This is nice to do at the beginning or end of a podcast to remove unnecessary silence, or to tighten things up between sentences.Īnother important thing to adjust is the volume of certain parts in your podcast, which may happen if someone is talking too softly or the audio just didn’t pick up right. After you highlight the area, hit the “ Backspace” key. To remove silence in your podcast, choose the “ Select” tool than click and drag over the area you want to delete. Meanwhile, the “ Time shift” tool, represented by the double-ended arrow icon, lets you move blocks of audio from one track to other.Īnd the last editing tool in this cluster is “ Multi-tool mode,” represented by the asterisk icon, which lets you access any of the previously mentioned tools by using keyboard shortcuts, either hitting “*” or “ F6.”įurther editing, of course, is possible in Audacity. Note: This works best when you zoom in to a more detailed view. “ Draw,” represented by the pencil icon, lets you remove unwanted noise from your recording. The “ Envelope” tool, represented by the hourglass icon, lets you change the volume of a track gradually. “ Select,” represented by the cursor icon, is one of the most helpful tools, helping you highlight a certain chunk of audio for editing. The other editing tools in this cluster include some other great functions too. After selecting this tool, a left-click zooms in, and a right-click zooms out. This is also quite helpful when deleting certain small bits from your podcast. This tool lets you zoom in or zoom out of your audio to get a better look at what you’ve recorded. One of the most helpful is the “ Zoom” tool, represented by the magnifying glass icon. There are several editing tools located right by the audio controls in Audacity. There are controls for “ Pause, “Play,” “Stop,” “Back,” “Forward” and “Record.”Ĭlick the red icon to “ Record” and Audacity will begin recording incoming audio to a single track. To start recording, the audio controls are in the top left corner of the screen. To record a podcast in Audacity, start Audacity and go to “ File > New.” A new window will open.
Here you can adjust the volume of all audio devices under “ Device.” If you’re using an external mic, go to “ Sound recording volume,” then mute the default mic. Go to “ Control Panel > Hardware & Sound > Sound > Adjust System Volume.”
Now that you’ve configured the settings, it’s time to edit Windows sound, which may be necessary is you’re using an external mic. Just click “ Channels” and choose “ 1 (Mono).” Then click “ Ok.”Īnother setting to consider adjusting is the “ Play other tracks while recording” option, which can be found under “ Recording” in preferences, in “ Playthrough” next to “ Overdub.” This is a nice option since it allows Audacity to play previously recorded tracks alongside your latest track, which is helpful when comparing tracks. Next, since you’re recording a podcast and don’t need stereo, adjusting the audio from Stereo to Mono is a great way to make the podcast file as small as possible. Make sure the correct sound host is being used by going to “ Interface” and clicking “ Host.”Īlso, make sure to adjust the “ Playback” and “ Recording Devices.” Choosing the correct devices can make a huge difference in the quality of the audio.
Once here, go to “ Devices” to edit the sound card and audio channels, as Audacity doesn’t update these to the correct settings automatically. When you first use Audacity, go to “ Edit” and “ Preferences” to adjust the necessary settings. Once you’ve installed Audacity, adjusting the settings is critical.