Podcast How-To Guide Podcasts are a great way to express yourself through your voice and sound effects with a large audience: the entire Internet! Think of a podcast as a mix between a blog and a radio piece: it’s an audio recording of your voice and any sounds you want that you then post on the Internet. It’s easy to find resources online and sound clips to make your podcast stand out. Best of all, you get as many tries as you like, so you can keep experimenting and editing your piece until you’re ready to play it to the world. Come up with an idea and an outline of what you’re going to say. Get a microphone or a headset with a microphone. Many laptops nowadays come with a built-in mic, but these are often poor quality. If you don’t have a microphone, you can use any digital recording device like a cellphone or mp3 player. Try to set up in a quiet location, where background noise won’t interfere with what you’re saying (unless you want this on purpose). Open up a recording program. Your best bet is Audacity, which is free to download and works on multiple operating systems. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Start recording, and say your message! If you are not recording live through a recording device plugged into your computer, you will need to import a previously recorded message into Audacity instead (explained later in this guide). New to podcasting and want step-by-step help? Follow YAHAnet’s tutorial below!

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Recording with a microphone or a headset microphone Plug your microphone into your computer, looking for a port (hole) with an icon that looks like this:

Open the Audacity recording program. (Note: You are free to choose another recording and editing program like Apple’s GarageBand, but this tutorial will assume that you are using Audacity.) When you’re ready, click the red circle at the top to start recording.

Troubleshooting tip: If no blue soundwaves show up as you start talking into the microphone, go to ‘Edit’ at the top of the page and then click on ‘Preferences’. Make sure that your microphone is set as the recording device. When you’re finished recording, click the yellow square to stop.

Recording with an external device (cellphone, mp3 player) Once you have recorded what you want on your cellphone or mp3 player, you will need to transfer the sound file to a computer. Most mobile devices will connect to a computer with a USB cable and have a media transfer connection mode that will allow you to transfer files. Another option would be to transfer files via Bluetooth. When your audio clip has been transferred to the computer, open Audacity. Click on the ‘Project’ option at the top and choose ‘Import Audio’. Select your audio clip wherever it is on your computer and click ‘Open’. 2

Press the green ‘Play’ triangle to listen to your audio clip. If you wish to edit your clips, you must press the Stop button first (the yellow square).

Working with multiple tracks and adding in music/sound effects You can create more than one recording playing at the same time by pressing the Record and recording another clip or by importing another audio clip from your computer. Make sure to click “Mute” on the first track if you don’t want to hear it as you record your second clip.

You can change when a certain track will play by clicking on the double headed arrow in the top left and clicking and dragging one of the clips left or right. In the screenshot below, the “talking” clip will play halfway through the “music” clip.

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To take a closer look at your sounds and make lining up two recordings easier, use the zoom buttons—they look like magnifying glasses.

Consider adding sound effects to your recording. Look online for sounds or interview clips that work with your message. FreeSound is an excellent site for free sound effects: www.freesound.org. If you’re looking for free instrumental background music, check out www.archive.org. Be careful though: Audacity doesn’t accept files in .wma format. Look for .mp3 and .wav files.

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Make sure to ask for permission if you’re using someone else’s sound clip or music (unless you’re using open source stuff like FreeSound) or at least give credit within your podcast. Even better, make your own music and use it in your podcast! Check out the Roc Music Creator for an example of a free online tool that allows you to create your own musical loops: http://www.aviary.com/tools/music-creator

Adding effects to recorded voices or to background music/sound effects Find various effects you can apply to your recordings by selecting the section you want to edit, and then mouse over the Effect tab at the top and choose a modification. Don’t be afraid to experiment and play with effects you haven’t heard of before!

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Finalizing your podcast! When you’re finished, click on the File tab at the top left and click on ‘Export as WAV’ or ‘Export as MP3’. Save your file and email it to us at [email protected]!

Tips and Reminders Experiment with your voice! Try speaking in the microphone from a different angle or in different tones. Keep in mind that your work will be uploaded to the YAHAnet Audio Gallery after the contest and will be available for anyone to download and re-use. If you want to use high quality equipment with knowledgeable people, look around for a community radio station. This is not needed for making a podcast but is a way for you to explore how one is made in more depth. A community radio station will often give you access to its recording studios in exchange for some volunteer work, and you will get a ton of training as well. Montrealers should visit CKUT Radio (http://www.ckut.ca/) and sign up for a general orientation workshop. If you are having trouble working with Audacity, check out this helpful video tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrPGMjZORCM If you would like some one-on-one help with making a podcast, please email your questions to [email protected] with “Podcast help” in the subject line. Jason or John from the YAHAnet team will get back to you in 1–3 days.

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