How to Edit Your Podcast Using Audacity

Audacity is a popular digital audio editor, because it's free and it's easy to use. Not only can you record your voice directly, just by pressing the record button and talking into your computer--but it's easy to edit on Audacity as well.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• computer

1. 

   Open up your Audacity program. When you want to record, just hit the red Record button on the screen and speak into your microphone.

2. 

   After you're done, the recording will show up on a track, where you can see the different wavelengths of sound. The top ruler shows the number of seconds the track is. On the side, there is a vertical ruler, which is the sound meter, which goes from -1 to 1.

3. 

   If it helps to look at things more closely, you can use the zoom tool (the tool on the top left menu with the magnifying glass on it) to stretch the track out. Left click to zoom in; right click to zoom out.

4. 

   In order to cut the audio, all you do is select the portion you want to delete and press Delete. To select, click on the button with the I on it, and then drag over the section you want to cut out. You can also go to Edit/Delete.

Tips & Warnings

• Looking at the sound wavelengths can help you determine which parts you want to cut out. You can determine which parts have no sound and cut out the excess silences. You can even cut out entire words, by looking at the waves.