.
  • The more you work on a podcast, the more you can learn about Audacity.

You will need:

  • a microphone with a 3.5mm or USB connector.
    (Tip: Plug the microphone into your computer’s sound card BEFORE starting Audacity.)
  • an internet connection.
  • speakers or headphones.
  1. CLICK RECORD in Audacity.
  2. READ into the microphone a short selection from a newspaper, book, magazine, letter, or your calendar.
  3. CLICK STOP.
  4. CLICK FILE->SAVE to save in Audacity using .aup format (so you can work on it later). Save as projectname1.
  5. Also, CLICK FILE->EXPORT->MP3 to export the file to MP3 format and save as projectname1-mp3 (replace “projectname” with the name of your project).
  6. SEND the MP3 file by email to yourself or another.

Congratulations. You can consider this a job well done.

Podcast Challenge No. 2: Select a music clip and sound clip for the podcast. (Take your time.)

To enhance your podcast, when you have time, prepare music or sound clips. You will want to take your time, to see what is available. You may download a music and a sound clip from the internet, or record such clips. Save to your podcast file. Files recorded and saved to .aup format will be accessible by Audacity. Downloaded files will not be in .aup format, so that they will need to be imported into Audacity, to take on the .aup format and be available as separate sound wave tracks.

For internet clips, Search on Google for “royalty free” or “public domain” music or sounds. Select clips which fit the mood of your podcast, and download the files.

Royalty-free sound clips are purchased once, then used without restriction. Example resource sites are www.royaltyfreemusic.com, or www.sounddogs.com.

Alternatively, some sites, such as www.freesound.org, offer music and sound clips which are downloadable free of charge under a “Creative Commons” license. You are then licensed to use the clips if you give credit to the original artist, and make your derivative work or website use free.

Podcast Challenge No. 3: Add 5 Minutes to mix in Music and Sound Clips.

This next challenge assumes you have already recorded or downloaded a music clip and a sound clip to your computer from free or royalty-free sources.

  1. CLICK FILE->IMPORT->AUDIO to save the audio clips into the same Audacity (.aup) file where you saved your podcast. (For this example, you will then see, aligned at the left margin, 3 sound wave tracks, 1 each for the podcast, the music clip, and the sound clip–“clip” meaning a short file.)
  2. POSITION THE CURSOR in the track to be moved, at the point where that track should start, relative to one of the other 2 tracks.
  3. CLICK PROJECT->ALIGN TRACKS->ALIGN WITH CURSOR to move the marked track to start at the cursor position.
  4. REPEAT ACTION for the next audio clip.

The alignment of sound files may be done precisely with the Zoom function. But it can also be done with great simplicity, as is demonstrated in this YouTube video by www.audiblemarketing.com.

If you watched the video above, you know how to mark a file with insertion of the cursor. If you drag to the right or left, holding the left mouse clicker down, a portion of the sound wave will be colored grey. In other words, it will have been “selected.”

To make a selected sound wave portion fade in or out, or have another effect applied, CLICK EFFECT-FADE IN (or apply another effect).

  1. SELECT WITH CURSOR a portion of a sound wave track to change with an effect.
  2. CLICK EFFECT->(EFFECT CHOSEN); for example, fade in, fade out, or change volume.
  3. CLICK FILE->PROJECT->MIX or SELECT ALL, QUICK MIX as you saw in the above video.
  4. CLICK FILE->SAVE. Save as projectname2 in Audacity (.aup).
  5. CLICK FILE->EXPORT->MP3 to export the project as an MP3 file as projectname2-mp3.
  6. Send by email to yourself or another, or place on a blog.

An example of a quick project like the above, and the one which taught me this model, is found here.

There are, of course, many fine points of making a podcast. If you want to go further, you will want to study the recommendations of the Audacity engineers about editing unwanted pauses which naturally occur in a podcast recording, here.

Other fine points might be noise removal, or enhancement of your voice. Here is a video that discusses these points, entitled: “Improve Your Microphone Quality with Audacity,” by LycanSentry.

Your basic recording will likely be fine without enhancements and much editing. But you can save the different stages of the project and continue to develop it.

You will find many podcast tutorials on the internet which will provide instructions for refinements you can apply to your basic podcast.

Download the VIRAL TUBE software to locate and isolate videos on the subject. But see our discussion of Viral Tube first.

For a more complete and in-depth look, see the Sourceforge tutorials website. You may choose from absolute beginner tutorials to very advanced tutorials including publishing a podcast.