Camellia, W14, Software

Well, I don’t really have any experience with recording, so at first, I wasn’t sure what would be the best route to take.  But, after reading all of the positive comments about Audacity on this blog, I believe Audacity is the best recording software for me!

In a matter of seconds, Audacity downloaded on my laptop (I downloaded it from:  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/).  And, then in order for me to be able to export my recordings (so that I will be able to eventually post my podcast) I needed a way to convert it to an mp3 format.  So, as Audacity’s website suggested, I installed the LAME MP3 encoder and I am now able to export my recordings. 

The Audacity Manual (http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/) is the perfect resource to refer to as it answered all of my questions.  The Manual’s ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section has all the advice I need for:

Recording – How To’s  

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_how_to_s.html

Editing
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_editing.html

After a few minutes of using Audacity, I discovered that it was pretty easy to understand how to use each feature – in a matter of minutes, I found the shortcuts, so simply pressing the letter ‘R’ on my keyboard allowed me to record, pressing the ‘space bar’ allowed me to stop recording, etc.  Here’s a link from the Manual to see images of some features: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/record.html. I haven’t tried out all of the editing features/adding sound effects yet but to help me with this, I will again refer to the Manual and this post I found online: https://academictech.doit.wisc.edu/onlinecourse/audio-video-course/audio-editing-audacity/editing-audio-audacity.  

For now, the Manual seems like the main source I will refer to because it is so thorough.  And, as of now, I don’t think I will need any advice from any YouTube tutorials!

I already tested out Audacity by using my laptop’s built-in microphone and as I mentioned, I already figured out how to use quite a few of the features.  I found that it was simple to use, so I don’t think I will have any troubles when it comes time to record my whole podcast episode.  Also, I managed to successfully save my recording in mp3 format and export it to my iTunes.  My recording sounded loud/clear and even though I’m not used to hearing a recording of my own voice, I am happy with the way I sound!