The Sound is in the Air

Becky here, reporting in from what is once again the awful depths of winter. Fortunately, I don't need to be outside to try out recording software.

I am now settled on using Audacity, in conjunction with my computer's inubuilt microphone, to record my podcast. I like that Audacity is very user-friendly and intuitive-- with all the buttons and effects clearly labelled, it took me about twenty minutes or less of playing around with the features to figure out how to do everything I could want for my podcast. By the end of twenty minutes, I was an expert in how to import audio files, synchronize two tracks with each other or drag one track to start at a later point, and add effects such as a fade-out to one of the two tracks.

If my trial-and-error were insufficient, Audacity has a wealth of official sites aimed at helping users: the wiki, quick help guide, online manual, and forum top the list.

As I tested out the software, I discovered something that will be important for the assignment: in order to save an audacity file in MP3 format, I need an additional free program installed on my computer: the Lame MP3 software. Once I downloaded that, it was the work of a moment to select Export from the drop-down File menu, choose my destination folder, and choose MP3 as the format in which I wanted to save my audio. As an added bonus, I discovered that Audacity allows me to edit the metadata for the audio, which I hadn't expected to be a possibility. I played around with that, as well, to make sure I had a solid grasp of the controls.

Listening to my test recordings convinces me that Audacity and my computer's microphone make an excellent team-- the recordings sound great! I can't wait to record my full podcast.